About this route
Route overview
Austria's most intimate land in one comfortable day with a private chauffeur — Burgenland, Austria's youngest federal state (since 1921 after the post-First World War plebiscite), with the Esterhazy Palace where Joseph Haydn served as Kapellmeister for 30 years (1761-1790), and Lake Neusiedl, the only steppe lake of Central Europe and a UNESCO Cultural Landscape since 2001. Standard plan: 9:00 hotel pickup in Vienna, 10:00 arrival in Eisenstadt (60 km via the A3 Sued motorway, about 1 h). Schloss Esterhazy tour 1.5 h — the princely palace of the Esterhazy family from the 17th century in Baroque style (rebuilt 1663-1672 from Carlo Martino Carlone's plans, the present neoclassical form from 1804 by Charles Moreau), the Haydnsaal — the concert hall where Joseph Haydn conducted the premieres of his 104 symphonies for Prince Nikolaus I Esterhazy (1761-1790, the composer in palace service in uniform and obliged to two concerts a week). Haydnhaus at Joseph-Haydn-Gasse 21 — the composer's house from 1766 (original harpsichord, manuscripts of The Creation and The Seasons). 11:30 transfer to the Lake Neusiedl Cultural Landscape UNESCO (15 km via local roads, about 20 min) — the Austrian-Hungarian border, a steppe lake of 315 km2 (235 km2 on the Austrian side, 80 km2 on the Hungarian side), average depth 1.1 m, with no inflows, fed only by rainwater — the only such lake in Europe. Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park with 350 bird species (the most important ornithological habitat in Central Europe, including herons, ibises, greylag geese). 13:00 lunch in Morbisch am See — a lakeside resort with the most famous operetta stage on water (Seebuhne Morbisch — the annual Vienna Operetta Festival since 1957, a floating stage on pontoons with seating for 6,500, July-August operettas by Lehar, Strauss and Kalman), traditional Pannonian cuisine (Burgenlandgulasch, lake Fischsuppe, Pannonian Frittatensuppe). 14:30 Rust (UNESCO Storch village) — the stork village, known for hundreds of stork nests on house roofs (a colony since the 17th century, in season April-August 80-120 breeding pairs), the Stork Hill with an observation platform, the Old Town with neo-Renaissance wine merchant houses (Rust is a wine commune — the oldest municipal wine law in Austria from 1524). 16:30 return to Vienna (60 km, about 1 h). EUR 680 Mercedes E-Class. Service runs 24/7 with flight tracking if pickup is at VIE.