Melk Abbey and Wachau: Day Trip from Vienna

For the setting and the gardens, yes; for the library, not for us. One of the main reasons we came to Melk was the library: on the way we were told it was the biggest in the world.

Inside we learned it is not, and only one part of it was open to visitors. We paid €32 for the two of us and expected to see more of it. After the State Hall of the Austrian National Library in Vienna , this one felt small.

What we did like: the abbey itself is grand, the courtyards are beautiful and the same ticket lets you into the gardens, which are big, with flowerbeds, ponds and shady paths. From the terrace you look down on the town of Melk and the Danube.

A ticket without a guided tour is €16 for adults and €19.50 with a guided tour; students up to 27 pay €8 and €11.50. From April to October the abbey is open daily 9:00-17:30, last entry 17:00. In winter, weekday visits are only with a guided tour at 11:00, 13:30 and 15:00, and weekends allow visits with or without a tour (official info, 2025/26 season).

Opening times and prices change by season, so check the abbey's own site before you go. See Melk Abbey tickets and tours  Ad

The visit takes you through the abbey museum and the Marble Hall to the library and the baroque abbey church, and the ticket also covers the gardens. Allow about an hour and a half, more if you want to sit in the gardens. If you come on a tour like we did, ask how long the stop is: our day had four more places after Melk.

Benedictine monks have lived at Melk since 1089. The baroque abbey you see today was built between 1702 and 1736 by the architect Jakob Prandtauer for Abbot Berthold Dietmayr; the gate in our photo is dated 1718.

The library holds more than 100,000 volumes, and since 2000 the abbey has been part of the Wachau Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage site (Austrian tourism info).

Before Melk our tour stopped in Dürnstein, the best-known village of the Wachau Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage landscape of vineyards and apricot orchards along the Danube. The blue and white tower of the abbey church is the symbol of the valley.

We had half an hour: we walked the main street and bought apricot cream in a shop selling apricot jams, chocolates and sweets; the Wachau is famous for its apricots. It is a lovely village and we would happily have stayed longer and eaten there.

We did it as one long day from Vienna with a small-group tour: a minibus of six or seven people, Göttweig Abbey, Dürnstein and Melk in the morning, then Hallstatt and Salzburg, back in Vienna late at night. If you spend three days in Vienna, giving a fourth day to this trip makes a good four-day visit.

For a day trip from Vienna to the Wachau Valley on its own: See Wachau and Melk day tours from Vienna  Ad By train, Melk has its own station below the abbey: See Vienna to Melk train times  Ad For the long day we did: See Hallstatt and Salzburg day tours from Vienna  Ad

Want to stay in the Wachau instead of going back to Vienna? Dürnstein and Melk both have small hotels, quiet in the evening once the tour groups leave: See Dürnstein hotels  Ad See Melk hotels  Ad

Our Hallstatt stop of the same day is in our Hallstatt guide , and the other day trips are in our Vienna travel guide . For a base, see where to stay in Vienna .