Is the Albertina worth visiting?
Updated September 18, 2026
Quick answer
Yes. One EUR 20.90 ticket covers the Habsburg state rooms, the permanent collection and every temporary exhibition running, with no supplement for the headline show — which is unusual. Under-19s go free, and it stays open until 21:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays.
The Albertina is part of the Hofburg complex, at its southern tip above the Burggarten, so you can add it to a palace day without crossing a road. The thing that decides whether it is worth it for you is not the building; it is what is hanging when you arrive.
One ticket, everything inside
The structural fact that makes it good value. The Albertina does not sell separate exhibition tickets: admission covers the state rooms, the permanent collection and whatever temporary shows are running. Compare that with a museum charging a base admission and then eight or ten euros for the headline exhibition, and the EUR 20.90 looks different. At the Albertina the headline exhibition is the admission. Read from the museum's own shop on 18 September 2026: EUR 20.90 adult, EUR 17.50 for seniors over 65 and visitors under 26, free for under-19s, EUR 18.90 with a Vienna City Card, EUR 7 for visitors with special needs.
What is actually in it
Three things at once, which is why the answers people give about it differ so much. The state rooms. It is a Habsburg palace — the residence of Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen — and the historic rooms are part of the visit. That is the part that connects it to the rest of the Hofburg. The graphic collection. The Albertina's reputation was built on works on paper, and the Dürer holdings are the most famous in the world. See the caveat below. The temporary programme. Two or three major exhibitions run at once, usually mixing a historic name with something contemporary, and they change several times a year.
The Dürer caveat, which catches people out
Works on paper cannot be permanently displayed. Light damages them, so the Albertina's most famous holdings — Dürer's Young Hare among them — spend most of their lives in storage and are shown periodically, in rotation. If a specific drawing is the reason you are going, check that it is actually on display before you buy a ticket. A high-quality facsimile is often shown instead, and the museum labels it as one. This is the single most common cause of disappointment here, and it is entirely avoidable with two minutes on the museum's own programme page.
Why the late evenings change the answer
Open daily 10:00 to 18:00, and until 21:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays. Those two evenings are the quietest hours in any museum in central Vienna. A busy temporary exhibition that had a queue at two in the afternoon is empty at eight, and the Albertina is one of very few places in the first district where you can do serious looking after dinner time. It also makes the Albertina the natural end of a Hofburg day rather than a competitor to it: imperial apartments in the morning, lunch, the Treasury, and the Albertina from six.
Albertina or Albertina Modern
They share a name and a ticketing system and they are different museums two kilometres apart. The Albertina is the one at the Hofburg; Albertina Modern opened on 27 May 2020 in the Künstlerhaus on Karlsplatz and shows contemporary work at EUR 17.90. There is no two-house ticket. The combo at EUR 29.90 covers all three Albertina locations including Klosterneuburg, which is outside the city — so it saves EUR 8.90 against two separate tickets and adds a third house you will probably not reach. If someone recommends "the Albertina" without qualifying it, they mean the one at the palace. Our [comparison page](/compare/albertina-vs-albertina-modern) works through the choice.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Albertina worth visiting?
Yes. EUR 20.90 covers the state rooms, the permanent collection and every temporary exhibition with no supplement, under-19s go free, and it opens until 21:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays.
How much time do you need at the Albertina?
About 90 minutes for the state rooms and one major exhibition, or two to three hours if two shows are running.
Can I see Dürer's Young Hare?
Only when it is on rotation. Works on paper cannot be permanently displayed, so check the museum's programme before booking; a labelled facsimile is often shown instead.
Is the Albertina included in the Vienna PASS?
Yes, it is on the pass's list of included sights. The Vienna City Card does not include it but discounts it to EUR 18.90.
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