Schloss Hof and the Marchfeld, Prince Eugene's country palace and the castles of the Danube.

Schloss Hof is the largest country palace in Austria. Prince Eugene of Savoy, the general who defeated the Turks, made it his pleasure and hunting residence, with terraced Baroque gardens that run down to the River March, the border with Slovakia. It later belonged to Maria Theresa, who enlarged it. Today, restored, it is run by the same group as Schönbrunn: you can visit the state rooms, the imperial apartments and the gardens, with their fountains and stairways. Next door is Schloss Niederweiden, Fischer von Erlach's hunting lodge.

Around it stretches the Marchfeld, the farming plain east of Vienna, between the Danube and the March, dotted with castles the Habsburgs used for hunting. It is a lesser-known excursion than the Wachau or Baden, and so a quieter one.

How to get there from Vienna

By car, about 50 minutes: the A4 from the airport to the Fischamend exit, the B9 towards Hainburg and the B49 to Schloss Hof. There is free parking for 545 cars. Without a car, all year round there is a direct regional bus, the 540, from Aspern Nord metro station (line U2) to the Schloßhof Prinz-Eugen-Straße stop. You can also take an ÖBB train from Wien Hauptbahnhof (it also stops at Simmering, Stadlau and Aspern Nord) to Schönfeld-Lassee and change there to the 540 bus. The U2 does not depend on the S-Bahn, so the closure of the central stretch until October 2027 does not affect you.

What to do in a day

Spend the morning at Schloss Hof: allow three hours for the palace and the garden terraces. Eat at the Restaurant Kräutergarten, inside the grounds, or at the Gasthof Prinz Eugen, at the entrance. In the afternoon, if you are driving, choose between two plans. To the west, along the Danube bank, Schloss Eckartsau and Schloss Orth, the centre of the Donau-Auen National Park, with its viewpoint and its nature island. To the north, from March to August, the storks of Marchegg nest in centuries-old oaks.

In November and December the plan changes: the Schloss Hof Christmas market, at weekends, is one of the prettiest around Vienna.

And for sleeping?

There are few hotels in the Marchfeld and Schloss Hof works well as a day trip from Vienna. If you want to sleep nearby and combine the palace with the storks or with Carnuntum, you have three options. 7 km away, in Marchegg, the Bernstein-Motel is simple and cheap, with a garage for bikes and dogs welcome. In Hainburg, 13 km away over the Danube bridge, the Hotel Zum Goldenen Anker is an old house beside the river with a sauna and a bathing pond; the Hotel Altes Kloster is there too. With children or a taste for the countryside, the horse farm Hippo-Campus, in Deutsch-Haslau, has rooms, an apartment and riding lessons. Bratislava is half an hour away.