Dresden Royal Palace, Green Vault and Zwinger: which tickets are worth buying?
5 min read
The answer first. The Dresden Castle general admission ticket is the right choice for most visitors, at €18 per person, rated 4.6 from 1,507 reviews. One thing catches people out: it covers the Royal Palace except the Historic Green Vault. That treasure chamber needs a ticket with a time slot, which the museums sell themselves, either alone or as a palace ticket that includes it.
| Ticket | Covers | From | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dresden Castle general admission | Royal Palace, except the Historic Green Vault | €18 | 4.6 | 1,507 |
| Zwinger museum entry ticket | Zwinger collections, including the Old Masters Picture Gallery | €18 | 4.7 | 2,584 |
| 2-day ticket for the Dresden State Art Collections | All museums for 2 days, with exceptions (see below) | €32 | 4.6 | 215 |
| Semperoper and Royal Palace tour | Guided Semperoper tour in German, plus palace entry without a guide | €32 | 4.6 | 267 |
What is inside the Royal Palace
The State Art Collections of Dresden (SKD) list the Historic Green Vault, the New Green Vault, the Kupferstich-Kabinett (prints and drawings), the Coin Cabinet and the Armoury at the palace. The SKD says the general ticket is valid for all museums at the palace except the Historic Green Vault. The listing for the castle ticket says the same and calls the audio guide complimentary. The Hausmannsturm tower, with 327 steps to the top, is open in the summer months only, according to the listing.
The Historic Green Vault
For the Historic Green Vault you always need a ticket with a time slot, and the SKD recommends booking it online because capacity is limited. Its visitor information lists €18 for the Historic Green Vault alone and €28 for a ticket to all museums at the palace including the Historic Green Vault (prices in November 2026). If you want both, that combined ticket is the cheaper way in. If the Green Vault is the reason for your visit, book that slot first and fit everything else around it. Photography is not allowed in the Historic Green Vault, and coats and bags of any kind go into the cloakroom or the lockers (have €1 or €2 coins ready). On Fridays the Green Vault is open until 19:00; from 27 November to 30 December 2026 the SKD announces extended Historic Green Vault hours until 18:00, still closed on Tuesdays.
Two closing days that shape your plan
The Royal Palace is open daily from 10:00 to 17:00 and closed on Tuesdays. The Zwinger museums are the other way round: the Old Masters Picture Gallery is open daily from 10:00 to 17:00, the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon and the Porcelain Collection from 11:00 to 17:00, and all three close on Mondays. So Monday is a palace day and Tuesday a Zwinger day; on any other day you can do both. From 27 November to 30 December 2026 the palace museums stay open until 18:00 from Friday to Sunday.
Plan around three winter closures announced by the SKD: from 4 to 17 January 2027 the New Green Vault, the Coin Cabinet, the Armoury and the State Apartments are closed (the Historic Green Vault and the Kupferstich-Kabinett stay open); from 18 to 29 January 2027 every museum in the palace is closed; and from 22 February to 5 March 2027 all three Zwinger museums are closed. The Zwinger listing adds that the Porcelain Collection reopened on 31 October 2026 except for two galleries. The SKD lists the entrance to the palace as step-free via Sophienstraße, Taschenberg 2 and Schloßstraße, and the Zwinger museums via Theaterplatz and the Zwinger courtyard, with a lift.
Which ticket for whom
The Zwinger ticket is for art lovers: the listing names the Old Masters Picture Gallery, the Sculpture Collection, the Porcelain Collection and the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon. It does not cover the Correggio exhibition. If you want a special exhibition as well, the combo ticket for the Old Masters and the Correggio exhibition (€23) uses a timed ticket for the exhibition, so you pick the slot when you book; backpacks and bags are not allowed, according to the listing.
The 2-day ticket is the one to consider if you want several museums. The listing excludes the Historic Green Vault, the Museum of Decorative Arts and exhibits with timed tickets, and it allows one entry to each museum. The SKD describes its own 2-day ticket as valid for two days from the day of validation, again except the Historic Green Vault.
The Semperoper and Royal Palace tour is not a guided palace visit: according to the listing it combines a German-language guided tour of the Semperoper with a single entry to the palace museums (except the Historic Green Vault), which you visit on your own, also on a different day. You first exchange the voucher at the Schinkelwache ticket office on Theaterplatz, which is closed on Sundays. For the opera house alone, read our Semperoper guide.
Who should skip it
Skip the palace if you have only a few hours in the city and would rather spend them outdoors: our Old Town guide and the walking tours cover the exteriors. More options are in the museum tickets category.
Our recommendation
For the palace alone, buy the castle ticket. If you also want the Historic Green Vault, book the SKD’s palace ticket that includes it, with a time slot, rather than two separate tickets. Choose the 2-day ticket only if you will really visit several museums.
