The 12 best things to do in Vienna
The shy and retiring Austrian city has got its attitude back and is now moving to a new beat, as maverick architects, bohemian foodies and spray-can radicals take to the streets. With a clutch of grande dame hotels – and a recent five-star opening that had the neighbourhood talking – it’s easy to see why travellers put this city top of their European bucket list. Here we round up the best things to do in Vienna right now.
Alamy1. Get arty at the Museumsquartier
We’ve got the Habsburgs to thank for so much grand-scale venue space in Vienna – their former imperial stables are now home to the city’s main art hub, known as MQ and containing nine main museums. And while there are other galleries in town, this is the place to head if you have limited time on your hands and a preference for modern and contemporary art. The Leopold, with its white-cube architecture, is a favourite for its works from the modernist Vienna of the early 20th century, with a large collection of fleshy Schiele paintings, several by Klimt (though The Kiss can be seen at the Belvedere museum) and bold-lined Wiener Werkstätte designs. MUMOK, meanwhile, is a brilliantly curated contemporary gallery that draws together Pop Art from Warhol and Claes Oldenburg along with chaotic, radical 60s movements such as as Vienna Actionism and Fluxus, with works by Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Duchamp and Rauschenberg along with a growing collection of photographic and video works. At ZOOM, meanwhile, children up to the age of 14 can get experimental with animation, painting and glue, with an ocean-themed room for younger children complete with water grotto, mirror tunnel and a ship’s deck. Insider tip: take the lift to the top of the Leopold Museum for a rooftop drink.
Address: Museumsquartier, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Wien, Austria
Website: www.mqw.at
Alamy2. Cool off in the Danube
In summer 2022, when temperatures sizzled upwards, there was only one thing to do: find some cold water and jump into it as soon as you could. There’s a few ways of doing this in Vienna. You could pack your swimming costume and head to one of several private swimming pools such as the smart Schönbrunner Bad, in the grounds of the grand Schönbrunn Palace, or KrapfenwaldBad, which has the best views over the city but can get crowded. There’s also a healthy lido culture, best experienced at Gänsehäufel, a little island on Alte Donau (that’s the Old Danube) that has wave machines, splashy children’s playgrounds, a diving pool, tree cover and lots of access to the river itself – with entry points lined with flat stones so you don’t have to wade through gloopy mud. And the Alte Donau itself, which once formed part of the river but is now a lake (get there via the U1 metro), is great for hiring a pedalo, SUP or boat – try Marina Hofbauer or Eppel – which you can then jump off from. If you want to channel ‘Club Tropicana’, hire one of the ‘island’ pedalos which have ladders at the back and tropical foliage to sip cocktails behind.
Getty Images3. Go for a ride in the Wurstel Prater
Most amusement parks are generally to be avoided by all but the masochistic but not the Prater. It’s set amid tree-shaded greenery – great for cycling around, so consider bike hire – on what was once the Habsburg’s hunting ground and is home to the famous Riesenrad, the giant, 65-metre-high ferris wheel built in 1897 and which played a leading role in The Third Man (and lesser-celebrated 007 film The Living Daylights). And while there are many modern rides that spin you round and drop you from dizzy heights, the park generally has a gentle, vintage character – a little like Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens. Vintage lovers should seek out antique rides such as the pony carousel, the denim-clad cowboy hedgehogs of the Fifties-era Mecky Express, the Liliputbahn from the 1920s and one of the world’s oldest ghost trains, dating to 1948. Entrance is free but take cash as you’ll need it to buy tokens for rides and games. Amusement park aficionados should also seek out Böhmischer Prater, which is quieter and well pitched for younger children.
Address: Wurstel Prater, 1020 Vienna, Austria
Website: praterwien.com
Getty Images4. Drink wine in a Viennese vineyard
Remember all that fuss about hygge? The Viennese have long had their own version of affable cosiness, Gemütlichkeit, best experienced in one of the city’s heurigen, or wine taverns. Much has been written about the city’s café culture, but heurigen are just as central to the Viennese character – little snapshots of the 17th and 18th centuries, they tend to be wood-lined dens with vine-covered courtyards and, more often than not, moustachioed men in lederhosen playing accordion and fiddles. Traditional, yes, but also long-standing champions of vine-to-glass drinking, much of it biodynamic. Vienna is the only capital city in the world with serious vineyards within the city limits and with Austrian wine the best it’s ever been, that goes for Viennese varieties too. In central Vienna, visit the vaulted Gigerl and order a glass of Zweigelt red or citrusy Gemischter Satz along with a plate of local sausage, pickles, sauerkraut and cheeses – but this should only serve as a primer for the real experience further out. The 38 tram drops you in Grinzing, for example, a short walk from village vineyards such as Mayer am Nussberg where tables and loungers are set in the fields during the summer for long, slow wine-tasting with views over the city.
LONDON FILMS / Alamy5. See The Third Man at the cinema
For such a classic city, there are surprisingly few globally known films set on its streets, but two will always linger in the mind. Richard Linklater’s 1995 indie hit Before Sunrise is a compellingly slow-burn girl-meets-boy romance set across a single day before Jessie (Ethan Hawke) flies back to the USA. Easy enough to take a self-guided walking tour through most of its locations – from Schallplattenhandlung record shop to Maria-Theresien-Platz – though some have changed. And while Carol Reed’s 1949 film-noir The Third Man, is constantly referenced in relation to Vienna, have you actually seen it? Would you recognise the zither theme by Anton Karas, and be able to recite Orson Welles’ famous Cuckoo Clock speech in the Prater Park ferris wheel? If that means nothing to you or everything, go and see it: it’s regularly shown at the lovely little Burg Kino cinema. After all, seeing a movie abroad is a treat in itself, isn’t it?
Address: Burg Kino, Opernring 19, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Website: burgkino.at/movie/third-man
Getty Images6. Take a tour of the city by tram
Every city has a bus or tram route that acts as an unofficial guided tour. London has the 73 bus route from Stoke Newington to Victoria, which takes in Hyde Park and other central hits; in Vienna it’s all about the red-and-white Tram D. Rattling between the 10th and 19th districts, from the main station to what are almost villages (Vienna can get rural surprisingly quickly). Stepping on at the Hauptbahnhof, the route takes you past Belvedere palace – baroque former residence of Prince Eugene and now home to an impressive art collection – onto the Ringstrasse and past the State Opera then onward past the Burgtheater and Parliament to the 9th district with its clusters of independent hipster shops. You could alight here or stay on and see the fortress-like Karl Marx Hof, an enormous social housing project built in the 1930s by a student of Otto Wagner. Stay on till the end of the line and you can get off and walk to Mayer am Pfarrplatz, a wine tavern where Beethoven once drank. Not bad for two euros 30, though it’s best to pick up a Vienna City Card if you’re planning on seeing a lot of the city – available for 24, 48 or 72 hours.
Website: viennacitycard.at
Getty Images7. Meet the Habsburgs in an underground crypt
There’s an underground world in Vienna, ranging from the sewers seen in The Third Man, which can be visited on tours at times, and the catacombs lurking below St Stephen’s Cathedral – a series of crypts dating back to the 14th century including ossuaries of neatly stacked bones that you can peep into. The best show curated by the grim reaper, though, can be found at the Capuchin Crypt below the tiny wood-lined Santa Maria church near Neuer Markt in the city centre. This is where most of the Habsburg dynasty ended up after shuffling off this mortal coil – 149 of them, spanning four centuries, with the remains of empresses and queens, Holy Roman emperors and princes residing in elaborate sarcophagus. Some of the remains anyway – they tended to be distributed between three separate crypts, omnipresent in death as well as life. Particularly fine is the tomb of Marie Theresa and Franz Stephan, decorated with scenes from their life along with the requisite grinning death’s head wearing a crown. Ideal for any designers of Iron Maiden or Sepulchre album covers, this is wonderfully macabre – a memento mori history lesson into Austria’s imperial past.
Address: Capuchin’s Crypt, Tegetthoffstraße 2, 1010 Wien, Austria
Website: kapuzinergruft.com
Getty Images8. Get regal at Schönbrunn Palace
The 19th-century Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, more affectionately known as Sisi, has always been a royal pin-up in Austria, her face adorning chocolate boxes and tea towels, but is having even more of a moment right now. Heralded as an undiscovered feminist icon by some, and the Princess Di or Meghan Markle of her time by others, she’s the subject of two films and a brace of TV series, including 2022 Netflix show The Empress, depicting her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I aged just 16. So the palace where she lived feels particularly pertinent right now, despite being one of the city’s most obvious attractions. You could time your visit to coincide with one of the markets held in the palace courtyard for Christmas, New Year and Easter, or for one of the summer concerts held by the Wiener Philharmoniker in the Orangery, where Mozart and Salieri used to perform. But otherwise, get here early and spend most of the day exploring the grounds and palace, perhaps even filming your own recreation swirling beneath the Gloriette arches and around the Neptunbrunnen fountain. Built in the middle of the 18th century, this is Vienna’s Versaille, a Baroque masterpiece.
Address: Schönbrunner Schloßstraße 47, 1130 Wien, Austria
Website: schoenbrunn.at
Getty Images9. Do a figure of eight in winter
Vienna’s a beautiful city to visit during the winter, full of cosy cafés to stay warm in over a creamy hot chocolate (try for a seat at Cafe Schwarzenberg) and hearty, rib-sticking food such as gulasch and tafelspitz. For a snapshot of sheer winter-wonderland delight, head to the Town Hall Square which, between January and March every year, is turned into a meandering ice skating park known as the Viennese Ice Dream. It’s evolved over the years and now runs over two levels, linked by icy runways around the trees, with DJs and live music, and a small winter market selling punch, tea and snacks. Several smaller rinks spiral off the main ones, including one for young children – those whose technique involves clutching onto the side and making flailing forays out and back may be tempted to use these too. Book ahead online to avoid the queue – there are lockers for bags and shoes. You could try this in summer, too, of course, but may get a few odd looks.
Address: Wiener Eistraum, 6965+3J, 1010 Wien, Austria
Website: wienereistraum.com
Alamy10. Go on a street-art safari along the Donau Canal
Yes, Vienna has the Danube, the blue Danube, but it also has the Donaukanal, a stretch of water (not a canal) that breaks off the main river, moseys around town and then rejoins the Danube in the east. And for those who still think Vienna is all about neoclassical architecture and opera, here’s the flipside. Walking or cycling along its banks you’ll see one of the biggest urban canvases for street art, sprayed on walls and under bridges and drawing international names, along with summer pop-up beach bars (Tel Aviv beach bar for house, Adria for a more indie vibe) and sound systems, community gardens and the Donaukanaltreiben Festival in June. Look out for the Motto am Fluss restaurant next to the little port from where hydrofoils glide off to Bratislava, the Badeschiff Wien with its onboard swimming pool, the Zaha Hadid Haus and the dome of the Urania Observatory. Or just make like the locals and sit on the edge with a beer, legs dangling over the water.
Geoff Williamson SuperPrime / Alamy Stock Photo11. See a concert in Konzerthaus
As the city of Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, Vienna has some of the best buskers in the world, many of them having trained at a classical conservatoire, while walking down the street you’ll hear snatches of opera and strains of violin floating out of windows. You may also be stalked by touts in Mozart wigs and red waistcoats selling tickets for tourist concerts but ignore them and buy tickets for the Konzerthaus instead. While the State Opera or Musikverein, home to the Philharmonic, are the obvious choices, the Konzerthaus is set in an equally beautiful Art Nouveau building and is a little less known to visitors. It opened in 1913 with a specially written work by Strauss and has kept the standard up ever since, with a programme that mixes classical with jazz and contemporary.
Address: Konzerthaus, Lothringerstraße 20, 1030 Wien, Austria
Website: konzerthaus.at
Getty Images12. Go shopping in Burggasse
Vienna is divided into various numbered districts, and the 7th is one of the best areas to go shopping in, dipping into the various independent shops and then heading to a bar or café afterwards. It’s close to the Museumsquartier, so you can head here after a culture fix – it’s particularly good for vintage, as well as contemporary Austrian design. Highlights include Burggasse 24, a café/bar with an extensive vintage clothing collection, Uppers & Downers, which curates vintage fashion along with new accessories and shoes, and the Eigensinnig Wien concept store, which has its own-brand, all-black clothing label. Other favourites are Die Sellerie for stationery, ceramics and art prints, and the Wine Rebellion shop for a different kind of Austrian label.