Vienna runs on ceremony.
Schönbrunn at opening time, a gilded concert after dark, coffee and cake in the long afternoon, a glass of new wine up on the hill. What each one is really like, what it costs, and where to book.
The seven you came for.
First visit or fifth, these are the ones that carry the days: the palace everyone means when they say Vienna, the concert you will still be humming on the flight home, the table you would never have found on your own.
Skip-the-cashier-desk-line Giant Ferris Wheel Ride
Skip the ticket desk for a 65m Wiener Riesenrad ride in Vienna’s Prater, with panoramic views and a small panorama museum.
From $17 per person
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★ 4.8Safe betLight of Creation Votive Church Immersive Light ShowFrom $256,779 reviews
★ 4.7Books out fastVienna Spanish Riding School Guided TourFrom $286,765 reviews
★ 4.6Crowd favouriteClassical Concert in the World-Famous MusikvereinFrom $176,673 reviews
★ 4.7Worth the ticketHallstatt Day Trip with Boat Ride OptionFrom $1086,311 reviews
★ 4.8Easy yesSkip-the-Line Schönbrunn Palace & Gardens TourFrom $765,411 reviews
★ 4.6Local favouriteMozart Concert at the Musikverein – Golden HallFrom $815,194 reviews
The whole valley, in a day.
An hour upriver, the Danube slows between terraced vineyards and apricot orchards, and the golden abbey at Melk keeps watch from its rock. Take the coach out, the boat back past Dürnstein, a wine tasting somewhere in between. This is the day people build a Vienna trip around.
Which concert night is yours?
This is the music capital, and on any given night there are a dozen ways to hear it. Three that suit most first trips: pick the one that sounds like your evening, and every option behind it is already reviewed and priced.
Gold and chandeliers
The grand concert hall
1h 15m · from $40 · 14,951 reviews
The Musikverein’s Golden Hall, the State Opera, the great orchestras playing the repertoire this city wrote. Dress up, take a box or the cheap standing room, and hear Mozart where Mozart belongs. The purest way to spend an evening in Vienna.
See the concert halls →
Powdered wigs
Mozart and Strauss, in costume
2 hours · from $81 · 5,194 reviews
The crowd-pleaser, and none the worse for it: a small orchestra in eighteenth-century dress at the Kursalon, the greatest hits, a soprano and a waltzing couple between the movements. The one that turns a first night into an occasion.
See the costume concerts →
Supper included
Supper and a symphony
3 hours · from $93 · 730 reviews
Make a whole evening of it. A Johann Strauss dinner show under the lights at the Prater, three courses between the acts, the orchestra playing while the plates come round. For nights when the music is only half the plan.
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The evening moves uphill.
Vienna is the only capital that grows its own wine, and come dusk the Heurigen open their courtyards on the slopes at Grinzing and Nussdorf. A jug of this year’s white, a plate from the cold buffet, a little Schrammel music, and the lights of the city spread out below. Nobody is in a hurry to leave.
Cake, taken seriously.
The coffee house is a Viennese institution, and the cake list runs to a page. A slab of Sachertorte under its dark glaze, a strudel still warm, a Melange with the foam done properly, and a marble table you can keep for hours. These are the walks that get you into the good ones.
The horses still work here.
Two kinds of Viennese horse. The white Lipizzaner stallions that train and perform at the Spanish Riding School, six centuries into the same routine, and the Fiaker cabs that still clip round the old town behind a driver who knows every corner. One is high ceremony, the other a slow lap of the first district.
The empire kept the doors open.
Klimt’s gold hangs in the Belvedere, the crown jewels sit behind glass in the Hofburg Treasury, and the Kunsthistorisches holds the paintings the Habsburgs gathered across an empire. Centuries of imperial Vienna are still there to walk through, once you know which rooms to book.
Vienna, landmark by landmark.
The great sights sit a short walk apart. Schönbrunn for the gardens. The Hofburg for the crown jewels. The Belvedere for Klimt. St Stephen’s for the roof over the old town.
A tour for every mood.
Twelve ways to spend a Vienna afternoon. Pick the one that sounds like your kind of day, and every option behind it is already reviewed and priced.
Out for the day, back by dark.
The train does the work. A lake village under the mountains, Mozart’s Salzburg, two more capitals downriver, the terraced vineyards of the Wachau. All of it close enough to leave after breakfast and be home for a late supper.
Vienna in three unhurried days.
You will not see all of Vienna in one trip, but you can do the right three days. This is the order we would hand a friend arriving tomorrow.
Day 1
Begin at the cathedral
St Stephen’s when the doors first open, a slow lap of the lanes around it, then coffee and cake before the crowds build. An easy first day on your feet.
Plan day one →
Day 2
Palaces, then a concert
Schönbrunn in the morning for the state rooms and the gardens, the Belvedere and its Klimt after lunch, then dress for a concert once the sun is down.
Plan day two →
Day 3
Out to the Danube
The coach up the valley to Melk, the abbey on its rock, a boat back through the vineyards with a glass of something local. Save this one for the clearest forecast.
Plan the Wachau day →
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