“When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?”
Billy Joel
‘Küss’ die Hand, schöne Frau!’, is a German sentence, that immediately comes to my mind, whenever I think about Vienna, or Austria in general. I cannot really explain why, though. For you, it is most probably decadency, beautiful and huge palaces and their gardens, as well as the queen of queens: Sisi. Which is justified, but there is much more to it..
What This Guide is About
- Important German Words
- What to Do in Vienna
- Check the City Center (Innere Stadt, 1. Bezirk)
- Visit the Prater (Leopoldstadt, 2. Bezirk)
- Museumsquartier (Neubau, 7. Bezirk)
- Go to the Riverside and Canal of Danube (Donau)
- Schönbrunn Palace and Strudelshow (Hietzing, 13. Bezirk)
- Belvedere Palace (Landstraße 3. Bezirk)
- Visit Park Wienerberg for Ultimate Relaxation (Favoriten, 10. Bezirk)
- Sunset Hunting
- Free Walking Tour
- Expect the Unexpected
- What to Eat (Food Hunting)
- Souvenir Shopping
- How to Get Around
- Where to Stay
- My Recommendation
- Short TikTok Summary of Vienna
As my second stop on my Interrail I arrived in Vienna on the 11th May 2022 and stayed until 14th May 2022. That makes three days to explore this fantasy-fairytale-came-to-life city. Don’t worry, I’m gonna tell you all about it!
Some basic facts first: Vienna is the capital of Austria and there are almost 2 Million inhabitants living there. The currency that they use is Euros. The city is distributed into 22 Districts (minus the Hunger Games), called Bezirke in German . It has the oldest still working ferris wheel in the world. I guess this is why everyone keeps mentioning it.
Now, let’s get to my own impressions.
Important German Words
As my native language is German, I could go into real detail here – but I will spare you this. Let’s focus on the most important things. Those are, as I always like to say: smile and be kind. Even though Germans (and Austrians, too) have the stereotype of not showing emotions and always looking pissed or neutral, we still highly appreciate people being nice. You could call it common sense, but also here it is: what goes around comes around. Maybe you won’t see it in their faces, but believe me, they will treat you differently if you are nice. And to be even better, throw in some German words in the conversation:
- Hallo! (meaning ‘Hello’)
- Guten Morgen/ Guten Tag (meaning ‘Good Morning/ Good Day’)
- Danke! (meaning ‘Thank You’)
- Bitte! (meaning ‘You’re Welcome’, or at the end of a sentence ‘Please’)
For a couple of days or hours you won’t need much more. Most of the (especially younger) people will speak a really good English, even if they don’t like to admit it. What is useful for you to keep in mind is, that Austrian German sounds different to German German and that every region/city/town/village kinda has its own dialect. So don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t understand shit. It happens to everyone in a different country.
What to Do in Vienna
Especially after just coming from cute and compact Prague, I was almost hit by a brick when I arrived in Vienna and found out that you need to walk more than an hour to get from the main train station to the city center. As my legs were already suffering from walking all the prior days on cobblestones, I decided now is the time to invest in public transportation. I do not regret this decision at all.
So my first recommendation for you: get yourself a ticket. I will go into more detail about which one to take, prices and where to get it later.
First, I want to show you the places that I went to, give some information about them and of course flex with some nice pictures that I took from this big, juicy, beautiful city. The spots that I visited were the City Center (Innere Stadt), various parts of the Riverside (Donau), the famous Prater, a couple of parks, palaces Schönbrunn and Belvedere, some Sunset Hunting and, of course, another Free Walking Tour.
Check the City Center (Innere Stadt, 1. Bezirk)
Even though Vienna is a huge city and to get to some places (like for the main train station to the city center) it takes over an hour by foot, once you are in the center, though, you can see a lot in a relatively short distance.
I started from the Naschmarkt (market full of food stands, restaurants and more) and passed by Karlsplatz, Vienna Opera and Albertina, until I arrived at Michaelerplatz.
In this round shaped area (Michaelerplatz), before you step foot onto the main part of the city center, you can not miss the Imperial Palace (Hofburg). It’s huge and magnificent. Usually there is a lot of coaches with horses lined up in the front, which you can book for a tour through the city, just like in old times.
In the middle of Michaelerplatz is also an ancient Roman Excavation Site, where you can get a glimpse on what it looked like 2000 years ago. Looking down, you can also see a lot of coins that have gathered up (including ancient cans, beer bottles and plastic).
Next to the Hofburg is yet another famous building, called Spanish Riding School (Spanische Hofreiterschule). There you can see lots of stables including the horses that belong in them (featuring their smell). Back in the days, this school was responsible to teach the royal family members how to ride a horse properly. Now it’s mainly to keep the classic horsemanship alive and offer performances to the public.
Further down the road you will find one of the most well known coffe houses in Vienna, Café Demel (that offer the famous Sachertorte, but more importantly in my opinion, the best Kaiserschmarrn I have ever tried). Afterwards you will see St. Stephan’s Church, the Plague column (Pestsäule) and the prominent and most famous church in Vienna, St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Stephansdom).
Visit the Prater (Leopoldstadt, 2. Bezirk)
This huge random funfair that is placed just outside the city center of Vienna, is probably my best surprise and my favourite spot. Of course, I heard everyone that has been to Vienna once talk about the famous Prater. But to be completely honest with you, I never really knew what it was and was too lazy to ask or research about it. I simply assumed that it is just this one ferris wheel (kinda like a Viennese version of the London Eye). It turned out to be sooo much more than that.
There is a whole amusement park–alike, that you can enter for free and it has lots and lots of attractions, rides and food stalls. I let myself get lost in this place and on every corner there was more things to discover. It felt like this area was endless.
Even though I was alone in a place where you usually go with your friends, I did not feel lonely at all. I really enjoyed watching the others having fun on the rides and just listening to the songs playing. All of this made me really nostalgic, thinking back on the times I went to the local funfair in my hometown in Germany.
Museumsquartier (Neubau, 7. Bezirk)
Even if you just pass by this part of the city from the outside, it’s already really impressive to see. The sheer amount of buildings dedicated to art, architecture, knowledge, etc. is madness. Everyone will find something here that will interest them, of that I am sure. If I would have had more time (or if the weather wasn’t as nice as it was when I was there), I certainly would have visited at least one museum here.
Some of the museums that you can find here are the Mumok (Museum Moderner Kunst – Museum of Modern Art), the Leopold Museum and Kunsthalle Wien.
Next to the Museumsquartier are other areas that have even more museums to offer. That’s for example the Museum of Art History (Kunsthistorische Museum) and the Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum).
Go to the Riverside and Canal of Danube (Donau)
As the river is pretty long and accessible on multiple spots outside and inside of the city, there are plenty of opportunities to see and experience the Danube. There are multiple parts of this river distributed throughout the city.
Separating the 1st Disctrict (Innere Stadt) from the 2nd District (Leopoldstadt) is the Danube–Canal. There is a lot of space to sit next to the canal, meet friends, have a chat, eat some food and just chill. On my first evening I got some pizza and pasta and sat there to watch the sunset. The atmosphere was great, although you couldn’t really see the sunset properly. It was still a nice experience and you see people and boats, hear music and get some glimpse of the life in Vienna.
In case you want more nature and a little calmness, I would definitely recommend you to go to the riverside. There you can see the Old Danube (Alte Donau), which goes in a half circle around the 22nd District of Vienna called Kaisermühlen.
For me, I went by metro to the New part of the Danube. Getting off on Metro Station ‘Donaumarina‘, I walked aimlessly to find a good spot to see the sunset. This took me really long, as I did not have any clue on where to go. It seemed really hard to not only cross the river, but also to get close to the water.
In the end, I made it – as you can see on the pictures. I think if you orient yourself on the ‘Donauinsel‘ and the bars/restaurants/shops, you will have it much easier than me wandering around.
Schönbrunn Palace and Strudelshow (Hietzing, 13. Bezirk)
For some reason this was the first palace that caught my attention and also the first that I visited. It’s where you go to feel like a prince(ss) yourself (even if you’re wearing biker shorts, a plain t-shirt and a bum bag). To get there, I took the metro (U4) and exited on Schönbrunn station – from there it was only a 5-10 mins walk to get to this mesmerising and huge palace.
There is lots of things to do inside and outside of Schönbrunn. You can visit the palace inside, see the gardens in the front and in the back, or even visit the Zoo that is a part of the gardens. Another fun activity there (that I actually went to on another day) is the Strudelshow. It happens multiple times a day and lasts around 30 minutes, in which a baker shows you how to make the perfect Strudel.
It was really entertaining and informative to watch – the best part being that you get to try a piece of the Strudel. I enjoyed this and I would say that it’s something you do once and that’s enough – I can recommend to do this if you like baking or just being entertained. It costs roughly 10€.
My personal highlight, though, was surely the gardens behind Schönbrunn palace. They were huge and reminded me a little to the Boboli Gardens in Florence. You can get lost there and spend a lot of time discovering new and beautiful things, sculptures and views.
The best view was on top of the hill, where you had the perfect view over Vienna. As the sun sets in the opposite direction, you cannot really see a sunset with the city, but you have the candy-cloud-colouring anyways. It’s amazing!
Belvedere Palace (Landstraße 3. Bezirk)
Honestly, I don’t even know which palace is the most popular one, let alone how many there are in Vienna (most probably too many to count). Belvedere was for sure one that was mentioned a couple of times and also appeared pretty prominent on my map. That’s why I decided on my third day, that this is the place where I’m going to go. It is located in the 3rd District of Vienna called Landstraße.
After all, my whole last day consisted of me doing a palace marathon. First I went to Schönbrunn again, then I went to a park (Wienerberg) to kill some time, waiting for my Strudelshow to start – for which I went back to Schönbrunn again.
Afterwards, I took the tram to get to Belvedere. It was quite the hustle and even though I used public transport as much as I could, it was still a lot to walk.
The pictures did not lie though! This place looks fantastic. Most of all I loved the view from the gardens on the palace. There is two sides to it, both having their own garden. The one in the back had more flowers, was really colourful, while the huge one in the front had multiple fountains, and the well-known view over Vienna.
As the sun was coming out and it was super warm that day, I couldn’t help myself getting some refreshment from their lawn sprinkler. Nice! What I loved most, was the reflection of the sun in the water of the fountain.
Visit Park Wienerberg for Ultimate Relaxation (Favoriten, 10. Bezirk)
There is plenty of parks to find in and around Vienna. My favourite one (from the few that I saw) was definitely Wienerberg, a bit outside of the city center. I got there by bus from Schönbrunn Palace, which took around 30-45 minutes, including a short walk afterwards.
This park is located in the 10th District Favoriten. On the way there, I also saw something I wouldn’t have expected in Vienna: skyscrapers and what looked like fancy, modern and tall office buildings.
The best part about Wienerberg is that you are in the middle of what looked like a banking district, but you would never have guessed, once you enter the park itself. It’s like a parallel universe, full of green trees, a lake, birds chirping, crickets cricketing and views on the mountains (Vienna Alps) on the horizon.
Here I actually felt a bit like Alice falling down the rabbit hole and ending up in this beautiful natural resort. After walking around for some time, I found a bench, sat down, and just admired the view for a while. All the time thinking on how lucky I am to be experiencing this all. Not gonna lie, this moment made me super emotional and thankful. Nature is my favourite place.
Sunset Hunting
Personally, I need to admit defeat here. I have not found the perfect sunset spot for me in Vienna. First day, I went to the riverside inside of the city center. But because of the high walls around, I could only see the last remaining pink, orange and red hues in the sky. Which was beautiful nonetheless, but not what I was looking for initially.
On my second day, I went to castle Schönbrunn, all the way up the hill to the Gloriette, where there was an amazing view over the city with the clouds painted orange. From all the places I visited, while the sun was going down in Vienna, this was definitely my favourite one.
Although I’m sure there are far more places to have a great sunset experience. Another plus was randomly meeting a lovely girl from Ukraine while taking photos at a fountain and deciding to go up the hill together.
The next try was on my last day, when I went further outside by metro to get to the outskirts of river Donau. There it had more nature and was really quiet. And I think if I would have found the right spot in the beginning, the sunset view would have been pretty nice. My issue was just that I only found the nice spot when the sunset was already over. Now I know better, though.
Free Walking Tour
The meeting point for this tour from Good Vienna Tours was the square in front of the Albertina at 2 pm. There was another tour in the morning, but because I’m not a morning person, I went for this one instead.
As it was a really hot day, our guide was always considerate and asked us if we preferred to stay in the shade or the sun. It was a really interactive tour and he had lots of recommendations for museums, areas and everything that you could ask for. His English was super good, even though he always excused himself for not being that great at it (like a German would do). He spilled lots of historical tea and background information on the major places we visited.
Even though the tour was great and so so interesting, that was not the best part about it. Having been on my trip for a couple of days already, I slowly started to get the feeling that I might stay alone all of my trip and won’t meet anyone. That made me a little sad for a moment. During this tour, though, I met a lovely girl (Alyssa) from Washington, DC, that approached me.
We ended up spending the whole afternoon together after the tour. It was so nice to meet someone that can relate with you, as it was also her first solo travel and the first time she gathered the courage to talk to another person. We had many things in common and I really cherished those moments and this special connection. This marked the start and was only the beginning of meeting many more lovely people along the way.
Expect the Unexpected
Something that I always like to do (and I mentioned that before in my Prague Guide), is to simply get lost in a place. Not literally get lost in terms of letting myself get kidnapped or not finding back and sleeping under a bridge. To get lost, as in wandering around, without any clear destination in mind. Or even if you have a destination you want to go to, to check the rough directions and then just follow your nose (or your heart, your gut, or whatever you trust more in this situation).
One of the major tasks here is to keep your eyes open. Listen to the sounds around you, look around and soak it all in. Notice the simple stuff. How the sun is warming your back, the wind is blowing in your face, moving your hair slightly. If it’s a really hot day, appreciate the occasional life-saving cloud passing by and giving you a minute of shadow and fresh air, or the lawn sprinkler sharing some cold water for you.
Notice the street art. It doesn’t need to be a Picasso painting, an art project or an overwhelming graffiti. Even just someone doodling on a wall can make you smile. Witnessing a (happy) moment between other people. It does not count what anyone else than you enjoys to see.
For me, it’s definitely these random things: a smiling face, a painting I cannot define, spotting a wild ladybug, a pigeon nodding their head, a dog wiggling their booty at me, or seeing anything that I find cute, interesting, weird or funny.
It makes me happy to witness the process or results of people doing something they enjoy.
What to Eat (Food Hunting)
The most important part, that I know that you’ve all been waiting for (or skipped all the rest just to get straight to the goods) is about to be told: This. Is. FOOD!
And with Vienna, I (and you, in case you are going after reading this), for sure picked a great spot to find lots of exactly that. Starting with their classics, which are Kaiserschmarrn, Strudel, Palatschinken (pancakes), Marillenknödel (sweet dumplings with fruit) and all kinds of cakes (especially Sachertorte). This is only the beginning.
For the more savoury loving people there is more than enough good stuff, too. What you have heard of before, is definitely the Wiener Schnitzel. And even though I don’t eat meat, I still found a Seitan version of it with potato salad as a side at ‘Das Augustin‘ and it was delicious. My new-found friend had the classical version and she really liked it as well.
Apart from that, you will find sausages and any kind of other cuisine that you can think of. The easiest way to discover a huge variety on food, is to check the Naschmarkt (6th District, Mariahilf). It’s basically a huge market with anything from food, over regular shops, souvenirs to restaurants and bars.
Also, supermarkets in Vienna quite often had a huge area for warm/cold food to go, which you could just pick from a buffet. That was great, too, especially if you want something for later or the way.
My personal highlight for sure was the Kaiserschmarrn at Café Demel. After our guide recommended us to get this instead of the (usually really dry) Sachertorte, I did exactly that and I did not regret it at all. On the contrary, I think I’ve never felt more emotions eating food than in this moment. You need to try it to know what I’m talking about.
Other things that I’ve tried were the ice cream at a popular shop called ‘Tichy‘. I kinda guessed that it’s quite popular according to all the reviews on various platforms – but what I did not expect was to queue for like 10 minutes at 9.30pm in front of an ice cream shop, far away from the city center. First, I considered to skip on it, but then I thought, ‘Why not?’ and just did it. And it was for sure a really good ice cream, so it was worth waiting for it. Although it cannot compete with the ones I’ve tried in Italy.
Souvenir Shopping
As it’s always nice to have a little physical reminder, apart from pictures from your travels, I like to collect fridge magnets. So naturally, I did get one (in the end even two because I found it cute). I got one from the Manner shop, which is a typical sweet treat with chocolate and cookie from Austria.
Along with that, I also got some Manner sweets to bring to my family – those I bought in the supermarket though, as they were cheaper there than in the souvenir shop.
Generally I would advise you to bring something to eat from Vienna – be it sweets or maybe even a piece of Sachertorte (if you go back home soon).
How to Get Around
Best is to buy a ticket for public transportation in Vienna and you will be so thankful for it. It is really useful and affordable. I got myself a ticket for multiple days (72 hours for 17€), as I was staying for three days in total and immensely underestimated the size of Vienna.
It’s super easy to get around Vienna by Metro, Tram or Busses. The connections are plenty and you can choose between single trip tickets, 24-, 48-, 72-hour tickets or a ticket for a week. To get this, you can either buy it at a station, online or in their App (Wiener Linien). All further information like prices or anything specific you can also find on their website.
Another cool activity to do and to get around easily, are the bikes from WienMobil, that you can rent from various bikesharing stations throughout the city.
Where to Stay
Hostel ‘St. Christopher’s Inn’ (Favoriten, 10. Bezirk)
As I knew the Hostel chain from my time in London from their signature bar ‘Belushi’s‘, I thought it would be nice to go and try their accommodation for once. Coincidentally they opened their Vienna Hostel a couple of weeks prior to my trip.
First, I booked it on Booking.com, but then I found out you get free breakfast included, when booking on their own website so that is what I did. You should for sure check that before booking.
The location was good, as it was super close to the main train station – but that made it super far away from the city center. For me it was perfect, though, as I could walk from and to the station by foot and was more flexible with the time due to that.
It saved me a lot of stressing over missing my train It cost me roughly 60€ for 2 nights, which I think is a fair price (also including breakfast, in theory). You can also always go to their bar, meet people and check their daily activities (I didn’t do that this time).
The only thing I did not like about this hostel were the beds. It felt like sleeping on the floor, as the mattress was extremely hard and uncomfortable to me.
Find Your Accommodation
To help you find a nice accommodation in Vienna, I have a map from Booking for you. This can be to book directly or just to search for the best price/location on the map! Usually they have some good deals, so it’s always worth checking.
Booking.comMy Recommendation
In my opinion, you should definitely check out Vienna if you like beautiful, clean palaces, extremely tasty sweet (and savoury) dishes and want to get lost in a world in between classical princess fairytale, Mozart musical and vibrant city vibes. It has many facets to it and in my short three day stay, I only saw a small glimpse of what this city has to offer.
It was super mixed, in some parts (like close to the main train station and around) it reminded me a little to Berlin, it was more shabby, not as clean clean and posh and the buildings simply looked like rectangles with windows instead of fairytale castles with Rapunzel waiting on top. So it completely depends on where you go.
If you decide to visit, my advice is for sure to go at least one day longer than you are thinking on going. It is simply huge and there is just too much to discover. And I didn’t even consider going into museums at all, as the outside already felt like one.
Surely, go and get yourself a ticket for public transport (and this is something I don’t easily say). Go there, see your favourite palaces, enjoy the Prater funfair, eat all the food you can find, check the Naschmarkt for more food and – as always – do a Free Walking Tour. They are always worth it.
Vienna, I’ll give you a 9/10 (and the only reason it’s not a 10/10 is because I was tired and Vienna is so big and not the easiest place to walk everything). I will come back to you and this Kaiserschmarrn, that I will forever dream about until that day comes.
