Austria
,Vienna
Vienna recommendations: what to experience in the most amazing city
24/09/2024
Hi all! Vienna is the beautiful capital of Austria and one of my favorite places! In this post, I will recommend what to experience there.
I fell in love with Vienna’s elegant charm, which made me feel like I was time-traveling to the early 20th century. But at the same time, everything modern that makes life comfortable worked nicely. Like the public transportation. Just lovely!
Some years ago, I lived in Vienna for around nine months. I consider myself a person who knows the city well. Thus every time any of my friends goes there (and I warmly recommend anybody to go there!) I am glad to recommend where to go and what to do. Now I will share the same recommendations with you!
The list of recommendations is based on my experiences and opinions. There are even more interesting things to experience in Vienna that I did not have time to do, so my apologies if something is missing. I hope this list can help you start to plan your Vienna trip!
I will start with the things I recommend not to miss the most and then move on to things you can consider if you have time. So let’s start!
Viennese cafés
In my opinion, the most important thing to do in Vienna is to experience the local café culture. Especially the historical city center, but at some level the whole city is filled with beautiful coffee houses where you can enjoy the local treats and cosy atmosphere. They are adorable experiences you do not want to miss!
One of the most famous cafés is Café Central, just a couple minutes walk from the Michaelerplatz, in front of Hofburg, and for a good reason. The interior is like a time travel to the past when the Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Sisi were not just portraits on the wall. Even more important the atmosphere is, of course, the coffee and cakes. In my opinion, they are some of the best in the city. Unfortunately, the popularity has a negative side and there is almost always a line of people queuing to get inside the café. If the line is not a kilometer long, I strongly recommend joining it. The café is worth the wait!
Other good options are for example Café Hawelka (near Graben, known for being popular among artists back in the days), Café Sperl (about a five five-minute walk from MuseumsQuartier, an adorable place), and all the cafés of Aida (a chain of Viennese traditional coffeehouses around the city, one of these pink cafés is at Stephansplatz).
In Viennese cafés, you can find a menu filled with names of Viennese coffees and cakes (there are other drinks and other treats, too, of course!). Especially the coffees are usually Viennese specialties instead of just familiar international coffees. If you are confused about what to choose, I recommend Melange, the local coffee. As a treat, a good choice is either Apfelstrudel, a traditional dessert including apples, and Sachertorte, a famous chocolate cake that originated from a Viennese Café Sacher but can now be enjoyed in all cafés in the city.
Stephansdom
One of my favorite places in Vienna is the huge cathedral in the city center, Stephansdom. The stunning Gothic cathedral is one of the main attractions in Vienna. The towers reach the sky, and the roof is decorated with colorful tiles. The inside of the cathedral is beautifully decorated with paintings and sculptures. There are many curious details inside and outside. For example, near the doors, is the secret symbol of the Austrian resistance during the German occupation in 1940’s and the old measurements of bread carved on the walls. The most intriguing thing (in my opinion at least) is the pulpit, which is decorated with the heads of saints peeking out of windows and odd creatures on the handrail. Are they toads? Rats? What?
Even though the cathedral is very popular among tourists, the atmosphere is still quite peaceful which is lovely The reason is probably that the tourists are not able to walk freely around the whole cathedral without extra payment. You need to stay just in a limited area.
There is also a possibility to climb to the south towers of Stephansdom. At the top, the view is worth the entrance fee and the physical exercise of climbing the hundreds of steps up to the tower.
Museums in Vienna
If you like museums, Vienna is the place to go. During my time there, I visited about 16 museums. And that was just some of the museums there. Most of the ones I visited were super cool and interesting, quality museums so I could recommend any of them. Vienna has especially a great art museum scene but there are also big museums for nature history, war history, and technology. And then there are the smaller, bizarre museums.
In addition to museums, there are two palaces: Hoffburg and the Palace Schönbrun. The Hofburg was the main residence of the imperial family and Schönbrun was their summer cottage. You can visit them both, but I recommend also strolling around them even if you do not bother paying for a ticket inside. The Hofburg is in the heart of the historical center and after several expansions is a huge maze of wings and other buildings. Schönbrun has a huge, beautiful garden. I was amazed the first time I saw it. Just the size is worth taking a U-Bahn there.
I wrote a whole post about the museums in Vienna so I do not go into more details about all the possibilities in this one. Just to say that, if you go to Vienna, you should go to a museum.
Opera
Vienna is known for its opera! After all many famous composers such as Mozart are from Austria and have resided in Vienna. So why not go to the Opera? The opera house is also a beautiful building even if you do not care about the music that much.
Of course, the tickets to the first row of this famous opera are costly. But there are also more affordable options. The cheapest of the options is standing tickets. They used to be so cheap they were almost free but now inflation has raised the prices between 13-18 euros depending on where you want to stand. The experience is so amazing that you do not mind the higher prices (and the pain of standing for three hours).
Prater
Prater is mostly known as an amusement park, but it is actually just one corner of a huge park! Honestly, it is unbelievably big! The best way to get an idea of the whole size of Prater is to take a ride in Riesenrad. This huge Ferris wheel is from 1897 and is the most famous attraction in Prater. An entire amusement park is an enchanting place to walk around, see all the colorful attractions, and feel the magical atmosphere!
Events
When I was staying in Vienna, I felt that something was happening almost all the time. Thus, I recommend checking out the event calendar when going to Vienna.
The most known events are the Christmas markets. Yes, in the plural. There are markets in every possible square and park possible! This was probably one of the biggest cultural shocks I faced there. The biggest is at the Rathausplatz, but the markets at Belvedere and Spittelberg are charming too. The markets open in November and last until Christmas. In addition to the cozy Christmas atmosphere, you can enjoy warm punch or Glühwein in special Christmas market mugs. If you want a non-alcoholic drink, you can order Kinderpunsch. After Christmas, the Rathausplatz will transform into a huge ice-skating ring!
Other cool events are, for example, Easter markets, the Viennale film festival in autumn, and the night of the museums. If you like museums, openings for new exhibitions are also usually free to enter. There are other interesting things I unfortunately could not go to: the open-air music festival Donauinselfest which has millions of visitors every year, and concerts at the gardens of the Schönbrunn Palace by the Wiener Philharmoniker. Both are in June and are free! Hopefully, I can someday go back and experience those two!
Oh yeah, and then is the whole ball season! How did I forget that?
Other random things in Vienna:
- If you fancy an ice cream: Veganista. The best vegan ice cream. They have ice cream shops around the city and even in the airport! Otherwise, Schwedenplatz has many ice cream cafés and shops, that are nice.
- If you want to see a movie in a cinema in English: English Cinema Haydn near Neubaugasse metro station. One of my favorite places in Vienna!
- If you are looking for souvenirs: Manner waffles. You can find them everywhere, but they also have a shop near Stephansdom. The most known are the Napolitaner flavored ones.
- If you have time for a day trip outside Vienna: Bratislava, Slovakia.
That is all I would recommend to do in Vienna! Of course, there are many other interesting things such as Hundertwasserhaus, Naschmarkt marketplace, Spanish horse school, many cool churches and parks, and other things. But If you are going to Vienna for the first time, the things on this list are the ones that I would recommend to you the most. I think they are the coolest and most interesting things there and capture Vienna’s essence.
Hope this was fun and interesting for you to read! Until next time!
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