Location: Vienna
Top Things to do in Vienna
What to do and see in Vienna, Vienna Region: The Best Things to do for Honeymoon
In Vienna, the coffee house isn’t just a hangout: it’s an institution. Lingering over a newspaper with a pastry and a strong espresso drink is, according to UNESCO, officially a Viennese cultural pastime. Walk off your slice of Sachertorte with a self-guided tour of the city’s stunning traditional, Secessionist, and modern architecture, such as the Imperial Palace, the State Opera House, the Kirche am Steinhof, or the Kunsthistorisches Museum, an exercise in ornate geometry.
Restaurants in Vienna
1. The Third Man Museum
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 612 reviews
OPEN EVERY SATURDAY 2 - 6 pm! OPEN AGAIN from June 13, 2020 onwards!!! For more opening hours check our webpage ! The THIRD MAN MUSEUM is THE place to go but ONLY for film fans and all those interested in the post-war history of Vienna. Private museum without sponsors and without subsidies, but a 100% passion! The Third Man Museum contains much heart and soul. And you can feel it! EXCLUSIVE guided tours on any day of the week by request!
Reviewed By 163059
A must for film buffs and lovers of "The Third Man" film. Only open Saturdays 2-6 and most certainly worth a visit if your time in Vienna allows. Easy to get to - from Vienna Opera take bus 59A, 3 stops to Pressgasse, then 150m walk. Fabulous displays of film posters, photos, audio and video clips of scenes, characters etc. Copies of film scripts and a short piece of original film shown on a pre-war projector. Comprehensive display of photos, posters, newspapers etc of pre war Vienna and the city during and after WW2. Thanks to Gerhard and Karin for the time and effort they have put into creating this fabulous museum (Great to meet you both - Rob and Marg, Melbourne, Australia)
2. St. Stephen's Cathedral
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 23,708 reviews
Austria's most prominent national symbol, this magnificent cathedral is known for its intricately tiled roof and its nearly 500-foot-tall South Tower, which provides amazing views of the entire city.
Reviewed By Gangers_and_ash
The cathedral is beautiful - very grand and ornate with beautiful mouldings and gothic architecture. The detail in the carvings was extraordinary and the paintings were very beautiful. There are certain parts of the cathedral which are blocked off (the entire mid and front section) which does make the back part quite cramped with lots of people taking photographs. Be patient and you will get your turn! I’d recommend the catacombs tour (6 Euros each) - it was very interesting and the tour guide was extremely knowledgable, offering the tour in both German and English.
3. Stadtpark
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,458 reviews
This bucolic city park, the highlight of which is a gilded statue of musician Johann Strauss in its center, was established in 1862.
Reviewed By macedonboy - Glasgow, United Kingdom
The Stadtpark is a large public park that’s divided into two sections by the River Vienna. The river has been engineered into what looks a little like a canal with elegant bridges over the river. Scattered throughout the park are statues of famous Viennese artists, writers, and composers, including Hans Canon, Emil Jakob Schindler, Johann Strauss Jr, Franz Schubert, and Anton Bruckner. The most famous of which is probably the golden statue of Johann Strauss Jr. There’s also a small lake where there’s a colony of ducks. The park is a lovely green area and a great place for a stroll.
4. The Hofburg
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 12,521 reviews
For centuries the Vienna Hofburg was the centre of the Habsburg empire. Today the palace houses three museums which afford historically authentic insights into the traditions and everyday life of the imperial court: The Imperial Apartments with their original furnishings and decoration, the Sisi Museum with its sensitive staging of the empress' life, and the Imperial Silver Collection which contains a comprehensive range of tableware and other utensils used at the imperial court.
Reviewed By GoalieMarty - Ottawa, Canada
We took the Hofburg Vienna ticket which includes the Silver Collection, the Sisi Museum, and the Imperial Apartments with an included audio guide. We bought our tickets on the spot and did not even wait one minute in line. Not sure if it's always like that though. The visit starts with the Silver Collection. Lots and lots of everything you can possibly find on a table. For me, it was nice to see but I got a little bored at the end because I found there was too much and it gets somewhat overwhelming. The audio guide is also a bit dry in my opinion. "Exhibit 24: This silverware collection was designed by Italian master Giovanni Macaroni in 1829 for the visit of King Stradivarius IV who spent 2 weeks at the palace with his court, and bla-bla-bla ...". You get the idea. If you want to save time, I would suggest you skip the dishes. Or at least, don't listen to everything in the audio guide. The visit continues with the Sisi Museum which I found really interesting because it's about her life and all the people in it. Really well made and really well presented. The audio guide is also much more interesting this time around. The Imperial Apartments, the last third of the visit, are truly magnificent. You can feel the opulence and the wealth of this family. The audio guide is again very informative. Both the museum and the apartments are worth spending a little more time in there to take it all in. Overall, we really enjoyed our visit of the Imperial Palace. We also visited Schönbrunn Palace and based on our experience, I would recommend the following. If you want to visit both, start with the Imperial Palace first as Schönbrunn is even more grandiose. If you only have time for one, I would recommend Schönbrunn.
5. Wiener Staatsoper
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 8,016 reviews
Vienna's internationally renowned opera offers nearly 300 performances each year.
Reviewed By amandaleenj - Highlands, United States
I am so glad I heard about the Standing Room Tickets for the State Opera in Vienna! €3-€4 for a world class opera is definitely a must do! A few tips: 1-There is a side entrance for the Standing Room Tickets (on the opposite side of the Opera House from the big outdoor screen). Make sure you go in the building unless the line is already out the door. 2-The ticket window opens 80 minutes before curtain, but I was told to get there a full 2 hours before. When I arrived, I was towards the front of the line inside, but there were maybe 50 people in front of me. 3-Dress appropriately! I saw quite a few people turned away for wearing shorts (both men and women) and ripped jeans. Those were the two offenses I heard repeated over and over, so I am not sure if there are any others. 4-Bring something to do in line! I was traveling solo and was so happy to have a book with me. 5-Bring a scarf or something to tie around the railing to secure your place.
6. Schonbrunn Palace
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 42,524 reviews
The Cultural World Heritage Site of Schönbrunn Palace is Austria's most frequently visited tourist attraction. In the palace the residential and state rooms with their original furnishings and decorations convey an authentic impression of the imperial lifestyle. The park and gardens surrounding the palace make Schönbrunn in a unique synthesis of Baroque art as well as providing a convenient and highly popular recreational area for Vienna's population.
Reviewed By vicdud - Washington DC, United States
Schonbrunn Palace was beautiful!! The classic pass gets you access to the palace, privy garden, maze, orange garden, and the gloriette; so many awesome things to see! Definitely recommend using any kind of tour guide (audio or person), helps a lot with understanding the royal family and the interior of the palace. It should take about 4 hours and there is a lot of walking involved. There is so much to see and lots of history to learn.
7. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 9,709 reviews
Experience one of the world's foremost museums! Let yourself be enchanted by works spanning five millennia, from Ancient Egypt to the modern era. Experience unique major works by Dürer, Raphael, Titian and Velázquez as well as the world's largest collection of Bruegel paintings, all in a magnificent setting. The Kunstkammer Vienna, featuring the famous Saliera by Benvenuto Cellini, is a veritable universe of art and beauty guaranteed to transform any visit into an unforgettable experience. Included in the ticket are the collections at the Neue Burg on the opposite side of Vienna's Ringstrasse. Here you will see the instruments used by the great composers and be transported back to chivalrous times when knights held sway and tourneys and hunting shaped courtly life.
Reviewed By Ina5555 - Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine
The museum was the main goal of my Vienna visit, but I never expected it to be such an excellent introduction into the city and palaces sculptures' motifs as well, underscoring how much power was assigned back then to the art as a means of ideological visual education. Having spent 1,5 days in the museum I have made plenty of personal discoveries and enjoyed new for me artworks (e.g. unexpected parallel to the modern popular mass culture is a 1524 'Arya Stark' self-portrait bearing uncanny resemblance, in fact Parmigianino's enchanting masterpiece). The discoveries haven't stopped after the museum visit ended, because the next day during sightseeing I realized I recognize many of the city and its palaces sculptures' motifs and whatever I used to know about the big name old masters the most influential of them in Vienna must be Luca Giordano's The Fall of the Rebel Angels, whenever I saw its impressive replicated Laocoon-like convulsion-wriggled figures conveying the ideals of Counter-Reformation to the empire subjects on the city streets. Just walking the city you can recognize in the city sculptures' many familiar motifs, not only Biblical but antique as well (Hercules lifting Antaeus, Amazons, etc). Practicalities of the museum visit: the air-conditioning wasn't felt at all in the big inner rooms with Roman numerals, I slightly felt it in the small outer rooms with Arabic numerals (as of 14th and 15th of July). Six or seven rooms were entirely closed for reconstruction during my two-day visit. For lockers you need either a 1 or 2 euro coin, but there's a manned storage facility as well. Backpacks have to be left in a locker, normal shoulder bags are OK. Photo of the permanent exhibition without a flash is allowed. Temporary exhibition: Yan van Eyck "Als Ich Can". Probably I somehow unfortunately missed it. In the room dedicated to the special exhibition (0.5 floor, the same floor as the Kunstkammer, Egyptian and Antique collections - beware indeed almost no English translations of the exhibits, an audio guide cannot make up for all of them; the Egyptian rooms maintain specific humidity level) I saw only few works by the painter, and few works by his contemporaries like Rogier van der Weyden. The museum building (as well as the whole square) is a stunning art object in its own right, specifically built to showcase the Habsburg art treasuries, its highlights are covered by audio guide, including Klimt, Munkacsy contributions. Seeing the interiors I couldn't help but felt as the Mask film protagonist having to recover my awestruck jaw from the floor. Really a mind-boggling shrine of a high art which symbols and messages are probably half-obscure nowadays.
8. Albertina
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 6,819 reviews
Situated in the very heart of Vienna's City center, the Albertina houses one of the most important art collections of the world. Founded in 1776, the Museum today owns masterpieces by Da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Duerer, Rembrandt etc. These collections are presented in temporary exhibitions. The Batliner Collection "From Monet to Picasso" is permanentely on display and shows the most important works by artists from the age of modernism. The Habsburg Historic Staterooms of the Albertina give an air of Imperial glamour.
Reviewed By iioannis2 - Limassol City, Cyprus
Let yourself be attracted and inspired by classical and modern art of famous painters like Picasso and Rubens, as well as admiring memorable vividness painting scenes of the A' World War and medieval personalities, along with modern pieces of painting of abstract art. You will also enter at luxurious furnished coloured rooms taking you back at classical eras and rooms decorated with Greek status like the 9 muses and Apollon (usually their names are written in Greeks). I was impressed that most of the visitors are young people even if the ticket could be considered a bit expensive. But the cost deserves for those who look for such cultural exhibitions. When an exhibit (eg a painting) impresses you, read the small label in the wall next to it and then let your imagination be absorbed looking at the painting, enjoying it as an excellent creation and experiencing in your though what it represents. This is the best place for this purpose!
9. Belvedere Museum
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 17,493 reviews
The two Belvedere palaces were built in the early eighteenth century by the famous Baroque architect Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt to be used as the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736). One of Europe’s most stunning Baroque landmarks, this ensemble – comprising the Upper and Lower Belvedere and an extensive garden – is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today the Belvedere houses the greatest collection of Austrian art dating from the Middle Ages to the present day, complemented by the work of international artists such as Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Max Beckmann. Highlights from the holdings Vienna 1880–1914 are the world’s largest collection of Gustav Klimt’s paintings (including the famous golden Art Nouveau icons the Kiss (Lovers) and Judith) and works by Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka. Key works of French Impressionism and the greatest collection of Viennese Biedermeier art are further attractions on display at the Upper Belvedere.
Reviewed By Worldtravel1234567
Beautiful palace and excellent collection of Austrian painters including an extensive Klimt collection and the famous Kiss artwork. Do not miss!
10. Musikverein
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,205 reviews
Reviewed By 503frederics - Belgrade, Serbia
This review will be on the long side - hoping that as a "regular" I can provide useful info/tips and help people make the best of their visit to the Musikverein. The Musikverein is one of the best classical music venues in the world. Period. Most of the negative reviews here are about the tourist concerts that also take place here on occasion. You have to know that the "real" Musikverein season runs September-June, with a scarcer offering in September and June and during school holidays. When there is no "official" concert, the hall (and part of the staff apparently) is *rented* for tourist-only "Mozart" ou "Mozart and Strauss" concerts of the ubiquitous kind. So if you come during summer, you won't be able to watch a proper concert at the Musikverein - the cultural life has moved to Salzburg or other festivals. Should you go to one of these tourist-only concerts instead? For me, the short answer is "no!". These "concerts" have nothing to do with the Musikverein's fame, and if you know anything about classical music and have ever been to a classical concert before, you WILL be disappointed. Take a guided tour of the building and look for a concert in a church (some will be "mostly for tourist" but of much better/acceptable quality, others will be genuine concerts for locals, like the great summer programme of Baroque music in the quaint Ruprechtskirche). If you know nothing about classical music, should you go? Well I would also answer "no", but if you must do it, know exactly what to expect (overpriced show, unruly audience of tour groups, bored musicians who hate churning the same tunes to an obnoxious audience day after day... READ THE REVIEWS!). The staff will be super rude *of course*: they have to manage hundreds of unruly people, many of them angry because they feel ripped-off. The regular Musikverein ushers are bona fide music lovers (I know this from my conversations with them, and from a complicit exchange once with one of them during a rehearsal, when we both recognized a piece that was *not* on the programme...), and they *hate* the tourist-only concerts. The rest of the staff are summer extras who are not part of the Musikverein and are probably underpaid/exploited. Even if they take pity on you for feeling cheated, there's nothing they can do: your money is in the hands of the "tourist concerts" companies, and will stay there. So AVOID the tourist concerts and if you are lucky to be there during the regular season, go for a real Musikverein concert instead. Availability of tickets will depend on the concert - some will be sold out months in advance, some (also good) will have tickets on sale up to the start of the performance. In any case, use the official box office on the left side of the building or the official website (musikverein.at). Agencies take a hefty commission - only use them if they happen to re-sell tickets for a sold-out concert you really want to attend. Even then, you might be better off waiting in front of the Musikverein before the concert with a homemade sign asking for a ticket, in case someone is reselling theirs... Or asking the box office again and again for returned tickets, you might get lucky. As for the seats, you get what you pay - be aware that second and third rows on the balcony will have restricted view. The "Orgelbalkon" is a bargain for music lovers BUT it comes with NO VISIBILITY at all (it's above and behind the stage). This is strictly for hardcore music lovers who cannot afford a seat with a view (and don't care). Only choose them if you are fully aware of this! Finally there are the standing tickets, a real bargain at 5 to 7 euros but the standing area is a flat room between columns in the back of the parterre, not very comfortable. In my view, it's fantastic IF AND ONLY IF you manage to secure a spot in the front, next to the railing and between two columns. Achieving this requires some planning. For some concerts without any big names it might be OK to arrive just 40 minutes or even 30 minutes before the concert, but for concerts that will draw a larger crowd 2 hours are more advisable! First you wait in front of the building (doors open 60 minutes before the show), then below the stairs either on the left or on the rights (two separate lines). You HAVE to bring your coat and bags to the cloakroom downstairs (Euros 0.85 per piece). Don't argue about this, it's compulsory everywhere in Vienna. Just do it! If you are a group, take turns to check the coats while others keep your spot in the line. If you are alone, have a friendly chat with your neighbours and/or the ushers so that they agree on your spot in the line (they will). 35 minutes or so before the concert, you will be herded upstairs and wait in line once more at the gate of the Golden Hall until the bell rings - upon which you make a run for the best spot (don't linger! the front row fills up in a matter of seconds...). That's it! If you followed these rules you should have on of the "good" standing spots for a world-class performance, at 6 euros + cloakroom fee. Can't beat that! Lastly: contrary to what some have written here, the ushers are NOT unfriendly or rude and DO NOT treat standing tickets holders as second-class citizens. The standing area regulars are a valued audience - but the system does not exist for the tourists - it's first and foremost designed for local students, retirees and music fanatics. Tourists *are* welcome, but must earn respect and show they are not the usual disruptive and casual visitor (aka "nuisance") only looking to tick a box on their to-do list. The Musikverein would do perfectly well with only the regulars and no tourists at all - so tourists are expected to do their homework and to know and heed the house rules and traditions. (For example, photo is OK only until 5 minutes before the concert - spontaneously turn off your cellphone after that because the staff is super tired of having to do the cellphone police non-stop and will not be very polite about it...). Now it's time for great music! Enjoy! :)
