Austria · Vienna
Plan your Vienna trip
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01Your itinerary
02Where to stay
Innere Stadt
Best for first-timers and short staysThe walled historic core, cobbled and grand, with Stephansdom, the Hofburg and the best-known shopping streets on your doorstep. Central to everything, at a price to match.
Hotel Sacher Wien
Old-world service and marble lobbies steps from the cathedral; expect a premium for the address.
€€€€Buxbaum Boutique Hotel
A quieter corner of the 1st district, away from the Kärntner Strasse shopping crowds but still a five-minute walk to everything.
€€€Neubau & Josefstadt
Best for design-conscious travellers and repeat visitorsThe 7th and 8th districts, where independent boutiques, wine bars and the MuseumsQuartier give a livelier, more local feel than the Innere Stadt without losing much walkability to it.
Hotel Altstadt Vienna
Cobbled lanes and Biedermeier houses just west of the museums, with easy tram access into the centre.
€€€Hotel Rathaus Wien & Design
Josefstadt is Vienna's smallest and quietest district, largely residential and full of good, unshowy Beisl restaurants.
€€Landstraße
Best for value without sacrificing locationHome to the Belvedere and its gardens, a leafier, more residential 3rd district with excellent tram links and noticeably softer rates than the centre for a similarly central location.
A modern hotel near the Belvedere gardens
Wake up a short walk from the Klimt collection and a longer walk from the tour-group crush.
€€Leopoldstadt
Best for night owls and longer staysAcross the Danube Canal, the 2nd district pairs the Prater park and Ferris wheel with the increasingly cool Karmelitermarkt scene. Fewer postcard sights, more genuine neighbourhood energy.
A boutique hotel near Karmelitermarkt
Wine bars, a Saturday farmers' market and a short tram ride from the Innere Stadt make this the district locals half-jokingly guard from tourists.
€€Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.
03Tickets & tours
Schönbrunn Palace
The Habsburgs' summer palace, 1,441 rooms deep, with formal gardens climbing to the Gloriette colonnade for the best skyline view in the city.
Tip Book a timed entry online in advance and go straight for the gardens and Gloriette first — the palace interior queue only gets longer through the day.
Belvedere Palace
A pair of Baroque palaces linked by sloping gardens, home to the world's largest Klimt collection including The Kiss.
Tip Visit on a weekday morning right at opening — The Kiss draws a permanent scrum by early afternoon.
Stephansdom
The Gothic cathedral at the dead centre of the city, its tiled roof visible from almost everywhere, with catacombs below and a climb up the south…
Tip Climb the south tower (343 steps, no elevator) rather than taking the lift up the north tower — the view is better and the crowd is thinner.
MuseumsQuartier
One of the largest cultural complexes in the world, packing the Leopold Museum's Schiele collection and the modern-art MUMOK into converted imperial…
Tip The Enzi benches in the main courtyard are a legitimate destination in themselves on a warm evening — bring a drink from one of the kiosks and just sit.
Naschmarkt
A kilometre-long open-air market of produce stalls, spice merchants, Balkan grills and wine bars, backing onto a Saturday flea market that spills for…
Tip Go for an early lunch on a weekday to avoid the weekend crush, and eat standing at a stall rather than sitting at the pricier sit-down tables.
Prater & the Riesenrad
A sprawling public park with a genuinely old-fashioned amusement park at one corner, anchored by the 1897 Riesenrad Ferris wheel that has been…
Tip Ride the wheel near sunset — the wooden cabins are unhurried and the light over the Danube from the top is the whole point.
Zentralfriedhof
Vienna's vast central cemetery, a green, atmospheric city of the dead where Beethoven, Schubert and Strauss lie near a monument to Mozart, among…
Tip Take tram 71 to the second gate (Tor 2) rather than the main entrance — it puts you right by the composers' graves.
Hundertwasserhaus
A wildly uneven, brightly tiled apartment block with no straight lines and trees growing out of the windows, designed by artist-architect…
Tip It's a residential building, not a museum — view it from the street, then cross to the KunstHausWien a few blocks away for the indoor version of his work.
Day trips from Vienna
Wachau Valley
A UNESCO-listed stretch of the Danube lined with terraced vineyards, apricot orchards and the hilltop ruin at Dürnstein.
Day tripMelk Abbey
A monumental Baroque monastery perched above the Danube, its library and marble hall among the most spectacular in Europe.
Day tripBratislava
Slovakia's capital is barely an hour away by fast boat or train, an easy contrast trip — smaller, rougher-edged, with a compact old town and its own…
Day tripEverything to do in Vienna
Skip-the-line tickets, guided tours and day trips, all in one place on Booking.com.
04Getting there & around
Getting around
Vienna's public transport is the kind of thing other cities send delegations to study. The U-Bahn's five lines (U1 through U4 and U6 — there is no U5 yet, a running joke among locals) cover the city efficiently, and the tram network, especially the historic Ring tram routes 1 and 2, is a genuinely pleasant way to see the…
Flights
Compare fares into Vienna and pick dates that suit the days you planned.
Airport transfers
Book a private or shared ride from the airport so the first evening starts at your door, not at a ticket queue.
Car hire from Vienna
Only worth it for day trips beyond the city — in town, the plan above works on foot and public transport.
Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.