Vienna Guide: Everything I’d Actually Want to Know Before Visiting

The first time I visited Vienna, I had just come from Bratislava during my first big solo backpacking trip around Europe. I had absolutely loved Bratislava, so Vienna was a bit of a shock. Everything suddenly felt huge, busy and far away, and I managed to get completely lost just trying to find my hostel from the train station.

The hostel itself was dark, slightly weird and had terrible Wi-Fi, but somehow that terrible Wi-Fi ended up being one of the best things about it because everyone actually had to talk to each other. I met an Italian girl and an American girl in my dorm, and the three of us ended up exploring Vienna together, going to a food market, wandering around the graffiti-covered areas by the river and even going to the cinema one night.

I’ve been back to Vienna since then, and while it has never become one of my favorite cities in Europe, I do understand why people love it. It is beautiful, packed with history and incredibly easy to combine with other places in Austria and nearby countries.

I’ve also now written a ridiculous amount about Vienna, so this Vienna travel guide is where I’m putting everything together: how to get there, how to get around, where to stay, what to do, tours, day trips, costs, solo travel, safety and all my more detailed Vienna guides if you need them.

Vienna Travel Guide: Quick Answers

How long would I stay in Vienna? Two full days for Vienna itself.

Would I visit Vienna again? Yes, although I would definitely use it as a base to explore other places too.

My favorite major attraction: Schönbrunn Palace, especially the huge gardens.

Best day trip: Bratislava if you want something easy and close. Hallstatt and Salzburg if you want a full day seeing more of Austria.

Getting around: Public transport. Vienna felt far too big for me to rely on walking everywhere.

Where would I stay? Somewhere central or close to useful public transport.

Would I recommend Vienna for solo travel? Yes. I traveled there alone and felt safe, and the hostel side of my first trip ended up being one of the most memorable parts.

How to Get to Vienna

Vienna is ridiculously easy to include in a bigger Central Europe trip, which is exactly how I first visited.

I was backpacking overland for 80 days and my route went Budapest → Bratislava → Vienna, so I arrived in Vienna by train rather than flying directly into Austria.

Flying to Vienna

If Vienna is your first stop, you will most likely fly into Vienna International Airport.

From there, you can continue into the city by train, bus or private transfer. Which one makes sense depends on where you are staying, what time you arrive and how much luggage you are dragging around.

I’m normally taking the cheap option, but after enough years traveling with luggage, I also completely understand paying for a transfer when the alternative involves changing transport several times in a city you’ve never been to.

→ Book here: Vienna Airport Transfer

Getting to Vienna by Train

Vienna is one of those places that makes overland travel around Europe extremely easy.

You can combine it with Bratislava, Budapest, Salzburg, Prague and plenty of other cities without needing to fly, and this is one of the biggest advantages of adding Vienna to a longer European trip.

My own first arrival was from Bratislava, and the journey between the two capitals is easy enough that I now think Bratislava is one of the most obvious additions to a Vienna trip.

→ Find Trains to Vienna here

Getting to Vienna by Bus

It is also worth checking buses, especially if you are traveling on a budget.

European train prices are not always as cheap as people like to pretend, and depending on the route and when you book, a bus can sometimes save you a decent amount of money.

I am very much the person who will sit on a bus for a little longer if the alternative is paying something ridiculous just to arrive slightly faster.

→ Find Buses to Vienna here

How Many Days Do You Need in Vienna?

For me, two full days in Vienna is enough.

One day lets you cover the main sights and get a proper introduction to the city. Two days gives you time to see more without spending the entire trip running between attractions.

If I had longer, I would start using Vienna as a base rather than automatically filling every extra day with another museum or palace.

→ Read: How Many Days in Vienna Do You Really Need?

Best Things to Do in Vienna

Vienna has enough palaces, churches, museums and historic buildings to keep somebody busy for days.

I personally do not need to see all of them.

If I went back now, I would prioritize Schönbrunn Palace, walk around the historic center, see St. Stephen’s Cathedral, explore around Hofburg, go back to Naschmarkt and spend some time around the Danube Canal.

The Danube Canal was much more my kind of Vienna. I remember the graffiti, street art, bars and people hanging out there much more clearly than several of the historical buildings I apparently saw and then immediately deleted from my brain.

I would also add experiences rather than filling every hour with another attraction. A food tour, city cruise or classical music concert makes the trip feel much less like three straight days of looking at buildings.

Best Tours and Experiences in Vienna

I deleted a lot of the separate overly commercial Vienna tour posts from my blog, but that does not mean I suddenly think tours are useless.

I just don’t think Vienna needs six different articles trying to sell you slightly different versions of the same thing.

These are the experiences I would actually consider.

Vienna Food Tour

This is probably the one I would choose first.

I already know I enjoy food markets and actual experiences more than spending endless hours in museums, so exploring Vienna while eating sounds like a much better use of an afternoon to me.

→ Book here: Vienna Food Tour

Vienna City Cruise

A short city cruise works really well after a full day sightseeing.

You’ve already walked for hours, your feet hate you, and you can technically continue seeing Vienna while finally sitting down.

That sounds like a win.

→ Book here: Vienna City Cruise

Classical Music Concert

I somehow visited Vienna multiple times without doing the extremely obvious Vienna activity of going to a classical music concert.

If I went back, I would fix that.

This is one of those experiences that actually feels specific to Vienna rather than something I could do in any random European capital.

→ Book here: Vienna Classical Music Concert

Vienna Walking Tour

Considering I managed to get lost almost immediately after arriving for the first time, I probably could have benefited from one of these.

A walking tour is useful if you want some context before wandering around the historic center alone wondering what half the giant buildings actually are.

→ Book here: Vienna Walking Tour

Where to Stay in Vienna

The hostel where I stayed on my first Vienna trip no longer exists, which is annoying because otherwise this section would be very easy.

I am also not going to pretend I personally stayed at a current Vienna hotel when I didn’t.

What I would prioritize is location and public transport. Vienna felt huge to me, and I would rather pay a little more for a useful location than spend every morning traveling across the city just to start sightseeing.

For this guide, I picked four accommodation options at different price levels so you have somewhere to start without turning this into another giant commercial hotel list.

Budget: Urban Rooms Rathaus

For the budget option, I picked Urban Rooms Rathaus.

If you are trying to keep Vienna costs under control, this is the category I would start with before looking at more expensive central hotels.

→ Book here: Urban Rooms Rathaus

3-Star: Boutique Hotel Nossek

For a 3-star option, I picked Boutique Hotel Nossek.

This is the kind of option I would compare if I wanted something more comfortable than basic budget accommodation without immediately jumping into 4-star prices.

→ Book here: Boutique Hotel Nossek

4-Star: Hotel Gilbert

For the 4-star option, I picked Hotel Gilbert.

If I had a little more money to spend and wanted the hotel to feel like part of the city break rather than simply somewhere to sleep, this is the level I would start looking at.

→ Book here: Hotel Gilbert

5-Star: Hotel Sacher Wien

And if budget is absolutely not the problem, Hotel Sacher Wien is the 5-star option.

This is obviously a completely different Vienna trip from my original dark-hostel-with-bad-Wi-Fi situation, but if you want the full luxury version, here you go.

→ Book here: Hotel Sacher Wien

Best Day Trips From Vienna

This is honestly where Vienna becomes much more interesting to me.

Its location makes it ridiculously easy to use the city as a base and start adding completely different places to the same trip.

Bratislava

If you only choose one easy international day trip from Vienna, Bratislava makes the most sense.

I’ve visited Bratislava twice and genuinely like it more than Vienna. It is smaller, cheaper and much easier to wander around without feeling like you are constantly traveling across the city.

I loved exploring the Old Town, walking up to Bratislava Castle for the views, stopping for coffee, eating at local restaurants and spending time around the Danube.

And it is around an hour from Vienna by train.

You can wake up in Austria, spend the day in Slovakia and come back to the same hotel that night. That is exactly the kind of easy country addition I cannot resist.

→ Read: Bratislava Travel Guide

→ Read: Day Trip to Bratislava from Vienna guide

→ Read: Bratislava or Vienna: Which City Should You Visit?

→ Book here: Bratislava Day Trip from Vienna

Hallstatt and Salzburg

If you want to stay inside Austria, I would look at one of the full-day trips combining Hallstatt and Salzburg.

After a couple of days in Vienna, Hallstatt gives you lakes, mountains and tiny-village Austria, while Salzburg gives you another proper city in the same day.

It is a long day, but if I only had one free day to see more of Austria, I would rather make the most of it.

→ Book here: Hallstatt and Salzburg Day Trip from Vienna

Budapest

Budapest is the day trip I would only recommend with a giant warning attached.

I have visited Budapest three times and it is still one of my favorite cities in Europe. I first went during the same 80-day backpacking trip that later took me through Bratislava and Vienna, deliberately returned on another trip because I loved it, and eventually got lucky enough to spend an entire month based there while working as cabin crew.

So no, one day is not enough for Budapest.

If you can stay there, stay there.

But if Vienna is your base and this is genuinely your only chance to see Budapest, I would still rather go for one long day than skip it completely.

→ Find Train tickets from Vienna to Budapest

→ Book here: Budapest Day Trip from Vienna

One Day in Vienna

If you only have one day, you can still see a surprising amount.

My route focuses on the historic center, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Hofburg, the Vienna State Opera, Schönbrunn Palace and a short city cruise later in the day.

I would not waste a one-day trip trying to go inside every attraction. See the major sights, choose what genuinely interests you and keep moving.

→ Read: One Day in Vienna: How I’d Spend 24 Hours in the City

Is Vienna Safe?

I traveled to Vienna as a solo woman and felt safe there.

Obviously that does not mean nothing bad can ever happen in Vienna, and I still use the same basic precautions I use everywhere else. I pay attention to my surroundings, keep an eye on my things in busy areas and avoid doing stupid things just because a city has a reputation for being safe.

But Vienna itself was never somewhere that made me uncomfortable traveling alone.

→ Read: Is Vienna Safe for Solo Female Travelers? My Experience as a Woman Traveling Alone

Solo Travel in Vienna

My first Vienna trip was part of my first huge solo backpacking adventure, so Vienna will always be tied to that phase of my life.

Ironically, one of the reasons I remember it so clearly has nothing to do with solo sightseeing.

The terrible Wi-Fi at my hostel forced everyone to socialize, I met two girls in my dorm and suddenly I wasn’t exploring Vienna alone anymore. We spent our days wandering around together and even ended up at the cinema one night.

That is one of my favorite things about solo travel: you can arrive completely alone and have absolutely no idea who you are going to be spending the next day with.

→ Read: Vienna Solo Travel: What to Know Before Your Trip

→ Read: My Experience Backpacking Austria Solo: What I Really Thought of Vienna

Best Time to Visit Vienna

Both of my Vienna experiences involved cold weather.

This may partly explain why Vienna and I have never developed some dramatic love story.

I am very much a summer person, so if I was choosing when to return now, I would personally rather experience Vienna when I can spend more time outside without freezing.

Christmas markets and winter Vienna obviously appeal to a lot of people. I understand why.

I just know myself.

Give me long days, outdoor cafés and weather that does not require me to dress like I am going on an Arctic expedition.

→ Read: The Best Time to Visit Vienna and When I’d Go Again

How Expensive Is Vienna?

Vienna is not somewhere I would choose for a cheap travel month.

Maybe my brain is permanently damaged from spending so much time in Asia, but European prices hurt.

Accommodation will probably be one of your biggest expenses, especially if you want somewhere central. Food can add up quickly if you are eating in restaurants all the time, while tours, concerts and palace tickets can turn a supposedly simple city break into a much more expensive trip.

This is another reason I would decide what I actually care about before arriving rather than automatically paying to enter every famous attraction.

You do not need to buy your way through Vienna to have visited it properly.

Walking around the historic center, Naschmarkt, the Danube Canal and simply exploring different parts of the city can balance out the more expensive attractions.

Food in Vienna

I am not going to pretend my Vienna trips were some huge culinary exploration because they weren’t.

What I actually remember is going to a food market with the girls from my hostel and enjoying the whole experience of being out together much more than chasing specific restaurants around Vienna.

Naschmarkt is an obvious place to start if you like markets, and Vienna’s café culture also gives you a perfectly valid excuse to stop sightseeing for a while, order coffee and cake and sit down.

If food is a bigger part of your trips than it was of mine back then, this is another reason I would consider doing a food tour rather than researching dozens of individual restaurants.

→ Book here: Vienna Food Tour

Internet and eSIM in Austria

If you already have an EU phone plan with roaming included, Austria is easy.

If you are coming from outside the EU, I would sort out mobile data before arriving rather than relying entirely on random Wi-Fi.

I travel far too spontaneously to function without internet. Half the time I am booking transport, checking where I am, changing plans or realizing I forgot to research something after I already arrived.

Having mobile data is basically essential for the way I travel now.

→ Get your Austria eSIM here

Do You Need Travel Insurance for Vienna?

Travel insurance is one of those boring things I would rather have sorted before something actually goes wrong.

Even somewhere as easy to travel as Austria can still involve cancelled flights, lost luggage, medical problems or one of those completely ridiculous travel situations nobody planned for.

If you are an EU citizen, the EHIC can help with medically necessary state healthcare during temporary stays, but it is not the same thing as full travel insurance and does not cover every travel problem.

→ Get travel insurance for Austria here

Vienna Travel Tips I’d Actually Give You

Do not assume you will walk absolutely everywhere just because Vienna is a European city. It felt huge to me, and public transport will save you a lot of pointless walking.

Do not turn the trip into palace homework either. Pick the attractions you genuinely care about and give yourself permission to skip the rest.

If you have more than two days, look at the map before automatically filling every day with Vienna. Bratislava is incredibly close, and Vienna gives you access to a ridiculous amount of Central Europe without needing to keep changing accommodation.

And leave some empty space.

One of my clearest Vienna memories is going to the cinema with two random girls I had just met at my hostel. It had absolutely nothing to do with Vienna, Austria or sightseeing, and I remember it better than several places I was apparently supposed to care about.

That still counts as travel.

Is Vienna Worth Visiting?

Yes, even though it is not one of my favorite cities.

There are places I love much more, including Bratislava and Budapest, but I would still tell someone visiting this part of Europe to see Vienna at least once.

Schönbrunn, the historic center, the huge architecture, the café culture, the music and the sheer amount of history make it worth experiencing.

I just think Vienna becomes even better when you stop treating it as the only destination and start looking at everything around it too.

→ Read: Is Vienna Worth Visiting? My Experience in the Capital of Austria

Final Thoughts on Visiting Vienna

Vienna and I did not exactly fall in love at first sight. I arrived from Bratislava, got lost almost immediately and spent the beginning of the trip thinking everything was too big.

But I also met people there I still remember more than a decade later, saw parts of the city I genuinely liked and eventually came back for another visit.

So my advice is not to skip Vienna.

Go, see the city properly, choose the things you actually care about and do not feel like you need to prove how many museums and palaces you managed to enter.

And if you have extra days, get on a train.