Visiting Vienna for the first time: travel guide and useful tips

What do you need to know before you visit Vienna for the first time?

I’ve been to Vienna, Austria twice and think it’s a tourist-friendly destination overall, but there are some things that may be confusing for first time visitors.

Here are some Vienna travel tips that will help you make the most of your time in this beautiful city.

Where to stay in Vienna

If you stay in the centre, you’ll be able to reach most attractions on foot, they’re within walking distance from each other.

is the oldest hotel in Vienna, located in a very central location, next to Saint Stephen’s Cathedral. The rooms are charming and comfortable.

Another thing I liked about this hotel is that you can find a single room, so it’s great for solo travellers too.

It’s easy to get around Vienna, so you can also stay outside the centre in a less touristy area and use public transport to get anywhere easily.

Zuko is a super stylish hotel in the Leopoldstadt neighbourhood (2nd district), close to Prater, with green spaces, and nice local cafes.

It has a coworking space, so it’s ideal for digital nomads in Vienna, remote workers, or business travellers.

Vienna is a pretty expensive city. I’ve looked at hostels as an alternative to hotels, but it seems like the really good hostels are also quite expensive. If you find accommodation costs are too high and still want to visit Vienna, try . This way you can stay in someone’s home for free, when they’re away, in exchange for looking after their house or pets.

Get to know the city

When you visit Vienna for the first time, it’s a good idea to start your visit with a free walking tour.

There are a few free walking tours in Vienna that will give you a good overview of the city’s history, landmarks and interesting spots.

The general free walking tour in Vienna is the one I started my trip with. It included all the highlights, funny historical anecdotes, great architecture, stories about famous composers and much more.

I always recommend you start a visit to a new city with one of these general walking tours for a good introduction that will put things in context for you.

There are a couple of other free tours you can take in Vienna:

The Modern Vienna Free Tour covers modern times and famous buildings and includes the Albertina Museum, Stadtpark, the Kursalon building, the Konzerthaus and other points of interest in Vienna.

You might also want to enjoy the Free Tour of Vienna at Night which starts at 7 PM and will take you to see Vienna’s beautiful and iconic landmarks by night.

My full guide to free walking tours in Europe

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Vienna sightseeing discount cards

Vienna has a lot of things to do and places to see. On your first time in Vienna, you might feel a bit overwhelmed…

It is also a pretty expensive city. Entry fees to most of its main attractions are quite high, even for a Western European capital.

The easiest way to save money on attractions in Vienna is by using a city pass.

There are several different city pass options in Vienna:

• The Vienna Pass
• The Vienna City Card
• The Vienna Flexipass
• The Vienna Go City Explorer Pass

They’re priced differently and each gives you different benefits: Discounts or free entry to museums and attractions, free rides on public transport and so on.

To choose the right pass, first work out which attractions and museums you actually want to visit, check how much they cost and see if the pass or the card will save you money.

Here are some more details on the Vienna city card options:

The Vienna Pass

The Vienna Pass grants you free entry to over 70 attractions and museums.

It is available for 1, 2, 3 or 6 days.

You can add a travel card to it for all public transport in Vienna at an extra charge.

It includes fast-track entry (skip-the-line) to some of the attractions.

This is the best option if you want to see many attractions in a short visit and don’t want to wait in line.

It can be great for a short visit to Vienna when you plan to see many of the attractions and need to save time on queuing.

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The Vienna City Card

The Vienna City Card offers discounts on many attractions and museums in Vienna. It is available for 1, 2 or 3 days.

The card includes free travel on public transport in Vienna for 24, 48 or 72 hours.

This is a cheaper option compared to the City Pass, but only offers discounts, rather than free entry.

If you plan to focus on attractions in the city centre, you won’t need to use public transport much. You’ll find more tips about public transport in Vienna later in this post.

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The Vienna Flexipass

If you’re not keen on seeing that many attractions with high entry fees when you visit Vienna but just want to see a few, consider getting the Vienna Flexipass.

It grants you free entry to 3, 4 or 5 Vienna attractions of your choice and is valid for 30 days.

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the vienna go city explorer pass

This Vienna digital pass lets you choose any 2 to 7 experiences and attractions in the city, including a Schönbrunn Palace tour, a Danube river cruise, a hop-on-hop-off bus and over 40 other options.

The main attractions to see in Vienna

There is a lot to see in Vienna. If you get one of the city passes, you’ll be able to see quite a lot in just a few days. If you prefer to pick your own places to visit in Vienna, here are the top attractions:

• Schönbrunn Palace: a gorgeous palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Vienna’s top places to visit. You can see this historic palace on a guided tour.

• Belvedere Museum: An incredible art museum with artworks from the Middle Ages to modern times, famously featuring “The Kiss” by Klimt. Book your entrance ticket in advance.

• Vienna State Opera: The well-known opera house in the city centre is well worth a visit. It runs behind-the-scenes tours that you can join and you can also see an opera or listen to a concert at this amazing hall.

• Prater: An amusement park with Vienna’s iconic Giant Ferris Wheel. Get a skip-the-line ticket here:

• Albertina Museum: An art collection housed in a former palace, featuring famous masterpieces. Book your entrance ticket here:

• Hofburg Palace & Sisi Museum: Visit the gorgeous imperial rooms of the Habsburg dynasty and the life of Empress Elisabeth. Get a skip-the-line ticket here.

• The Danube Tower: For a panoramic view of the city and the Danube River, visit the tower on a clear day. Get a skip-the-line ticket here:

If you’re looking for a more structured itinerary, check out this Vienna travel guide.

Unique experiences in Vienna

If you’d like to try something different beyond the usual attractions, here are some ideas that will make your trip more unique and memorable:

• Visit a concert cafe: Try an authentic Viennese experience at one of the city’s live music cafes, including Café Bräunerhof, Café Schwarzenberg and Café Weimar.

• A virtual reality tour: The Time Traveller Walking Tour is a special virtual reality city tour that lets you go back in time with a multilingual audio guide. Book your place here.

• Attend an opera performance: The iconic opera house in Vienna offers standing tickets to the general public at a great discount. Here’s more info on how to get the tickets. I did it myself on my last trip to Vienna and it was a fun and memorable evening.

• Vienna Christmas markets: If you’re visiting Vienna in November or December, you’ll get a chance to visit the fairytale Christman market. You can book a guided tour of the markets that includes drinks and traditional snacks.

• Danube cruise: This is a fun, relaxing experience to try in Vienna. There’s a nice selection of cruises on offer. Some cruises include dinner or lunch and some have traditional entertainment. Check availability here:

How to get to Vienna

Flying to Vienna

Vienna International Airport (Flughafen Wien-Schwechat) (VIE) is just outside the city. You can reach it from most European countries with both major and low-cost airlines and from big cities in North America.

How to get from the airport to Central Vienna

To get to the city from the airport, you can choose from these options:

• Use the fast City Airport Train (CAT). The ride takes 16 minutes.
• Take a taxi or an Uber. The ride takes about 20-30 minutes.
• Book a private transfer (more expensive but will give you peace of mind).
• Use the slower S7 train.
• The Vienna Airport Lines bus.

Getting to Vienna by train or bus from other European cities

There are four big train stations in Vienna: Vienna’s central station is called Wien Hauptbahnhof. The others are Wien-Meidling Station, Vienna Westbahnhof Station and Wien-Mitte Station.

It’s easy to reach Vienna by train from nearby countries, including Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland.

International bus services to Vienna arrive on a regular basis from many countries in the Balkans, the Baltic countries, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and other places in Europe.

Schedules and availability change from time to time, so I recommend you use Omio to search for both trains and buses from the same screen. I’ve been using Omio for a few years now and it has saved me a lot of time on trip planning.

How to get around Vienna by public transport

Public transport in Vienna is excellent and it’s fairly easy to get around the city.

The system includes the U-Bahn (subway), trams, buses and trains.

You can add a public transport pass to your Vienna Pass. If you go for the Vienna City Card, free public transport is included in the price.

You can also buy your travel card independently from ticket machines or counters, but I personally preferred to use the mobile app.

The WienMobil app is very convenient and lets you purchase different types of tickets online on your phone.

Getting around on foot is very easy in the city centre, but you can always buy a single trip ticket or a day ticket on the app.

Also, you can easily get an Uber in Vienna if you don’t feel like navigating the public transport network.

When to visit Vienna

It’s best to visit Vienna in spring (April- May) or autumn (September – October).

The weather is nice and the city is not overly crowded.

The winter is cold, rainy and snowy, though you may still want to visit Vienna in winter for the Christmas markets.

Summer is high season. The weather is nice, but in a popular city like Vienna, the high season means too many crowded places and high prices.

When you plan the timing of your first trip to Vienna, take into account that:

• Many museums and attractions in Vienna are closed on Mondays and some on Tuesdays.
• Some museums are free on the first Sunday of the month.
• Many shops are closed on Sunday. When I wanted to buy some juice on Sunday afternoon, it was difficult to even find a supermarket that was open…
• Check the dates of public holidays in Austria. I forgot to check, got there on the Austrian National Day and found that many shops were closed.

More Vienna travel guides

• Vienna for classical music lovers
• Vienna design guide
• Two days in Vienna – itinerary

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