UltimateCity Guide Vienna
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Stories from Vienna, Austria

Every story, long read and guide in the ULTIMATE Vienna City Guide, in one place.

Culture

Arts + Culture

All of Arts & Culture

The State Opera, the Musikverein, Klimt at the Belvedere and the Viennale: in Vienna, music and art are the heart of the city’s life.

The gilded Great Hall of the Musikverein, with its organ, caryatids and chandeliersArts + CultureArts & Culture in ViennaOpera, concerts, museums and film

History

History & heritage

How a Roman fort on the Danube became the seat of the Habsburgs for more than six centuries, a city of music, coffee houses and the Ringstrasse, and today a capital of art and design.

St Stephen’s Cathedral in the centre of ViennaHistory & heritageFrom Vindobona to Klimt: how Vienna became the imperial city of musicSix centuries of the HabsburgsThe Michaelertrakt of the Hofburg, its green dome above the MichaelerplatzThe back storyImperial ViennaBook Schönbrunn and the Sisi Museum online, and give each a…The tiers of boxes and galleries in the auditorium of the Vienna State OperaThe back storyVienna, the city of music and artBook opera and concerts directly with the houses, and keep one…

Our advice

Ring, café, opera

Walk the Ringstrasse by tram or on foot, step into the Café Central or Café Sperl for coffee and cake, and keep the evening for the State Opera. History & heritage

Vienna by rail

The hub of Europe’s railways: Budapest every hour, sleepers across the continent, and the new line south to Belgrade.

A train crossing the two-tier Kalte Rinne viaduct on the Semmering Railway in autumnBy railVienna by railRailjets, Nightjets and the line to BelgradeBratislava Castle above the Danube, with a river cruise ship moored belowULTIMATE BelgradeThe Belgrade–Budapest trainThe new line south, on our Belgrade guideULTIMATE Ski ResortsBy rail to the AlpsSt Anton, Kitzbühel and Lech by train

Areas

Vienna by neighbourhood

From the Innere Stadt to the Heurigen, each area has its own guide: St Stephen’s, the MuseumsQuartier, the Naschmarkt, the Belvedere, the Prater and Schönbrunn.

The front of Hotel Sacher on Philharmonikerstrasse, with its red awnings and flagsNeighbourhood guideInnere StadtSt Stephen’s and the old townThe marble grand staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, with Canova’s Theseus groupNeighbourhood guideRingstrasse & MuseumsQuartierMuseums, theatres and SpittelbergFruit and vegetable stalls with chalk price boards at the NaschmarktNeighbourhood guideWieden & the NaschmarktThe market, the Secession and KarlsplatzThe Upper Belvedere lit at blue hour and reflected in its poolNeighbourhood guideLandstrasse & the BelvedereKlimt and SteirereckThe red cabins of the Giant Ferris Wheel in the Prater against a summer skyNeighbourhood guideLeopoldstadt & the PraterThe Riesenrad and the Augarten

Standing room

Buy standing-room tickets at the State Opera on the day: among the best value seats in classical music.

  1. Neighbourhood guideSchönbrunn & HietzingThe summer palace
  2. Neighbourhood guideDöbling & the HeurigenVineyards and wine taverns

Practical

Plan your trip

The practical things to know before you go: entry, money and etiquette, the airport, trains and the U-Bahn, and three days for a classic first visit.

The neo-Gothic City Hall (Rathaus) and its clock tower, seen straight on across the squareBefore you goVienna essentialsEntry, money, etiquette and getting aroundThe departures hall at Vienna International AirportGetting aroundGetting aroundThe airport, trains and the U-BahnThe green-and-gold tiled roof of St Stephen’s Cathedral and the rooftops of the Innere Stadt, seen from the south towerItineraryThree days in ViennaThe classic first visit
  1. Luxury guideLUX LivingThe finest addresses

Day trips

Beyond Vienna

The Wachau, Bratislava, the Semmering and Baden, all within reach for the day: abbeys and vineyards, a capital on the Danube, a UNESCO railway and a great spa town.

Melk Abbey’s twin towers and dome glowing in evening light on its rock above the DanubeBeyond ViennaThe WachauAbbeys, castles and vineyardsBeyond ViennaBratislavaSlovakia’s capital on the DanubeBeyond ViennaThe Semmering RailwayA UNESCO mountain railway
  1. Beyond ViennaBaden bei WienA Great Spa Town of Europe

Our advice

Vienna in winter light

For Ultravox’s Vienna, go on a cold, clear winter afternoon, when the light is low and the city looks most like the video. Play it on the tram. Ultravox’s “Vienna”

In depth

In depth: Vienna, from the Habsburgs to the Heurigen

Imperial Vienna, the coffee house, the city of music, the grand hotels and the Viennese table, with Ultravox’s “Vienna”, rail and where to buy.

Stalls of the Christmas market on the Rathausplatz, with the City Hall beyondRathausplatzVienna’s Christmas marketsThe Christkindlmarkt, Punsch and the Philharmonic on New Year’s morningA Wiener Schnitzel with a slice of lemon and sautéed potatoesIn depth: foodViennese CuisineSchnitzel, Tafelspitz and the coffee house tableA wild boar in the woods of the Lainzer TiergartenIn depth: nature & wildlifeWild ViennaBoar, deer and the Danube

The coffee house

Go to the famous houses early, before the queues, and to the quieter ones in the afternoon.

  1. The back story: musicUltravox’s “Vienna”The song, the video and the places
  2. The back storyThe coffee houseHow to order, where to go
  3. The back storyThe grand hotelsFrom the Sacher to the Ring

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