Your full travel guide to Vienna

Explore the Art galleries

The 130-year-old Art History Museum on the Ringstrasse was built as a grand forum to display Imperial art collections across three floors. It includes the world’s most extensive Bruegel compilations, one of the most valuable collections globally in The Kunstkammer (Chamber of Art and Wonders), and a staircase filled with Gustav Klimt’s gold-gilded paintings.

The MuseumsQuartier (MQ) neighbours it – the former Imperial horse stables were repurposed into a contemporary art space that includes Mumok, the largest museum in central Europe for modern art, the Egon Schiele and Klimt collections at the Leopold Museum and Kunsthalle Wien for displays of international contemporary art.

The Albertina is where you’ll find some of the world’s most valuable sketches and printed graphics. There are around one million works of art history from the 15th to the 21st century house here. Its prized work on display is Dürer’s Young Hare, alongside collections by Monet and Picasso. The Albertina Modern was established as a contemporary counterpart to present the past 80 years of Austrian art history in a permanent exhibition.

Browse the museums

Where do you start in a city of more than 100 museums? Millions of objects from prehistoric mammals to meteorites are displayed at the Natural History Museum. It’s next to the Hofburg Palace museum complex, which includes the wooden panelled, fresco wrapped Austrian National Library – a baroque study brimming with more than 200,000 volumes.

Visit the homes of Vienna’s noteworthy residents. Peer into the life of Mozart at Domgasse 5 – the only remaining house of his several addresses in the city. Another famous address is Berggasse 19 - Sigmund Freud’s apartment and workplace for 47 years before he fled in 1938. The museum is dedicated to his psychoanalysis legacy and its application today.

There are dozens of museums focused on unusual or niche topics from clocks and globes, crime and art fakes, military history and transport, pharmacy and drugs and anatomical pathology. You can even understand why Viennese are fascinated by death at the Funeral Museum.

Admire the architecture

The Ringstrasse encircles the historical centre with Baroque and Neoclassical-Renaissance style buildings inspired by other European cities. It was built in 1858 in a show of splendour that remains today. The yellow Vienna Ring Tram circles this wall of architectural treasures, passing the University of Vienna, the Rathaus, Burgtheater, Vienna State Opera House, the Parliament building, the Natural History Museum and the Hofburg Imperial Palace.

Inside the Ring is the Innere Stadt (Old Town), a layering of empires and dynasties from the Roman, Medieval and Habsburg eras granting it UNESCO World Heritage site status. Although the Garden Palais Liechtenstein and Belvedere lay outside the Ring along with the Habsburg summer residence of Schönbrunn, all three are conveniently located and easily reached via public transport.

Contemporary architecture jangles with the city’s more muted pastel hues. Architect and artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser rebelled against urban design norms, as seen in his transformation of a private residential building in the 3rd district and the mosaic clad Spittelau waste incineration plant, which has become one of Vienna’s more bizarre landmarks.

Vienna’s declares itself the world’s capital of music in a harmonic lineage that began with the homegrown talents of Strauss and Schubert and attracted Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the State Opera House, and the Vienna Boys’ Choir continue the classical symphony with year-round performances. 

The Wiener Konzerthaus from 1913 is pivotal to the city’s musical reputation, boasting 750 events and a chance to hear 2,500 different compositions in one season. The Musikverein (Music Society) has its world renowned Golden and Glass halls known for orchestra performances like the New Year’s Concert and its Metal hall for alternative concert styles.

The Theatre am Spittelberg has been a legendary local favourite for 20 years for cabaret and international acoustics. The Ronacher becomes the home for award-winning Musicals such as the current showrunner, Cats. 

Modern musical genres are also part of Vienna’s stage of events. Arena is the international showcase for pop, punk and DJ beats in a former slaughterhouse turned Austria’s most prominent alternative venue. The Wiener Stadthalle, meanwhile, boasts a calendar of big name artists.

Choose between the petite recreational parks found along the Ring, including Volksgarten and Burggarten that sandwich the Imperial Palace and the manicured garden displays of Stadt Park. Or enjoy a stroll in cascade and flowering baroque parks of Schönbrunn Palace, the Palace Garden of Belvedere and the Augarten. 

Vienna’s inner-city streets are also being adapted for environmental protection and to fight heatwaves resulting from climate change. There’s the water feature-filled, tree-lined, no car zone in action at the Zieglergasse “Cool Mile" and the Neubaugasse in the bohemian 7th district, and a “cooling park” in front of ​​the Haus des Meeres aquarium, with three meter high fog showers and climbing plants for shade. 

For more extensive parks with a hinterland feel, see Prater beyond its famed fairground. The long strip of green is a six million square meter public park filled with woodland, natural herb gardens and water areas. Lainzer Tiergarten, the former imperial hunting ground, is now a 2,450 hectares large wildlife reserve with nature trails, running tracks and forest playgrounds. In 2002, the federal states declared it a protected biosphere reserve because of its natural habitats, flora, and fauna.

You don’t need the mountains for hiking. Vienna has 12 paths connecting the inner city to the countryside and the waterways to the wine taverns. The 120km Rundumadum hiking trail loops the capital in 24 scenic stages. 

Spring

Easter Markets pop up across the city by March, continuing until Easter Sunday. Giant egg displays and egg hunts, craft stalls, food and beverage stands bring a springtime version of the Christmas markets to historical locations, including Schönbrunn Palace and Palais Niederösterreich.

Run the Vienna Marathon in April or join the cultural awakening in May with the start of the stage plays and music production schedule of the Wiener Festwochen (Vienna Festival Weeks). Around the same time, the three days long Genuss Festival in Vienna's Stadtpark showcases regional specialities alongside traditional and artisan gastronomy experiences.

Summer

Join locals swimming, boating and SUP boarding along the Alte Donau banks in the warmer months, chilling at café and restaurant Schanigarten (chairs and tables set on the pavement) or filling the beach bars along the Donau Canal.

Entertainment also moves outside. Picnic to the Summer Night Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic at Schönbrunn Palace, revel in Donauinselfest music event on the Danube Island and enjoy outdoor concerts at Summer Rhapsody in front of Liechtenstein Garden Palace and Theatre in the Park at the Belvedere. City Hall Square also transforms into the Vienna Music Film Festival – Austria's largest open-air cinema for opera and concert movies, complete with street food stalls.

Autumn

The Vienna Wine Hiking Day in September is the autumn highlight. A vino-fuelled journey takes you through the city's 700 hectares of vineyards to meet some 140 wine producers via four walking routes in the 16th, 19th, 21st and 23rd Districts.

As the weather cools and the chairs and tables get taken inside, so too does the cultural indulgence. In October, the Long Night of Museums is single ticket access to over 100 institutions and exhibitions that keep their doors open from 6pm to 1am.  

Winter

Vienna’s famous Christmas Markets open by mid-November, with some 20 or more spread across the city. See the New Year in waltzing with locals on the streets, to a backdrop of fireworks and the famous New Year’s Concert.

The dancing continues during Vienna’s Ball Season in January and February, which celebrates the city’s artistry from music and science to coffee and confectionary, in venues including the Opera House, City Hall and the Imperial Palace.