Before you go — the two decisions that shape the trip
- Give it three nights. Two is enough for the buildings. It is not enough once you factor in the Philharmonic and the opera, and those are the reason to come to this city rather than another beautiful one.
- Decide early whether you are walking it. The Innere Stadt can be done entirely on foot if you are happy with the extra distance. If you are not, buy the day pass and use it to move around the Ring as you please. That single decision changes how you plan every day here, so make it before you arrive rather than on the second morning with sore feet.
The Innere Stadt, on foot
- The old center is compact and it rewards wandering more than routing. The Graben and the plague column, Am Hof in the evening when the square empties out, the lanes between them.
- St Stephen's is the fixed point. Go inside, and climb the tower — the view is worth the stairs and the ticket.
- The catacombs are a maybe. They are genuinely interesting, but unless you are an enthusiast we would not spend the time on them. That is the one place in the cathedral where you can say no without missing anything.
What is worth paying for
- The tower at St Stephen's — yes, for the view.
- The catacombs — only if the subject already interests you.
- Walking the Innere Stadt costs nothing and is most of the pleasure of the city.
Coffee, and why it is not a tourist tax here
- Café Mozart. The Viennese coffee house is one of those traditions that can be a trap in other cities and is not one here. Sit down, pay the sit-down price, and take the time. It is worth it.
The one thing to say no to
- The costumed sellers on the street, and the small "Mozart concerts" they are pushing. You will not have to look for them. They will find you, in the Innere Stadt, in wig and breeches, repeatedly, all day.
- Do not buy. It is a tourist performance sold to people who came here because Vienna is a music city, and it is not the thing they came for.
- Put that money towards a real one instead. The Philharmonic, or a performance at the Staatsoper. That is what this city actually is, and the gap in quality between the two is not close.
The opera — the reason for the third night
- Book ahead. Same-day standing room exists and it is cheap, but if there is a particular opera you want to see, or a particular seat you want to sit in, booking in advance is the wiser call. Deciding on the day means taking what is left.
- Take the tour of the building even if you are seeing a performance. It is worth both the time and the money on its own, and it is the answer for anyone in your party who has no intention of sitting through an opera.
The Spanish Riding School — go to the performance
- The performance, not the cheaper alternatives. There are three ways in: a full performance, a morning exercise session, and a tour of the building. The performance is the one worth your money.
- It is in the Winter Riding School inside the Hofburg — a white baroque hall built for horses, which is a strange sentence until you are standing in it — and the Lipizzaners work under saddle in the middle of it.
- Like the opera, it is a fixed date rather than a drop-in. If it matters to you, it goes in the calendar before the rest of the trip is built around it.
Dinner
- Gasthaus "Zu den 3 Hacken", in the Innere Stadt. One of the best places in the city and a properly Austrian one rather than a room arranged for visitors. Reservations recommended — this is not a walk-in on a Friday.
The best thing in Vienna costs nothing
- The Zentralfriedhof. The old composers are here, and most people come for them. Then there is the Jewish section, and the Second World War section, and those are the parts you will still be thinking about on the flight home. Amazing, eye-opening and humbling, in that order.
- It is a long way out from the center, which is exactly what the day pass is for.
When to come
- Summer for the gardens. The grounds of the palaces — Schönbrunn, Belvedere — are consistently the best thing about Vienna in warm weather, and they are free to walk. Summer is also when the revolving restaurant at the top of the Donauturm is worth booking, for dinner turning slowly over the whole city.
- March for the museums, and there are enough of them to fill a cold three days without ever feeling like you are sheltering. The military history museum in the Arsenal, which takes you through the First World War, is genuinely interesting and worth the entry.
