Vienna city break: what to do in 3 days

Lots of thanks to Ryanair and Laudamotion for the newly unveiled Bucharest – Vienna low-cost flights! Now you can fly to one of Europe’s best cities for less than 50€. I thought a June weekend escape to Austria’s capital city sounds great, so as soon as I saw these flight I booked it straight away. This is how we spent our Vienna city-break!

First impression: Mariahilfer Straße

Although landing in Vienna few hours later than planned (perks of flying low-cost), we didn’t want to let our first evening be wasted. We went for a walk on the famous MariaHilferStraße, the longest shopping street in whole Europe. Just like in more other Austrian and German cities, stores in Vienna tend to close much earlier than we are used to. However, we were surprised to discover how bustling the area still was. Don’t leave the place without having a bratwurst and an Apfelsaft Gesprizt (sparkling apple juice)!

Day 1: Schonbrunn Palace, Nashmarkt, Volksgarten, Prater

We started our Vienna city break by visiting its most popular touristic attraction, the Schonbrunn Palace. You can get there by U-Bahn (underground) – line U4 to (guess what!?) Schonbrunn station. To skip the queue, better book in advance on imperialtickets.com. Important: you MUST arrive on time, otherwise your tickets are not valid anymore.

Of all available options, we picked the Imperial Tour. It includes 26 of the palace’s rooms + audio guide, and even if we didn’t know all the details when we bought it, I am now sure we made the right choice. The audio guide, available in many languages, was very comprehensive, though not dull. We found it very helpful in understanding the centuries of history behind the rooms in front of our eyes.

One thing about us – we are definitely neither museum or art passionate lovers. Nevertheless, we were both utterly impressed with this superb, so well preserved palace. The sculptures, interior designs, the paintings, everything inside carries you in the noble aristocrates’ world. The building’s architecture is nowhere as imposing on the outside, but the beautiful green courts are certainly worth seeing. Also, take your time and make your way up to Gloriette Arch, the best viewpoint over the imperial palace and its gardens.

After visiting Schonbrunn, we jumped on the metro towards Kettenbrückengasse. Our next stop was Naschmarkt, a local market with loads of stalls with traditional cuisine and craft products – exactly the kind of place we like to explore.

Nashmarkt and Karlskirche

Every Saturday until noon, a vintage flea market takes place here. Vienese residents gather to lay out tones of the old posessions they want to get rid of. Books, paintings, jewelry, clothes, pieces of furniture and all other kind of dusty rubble wait for their new owners. To us, it seemed like this was much more than a commercial activity – a social display and the perfect occasion for chit-chat and bargaining. Luckily for me, I also ended up receiving a 100-year-old black-and-white painting as a gift from one of the vendors!

We ate lunch at Naschmarkt, where you can get a full belly for less than 10€. There is a wide variety of food you can choose from. Of all, I suggest you try some delicious Turkish cuisine of their ingrained community!

The well-known Ringstraße is a circular street that goes round Vienna’s downtown. After lunch, we followed our route to Karlskirche and then set towards the center of the „ring”. We went past the Vienna State Opera, Albertina Museum and Austria’s National Library. In the end, we finished our tour of wonderful buildings with the former emperor’s winter residence, the Hofburg Palace.

2019 Pride Parade

While loitering through the city, we couldn’t help but notice the atmosphere was getting loud and crowded. We soon saw the RingStraße decorated in rainbow colors and thus found out that the 2019 Pride Parade was about to start. The LGBTQ community is quite powerful in Austria, one of the countries where same-sex marriages are legal. We headed right to the middle of things and spent some time watching the parade carts and listening to electronic music. It was just like a huge outdoor festival and we were happy experience it during our city-break in Vienna.

After that we made our way to the Rathaus (City hall). In the meanwhile we stepped across Volksgarten, a small park with plenty of roses and poetic messages.

During the evening we went to Biergart’l im Stadtpark, an outdoor beer garden, for a huge Wiener Schnitzel (around 14€) and a couple of draught beers. Just to close our day in style, we wanted to see the Prater, Austria’s biggest fun park. We tried one rollercoaster (the Boomerang) and some other crazy spinner (Discovery Revolution). Not really sure whether to recommend those or not, as they both request some balls and adrenaline rush! Overall, we had lots of fun, although at the end I was feeling more sore and tense than after an intense workout. The entrance to the Prater is free, and prices for the attractions vary from 4 to 6€ each.

Day 2: Hundertwasserhaus, Belvedere Palace, Stephansplatz

Our sunday morning cappucino was accompanied by the traditional Apfelstrudel, at a nice coffee-house near Hundertwasserhaus. This artsy, colourful building resembles a gigantic handmade painting and ideally fits in with the nearby architecture. Crowds usually gather to admire the place so make sure to be there quite early. Also, should you wish to take some nice pictures, you will need a wide lens.

The next checkpoint we aimed for was Belvedere Palace, with its lush gardens, fountains and skillfully carved statues. We took advantage of the time we had and the lack of other people to thoroughly photograph the place and then slowly moved to Stephansplatz to make acquaintance of the old dome.

This gothic-style cathedral with obvious roman influence is one of the main symbols of Vienna. Although harshly damaged during WW2, it was reconditioned shortly after. One can easily fall into the trap of thinking the outside of the building is black but truth is the facade was priorly made of calcar. The greyish colour nowadays only comes as a consequence of dust, soot and ashes.

The vibe of Stephan’s Square is unique and you must have an ice cream or at least some Wurst while hanging around. Nearby, GrabenStraße is perfect for your daily slice of window shopping. We walked our bodies to starvation and stopped for some typical Austrian dishes and draught beer, before we could call it a day and complete our weekend Vienese trip. The Austrian Capital is a city where beauty streams everywhere. A 3-days Vienna city break is surely not enough to overtake the cultural and historical insight it has to offer.

Tips and tricks

• From the airport to downtown and return you can take the S7 train for 4€/ single ride (instead of the CAT high-speed train – 12€). The ride takes around thirty minutes and trains pass by every half an hour.
• For urban transit, I suggest you get a 48-hour subway card. It has unlimited rides and it costs 14€ ( one ride = 2.4€). The city is generally very walkable, but it’s a weekend trip so you might sometimes want to cut off transportation time by taking the U-Bahn.