Vienna: 3-day itinerary – Find out how to spend 3 wonderful days in the city of music and take notes of all the tips about each place!
At the end of April, I spent 3 days in Vienna (it was a short trip because afterwards I still visited Budapest) and the city immediately won my heart. You can feel the history and culture of Vienna wherever you go, it is like traveling back in time.
In this article, you will find all the information you need to prepare your trip to Vienna and my 3-day itinerary.
how to get to the city centre from the airport
The most affordable and fastest way to get to the city center is by train. To easily compare trains and prices, I advise you to install the OBB app. To the central station of Vienna the regional train S7 takes about 25 minutes and costs 4.30€ (however I was accompanied and bought a ticket through the app to which I added a second passenger, and it was 4.20€ the ticket for two people!)
When leaving the airport towards the train station you will also see a lot of information for CAT – City Airport Train: run away! Each ticket costs 11€ and the trip is only 5 minutes faster than on the regional trains.
Transportation in the city
To move around the city I used the subway several times since some points of interest are further away from the center, as well as the Airbnb where I stayed. Each individual metro ticket costs 2.40€. The 24h ticket costs 8€, the 48h ticket costs 14.10€, and the 72h ticket costs 17.10€.
Itinerary
Day 1
Schönbrunn Palace
As I only arrived in Vienna late in the morning, I decided to use the afternoon to visit Schonbrunn Palace, as it is a place that I already knew would take me some time to visit and because it is also one of the farthest from the city center (but relatively close to my accommodation).
I booked the Grand Tour (you need to book in advance on the website and be there at the scheduled time), a guided tour inside the palace that lasts about 50-60 minutes with audio guide through 40 rooms of the palace. The ticket costs €22 for students <25 years old and €26 for adults. There is also a shorter version, the Imperial Tour, which lasts about 30-40 minutes and allows you to visit 22 rooms. The ticket costs €18 for students and €22 for adults. I will leave all the information regarding ticket prices here.
Note: Photography is not allowed inside the palace
Actually, when I was planning my trip I remember being very indecisive due to the number of museums that exist in Vienna related to imperial history. If your time/budget is limited, you would like to know a little bit of history but you don’t want to spend too much time in museums, this is ideal, and in my opinion, it pays to choose the Grand Tour instead of the Imperial Tour.
In the end I went to visit the gardens, which are HUGE! Some of the most interesting and well-known points are the Palm House, a greenhouse with a beautiful interior botanical garden (I didn’t visit because by that time it had already closed and the entrance was paid separately, I had to make choices ahah); the Gloriette, a structure on the opposite side of the palace that allows you to have an incredible view over the city (going up to the top is also paid, but I don’t think it’s worth it); Neptune’s fountain, the oldest Zoo in the world (paid, of course), a labyrinth (paid separately too…) and much more…
Yes, it’s true, you pay to see everything and I chose not to because I had already done the tour with an audio guide, but believe me, the free area of the gardens is beautiful too, and so big that I stayed until the gates closed.
(Pay attention to this, I left 1 minute BEFORE closing time, and even then I had a lady yelling at me…) I will leave here the opening hours, which change throughout the year.
Day 2
Albertina Museum Terrace
This is one of the most photographed locations in Vienna, a terrace overlooking the Opera House! You don’t have to enter the museum to access this terrace, there are escalators directly from the street to it. I went in the morning and it was quiet, but by the time I was leaving there was a significant amount of people waiting to take pictures in the best spot.
Burgarten
Later I stopped by Burgarten, the ideal garden to rest for a while. This is where you will find the Mozart monument and the Butterfly House botanical garden where you can see lots of butterflies up close (entrance to the Butterfly House costs 7€).
Hofburg Palace
The Hofburg Palace square is also a very popular place in the city and the busiest place I’ve been. Besides the huge amount of tourists passing by, there were still some cars and, unfortunately, a lot of horse-drawn tourist carriages. This palace was the imperial residence for several years and it is here that the Sisi museum dedicated to Empress Elisabeth is located, where you can visit several rooms, the silver and porcelain collection and many costumes of the time. I did not visit this museum for the reasons I have already mentioned, but it is still one of the most visited in the city. You can see all the information about the tickets here.
Maria-Theresian Platz
In this square there are a lot of museums, but not only. The square was full of gentlemen dressed like the old Vienna musicians, naturally selling tickets for the opera. So far so good, but I was being approached by all of them at the same time, without them accepting no without trying to convince me a few more times… It was not the best experience.
Vienna State Opera
Although I didn’t go inside the building and the best view is really from the top of the Albertina museum, I went back for a walk around the Opera House to appreciate it more closely. Also, the best area to try Vienna’s famous sausages/dogs, the Kasekrainer, is here!
Sigmund Freud Museum
This museum is located in the building where Freud lived and had his practice. Even for someone like me who knew very little about the “Father of Psychoanalysis”, I found the museum super interesting. Besides several personal objects, curiosities, and stories about Freud, it is also possible to listen to his interpretation of some dreams. The ticket can be bought online or on-site and is valid for the whole day. You can consult all the information here.
Votive Church
This is the second tallest building in the city, a beautiful neo-gothic style church that is worth visiting. It is surrounded by a very nice park.
Rathaus/ City Hall
Vienna has an endless list of beautiful buildings, and while preparing the trip I saw amazing pictures of Vienna. As I am a very lucky person I arrived just after they had set up a huge stage in front of the building. But anyway, please enjoy its beauty for me! Right in front of it is the Burgtheater, or Austrian National Theater.
Ferstel Passage
A not-so-well-known but definitely “Instagram-worthy” place! It’s a small passageway with a few stores and cafes and a super cozy atmosphere. This was the last place I visited on the second day and I enjoyed the late afternoon on a terrace just outside this gallery.
Day 3
Karlskirche
The Church of St. Charles, or Karlskirche, is in my opinion one of the most beautiful monuments in the city and is called the Taj Mahal of Vienna (you can understand right?). I had breakfast here and took the opportunity to photograph a little. Unfortunately, I couldn’t photograph the reflection of the water because it was super dirty, I hope you who are reading this article have better luck on your visit. Also, unlike the pictures I saw of the place, the lake is surrounded by huge pots with palm trees, which in my opinion only spoiled the view… Please let me know if they have already removed them!
St. Stephen's Cathedral
The tallest building in Vienna and one of the great symbols of the city could not be missing from my itinerary. The outside was completely full of people, so if you want to photograph it without anyone you really have to go early in the morning. When you enter the cathedral you have a small hall where you can walk freely. However, for everything else you have to pay: north tower, south tower, catacombs, treasure, etc… You can buy an all-inclusive ticket or just the individual ticket for something you really want to visit. I did the catacombs tour because it was something I had never done before. The schedules are available on the website and it is not possible to make a reservation. Inside the cathedral go to the ticket office on the left side and tell them you want to take the catacomb tour, they will show you where to wait and the guide will show up at the appointed time. The tour is in English and German and photography is not allowed. A fee of 6€ is payable in cash to the guide at the end of the tour. You can check all the tour options here.
St. Peter's Church
You will probably come across this church if you walk in the area of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. This is also the area where the “Plague Column” can be found.
Hundertwasser Quarter
These famous colorful houses were designed by the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. His works are characterized by curved lines, irregular shapes, and strong colors. In this neighborhood, you can find a small shopping center in the same style with lots of souvenir stores. This place is a little further away from the center, the ideal is to go by subway.
Belvedere Palace
This palace also easily entered the list of my favorite places. It consists of two main buildings: the Upper Belvedere and the Lower Belvedere. These buildings were the imperial summer residence in the past and now function as art galleries that can be visited by paying a ticket (they are separate tickets, which you can find here). The gardens can be visited for free and are beautiful!
The Upper Belvedere garden is well known for having a huge pond, which is very popular for taking pictures. Several people took the opportunity to rest for a while sitting on the grass or by the lake, and at that moment a security guard from the palace would appear and warn that it was forbidden to be there in that central area, even though there was no other indication. As soon as someone was warned, someone else was already on the other side of the lake, not knowing anything, sitting and taking pictures, so the security guard was literally running around the garden without stopping… So if you see someone running towards you, you know why.
Prater Park
Next, I visited the oldest amusement park in the world! This is where you can find the oldest Ferris wheel in the world, which is still running and is already one of the symbols of the city. Admission to the park is free, you only pay to ride each of the rides if you want to do so. The park is huge, with many attractions that I had never seen before.
Tip: If you have an extra day or more, consider also visiting Budapest, which is only 2h30/3h away from Vienna! Check out my BUDAPEST GUIDE for more information.
This is how my trip through Vienna ended, which was short but quite intense. I loved the atmosphere of the city and I hope to return one day, maybe in December so I can see the Christmas markets!
I hope this article helped you to plan your trip to Vienna! Leave your opinion in the comments and follow me on social networks so you don’t miss my next trips. Use #travelplannerholic to get noticed.
With Love,
Catarina Vieira
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