What springs to mind when you think of Vienna? It’s home to Mozart, Sigmund Freud and Vienna Boy’s Choir. It is where Adolf Hitler lived as a young man. Vienna has had such an amazing list of historically significant people.
I didn’t really know what to think of when considering Vienna as a holiday destination. But I was sure this city would be oozing classical style, amazing architecture, and fascinating history. I was right in every way.
We travelled from Budapest to Vienna on our European holiday. We left our bookings rather late, and really found it hard to get reasonably priced accommodation in Vienna. In the end we booked into the classy Hilton Vienna Danube Waterfront Hotel and stayed for 4 nights.
This was our longest stay in any European city on this holiday, because we were sure we would find more to see in Vienna than our other destinations. Bring on our Vienna Ultimate 3 Day Itinerary!
Vienna Ultimate 3 Day Itinerary
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Getting to Vienna by Train from Budapest
We travelled to Vienna aboard a train from Budapest Hungary. It was only about a 3 hour train trip and was quite inexpensive, about 19 Euros per person. I know that you purchase tickets cheaper by booking earlier, however I also felt we got a good price for a last minute booking. Booking online was quite easy on the MAV Sport website.
What we did find rather peculiar was that MAV do not allow printing of the purchased e-ticket. Instead we were instructed to go to Budapest Station to pick up our tickets from the ticketing machine at the station. Instructions are clearly explained on the MAV Sport website after you purchase the ticket.
The train trip was fast and comfortable. We had one ticket inspector come around just outside of Budapest, and another after we crossed the Austrian Border. Also a passport inspection as we crossed the Austrian Border. Overall we thoroughly recommend the MUV Sport train as an inexpensive, fast and comfortable transport option.
Tip: If you would like to see our VLOG of the journey from Budapest to Vienna, CLICK HERE.
Leaving Vienna by Bus
We found a cheaper option to leave Vienna on our way to Prague aboard a bus. The bus line was Regiojet, which is a sort of budget bus line used by students. The cost was 15 Euros each and the trip took 4.5 hours. The bus departed from the Stadion Vienna bus terminal, which is several subway stops out of the city centre.
Conveniently for us it was a short 5 minute walk from our Danube Waterfront Hotel. The trip was not the most comfortable bus trip we’d been on, but it was on time and amazingly cheap. We recommend Regiojet for any budget minded travellers.
Tip: If you would like to watch our VLOG of this bus trip CLICK HERE.
Getting around Vienna
We caught Uber around Vienna and found them to be quite reasonably priced. Our biggest fare was 18 Euros, from the train station in the city to our Hilton Vienna Danube Waterfront Hotel, overall about a 20 minute journey.
Apart from that we caught subway trains all over Vienna. We found the subway system extremely easy to figure out with good connections to all parts we wanted to travel to. Cost was only about AUD $8 per adult per day, which is quite reasonable. We just purchased our daily tickets from the vending machines in the subway station.
Day 1 Sightseeing in Vienna
On day 1 we caught the subway out to Schonbrunn Palace, the number 1 tourist destination in Vienna. The history of this place is incredible, Napoleon Bonaparte once stayed there. It is where Boneparte’s son lived when he was exiled from France. It is where Mary Antoinette lived before her execution. And it is said that Adolf Hitler used to go there to paint pictures of the Schonbrunn Palace countryside.
We spent the whole day at Schonbrunn, such is the expansive nature of this massive summer palace of the Royals. We spent several hours at the Schonbrunn Zoo also, which is only about a 10 minute walk from the actual palace.
In the 18th century it began as a private zoo associated with Schonbrunn Palace, nowadays it is open to the public. It is one of the better zoos I have been to, definitely world-class and worth a visit.
Because we spent so much time in the zoo, we only had an hour or so to roam around the Schonbrunn Palace grounds. That’s a shame because I would love to spend a full day here, strolling through the many forest paths.
There is also an amazing royal maze that I would love to try. Of course the number 1 activity is a tour of the palace. I’m told that it’s wise to book this in advance online, however we did not participate in this tour so it was not concerning for us.
Overall Schönbrunn Palace and Zoo took up the entire first day of our visit. This place is so incredible it deserves a full day, any less and you will not fully appreciate the royal magnitude of this beautiful World Heritage site.
Big Bus Tours Vienna
We decided to purchase some Big Bus Tour tickets for both day 2 and day 3 of our sightseeing. If you read our previous blogs you will know that we took Big Bus Tours in both London and Budapest, and we were thrilled with this style of hop-on hop-off tour in both of those cities.
Unfortunately I was not as thrilled in Vienna. There are a few reasons why the Vienna Big Bus Tour is not as good as London or Budapest:
- It is more expensive.
- The Boat Cruise along Danube River in Vienna is rather boring compared to the Danube River in Budapest, or the Thames River in London.
- Vienna city centre is much more compact, you can see it fairly easily by foot. No real need for hop-on hop-off.
- The Route only covers 2 main areas outside of the city. United Nations area, which is not a terribly exiting area to visit. And Schonbrunn Palace, which is easily accessible (and quicker) by train.
I say this from experience, because we did pay for the premium Big Bus Tour in Budapest. Once again they finished way to early at 6pm. Overall I felt that we did not get good value for our Big Bus Tour in Vienna. Having said that, it was nice to listen to the running commentary.
Tip: If you would like to see our VLOG of Day 1 itinerary CLICK HERE.
Day 2 Sightseeing in Vienna
On Day 2 we got on the Big Bus Tour and headed for the city centre. The whole city centre of Vienna is Unesco World Heritage listed, because it is so full of interesting buildings. We got off at the Strauss Monument and began a self guided walking tour.
With a Big Bus Tours landmark map in one hand, and Google Maps in the other hand, we saw the following main attractions:
- Mozart’s Haus
- St. Stephens Cathedral
- Mozart’s Statue
- Graben
- Albertina
- Opera House
The highlight of the day was our visit to the Albertina Art Gallery. They have a large collection of paintings here by the famous Pablo Picasso, and some by Monet. It was a real thrill to see these famous and insanely valuable paintings. The building itself was exquisite, however the rest of the artworks weren’t very exciting.
We had recently been to London and Budapest National Art Gallery, and they had much more interesting collections (Picasso and Monet excluded).
The Albertina also had a section of classic preserved interior from yesteryear. Some very famous people stayed in this building and it was ab amazing step back in time, and a great feel for the ‘classic Vienna style’ that we imagined.
Tip: If you would like to see our VLOG of Day 2 itinerary CLICK HERE.
Eating in Vienna City
Outside the Albertina we tried a hot-dog for lunch at the street vending hot-dog stall. This is a unique feature in Vienna. All over the city you see these little hot dog stands set up. Not American style hot dogs, but Austrian style. They are big and delicious.
Apparently these were designed to be a meeting place where the different classes of people would all join together in the same activity – buying a hot dog. Sounds good to me, and I thoroughly recommend them.
Day 3 Sightseeing in Vienna
On day 3 it was Clarc’s turn to choose an attraction. He chose the Military Museum, not too far from Schonbrunn Palace. One of the things we liked about the Military Museum was that they have a “tank garden” at the rear of the museum.
It looks like a large collection of British, German and Soviet tanks are restored and on display here. However, the tank garden was being restored when we visited so we only got a small peek through the fence.
The Military Museum was on the Big Bus Tour route, so it was easy for us to get there. It was very cheap to get in, about 4 Euros each. And then you have to purchase a photography licence if you wish to take photos, that’s another 2 Euros. This museum is utterly breathtaking.
It’s not huge by museum standards, however the collections are stunning. The main one that took my breath away was the medieval collections. There were complete sets of authentic medieval armour and weapons.
There was also a large collection of medieval paintings depicting famous battles over the centuries. Very authentic and thought-provoking.
The military museum also had sections dedicated to World War 1, World War 2, and the navy. It was an interesting twist for me to see World War 2 museum based on German historical information.
Bellevue Palace
After the Military Museum we took a 15 minute walk to Bellevue Castle. This is a much smaller version of Schonbrunn Castle, but and interesting place to see. We did not do a tour through the interior, so our visit there only lasted about 20 minutes.
After Bellevue Castle we tried to find a Big Bus Tour bus stop to go into the city centre. We searched but could not find the bus stop. We checked on the map, on the iPhone Big Bus app, on Google Maps. Alas this was another downside of Big Bus Tours – finding the bus stop. We ended up walking into the city, which took about half an hour. By then we were pretty much exhausted and found a Big Bus Tour bus-stop to take us back to our hotel.
Tip: If you would like to see our VLOG of Day 3 itinerary CLICK HERE.
Overall Impressions of Vienna
Vienna was such a strange place for me. I found that hardly anybody spoke English, so basic communication was an issue. I also found that shops were hard to find. Things like convenience stores, cafes, restaurants. They just seemed really hard to find, like there’s some trick that we didn’t know about. In other cities we don’t find a need to search for these conveniences, they just appear everywhere you go in the popular tourist areas.
Another observation was that shops close really early. There is a supermarket just near our hotel, I was caught out twice going there for supplies only to find out they were closed. And another time when we returned from our Schonbrunn Palace tour, we had trouble just finding somewhere to buy a meal.
We changed trains and went up to the street to look for a food outlet, there was nothing in sight. So we went into a major shopping mall on at 8:10pm on a Friday night, and all the shops had closed.
So Much More to See in Vienna
Vienna is renowned for it’s museum district, and it’s classical music. The large opera house is a great place to see an opera or a classical music show. These are open to the public every day. Whilst I would like to see these, I don’t have a desire to return to Vienna. It seemed like a fairly sterile sort of atmosphere to me, nowhere near as laid back and as pleasant as say Budapest.
To compare the two, it seemed to me that Budapest is a relaxed party town, whilst Vienna seems more institutionalised and sterile. I am glad we visited, mainly to see the amazing architecture. However, it’s probably someway down my list of favourite holiday destinations.
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