10 Best Things to Do in Vienna

With its multi-colored tile roof and towering spires, St. Stephen’s Cathedral is one of the world’s most beautiful Gothic structures. It sits right in the heart of the city. Stepping inside, you’ll easily find yourself gazing at the tall, ornate nave with its Baroque overlays, as well as the colorful stained-glass windows. Check out the striking carvings on the Gothic masterpiece pulpit in the midsection. The stone self-portrait of its anonymous sculptor peeking through a window (giving it the name “fenstergucker”) is a funny addition to an otherwise somber sight.

The fairy-tale Hofburg Imperial Palace was once the focal point of the 600-year long reign of the Habsburgs. The palace houses the Imperial Apartments, including that of Empress Elisabeth’s with her sumptuous Living Room that’s widely considered among Hofburg's prettiest rooms. The palace also has a treasury with glittering rubies the size of plums.

During your visit, be sure to see the snow-white, graceful Lippizaner horses in the Spanish Riding School at 10am and listen to the Vienna Boys’ Choir in the chapel on Sunday during service.

The Wiener Riesenrad, better known as the Viennese giant Ferris wheel, has a colorful past. It dates back to 1897, was designed by British engineers, and was rebuilt with only half the number of gondolas of its original 30 (after being damaged during the Second World War). It was featured in the classic James Bond flick, The Living Daylights (1987). At the top of the wheel, the gondolas provide sweeping panoramas over Vienna from around 65 meters high.

A visit to this magnificent Baroque palace in Vienna can provide you with an excellent idea of how European royalty lived in the 17th to 19th centuries. Schönbrunn Palace has around 1,400 rooms, 40 of which you can see on a palace tour, complete with their original décor and furniture. You can also take a glimpse into the royal apartments and stunningly frescoed galleries. Spare some time for inspiring walks through the palace’s vast flowerbed-filled Privy Garden or the Schönbrunner Schloss Park.

Tiergarten Schönbrunn, or Schönbrunn Zoo, is a 17-hectare green oasis near the namesake palace, southwest of central Vienna. The zoo dates back to 1752, making it the oldest in the world. The Baroque architecture from its old days is well-preserved. More than 8,000 animals from over 700 species live here, and it’s one of the few zoos in the world to feature giant pandas. Check out the Amazon rainforest house, where you can see vivid specimens from the diverse biome on the opposite side of the planet.

Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace is surrounded by 4 lush botanical oases. Palmenhaus Schönbrunn is the most prominent, featuring a giant late-19th-century Art Nouveau greenhouse that contains thousands of different plant species from around the globe. Its steel structure is aptly painted all green on the outside, and giant cast-iron columns designed in the shape of trees support the central sections of its steel and glass structure. Besides admiring the colorful exotic flowers inside, you can enjoy a Viennese lunch at the onsite restaurant.

Vienna's Museum of Natural History lets you marvel at a collection of over 30 million specimens and artifacts from around the globe. It has around 39 exhibition halls across 2 main levels. Exhibits range from minerals, meteorites, and dinosaur fossils, to vertebrates and anthropological dioramas. The museum also has a planetarium, which takes you on awe-inspiring journeys across the solar system through a series of full-dome projection shows.

As the ‘people’s garden’ of Vienna, Volksgarten has lovely pathways that lead you past a series of rose gardens and manicured flowerbeds. Walking through the grounds, you can encounter more than 3,000 rose bushes from 200 different rose cultivars. You can also see a few monuments dedicated to notable Viennese figures, including that of the Empress Elisabeth by Austrian sculptor, Hans Bitterlich. The garden is part of the Hofburg Palace in the Innere Stadt district, which serves as the official residence of the Austrian Presidency.

At the heart of Vienna, Stephansplatz is the major square where the majestic Roman Catholic Stephansdom cathedral stands tall. Ringed with shops, it’s a hub for a network of bustling walking streets. The lively shopping street of Graben splits off from the square’s southwest corner, by the Stephansplatz U-Bahn station. Here, you can pick a spot at a shaded coffee shop in the middle of the street. Busking bands often perform around the base of the magnificently gilded Baroque statue of Pestsäule, which is another historical Viennese landmark.

The Vienna State Opera House is a must-see when visiting the Austrian capital. It dates back to the 1860s, and it’s still as magnificent as it was then. From the moment you step inside its lavishly frescoed and decorated entry hall and elegant intermission rooms, you can see how ‘going to the opera’ back in the day would be a whole lot more exciting than ‘going to the movies’ is now. The best seats are pricier than the latest blockbuster.