Places

Five things to know before visiting Vienna

Drink plenty of wine and resist singing 'Do-Re-Mi'. Here are a few other things to keep in mind while touring Austria's capital...

Adam Hurly

BY Adam Hurly31 January 2017

Prepare to be charmed. Vienna is rich with history, culture, and cuisine, and the city maintains a calm vibrancy that inspires each of its guests. (If you haven’t seen Before Sunrise, it’s required viewing; Richard Linklater’s film showcases exactly how the city enraptures and incites romance.) After you’ve built a buzz, take note of these five things.

Part of the Vienna City Hall and the gardens at sunset.

1 When in Wien… try the wine
Yes, Vienna has some of the best (and cheapest!) beer in the world, but your visit is incomplete until you’ve sampled the regional wine selection. Head to a vinothek (we recommend the humble Weinfach), where you can taste wines from the city’s 1,700+ acres of vineyards. White grapes are the specialty here, so expect top-grade Riesling, Grüner Veltliner and Sauvignon Blanc. If you have a whole day to spare, then take a tasting tour of scenic Wachau Valley (just an hour by train or car) where you can try other white varietals. Or more of the same, which is fine by us.

2 It’s a recreational wonderland
You probably associate Vienna with grandiose orchestras, world-class museums, and regal dining. Err lavish if you like, but Vienna also offers a variety of outdoor activities. If you visit in the hot summer months, pack a bathing suit and head to any one of the city’s 50 public pools, or to the southern banks of Danube Island for a more natural dip. If you want to hike, Vienna has more than 500km of trails, most of which are located in the Vienna Woods (in the northwest and southwest corners of the city). You might even stumble across some vineyards, if that wasn’t your intention in the first place. In the city itself, we recommend a walk or jog along the hip Danaukanal on Danube Island. Backdropped by graffiti, it’s the ideal place to watch the sunset; during spring and summer, the boardwalk is packed with food and drink vendors.

3 The cool kids hang in the seventh district
Neubau (also known as the seventh district) is the pulse of Vienna’s creative culture, a popular settling ground for artists and young people. It’s teeming with big-name retail, but more importantly, Neubau houses the city’s best vinyl shops, thrift stores, wine taverns, smoky cafes, and no-frills restaurants. To round things out, the seventh is also home to some of the city’s grander sites, like the Belvedere Palace and Galleries. Where else would you want to display Vienna-native Gustav Klimt’s best work?

4 Those tall cement towers are painful reminders of a dark history
There are a few cities round Europe that have flakturms – air-raid shelters once equipped with antiaircraft weapons – and Vienna’s are easily spotted; they’re the rare eyesores in an otherwise pristine town. In all, there are six concrete and steel flakturms, constructed between 1942 and 1945. Each is paired off (as command and control towers) to form a triangle around the city centre. The towers are as tall as 55 metres, with 2-metre thick walls, which explains why it’s so difficult to tear them down. Point yourself to Arenbergpark, Augarten or Esterhazypark to marvel at the structures; some remain closed, while others have been converted into public spaces, like an art museum and an aquarium. Leave it to the Viennese to bring light to the dark.

5 You’re not Julie Andrews
Tempting as it may be to break out your ‘Edelweiss’, or to end every encounter with ‘So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedershen, Goodbye’, keep your Von Trapp shut and leave off the Sound of Music references. The musical-weary Viennese have been listening to tourists yodelling badly at them for over half a century and it is categorically not one of their favourite things. ‘Don’t be so predictable,’ says one local, ‘We’ve heard it all before.’ 16, going on 17, times, no doubt. (And steer clear of Ultravox’s ‘Vienna’ while you’re at it – it means nothing to them.)