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A weekend off in some European capital is always a good idea: it helps you clear your mind, it gives you a bit of holiday when you can’t travel longer, and overall it helps you face the following week with a more positive attitude and strength. After all, this is one of the great advantages of living in Europe: flights are cheap, destinations are close and diversity is guaranteed. But it is also tricky, because sometimes traveling for such a short time can be tiring, and you could find yourself on Monday feeling worse than when you left.

I am not a fan of this kind of weekends – it’s always better to travel a bit longer and to discover the place you are visiting fully. But now my everyday job doesn’t allow me for much more, so here I am. This is why I felt like writing this post, because I think I found a perfect destination for a weekend getaway – Vienna. Austria’s capital is beautiful, interesting, varied, and relatively small, and there are a lot of things to do in Vienna in a weekend. Its kind of dimension is perfect for a weekend or a couple of days, because you can move around easily and see a lot in a relatively short time, and you won’t leave with that annoying feeling that you have seen only half of what you wanted. Well, you will always have that feeling when you leave a place you have travelled to, but if you choose wisely it will be a great experience even for a short time. 

The most interesting thing about Vienna, at least to me, is that it is totally different from what you would expect. I had this idea of Vienna as a city for culture-lovers only, whose main attractions would be fancy concerts, art museums and ancient buildings. But in the end I left after seeing an incredible horse show, a borough that reminded me of Gaudì style in Barcelona, a sandy beach on the river and a club into a pagoda. None of these things were among my expectations.

Let’s start from the beginning then: visiting Wien in two days is perfectly workable without leaving out too much attractions, as there are tons of things to do in Vienna in a weekend but distances are fairly short, and it is a perfect destination for outdoor lovers, too. If you wish to know all the things to do in Vienna in a weekend and you want to go a bit beyond the great classics – museums, churches, etc – you can literally follow my footsteps!

Let’s see my suggested itinerary with all the things to do in Vienna in a weekend, then.

 

Before we start, here come some considerations about the city:

• Prices: prices in Vienna are not dissimilar from the rest of Western Europe – some are higher, especially on touristic places, but nothing exceptional
• Public transport: Vienna has a very good underground, connecting pretty much all of the city easily. As the city center is relatively small, you may even avoid using it and prefer feet or bicycles to move around. There is a very popular public bike service called CityBike, with self-serving stations all over town, but beware: unlike in many other cities, at Vienna’s CityBike you can only rent one bike with one credit card, so either all your group has one (no debit cards allowed) or you will have a problem.
• Eating out: typical Austrian food includes a lot of meat, soups and goulashes. The most typical dish is the Wiener schnitzel, the very famous fried veal cutlet which you will find in every restaurant. If you want to go a bit beyond the classic, though, try every local variation of goulash, cheese plates in general and knödels, dumplings made with different ingredients, often eaten as a dessert. I found my new favorite dessert ever at a very nice restaurant in the museum area, called Glacis Beisl: a special kind of cheese knodels filled with a Nutella-like sauce and accompanied by a plum fresh made jam. Simply delicious, and for an overall very honest price!

 

What are the best things to do in Vienna if you just have a weekend to spend there? Let’s see them:

First day, morning

As strange as it may sound, I think the best way to start off your tour of the best things to do in Vienna in a weekend is to go outside Vienna – to the Schönbrunn castle. Especially if the weather is nice, you could get some very nice views over the city and the surrounding hills. Moreover, the city center is pretty small so once you enter it is nonsense to go out. The underground U4 will easily bring you there in a few stops from the city center, and you will immediately find yourself in a fairytale.

This is the palace where the royal family and the famous princess Sissi used to spend their summer – an enormous, beautiful building surrounded by gardens that are a small city themselves. Just to give you an idea, inside those gardens there is also a whole Zoo…you guess how big they are. I haven’t been inside the palace – it was an amazing sunny day – so I can’t tell you if it’s worth the ticket price, but if you want to enjoy the gardens and the architecture you can do it for free and spend an amazing morning this way. Enjoy the nature and the buildings (there are some amazing fountains all over, I don’t even think I saw them all), stroll down the streets imagining how Sissi would canter there with her horses, get lost in the gardens. Actually, if you really want to get lost, why not trying the local maze? It is pretty small but very challenging, it took us almost half an hour to find the way, and I had never tried that experience.

Finally, climb the hill on the back of the gardens and reach Gloriette – the ancient cafeteria where the royals used to eat and where you can relax and have an (expensive) coffee, or just enjoy the view. You will be able to see all over Vienna and start appreciating this wonderful city from the top. If you don’t want to visit the palace inside but you are into some more fairytale-like gardens, you could take the underground back to the center until Karlspatz (U4).

At a walking distance from it (filled with other beautiful sights, monuments and fountains) there is another incredible palace that will grand you another stunning view over the city: the Belvedere palace. Sat on a hill just near the city center, this place is divided in two parts: the upper Belvedere and the lower one.

 

Both contain interesting collections of paintings from all ages (note the collection from Klimt with its famous Kiss), but again if you are not into art, no problem: you can enjoy the wonderful gardens and fountains all over the place, and again a view over the city that will impress you maybe even more. But if you feel like getting into some of Vienna’s culture, I’d strongly advice to go in: the collection is really nice and the palace from the inside is stunning, with amazing views from every window.

First day, lunch time

You can go back to the city center, approaching the next things\ to do in Vienna in this itinerary, the beautiful Stephansdom, for lunch; as you will want to keep the local cousine for dinner, why not going for a simple hot dog? I know it doesn’t sound very typical, but remember Austria is famous for würstels, so you will find many different kind of sausage to fill your bread with – with cheese, with paprika, covered in bacon and much more. You will find plenty of places that sell them on the streets, and some are also pretty fancy, with first quality ingredients and interesting combinations. Don’t be biased ;)

Then, on your way to the cathedral (about half way from Karlsplatz) you will find a spot that, though being very touristic, is a Wien must-go: the super famous Sacher Hotel that, guess what, invented the typical Sacher cake – a chocolate delight filled with apricot jam! This is a super famous place and it will be crowded with tourists, as much that if you want to take a seat inside you will probably have to line for some time. Depending on how much value you give to sitting in a bar filled with tourists eating a cake, you may or may not wait in line. But if you don’t want to, just keep in mind that the hotel has a shop as well (this is business spirit, man) that sells the very same cake you would eat at the bar. Why not grabbing one and going to sit outside on a bench, if the weather allows it?

First day, afternoon

As you are nearby it, what about a stop at Stephansdom? This massive gothic church is very beautiful, but coming from Milan it didn’t surprise me that much. What does surprise, though, is the colorful roof on top, that you can’t see from the ground but you can enjoy better from the top of the tower.

Inside the church there is a lift that will bring you up there for 5€ will bring you up, but again you will probably have to line. So, if you feel fit enough, why not climbing 343 steps for 67 meters? It will be funnier (if you are into this kind of things, at least, if not it will be a nightmare) and you will enjoy some views from the middle. On the top you will find a lovely little shop (we tried to ask the guy if he had to climb the tower everyday to go to work, but he didn’t answer – maybe he was still recovering ;)) and amazing 360° views over the city with its nice, typical roofs.

First day, late afternoon and sunset

You have had an interesting overview of the city, but this was pretty classic right? Churches, museum, palaces…it’s time to discover some hidden gems of Wien as I promised you. So head to the east of the city, toward the Danube, to enjoy a sunset on the river.

As you can see from the maps, Wien’s center meets a canal on its eastern side – but this is not the Danube. The actual river is a bit further east, and it stripes the land with what seems to be an island, called Danube City. The underground line U1 reaches it with two different stops, one for each “island” – Donainsel for the nearest to the city, Kaisermühlen for the other one. What we did was getting off at the last one, but we didn’t really see much. It is nice to see the Kaiserwasser, a small lake-like part of the river where families go grilling and spending the weekend, but apart from that it was nothing special.

What you may enjoy, though, is passing from one “stripe” of land to the other on a bridge. There are two ways to do so: one is using the same bridge cars and underground use (it won’t be easy to see where people can walk, but trust me when I say that below the street there is a nice pedestrian way and keep looking for it); the other one is walking to the “beach of Wien”, a place in the left side of the bridge called Copa Cagrana.

There you will find a pedestrian-only bridge that will bring you to the other side, actually straight where you want to be when the sun sets and you feel like relaxing after so much walking. Just at the end of the bridge, opposite to Copa Cagrana, there are dozens of beautiful bars and clubs straight on the river, most of them with a layer of sand where you can dig your tired feet – the closest thing to heaven you could think of!

Your first days ends here: what you do with your night is up to you, but that pagoda on the river that turns into a club at night, Sansibar, looks interesting ;)

Day two, morning

This may not be of everyone’s interest, but i think it could be a nice experience for everyone and it deserves for sure to be among the best things to do in Vienna. This city hosts the famous Spanish Riding School, an ancient school that, alone in the world, teaches an original kind baroque dressage.

If you are into horses you can’t really miss it, and if you are not this is still a very entertaining experience. It costs a bit (the less expensive option, standing places, are 25-28€), but it is really worth it: not only you will get to go inside a wonderful palace in Hofburg – the residency of the emperor – but you will see a beautiful horse show accompanied by Vienna’s typical classical music.

If you go for the standing places, try to position yourself at the front of the show, just above where the front row seats (most expensive) are: it is not only a better position from where to see the show, but also the one less crowded, for some reason (it could be that people are too lazy to just move forward ;)).

You can’t take pictures using the flash so pay a lot of attention to that, you don’t want the horses to get crazy because you flashed them! Actually, you can’t take pictures at all, but I think if you mind the flash then it is fine ;) you will want to take all the pics possible of this amazing show: horses and riders become one thing after years of intensive training, and they will dance to classical music like a dancer would do, jumping and turning and standing on their feet.

A unique show, that will be even more beautiful and meaningful to you if you know anything about horse riding. If you are REALLY into horses (but I mean it, if you are not it will just be technical boring stuff) you should also consider to pay (18€ more) to take a tour of the stables: it is not anything special, but you will get close to the horses (not enough to touch them) and you will learn a lot of things about this ancient, beautiful form of art that it is the show. It is amazing to know how much time it takes to teach these horses what they do, and what a bond rises between horse and rider – for a horse lover, it is worth the whole trip to Vienna alone :)

 

Day two, afternoon

After seeing the show, visiting the rest of Hofburg, eating something on your way and doing some souvenir shopping, you have almost done all the best things to do in Vienna in a weekend on my list. Depending on how much time you have left, you can do either or both these things: the first is visiting the Museum borough, an area full of fascination and style, but also very lively and crowded with people, especially at night. Then (or) you should go to a place that you would never think to find in an ancient, classic city like Vienna: a borough called Hundertwasser House.

It is an area where different artists, in particular the architect Hundertwasser, contributed to popular houses with their extravagant styles. The houses from Gaudì will immediately come to your mind: rounded figures, colorful decorations, original architectures make this street an amazing and interesting place where to stroll. The houses are inhabited so it is not possible to visit them inside, but you will have an idea of the interiors thanks to the Hundertwasser Village, a “souvenir house” in front of them: a beautiful gallery with colorful shops inside where to get lost and buy all the souvenirs you didn’t buy until now ;) be sure to do a “toilet pit-stop” there…during your “visit” you will be able to see some beautiful decorations and to have an idea of the interesting ideas of this artists regarding “human waste”, to say it in a polite way!

 

It’s time to go back home now, unfortunately, and to start a new week. But this full immersion into the best things to do in Vienna in a weekend should have filled you in with positive energy and attitude! Of course it won’t be complete, and according to your interests and tastes you should choose what to see differently. But I hope this agenda will be helpful for those who wish to spend 2 days in Vienna and have a true taste of the city!

Did you visit Wien? Is there anything you would like to add?

If you found this article interesting and/or if you know of anyone who likes this magical city, or who wants to visit it soon, would you mind sharing it with your friends? <3

Happy traveling,

GwtS