Mid-range · 12-hour walk · Vienna
Vienna in a day: palace to concert hall
Schönbrunn at opening, lunch at the Naschmarkt, the Secession, the Opera and the Albertina, the Hofburg, a coffee house, the cathedral, the great wheel and a concert to finish.
Vienna rewards a slow day and this is not one, but it is the right fast one. Schönbrunn is out at the edge of the city and fills by ten, so it goes first; the U4 brings you back to the Naschmarkt for lunch, and the afternoon loops through the palaces and museums inside the Ring to St Stephen's. The Prater wheel is for dusk and a concert is for the night, because an evening in Vienna without music is a missed evening.
The route, stop by stop
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Schönbrunn Palace
The Habsburgs' summer palace: forty rooms on the Grand Tour on a timed ticket, and gardens that are free. Walk up to the Gloriette on the hill behind for the view back over the palace to the city.
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Naschmarkt
Arrive by metro from the previous stop
Back on the U4 for lunch. A mile and a half of stalls along a covered-over river, from falafel and oysters to pickles from the barrel; on Saturdays a flea market fills the far end.
60 min here Walk here → -
Secession
The white cube with the golden cabbage on top, built in 1898 for artists who had walked out of the academy. Klimt's Beethoven Frieze is in the basement.
20 min here Walk here → -
Vienna State Opera
Opened in 1869 with Don Giovanni. Standing places for the evening's performance cost about as much as a cinema ticket and are the best-value seats in the city, without the seat.
20 min here Walk here → -
Albertina
A Habsburg palace with a Monet-to-Picasso collection, and Dürer's Hare in the vaults, shown only now and then because light damages it.
60 min here Walk here → -
Hofburg
Six centuries of Habsburg power in one sprawl of courtyards. The imperial apartments, the Sisi Museum and the silver collection are one ticket, and the apartments are smaller and plainer than you expect.
60 min here Walk here → -
Café Central
Coffee under the vaulted ceiling of a former bank and stock exchange, where Trotsky played chess before 1914. Order a Melange and sit as long as you like; that is what a Viennese coffee house is for.
40 min here Walk here → -
St Stephen's Cathedral
The tiled roof is the thing: some 230,000 glazed tiles in a zigzag pattern, with the double-headed eagle on the south side. Climb the 343 steps of the south tower for the view down onto it.
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Prater & Giant Ferris Wheel
Arrive by metro from the previous stop
Two stops on the U1 to the wheel from The Third Man, turning since 1897. Go up at dusk, then walk back past the funfair lights.
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Classical concert
Arrive by metro from the previous stop
The Golden Hall of the Musikverein is the most famous room for music in the world and is booked months ahead; the Konzerthaus a few minutes away is almost as good and easier to get into. Dress up a little. The Viennese do.
More in Vienna
Every walking route in Vienna, or the full Vienna guide for where to stay and what a day costs.