Vienna City Break — Coffee Houses, Mozart & Imperial Palaces
Vienna
Holidays
The most cultured city in Europe — Habsburg palaces, world-class museums, legendary coffee houses, Mozart and Klimt's The Kiss
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Flight Time
2h15 from London; direct flights from most UK airports
Best Time
April–June and September–October; December for Christmas markets
Country
Austria
Suppliers
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Vienna Holiday Guide
Vienna is one of the most cultured and beautiful cities in the world — the former capital of the Habsburg Empire, a city of extraordinary museums, magnificent palaces, legendary coffee houses and a classical music tradition unmatched anywhere on earth. Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler, Strauss and Freud all lived and worked in Vienna — the city's cultural legacy is staggering.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum (one of the greatest art museums in the world), the Belvedere (Klimt's The Kiss), the Leopold Museum (Schiele and Klimt), the Albertina (Dürer, Monet, Picasso) and the Kunsthaus Wien (Hundertwasser) are all within easy reach. The Schönbrunn Palace (the Habsburg summer residence, with 1,441 rooms and extraordinary gardens) and the Hofburg (the Habsburg winter palace) are both extraordinary. The Vienna State Opera, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Musikverein are world-class.
Vienna is 2h15 from London by air and has direct flights from most UK airports. It is one of the most consistently highly-rated cities in the world for quality of life — and it shows.
Popular Areas in Vienna
Average Temperatures
Jan
2°C
Feb
4°C
Mar
9°C
Apr
14°C
May
19°C
Jun
22°C
Jul
25°C
Aug
24°C
Sep
19°C
Oct
13°C
Nov
7°C
Dec
3°C
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Call 01282 960 460Top 8 Things To Do in Vienna
The imperial palaces, world-class museums, legendary coffee houses, classical music and extraordinary Christmas markets that make Vienna the most cultured city in Europe.
Schönbrunn Palace — The Habsburg Summer Residence
Schönbrunn Palace, the Habsburg summer residence, is one of the most magnificent palaces in the world — a 1,441-room Baroque palace with extraordinary state rooms, a zoo (the oldest in the world, founded 1752), a palm house, a maze and 160 hectares of formal gardens. The Grand Tour (40 rooms) and the Imperial Tour (22 rooms) are both excellent. The Gloriette, a neoclassical colonnade at the top of the gardens, offers the best views over Vienna. The palace is 15 minutes from the city centre by Metro.
Kunsthistorisches Museum — One of the World's Greatest
The Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History) is one of the greatest art museums in the world — a vast neo-Renaissance palace on the Ringstrasse housing the Habsburg imperial art collection, including Vermeer's The Art of Painting, Raphael's Madonna in the Meadow, Bruegel's Tower of Babel, Cellini's Salt Cellar and hundreds of other masterpieces. The building itself, designed by Gottfried Semper and Karl von Hasenauer and opened in 1891, is as extraordinary as the collection.
Belvedere — Klimt's The Kiss
The Belvedere is a Baroque palace complex housing one of the finest art collections in Austria — the Upper Belvedere contains Gustav Klimt's The Kiss (1907–08), the most famous painting in Austria and one of the most recognisable works of art in the world, alongside other masterpieces by Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka. The Lower Belvedere houses the Baroque Museum and the Orangery. The formal gardens between the two palaces are among the finest in Vienna.
Vienna Coffee Houses — A UNESCO Cultural Heritage
The Viennese coffee house (Kaffeehaus) is a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage — a uniquely Viennese institution where you can sit for hours over a single Melange (coffee with milk), read the newspapers (provided on wooden holders) and watch the world go by. Café Central (in the Palais Ferstel, where Trotsky and Freud were regulars), Café Sacher (home of the original Sachertorte), Café Landtmann (Freud's favourite) and Café Hawelka (unchanged since 1939) are the most celebrated.
Vienna State Opera — The World's Finest
The Vienna State Opera (Wiener Staatsoper) is one of the world's leading opera houses — a neo-Renaissance building on the Ringstrasse that presents over 50 different operas and ballets per season, with a roster of the world's finest singers and conductors. Standing room tickets (Stehplatz) cost just €3–10 and go on sale 80 minutes before the performance — an extraordinary way to experience world-class opera at a fraction of the price of a seat. The Vienna Philharmonic performs in the Musikverein's Golden Hall.
Hofburg Palace — The Habsburg Winter Residence
The Hofburg, the Habsburg winter palace in the heart of Vienna, is a vast complex of 18 wings, 19 courtyards and 2,600 rooms that was the centre of the Habsburg Empire for 600 years. The Imperial Apartments (the private rooms of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth/Sisi), the Sisi Museum, the Imperial Silver Collection and the Spanish Riding School (where the famous Lipizzaner horses perform) are all within the Hofburg. The Augustinerkirche, where the Habsburg hearts are preserved in silver urns, is adjacent.
Naschmarkt — Vienna's Finest Food Market
The Naschmarkt, a 1.5km open-air market along the Wienzeile, is Vienna's finest food market — 120 stalls selling Austrian, Turkish, Greek, Italian and Asian food, spices, cheese, charcuterie, fresh fish and vegetables. The Saturday flea market (Flohmarkt) at the western end is one of the best in Europe. The market is surrounded by excellent restaurants and cafés. The Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) apartment buildings along the Linke Wienzeile, designed by Otto Wagner, are extraordinary.
Viennese Food — Schnitzel, Tafelspitz & Sachertorte
Viennese cuisine is one of the great Central European cuisines — Wiener Schnitzel (veal escalope, pounded thin and fried in breadcrumbs, served with potato salad and lingonberry jam), Tafelspitz (boiled beef with horseradish and apple sauce, Emperor Franz Joseph's favourite), Gulasch (beef goulash, a legacy of the Hungarian half of the empire), Kaiserschmarrn (shredded pancake with plum compote) and the Sachertorte (chocolate cake with apricot jam, invented at the Hotel Sacher in 1832) are the classics.
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