City in Austria
15 things to see4 of them free
Vienna’s biggest budget win is that a city built on imperial wealth gives away most of its grandeur for free. A dozen or so city-run museums open their doors with no entry charge on the first Sunday of every month, and the Wien Museum on Karlsplatz keeps its permanent city-history collection free all the time. Even without paying a cent you can walk the Ringstrasse past the Parliament, City Hall, the State Opera, and the Burgtheater, wander the courtyards of the Hofburg, and stand under St Stephen’s Cathedral in the old town. The vast landscaped gardens of Schonbrunn and the wide-open Prater park are both free to roam, so an afternoon outdoors costs nothing beyond a sausage from a Wurstelstand. Trips out from the city run cheap too: regional trains and buses reach Bratislava, the Wachau valley, and the abbey town of Melk for a few euros. Late autumn and the quieter winter weeks outside the Christmas-market rush bring Vienna’s lowest room rates, making it the smart season for a budget stay.
What to see
4 of these cost nothing at all.
The Belvedere Gardens are a free baroque terraced garden connecting the Upper and Lower Belvedere palaces. The symmetrical layout, the reflecting pools, and the views south toward the Alps on a clear day make this one of Vienna's most satisfying free outdoor experiences.
The Upper Belvedere houses Austria's most famous painting: Gustav Klimt's The Kiss. Entry is paid.
The arm of the Danube that runs through Vienna's inner city, lined with street art, beach bars, restaurants, and summer pop-up venues. The Donaukanal has become Vienna's summer social center since the 2010s. The Strandbar Herrmann and Tel Aviv Beach are institutions. The street art murals along the canal walls change regularly.
The Hofburg is the sprawling former imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty, the family that ruled Austria for six centuries, sitting between the Ringstrasse and Heldenplatz in central Vienna.
There is a panoramic lift inside the Karlskirche that takes you up to stand face-to-face with the dome frescoes at 3,048 meters, the closest most people ever get to Baroque (an art style of gold, white stucco, and ceiling paintings designed to make the roof disappear) ceiling painting in Europe.
One of the world's largest cultural complexes, built into the former imperial stables. Contains the Leopold Museum (Schiele, Klimt), MUMOK (contemporary art), Kunsthalle Wien, and the Architecture Center. The inner courtyards are a public living room, filled with the signature Enzis furniture in summer. Not one museum but a campus.
The Naschmarkt sits on top of the Wien River, which was paved over in a concrete channel around 1900 to make room for it. That buried river is one of the most Viennese facts I know: practical, layered, slightly unhinged.
A large public park in the Leopoldstadt district, containing the Wurstelprater amusement park with the iconic Riesenrad (Giant Ferris Wheel, 1897). The Hauptallee, a 4.4 km straight chestnut-lined avenue, runs through the green Prater and is popular with runners and cyclists.
The Riesenrad (Giant Ferris Wheel) in the Prater amusement park is a Vienna icon, the wheel that featured in The Third Man and Before Sunrise. Entry is paid.
The gardens of Schonbrunn Palace are free and open to the public, stretching from the palace facade up a hill to the Gloriette colonnade with its panoramic terrace. The gardens are vast, formal, and immaculately maintained.
Vienna's Gothic landmark and geographic center. The south tower (Steffl) at 136 meters dominates the skyline. Visitors can climb the tower for city views or descend into the catacombs beneath the nave. The tiled roof with the Habsburg double eagle is visible from most elevated points in the city.
Stadtpark is a public park on the Ringstrasse with a pond, a concert pavilion, and the golden statue of Johann Strauss II playing the violin, one of the most photographed monuments in Vienna. Free.
A neo-Gothic building on the Ringstrasse that serves as the seat of Vienna's city government. The Rathausplatz in front hosts Vienna's largest Christmas market in winter, an open-air cinema in summer, and the Life Ball in June. The exterior is the attraction; interior access is via guided tour or events. The Rathausmann figure on the tower is a city emblem.
Vienna's traditional coffee houses are UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Free to enter (you pay for coffee and cake).
The Vienna State Opera opened in 1869 to such contemptuous reviews from the Viennese press that one of the two architects died by suicide and the other from a stroke before opening night.
On foot
Tip-based tours and self-guided routes, which is usually the cheapest orientation there is.
The Redandwhite Free Walking Tour of Vienna covers the city's most important sights, Mozart, and the Habsburg story in approximately two hours. It shows budget travelers that a city which can feel intimidating and expensive is largely accessible for free.
The Ringstrasse Walk is a self-guided loop around Vienna's grand boulevard, built in the 1860s on the site of the demolished city walls. Free. A 5.3-kilometer circuit passing the Opera House, Hofburg Palace, Parliament, Rathaus, Burgtheater, University, and Votivkirche.
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