Garden in Vienna
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. The maze, the palm house, and the zoo are paid, but the main garden, the Neptune Fountain, and the walk to the Gloriette are all free. Budget travelers skip the palace interior and spend hours in the gardens instead.
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Other places worth the walk, and what each one costs.
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.
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The whole of Vienna