Things to Do in Vienna: Imperial Palaces & Coffee Houses

Schönbrunn Palace was the Habsburg summer residence and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with 1,441 rooms behind the facade and gardens climbing to the Gloriette. In the centre, the Hofburg holds the Imperial Apartments, the Sisi Museum and the Spanish Riding School, where the Lipizzaner horses still train most mornings. Both sit on the U-Bahn network, ten minutes apart.

The Upper Belvedere holds Klimt's The Kiss, the Albertina has Dürer and Monet, and the Leopold Museum in the MuseumsQuartier owns the largest Schiele collection anywhere. The Kunsthistorisches Museum faces the Hofburg across the Ring, and the Wien Museum covers the city's own history. If you plan more than three museums, do the maths on a Vienna Pass or Vienna City Card first.

Food in Vienna runs on two speeds. Order Wiener Schnitzel with potato salad at a Beisl, Tafelspitz at a Ringstrasse restaurant, or Sachertorte with a Melange at a coffee house where nobody hurries you out. The Naschmarkt stretches for over a kilometre with spice merchants, cheese stalls and sausage stands at prices locals still pay, and the restaurants at its edge stay busy well past midnight.

The Giant Ferris Wheel in the Prater has turned since 1897 and still gives the clearest view of the rooftops from 65 metres up. Shopping in Vienna runs from Mariahilfer Strasse, the longest retail street in the city, to the designer flagships on Kohlmarkt and in the Goldenes Quartier. Evenings go to the Bermuda Triangle bars near Schwedenplatz, the club arches under the Gürtel viaduct, or standing tickets at the Staatsoper.

The old city inside the Ringstrasse holds St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Hofburg, the Staatsoper and the luxury shopping on Graben and Kohlmarkt. It is small enough to cross on foot in about twenty minutes, which makes it the obvious base for a first visit. Expect the highest hotel prices in the city and the heaviest crowds around Stephansplatz.

Across the Danube Canal, Leopoldstadt is one U1 stop from the centre and noticeably cheaper to stay in. Prater Park covers 600 hectares of woodland and meadow next to the fairground and the Giant Ferris Wheel, which makes the district a sensible choice for families. Karmelitermarkt and the revived Jewish quarter give it a character of its own.

Neubau is where Vienna's specialty coffee, small galleries and independent labels ended up, in the streets behind the MuseumsQuartier. Next door, Mariahilf is built around Mariahilfer Strasse and the upper end of the Naschmarkt. Both sit on the U3, and most of the places to eat here are aimed at people who live in them rather than at visitors.

Landstraße covers the Belvedere and its gardens plus the Hundertwasser House, and it is where most of the embassies sit. South of the centre, Wieden is quieter: the Freihausviertel behind the Naschmarkt has design studios and second-hand shops, with Karlskirche a few streets away. Both are well connected and close to the sights without being in the middle of them.

We recommend: the imperial city core

We recommend: Schönbrunn + Hofburg + Belvedere

We recommend: districts, markets and shopping

We recommend: Wachau + Bratislava + Salzburg

The stretch of the Danube between Melk and Krems is a UNESCO landscape of terraced vineyards, apricot orchards and hilltop ruins. Trains reach Melk in about 90 minutes and Krems in around an hour, and a boat between the two makes the obvious return leg. Melk Abbey's library and marble hall are what most people come for.

Slovakia's capital is about an hour from Vienna by train, closer than most Austrian towns. The old town is compact enough for an afternoon, with the castle above it and prices well below Viennese ones. Catamarans also run down the Danube in the warmer months if you want the slower version.

The Railjet covers the 300 km to Salzburg in about two and a half hours, which leaves a comfortable six hours in the city. Hohensalzburg Fortress, Mozart's birthplace and the Mirabell gardens are all walkable from the station side of the river. Budget a long day: door to door it runs 10 to 12 hours.

The lakeside village in the Salzkammergut takes about 3 hours 15 minutes by train with one or two changes, plus the short ferry across the lake. The salt mine on the slope above it has been worked for roughly 7,000 years. It is a long day from Vienna, so plenty of people turn it into an overnight stop instead.

Baden is a spa town at the edge of the Vienna Woods, under an hour away by regional train or on the Badner Bahn tram that leaves from the Staatsoper. Sulphur baths, a Biedermeier town centre and the house where Beethoven spent several summers are the draws, and vineyard walks start where the streets end.

An hour southeast of Vienna, Neusiedler See is Europe's largest steppe lake and a UNESCO cultural landscape shared with Hungary. Nowhere is it deeper than about two metres, so it warms up early and suits windsurfing. Rust and Podersdorf are the usual bases, and Burgenland's red wine comes from the same shore.