Vienna

Vienna was truly one of my favorite cities for a long weekend trip. I never went when I lived in Europe because randomly the flights were quite expensive, but I was fortunate enough to be able to squeeze in a 3 day trip before a work offsite in Lisbon in September 2023. It was honestly better than I imagined. The food was fantasitic, the architecture was beautiful, the city felt alive, and the wineries within city limits were fab. This is the first blog I've written to a place I've only been once (and for a short amount of time!), but I'll share my experience.

Restaurants & Bars

• Skopik & Lohn: We went here on the first night and the food was incredible. Not what I was expecting out of the Vienna cuisine, but it was soooo good. Our friends who had been said it was their favorite schnitzel and my group disagreed with that, but we thought everything else was fantastic. It was also vibey and cool.

• Cafe Kandl: We had a late reservation here after our day at the vineyards. They were out of a lot of the food we wanted to order, so we were pretty underwhelmed by the food to be honest, but it turned into a full blown party in the evening and was super fun, so I'd recommend coming somewhat full with a late reservation.

• Figlmüller Bäckerstraße (The Original Figlmuller): The best weinerschitzel you'll ever have. It was incredible. We went early and were able to get a walk-in table on a Sunday, so don't be discouraged if you can't get a reservation. The wine and potato salad were also amazing here. You have to go.

• Wiener Wurstl: This stand was on our street and we went every single day it was so incredible. The cheese one is insane, but they are all perfection. You must go here!!

• Bitzinger Sausage Stand: This is the famous one. It was good, but everyone in my group agreed that the sausage stand above was way better.

• Bars along the canal: If you are traveling anywhere across the river and it's nice out, stop at one of the bars for a beer down on the river. It was a lovely Friday happy hour before dinner. I can't remember the one we went to, but they are really all the same it seemed. We just walked down and stopped at one that had seats. (I believe we went to Blumenwiese.)

Things to do

• Wineries: A fun fact is that Vienna is the only city that has a substantial amount of wine grown within the city limits. They call wine taverns "Heurigers." Spend the day in the winery region, walking from vineyard to vineyard. It was an incredible day. I'll be honest, all the wine tasted kind of the same and the experiences are basically the same, so don't spend your time over-researching which ones to go to. It's more about hopping around between then, having a few drinks at each while sitting in a grassy lawn overlooking vineyards and the city.

  • We went to these and they were all super lovely, would go back to all:

    • Mayer am Nussberg

    • Wieninger am Nussberg

    • Monte Nucum Buschenschank

    • Buschenschank Franzinger

• Sites, parks, and some beer gardens: We spent one day just walking around the city, going through the parks and seeing some castles, it was lovely. Some spots to walk through:

  • Parks

    • Botanical Gardens at the University of Vienna

    • Belvedere Palace park

    • Volksgarten

    • Burggarten

  • Beer Gardens

    • Salm Brau (nothing special in terms of the beer, but was nice after walking from west to east and ending at the Botanical Gardens)

  • Historical sites & monuments

    • Hofburg Palace

    • Austrian National Library

    • St. Stephen's Cathedral

Areas to stay

Given I've only been to Vienna once for a short amount of time, I don't have a ton to contribute to this, but Vienna felt fairly small and extremely walkable, so I imagine there aren't too many bad areas. We stayed right near St. Stephen's Cathedral and it was perfect.