Vienna

[Philandbill]

Any recommendations please? We're going for a few days soon. Staying near the Opera and have booked the Belvedere already. DD (late teens) and DH both like art and we all love a good café. I love historical buildings but I've been to Vienna twice before, though long before I met DH, and won't feel too deprived if I don't visit the obvious ones again. Is it worth buying a travel pass? I went so long ago it was books of paper tickets for the trams I think!
Thank you.

Re the cafe do try the cafe called Vollpension in Vienna.

Go to the Sacher Hotel ( you’ll need to book) for a slice of Sacher torte

If you are likely to use the trams or underground get a travel card. Watch your bags, dh got pickpocketed. Schoenbrunn is worth a visit , including the applestrudel demonstration which you get to sample! Figlmueller if you like schnitzel, hotel Sacher for sachertorte(you can get to takeaway from the shop).

https://www.wien.gv.at/english/transportation-urbanplanning/public-transport/

State hall at the National Library. Light of creation show at the Votiv Church was really good. Classical music concert at either St Stephen’s or St Peter’s church. Schonbrunn Palace.

We’ve just come back. Depending on how long you’re there, a day trip to Bratislava is lovely. The train takes about an hour, was very reasonably priced and they go every hour.

Definitely get the train to Schonbrunn.
The Albertina gallery is worth a visit.
The Secession building if you like Klimt.
For cafes, I love Leopold Hawelka, because it feels like it probably hasn't changed for about 80 years.
A bit grander is Cafe Central, but you might need to queue.

Had a brilliant Austrian meal at Figlmuller and amazing pancakes (sweet and savoury) at Heindl’s Schmarren.
Your daughter might especially enjoy Time Travel Vienna (a highlight for our whole family) and Haus der Musik.

We had a Vienna city card which was for free travel on public transport, small surcharge for airport line as it's just outside the centre. Never saw tickets being checked on public transport though. Also comes with a discount for some of the museums, but I'd pre-booked a lot of these before getting the Vienna card and didn't utilise the discount. We went Christmas time and a lot of the museums, Albertina excluded, were sold out a couple of days in advance. I ended up pre-booking almost everything.

We went to a concert in the Orangery at Schōnbrunn. I think they are on every night. They are fairly light as they tend to be a selection of famous "ear ticklers" together with a little ballet, but it was a very pleasant evening in a great setting. We booked an option that gave us dinner beforehand.

We loved Restaurant Zum Leopold.

As others said, definitely Schōnbrunn Palace.

I hadn't realised that most of the shops and a number of restaurants shut on Sundays.
We visited Sigmund Freud's house and it was all right up to a point, but we felt it could have been presented and laid out in a much more interesting way. Could do with an upgrade.
For cheap meals, I'd recommend IKEA beside Westbanhof train station (hope I've spelled that correctly). Not in the spirit of Viennese cafe society, but I'm not a big cake person and I don't like schnitzel.
Like lots of other posters I was very impressed with Schonbrunn Palace.

We loved the Haus der Musik - got a combo ticket with Mozart’s House, which is interesting if you are into classical music.

The guru walks were good in Vienna, I did one on arrival that gave several tips for where to eat and where to visit.

she suggested visiting the city apartments of CiCi and just doing the gardens of the summer palace if you were on a weekend trip

there is a very nice upmarket supermarket in the center - best coffee and cheapest. Also the buffet style food in there to take away was delicious- or you can sit in and eat.

Thank you everyone, fantastic ideas, I have made a list, internet searched and bookmarked links. @MikeRafone do you remember the name of the supermarket please? We've got a flat so will eat out at lunchtime and an easy supper from a buffet takeaway sounds good, especially if we've visited cafés for cake in the afternoon 😀

So jealous, I went in 2018 and loved the city! I can't remember any particular restaurants but it wasn't expensive for a capital city.

If you like horses it's worth a trip to the Spanish Riding School, we did the stable tour. We also went to the Freud museum, amazing.

Our favourite supermarket for coffees, packed lunches and easy cooking whe we were SC in Austria, including Vienna, last summer, was Billa. There seems to be a branch round every corner.

Klimt’s greatest works are probably at the Belvedere. We also went to the Royal Palace, (Hofburg/Imperial palace and see the treasury) the history museum, and to the Spanish riding school when the horses were practicing.

Thanks all for the recommendations, we had an excellent time in Vienna.
To add to the ideas here the Albertina has a fabulous collection of 20th century art which was given to them in about 2008. That's since I previously visited and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.