Vienna Travel Tips

Originally written for a fellow Harvard grad who contacted me before her trip to Vienna in Summer 2012, these tips focus on things that are likely to appeal to somewhat bougey college students like moi. I think they're useful -- she wrote me after her trip saying that Vienna is now her favorite city in the world. But I don't think I can take all the credit for that.

You can also check out a list of cultural and behavioral tips I wrote for visitors to Austria here.

Attractions

Prater. Pay the exorbitant fee to ride the ferris wheel (Riesenrad) if you want, but also spend some time walking down the Hauptallee, which is the main path of what is a very very long park. And I had a great experience at Schweizerhaus, which is a brewery / beer garden near the amusement park part of Prater. They're apparently known for Stelze, which is fried pig thigh on a huge platter -- definitely do not eat alone.

Coincidentally, the biggest club in Austria is called Praterdom and is, as the name suggests, in Prater. It's fun, lots of college-aged people and not too sketchy. The other nightlife area is right around Schwedenplatz, known as the Bermuda Dreieck (Bermuda Triangle). It's basically a strip of bars that pretty much all resemble the next. But my Austrian friends liked to spend time in Dickie Mac's, for reasons I never figured out. I'm not going to include a picture, but a quick look at the Google Images results will give you a sense of what the Bermuda Dreieck is all about ;).

You could also check out the Gürtel (literally the "belt" around the city; take the U6 to Josefstädterstraße and look under the tracks), which is fun but a bit more sketchy. I somehow always ended up at Chelsea - where (as long as there's no Premier League game on, check the schedule) you're guaranteed to hear every song from the "Parentz Suckk!!!" pop-punk playlist you had when you were 15. I, for one, don't know how you could ask for more from a club.

And there will be puke on your train if you take the U6 back late at night -- but don't worry, Vienna is like the safest city on the planet, nothing will happen to you.

The Habsburgs have two residences within the city - the Hofburg and Schönbrunn. Both are cool. Schönbrunn is the summer residence, more fairy tale-like, while the Hofburg gives you more info on the actual rule of the Habsburgs and is also more imposing and imperial. The Sissi Museum is a waste of money, though - Europeans are kind of obsessed with her, which is why it exists, but Americans generally haven't heard of her and don't care how long it took to comb her hair.

I'm kind of partial to the University of Vienna main building, which has a beautiful inner courtyard area open to the public, but the entire area around the Ring is awesome. It's not far to just walk around the Ring, but you can also take the 1 Streetcar (which, incidentally, takes the same route as the overpriced yellow trams they try to get tourists to take). Basically, the emperor in the early 1800s demolished the city wall and built all these impressive buildings, like the Parliament building, the University, the state theater, the philharmonic music theater, the Hofburg, etc all on a street that encircles the city. It's especially nice at night, when everything is lit from the bottom in a somewhat creepy, imposing white light.

Austrian parliament building at sunset

Cafe Landmann is also a pretty nice cafe on the Ring, in case you want to experience Viennese coffee culture (if you want an American-style coffee, it's a "verlängerte" : if you just order coffee, you get a small cup of espresso).

Stuffy to the max, but hey, it's a Vienna institution.

The main cathedral you'll read about in all the tourist guidebooks in the Stephansdom. It's nice, but the cooler parts are above (climb! climb! climb! to the top, where you'll see the marks from the fire that we set when we occupied the city in 1945, oops) and below (the crypt, which is really creepy and has lots and lots of medieval bones).

View from the top

Food

Wurst (sometimes also spelled Würstl) means sausage, and it's Viennese street food: in fact, Viennese in German is "Wiener," which is how we get the name. The most typical type of Wurst is Käsekrainer, which is a big ol' sausage filled with cheese ("Käse" means cheese), but my personal favorite is Bernerwürstl, which is again filled with cheese, but also wrapped with bacon. And they say Americans are unhealthy ...

Käsekrainer with Senf (mustard) & Semmel - as it should be

You can find Würstlstände on pretty much every corner of the city, but my favorite is the very bougey Würstlstand am Albertinaplatz right by the opera and (as the name suggests) the Albertina. It's the only one that looks clean enough for me to get over my fear of meat long enough to enjoy an entire Wurst. Interestingly, it is rare to find Bernerwurst at a Würstlstand, so if you ever see them on a restaurant menu, jump at the chance.

Kaiserschmarrn is the Austrian national dish. It's a pancake-y thing with raisins that you typically eat for dessert, but you can also totally make a meal out of, a la a sweet crepe. It has a history of questionable veracity, but it's mostly just delicious.

Döner Kebab. If you've ever been to the German speaking world, you've probably heard of / seen this, but it's a gyro-like Turkish sandwich that has been modified to fit German tastes (by adding red cabbage, as far as I can tell). Basically the German version of Tex-Mex, bordering on Taco Bell territory because it is what everyone eats at night when they're drunk.

(Speaking of which, my favorite Austrian beer is Stiegl, the one from Salzburg. Gösser, from Styria, is pretty good, too. And of the Viennese beers, drink Ottakringer over Schwechater any day.)