Smart Self-Managed Tours

City guide · Austria

Vienna

A photograph of Vienna
Photograph · Andrzej Otrębski · CC BY-SA 4.0

Vienna is 414.78 km² holding 2,028,499 people, and almost everything a visitor comes for sits inside a single ring road less than a kilometre across. The Innere Stadt — the 1st district — is the medieval core, and the Ringstrasse that surrounds it was built in the second half of the nineteenth century on the line of the demolished bastions. The 371-hectare historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001; it was on the endangered list from 2017 to 2026. The wider urban area holds 2,223,236 people and the metropolitan area 2,890,577, which makes Vienna the tenth largest city in Europe and by a long way the largest in Austria.

Practical information

Language spoken
German
English is understood in tourist districts and rarely outside them
Dialling code
+43 1
Vienna landlines; drop the leading 0 of 01 when calling from abroad
Currency
Euro (€, EUR)
Cards accepted almost everywhere; markets prefer cash
Emergency number
112
One number across the country; 144 reaches an ambulance directly
Plug type
Type C and F · 230 V
Standard European two-pin
Tap water
Safe to drink
Vienna's supply is piped from Alpine springs

Planning a visit

Suggested stay
3–4 days
Getting around
U-Bahn and tram
  1. January: seasonal closure recorded
  2. February: seasonal closure recorded
  3. March: seasonal closure recorded
  4. April: seasonal closure recorded
  5. May: recorded as a best month to visit
  6. June: recorded as a best month to visit
  7. July: seasonal closure recorded
  8. August: seasonal closure recorded — this month
  9. September: recorded as a best month to visit
  10. October: seasonal closure recorded
  11. November: seasonal closure recorded
  12. December: seasonal closure recorded

Top things to see

Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.

Nothing in Vienna matches all of those filters

The list is built from real place data, so an empty result means the combination genuinely has no match — not that the page failed. Loosen one filter and the ranking returns.

Clear all filters

Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·

Where to base yourself

District boundaries come from OSM administrative relations, so a district page holds exactly the places inside it — plus, for the islands and the coast, the nearest district by proximity.

  • Innere Stadt

    Places
    929
    Across the district
    27 min
  • Leopoldstadt

    Places
    414
    Across the district
    2 hr 21 min
  • Alsergrund

    Places
    330
    Across the district
    34 min
  • Hietzing

    Places
    264
    Across the district
    2 hr 5 min
  • Döbling

    Places
    282
    Across the district
    1 hr 20 min
  • Liesing

    Places
    281
    Across the district
    2 hr 30 min
  • Donaustadt

    Places
    304
    Across the district
    3 hr 29 min
  • Landstraße

    Places
    251
    Across the district
    54 min
  • Neubau

    Places
    282
    Across the district
    23 min
  • Favoriten

    Places
    253
    Across the district
    1 hr 51 min
  • Penzing

    Places
    162
    Across the district
    2 hr 9 min
  • Währing

    Places
    186
    Across the district
    1 hr 7 min
  • Floridsdorf

    Places
    187
    Across the district
    1 hr 47 min
  • Wieden

    Places
    186
    Across the district
    23 min
  • Mariahilf

    Places
    204
    Across the district
    29 min
  • Simmering

    Places
    158
    Across the district
    1 hr 49 min
  • Meidling

    Places
    181
    Across the district
    59 min
  • Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus

    Places
    176
    Across the district
    35 min
  • Josefstadt

    Places
    142
    Across the district
    18 min
  • Ottakring

    Places
    142
    Across the district
    1 hr 18 min
  • Margareten

    Places
    129
    Across the district
    25 min
  • Hernals

    Places
    102
    Across the district
    1 hr 23 min
  • Brigittenau

    Places
    93
    Across the district
    43 min

How the city is laid out

Twenty-three districts, numbered roughly in the order they were absorbed, arranged around the 1st.

The Innere Stadt is the 1st and holds the cathedral, the Hofburg, the opera and most of what a short visit will see. Districts 2 to 9 and 20 were incorporated in 1850 and lie inside the Gürtel, the outer ring road; they are the inner districts and are where most visitors sleep and eat. Districts 10 to 19 and 21 to 23 came in between 1874 and 1938, mostly in 1892.

Districts 21 and 22 are across the Danube on the left bank — Floridsdorf is the northernmost part of the city and Donaustadt the largest by area. Districts 2 and 20 sit on the island between the Danube and the Donaukanal.

The postal code gives the district: 1XXA, where the middle two digits are the district number. An address at 1070 is in the 7th.

Checked 2026-08-23

Getting around

The U-Bahn, the trams, and a ticket that covers both.

The U-Bahn has five lines, 109 stations and 83.9 km of track, and it opened on 25 February 1978. It carried 404.8 million passengers in 2023. Trains run from about 05:00 to 01:00 at intervals of two to fifteen minutes, and run all night at fifteen-minute intervals on Friday and Saturday nights and before public holidays.

A sixth line, the U5, is under construction for completion between 2026 and 2032; the network will then be 90 km with 116 stations.

Tickets are integrated with the trams, the buses and the S-Bahn through the VOR system, so one ticket covers the whole journey. Some airport services are outside it.

Inside the Ring, walking beats all of it.

Checked 2026-08-23

Common questions

How many days does Vienna need?

Three to four. Two days cover the Innere Stadt and the Ring — the cathedral, the Hofburg, the opera, the museums on the Maria-Theresien-Platz. A third takes Schönbrunn and the Belvedere, and a fourth allows a proper concert or an afternoon in the wine villages.

How do the districts work?

Twenty-three of them, numbered roughly in the order they joined the city. The 1st is the medieval centre, districts 2–9 and 20 came in 1850 and lie inside the Gürtel, and the rest arrived between 1874 and 1938. The postal code carries the number: 1070 is the 7th district.

What is the Ringstrasse?

The boulevard built in the second half of the nineteenth century on the line of the demolished city bastions, encircling the Innere Stadt. Most of Vienna's great public buildings face onto it.

Is the U-Bahn the best way around?

For anything beyond the Ring, yes. Five lines, 109 stations, 83.9 km, running from about 05:00 to 01:00 and all night at weekends. Inside the Ring, walking is faster.

When is the best time to come?

April to June and September to October. Summer afternoons reach 27–32°C and the palace gardens have little shade; winter hovers around freezing but brings the concert season and the Christmas markets.

How big is Vienna really?

414.78 km² with 2,028,499 people in the city proper, 2,223,236 in the urban area and 2,890,577 in the metropolitan area — the tenth largest city in Europe.

Turn this list into a plan

Set your days, your pace and the hours you actually want to be out. The planner works around closing days and travel time, and leaves room to eat.

Plan Vienna