City guide · Austria

Vienna

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; German is Austria's official language; Croatian, Slovenian and Hungarian also have official status in some regions
Dialling code: +43 1; Vienna landlines; drop the leading 0 of 01 when calling from abroad
Currency: Euro (€, EUR); Austria introduced euro banknotes and coins in 2002
Emergency number: 112; One number across the country; 144 reaches an ambulance directly
Plug type: Not recorded; No verified national official source was found
Tap water: Safe to drink; Austria's national tourism authority states that tap water is drinkable in every region

Planning a visit

Suggested stay: 3–4 days
Getting around: U-Bahn and tram

January: seasonal closure recorded
February: seasonal closure recorded
March: seasonal closure recorded
April: seasonal closure recorded
May: recorded as a best month to visit
June: recorded as a best month to visit
July: seasonal closure recorded
August: seasonal closure recorded — this month
September: recorded as a best month to visit
October: seasonal closure recorded
November: seasonal closure recorded
December: seasonal closure recorded

Top things to see

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

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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
Neubau

Places

282

Across the district

23 min
Landstraße

Places

251

Across the district

54 min
Favoriten

Places

253

Across the district

1 hr 51 min
Währing

Places

186

Across the district

1 hr 7 min
Wieden

Places

186

Across the district

23 min
Penzing

Places

162

Across the district

2 hr 9 min
Mariahilf

Places

204

Across the district

29 min
Floridsdorf

Places

187

Across the district

1 hr 47 min
Meidling

Places

181

Across the district

59 min
Simmering

Places

158

Across the district

1 hr 49 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

🇦🇹Vienna

Practical information

Filter the list

American Bar

Flex

U4

Rinkhy Delikatessin Bar

Grind

Wiener Stadtbräu

Eden Bar

6er Haus

admiral

Admiral Sportsbar

Aurora Rooftop Bar

Bar Black Lounge

Bar Campari

Bar Lounge All'Italiana

Bermuda WG

Bier & Bierli

Biergartl

Bierox

Blended

Bräuhaus Ten.Fifty

C3 Lounge

Café 7*stern

Cafe Alex

Café Amadeus

Cafe Bar Old Splendor

Café Leo

Cafe Mary

Café Rumpelstilzchen

Cannaregio

Civediamo

Couch Potato

das Hugo

Das Torberg

Demmers Teehaus

dEZENTRAl

District 22 Rooftop Bar

Edmund

escape bar and lounge

Espresso am Tivoli

Espresso Karawane

Espresso Slatki San

Fifty Five Club

First American Bar

Fledermaus

flinte

Flokal

Four Bells

Fratelli Valentino

Fräuleins fabelhafter Sommergarten

Golser Bier & Wein Bar

Goodman

Gösserstüberl

Heinzis Beisl

Hillinger Wineshop & Bar

Hopfen-Stuben

Hopferl Wien Beisl

Hühnermeister

Kinzer Stüberl

La Paninoteca

la Salvia

Likör-Stube

Loco Bar

Lucy Bar

Maria und Josef

Michael's Bier-& Weinbar

Michele

Mickey Finn's Irish Pub

Monte Ofelio Bar

Monte Ofelio Bar

Moons Rooftop Bar

Mozart & Meisl

Napo Lindo

NENI am Wasser

Olinda Bar

Oskar

Ottakrügerl

Pharo's Café-Pub

Vienna