What to do with 2 Days in Vienna

Vienna is one of the most historically and culturally rich cities in Europe. From world famous operas by the most influential composers, incredible imperial palaces and churches to its famed food and UNESCO World Heritage City Center, Vienna has it all! Which may leave you wondering what to do in Vienna when you are short on time. Two days is definitely not long enough to see all that Vienna has to offer, so I’ve put together the top things to do in Vienna!

Why you should spend 2 Days in Vienna

If you are a culture lover, Vienna should definitely be on your bucket list. The Viennese are proud of their culture and many of the sites are funded in part by the Austrian government in order to maintain the traditional culture of Vienna. That’s one of the reasons there are so many things to do in Vienna!

Viennese architecture is some of the most beautiful I have ever seen, and I loved how pristine the city was. The city has a romantic quality that makes it an ideal weekend getaway if you live in Europe!

Traveling to Vienna for 2 Days

You can reach Vienna by train from many cities around Europe. If you prefer to fly, you will fly into the Vienna International Airport. We arrived via train from Bratislava and left via train to go back to Budapest, and I highly recommend taking this option if you are only spending two days in Vienna! European train rides are my favorite because you can see so much of the countryside on trains.

Is the Vienna City Card worth it?

You can purchase the Vienna City Card in 24, 48, and 72 hour increments. There are 4 types: Vienna City Card, Vienna City Card Transfer, Vienna City Card Tour, and Vienna City Card Transfer + Tour. The Transfer cards are unnecessary if you are not flying into Vienna. The Tour card includes a 24 hour hop on hop off tour. But ALL cards include free use of the public transportation system.

And IMO, that is the best part of the City Card. You can get discounts at museums, some hotels, some restaurants, and other tourist attractions, but we found they were minimal. The best discount we got was 7% off at the Spanish Riding School. The app, Ivie, is really helpful in showing you things to do in Vienna, where you can get discounts, and how much of a discount you will get based on your current location.

We spent two days in Vienna and purchased the 48 hour Vienna City Card. We used public transport enough that we felt it was worth it!

Bottom line: Vienna City Card is worth it.

a gray statue with gold trimmings stands tall in the night sky commemorating the plague victims in vienna austria — Column of Pest

Tips for Travelers with Anxiety in Vienna

Buy tickets online in advance. We waited in a ton of lines because we thought going in a shoulder season (September) would make it less crowded. It was still crowded! Also plan time to get from one place to the next because walking takes longer than you would expect. And two days in Vienna is not a lot of time!

Skip Schönbrun Palace. The grounds are amazing, but it is incredibly expensive to do most of the cool things there. It is also super crowded all day every day. We arrived about 30 minutes after it opened and it was already insane. And then we had to wait 2 hours to tour the inside of the palace. It is usually on the top list of things to do in Vienna, but IMO there were other things I would have liked to see better.

Buy the Vienna City Card. You will have peace of mind being able to hop on and off any bus, tram, or metro anywhere in the city!

First time or anxious traveler? Check out my posts on coping with travel anxiety!

Grounding Techniques for Travelers with Anxiety
Airplane Anxiety - how to deal with Turbulence
How to Cope with Travel Anxiety

the massive grand exterior of the vienna opera house with a bright blue sky at midday — Vienna Opera House from the balcony at Albertina

What you need to know before you go to Vienna

General

Vienna is the capital of Austria, which is in the European Union. The Schengen Visa applies here, and make sure you check out the changes coming in late 2022.

Language

German is the official language, but many people speak English.

Some helpful German phrases:

Ja (Yah) - Yes
Nein - No
Guten Morgen - Good morning
Guten Tag - Good day
Bitte - Please/You’re welcome
Danke - Thank you
Tschüss - Bye

Money

The currency in Austria is the Euro (EUR). We were fine using a credit card for everything here. Make sure you have a good travel credit card!

Safety

I felt very safe. Vienna is clean and the people are polite. But the streets are pretty busy with a combination of people living/working there and then tourists on top of that.

a gray stone building with a large gold gilded greek statue in front in vienna austria — Austrian Parliament Buildings

Where to stay in Vienna

The best place to stay if you only have two days in Vienna is in the Innere Stadt. This is also where most of the tourist attractions are!

I’m not going to recommend the hotel we stayed at (Ambassador Wein) except for its exceptional location. The pictures online were deceiving! The hotel is in need of a renovation, the mattress was rock hard, and the towels were flimsy and not absorbent. I don’t know who gave the 5 Star designation to them, but they should probably revisit it!

But the area near Stephanzplatz is one of the best to stay and there are an abundance of hotels to choose from. A friend from Vienna recommended Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth, but I have not personally stayed there. The best things to do in Vienna are all right around Stephanzplatz or on the metro line that runs through Stephanzplatz. It’s super walkable too with lots of restaurants to choose from!

What to do for 2 Days in Vienna

IMO, 2 days in Vienna is not long enough. There are so many amazing things to do in Vienna, that you simply can’t cover it all on a short trip. I’ve covered what we did on our 2 days in Vienna, and have added a section at the bottom of other options that I had on my list but we ran out of time for.

Day 1: Schönbrun Palace, Exploring Innere Stadt, Dinner & Opera

Schönbrunn Palace

Honestly, Schönbrunn Palace is overrated. I wasn’t impressed and it was super expensive. The grounds are gorgeous though. You can easily spend a day exploring here, so keep that in mind because it is also about 25 minutes outside of the city center. If you had to remove anything from your itinerary, I would recommend removing this so you can do more of the other fantastic things Vienna has to offer.

Exploring Innre Stadt

Vienna is so instagrammable, and you’ll definitely want to have your camera along! And since you only have 2 days in Vienna, a lot of the things you won’t be able to get to, you can still see from the outside.

Here are my favorite buildings/photography spots in Vienna:

St Peter’s Catholic Church - Goldschmiedgasse is the best place to get the iconic photo of its dome
Palace of Justice - get here right when it opens for some breathtaking marble staircase photos
Austrian Parliament Building - the Greek statues are stunning
St Stephen’s Cathedral - the roof tiles are so intricate
Vienna Opera House - the best photo spot for it is on the second floor of the Albertina

Dinner & Opera

Going to the Viennese Opera (Wiener Staatsoper) was probably my favorite thing we did in Vienna. And it’s arguably one of the best things to do in Vienna because of Vienna’s Opera used to be the place to see and be seen! Have dinner at Restaurant Furich beforehand and try an Austrian Reisling. Hands down one of the best wines I’ve ever had!

You don’t have to dress black tie formal to go to the Opera, but wearing nicer clothing won’t make you stick out like a tourist. Also, when booking tickets online, the boxes on the balcony will have 7 seats in them (3-2-2 configuration). If you are shorter, you will definitely want to be closer to the balcony. We had a hard time seeing from the back of the box!

Day 2: Spanish Riding School, Imperial Treasury, St Stephen’s Cathedral

Spanish Riding School

The Spanish Riding School is one of Vienna’s most popular tours (and one of the best). I HIGHLY recommend buying tickets online for both the training and the tour of the stables. We waited until we got there to buy tickets and almost missed the training show and had to come back 4 hours later for our tour. It interrupted our day quite a bit! You might also want to contact them before you book about when the training will be going on during your stay. Online it said the training was at 11 AM, but in September they were doing training at 10 AM. So glad we got in line at 9:30 otherwise we would have missed it! And since we only had two days in Vienna, we wouldn’t have been able to see it all on another day.

Imperial Treasury

The Imperial Treasury is right down the road from the Spanish Riding School so you can quickly go from one to the other. The Treasury had so many cool artifacts, pieces of jewelry, clothing, and more from the Imperial families that ruled Austria dating back to the 900s! If you have extra time after, I recommend going to the Sisi Museum. You’ll have to let me know how it is!

St Stephen’s Cathedral

You definitely want to get an All Inclusive ticket to St Stephen’s. You can self tour for the most part, but you will need to join a public tour of the catacombs (which you definitely want to see!). St Stephen’s Cathedral is something you definitely have to do with two days in Vienna.

Other things to do in Vienna:

Vienna is filled with rich culture & history so it can be hard to choose what’s most important to see! Here’s a list of other things I wanted to do but didn’t have enough time for with only two days in Vienna. You can check out Vienna’s tourist board for more ideas and list of upcoming events.

Albertina - an art gallery with one of the largest and most expensive collections in the world, housed in one part of the Hofburg Palace
Sisi Museum - it is right across from the Spanish Riding School
Palace of Justice - a note: people have had mixed interactions with the security staff here. When we went, they were super nice! We just explained we wanted to take some photos because we had heard how beautiful it was. Always be respectful and courteous, especially when you are going somewhere that is an active place of work!
Belvedere Palace
Liechtenstein Palace
Austrian National Library
Rathaus (City Hall)