Best Things to Do in Vienna

Vienna's palaces and museums are large enough that trying to see three in a single day leaves you exhausted in a gift shop by 3pm. We have ordered these ten experiences by how much they contribute to a first visit, with a note on how to pace each one.

1. The Kunsthistorisches Museum. Built by the Habsburgs to house their imperial collections, with the world's largest room of paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Cellini's gold salt cellar in the Kunstkammer and a domed café at the top of the grand staircase.
2. Schönbrunn Palace and the Gloriette. The summer palace of Maria Theresa and Franz Joseph. Walk up through the free gardens to the Gloriette hilltop colonnade at 8am for the view over the city before starting your timed palace tour.
3. An evening at the State Opera or Musikverein. Hearing the orchestra in the Staatsoper or the Golden Hall of the Musikverein is part of how the city works, and standing-room tickets released on the morning of the show keep it affordable.
4. The Hofburg and the National Library State Hall. The winter palace complex holds the Sisi Museum, the Imperial Treasury with the thousand-year-old crown of the Holy Roman Empire, and the timber-and-fresco Prunksaal library hall on Josefsplatz.
5. Upper Belvedere for Klimt. Prince Eugene of Savoy's Baroque summer palace holds Gustav Klimt's The Kiss alongside strong rooms of Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka.
6. An unhurried hour in a coffee house. Order a Melange and a slice of strudel at a marble table, read the papers on wooden holders, and stay as long as you like.
7. St Stephen's Cathedral and the Innere Stadt courtyards. Climb the 343 steps of the South Tower or take the North Tower lift to the Pummerin bell, then duck off the main shopping streets into the quiet medieval passageways (Durchhäuser) east of the cathedral.
8. The Spanish Riding School. Watch the white Lipizzaner stallions train to classical music in the Baroque Winter Riding School hall, or book a weekend performance.
9. The Riesenrad and the Prater. Ride one of the wooden red cabins of the 1897 Giant Ferris Wheel, known from The Third Man, then walk down the chestnut-lined Hauptallee.
10. A wine evening at a Heuriger. Take tram D to Nussdorf or the bus to Grinzing and sit under the vines with a mug of young Gemischter Satz white wine; details are in our food and wine guide.

What we would skip: the costumed Mozart ticket sellers on Stephansplatz, the horse-drawn carriage rides (Fiaker), which are costly and spend much of their route in tight street traffic, and the Schnitzel restaurants right on the cathedral square that serve thin pork cutlets at veal prices.