Two Days in Vienna Itinerary

Best of Vienna in 48 Hours

In 48 hours, you will see many Vienna bucket list sights.  Palaces, museums, churches, parks and where to eat.

Two days in Vienna is a perfect city break, and just enough time to see many of Vienna’s Bucket list sights, including the Hofburg, Schönbrunn Palace and some of Vienna’s premier museums.

Our Two Days in Vienna Itinerary continues our One Day in Vienna Itinerary.

On Day One of the itinerary, we recommend that you take a tour of the Ringstraße boulevard by tram, visit the Hofburg, Tour the Opera House and Stephansdom, have dinner in a Viennese Restaurant and end the day with an Opera or Musical performance.

On Day Two of our Itinerary, we recommend visiting either the Kunsthistorische Museum or Belvedere, visiting Schönbrunn Palace and then travelling to Grinzing in the Wienerwald and enjoying a typical Viennese Dinner at a traditional Heurigen (wine tavern).

Full details of Day One of this Two-Day Itinerary can be found in our One Day in Vienna Itinerary. Our One Day in Vienna Itinerary also has helpful hints on When to Visit Vienna and How to Get Around Vienna.

Our Two Days in Vienna Itinerary is planned to show you the best of Vienna in a short time.  That means that this Itinerary is a jam-packed, busy itinerary.
If you want to take a slower pace- just pick and choose your favourites.

*We try to provide average times for each sight- you will need to modify based on your requirements.

Best of Vienna in 48 Hours

Day Two Vienna Itinerary in Map

The Day Two in Vienna Map has the main sights you will see in both Day One and Day Two- as well as the route for the Day Two Morning Walk. The map also highlights the Coffeehouses and restaurants that we recommend.

To use this map, click the icon next to the Map name and add it to your Google account.

 Day Two Vienna Itinerary

8:00 am: Breakfast in a Viennese Coffeehouse.

Start the morning with another visit to one of Vienna’s legendary Coffeehouses.

The following Coffeehouses are close to Stephansplatz where we will start Day Two

• Café Hawelka , which opened in 1939, has been the hangout of artists and intellectuals, including Andy Warhol.  Dorotheergasse 6.
• Kaffee Alt Wien is a classic Viennese coffee house founded in 1922. Bäckerstraße 9
• Café-Konditorei Aida, not a true Coffeehouse but more of a café and patisserie-confectionery shop. Located at Stephansplatz. 
• Café Mozart is located behind the Opera House Albertinaplatz 2
• Café Diglas located on the corner of Wollzeile and Strobelgasse, only a few steps from Stephansdom has been open since 1923

9:00 am: Morning Walk through historic Vienna.

Most tourists do not venture past Stephansplatz, the Graben, Kohlmarkt and Kärtnerstraßse. The streets within the area bordered by Rotenturmstraße, Fleishmarkt, Judengasse and the Donau is full of Viennese history. This area is one of the oldest parts of Vienna, starting as the site of the Roman fortress, Vindabona. 

Here is a recommended ~3 km (1.9 miles),  40-minute walking tour that starts from Stephansdom and finishes at Heldenplatz on the Ringstraße.  There are many sights on the walk that are worthwhile to visit and spend more time at- adjust your schedule accordingly.

On the walk, you will see:

♦ Hoher Markt– the oldest square in Vienna first mentioned in 1233 was the site of the Roman camp Vindobona.
The Roman Museum is at Hoher Markt 3.
In the middle of the square is the 18th Century Nuptial Fountain, dedicated to the marriage of Joseph and Mary, designed by Joseph Emmanuel Fisher von Erlach.
Ankeruhr (Anker Clock), if you can come back at 12:00 noon, you can see all the historic figures parade by accompanied by music of the period.

♦ Judengasse the old Jewist area. Vienna’s Stadttempel, the main synagogue, is located at Seitenstettengasse 4.

♦ Reprechtskirche (St Rupert’s church), which is Vienna’s oldest church, was founded in the 8th or 9th century.  The Romanesque church is dedicated to St Rupert of Salzburg, the patron saint of the salt merchants of Vienna.

♦ Walk back to Sterngasse (Star street) on you way you at Judengasse and Sterngasse, the Shakespeare & Company English bookshop has been a Viennese institution for over 40 years. The small shop is akin to the Tardis, full of a labyrinth of literature.

♦ Turn Right on Wipplingerstraße, at Wipplingerstraße 8 is the Altes Rathaus (Old city Hall) from 1316 to 1883 when the city hall was moved to its present location on the Ringstraße.  Today it houses the municipal offices for the 1st and 8th districts.

Turn left on Fütterergasse to arrive at Judenplatz. One of Vienna’s oldest squares, it was once in the Roman encampment and later was the centre of the medieval Jewish community. There are two important monuments among the 18th and 19th-century houses.

• • Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781), a leading writer of the Enlightenment in Germany and thus a voice for peace, tolerance and reason.
  • Rachel Whiteread’s Holocaust Memorial. The monument is inscribed with the names of the 65,000 Austrian Jews murdered by the Nazis.

♦ The Museum Judenplatz Vienna tells the history of Jewish life in Vienna and the excavations of the 14th-century medieval synagogue. Walk northwest on Judenplatz towards Parisergasse.

♦ The 14th-century Kirche am Hof is in the square known as Am Hof, an important square where Heinrich II. Jasomirgott set up a court in the Duchy of Austria in the middle of the 12th century.

The area once formed part of Vindobona. In the centre of Am Hof is the Mariensäule (Madonna Column), built in 1667.

♦ A less than 5 min walk from Am Hof will bring you to the Freyung, a square at the 12th century Schottenstift Abbey and aristocratic palaces.

♦ Walk throught the Gothic-like vaulted ceiling of Ferstel Passage leads from the Freyung to Herrengasse and forms part of Palais Ferstel. The Ferstel Passage is lined with small stores and cafes. Palais Ferstel is best known as the home of Café Central.

♦ Walk down Landhausgasse (across from Café Central) and arrive at the Minoritenkirche. The site was given to followers of Francis of Assisi in 1224, and the foundation stone was laid by King Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1276. The church was completed in 1350. The church is home to the Italian Congregation.  Although a working church, the Minoritenkirche is a venue for many musical performances.

♦ Walk toward the Volksgarten, where you will pass the Bundeskanzleramt (The Federal Chancery ) built 1717-1719. It is the official residence of the Austrian Chancellor.

Now we are back at Heldenplatz– continue through the square to the Ringstraße.

10:00 am: Visit a Museum

We recommend two options for our Two Days in Vienna Itinerary:

1. Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM)
2. Belvedere

 The museum opens at 10:00 am. and a visit takes a minimum of 2 hours.

On the other side of the square is The Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum), home of the 29,500-year-old Venus of Willendorf figurine, several dinosaur skeletons and the world’s largest and oldest public collection of meteorites.

Lunch

After visiting the KHM you can have lunch in its beautiful café or cross the Ringstraße and have lunch at the Palmenhaus (Palm House) Café-Brasserie and Bar in the Burggarten.  Breakfast (daily until 1 pm), a daily lunch menu and coffee and wine amongst the exotic plants.  

If you have time, you can visit the Imperial Butterfly House (Schmetterlinghaus), also in the Palmenhaus. Here, you find hundreds of exotic butterflies against the backdrop of a waterfall, small ponds and bridges.

⇒⇒Walk back through Maria Theresien Platz and take the U2 in the direction of Karlsplatz and then the U4 to Schönbrunn.

We recommend visit the Oberes (Upper) Belvedere which houses Medieval art, impressionists and its permanent exhibition with highlights from Viennese Modernism, with masterpieces by Klimt, Schiele, Funke, Messerschmidt and van Gogh, and the iconic Kiss by Gustav Klimt

To see the Upper Belvedere permanent collection and the Klimt exhibit allow ~1- 2 hrs.

Lunch

Next to the entrance to the Lower Belvedere is Salm Bräu (Rennweg 8) a brewery distillery and a restaurant serving Austrian cuisine. The Georgian Hall was used before 1717 as wine cellar and later as a monastery. In 1994 the brewery restaurant was opened in the former servants’ quarters of the Salesian Convent.

⇒⇒From the Lower Belvedere either walk to Karlsplatz or take the #71 tram 3 stops to Oper/Karlsplatz. From Karlsplatz take the U4 to Schönbrunn.

1:00 pm: Visit Schloß Schönbrunn

Book Skip-the-line Tickets Here.

Walk through the tree-lined avenues of the French-Style Gardens developed between 1750-1755, and were opened to the public in 1779.

Walk up to the Gloriette, the large triumphal arch built in 1775 that has amazing views of the palace below. On the east side of the Gloriette is the entrance to the Café and terrace.

4:00 pm: Visit Grinzing and eat at a Heurigen

Grinzing is on the northern edge of Vienna and is an old wine village. Grinzing has numerous traditional wine taverns (called Heurigen) and is the starting point for many walks through the Vienna Woods (Wienerwald) with beautiful hills and vineyards.

Vienna is one of the only cities in the world with vineyards within its city limits. There are 630 producers working 1,680 acres of Viennese vineyards.

Heurigen serves traditional Austrian food and the local wine, Gemischter Satz, a white wine only available in Vienna.  In the summer, musicians play traditional music, on guitar and accordions.

⇒⇒Getting there take the U4 Ubahn (Metro) to Heiligenstadt.

Alternatively, if you do not want to go to Grinzing, take the Ubahn back to the centre of the city and have dinner at one of the many fantastic restaurants in Vienna. See our Day One Vienna Itinerary for some recommendations.

Suggestions for Evening Activites

If you still have some energy here are some suggestions for evening activities.

Many of Vienna’s main museums have one or more days a week when they stay open later.  At the time of writing, the following museums evening hours:

♦ Haus der Musik Museum of Music is open daily until 10:00 pm. Immerse yourself in the history of Viennese Classical music and the science of sounds at the interactive museum.
Haus der Musik Skip-the-Line Tickets

Tuesday:
♦ MAK Museum of Applied Art. Vienna’s version of London’s V&A -Open until 9:00 pm
MAK Skip-the-Line Tickets

Wednesday:
♦ Albertina: One of the top 3 Art Museums in Vienna. Open until 9:00 pm
Albertina Skip-the-Line Tickets
♦ National History Museum: Open until 8:00 pm

Thursday: 
♦ Kunsthistorisches Museum.  Open until 9:00 pm. It is also possible to reserve dinner at the Museum’s café.
KHM Skip-the Line Tickets
♦ Wien Museum:  Entry is free. The museum covers the entire history of Vienna from the Neolithic period to the present day.  Open until 9:00 pm

Friday:
♦ Albertina: One of the top 3 Art Museums in Vienna. Open until 9:00 pm
Albertina Skip-the-Line Tickets

Enjoy a Cocktail

Vienna has many bars- from classy traditional Viennese establishments trendy- to trendy bars with epic views. Here are some suggestions:

• Lamèe Rooftop Bar – On the 9th floor with views of Stephansdom. Rotenturmstraße 15
• Das Loft Chic bar on the 18th floor of the Sofitel Hotel looking over the city. Praterstraße 1
• Loos Bar is a Legendary American Bar dating back to 1908 with exclusive cocktails. Kärtner Durchgang 10
• Kleinoid A 1930’s 1930s-inspired cocktail bar with a roof terrace. Singerstraße 7
• Onyx Bar On the 6th floor of Do &Co, with floor-to-ceiling windows, makes you feel like you can reach out and touch Stephansdom’s roof. Stephansplatz 12

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