Vienna
Austria
Imperial palaces, coffee houses, and world-class music
Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash
Photos by Jacek Dylag, Leyre, Sandro Gonzalez and Dmitrii E. on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Austria
April to May, September to October, December for markets
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 70mm in Jun
Where it is
48.21°N, 16.37°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Tour Schönbrunn Palace and gardens
- See Klimt at the Belvedere
- Get standing-room opera tickets for a few euros
- Sit out an afternoon in a coffee house
- Ride the Prater ferris wheel
- Visit a Heuriger wine tavern in Grinzing
Vienna travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Austria
Mid-rangeEuro. Vienna is card-friendly but Austrians still like cash — some coffee houses and Heuriger wine taverns are cash only.
ATMs & cards
Erste Bank, Bank Austria and Raiffeisen machines are reliable. Refuse conversion. Independent machines in the Innere Stadt charge €3-5.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- independent machines in the Innere Stadt
Use these instead
- Erste Bank
- Bank Austria
- Raiffeisen
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Austria
Very safeConsistently rated among the world’s safest and most liveable cities. Standard big-city awareness around Praterstern station is all you need.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (3 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
- Vienna — almost the entire city, which ranks among the safest anywhere
Worth more attention
- Praterstern — and Karlsplatz, at night
- Pickpockets on the U1 and around Stephansplatz
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Austria visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Austria
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis — Austria has one of the highest rates in Europe and the vaccine is routine for residents
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment. Mountain rescue is superb and is charged for; check your insurance covers it before hiking or skiing.
Ticks in forest and meadow up to about 1,500m, from spring to autumn.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodA proper Viennese coffee house lets you sit for hours over one mélange. Order Wiener schnitzel made from veal if you want the real thing — pork is the cheaper substitute.
Nightlife
Wine taverns on the edge of the city, jazz cellars in the middle, and a club scene under the railway arches nobody expects.
- Bermuda Triangle — the bar cluster by Schwedenplatz
- Gürtel — clubs and live music under the arches
- Naschmarkt — bars along the market, busy until late
- Grinzing — heurigen, for new wine among the vines
Closing: 02:00 for bars, 06:00 for the Gürtel clubs.
A beer in a bar: €4–6
Getting around
Easy and cheap- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
- From the airport
- Vienna airport to the centre €35–45 by app, €12 on the CAT
- Against a taxi
- A little under the meter, since the 2021 rules put both on the same tariff.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Vienna — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Austria
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 1.2× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at 1.3× the global median of 109 Mbps.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Austria, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
German
- HelloGuten TagGOO-ten tahk
- PleaseBitteBI-tuh
- Thank youDankeDAN-kuh
- Yes / NoJa / Neinya / nine
4 more phrases
- Excuse meEntschuldigungent-SHOOL-di-gung
- How much is it?Was kostet das?vas KOS-tet das
- The bill, pleaseDie Rechnung, bittedee REKH-nung
- Cheers!Prost!prohst
Religion
Catholic
Catholic in tradition and calendar — many shops close on religious holidays that are not obvious to visitors.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Use titles and surnames until invited otherwise; formality is real here
- Say Grüß Gott, which is the standard greeting rather than hallo
- Dress well for the opera, concerts and even a good coffee house
- Take your time in a coffee house — one order buys you the afternoon
Don't
- Do not call Austrians German, and do not assume the accents are interchangeable
- Do not be late; punctuality is close to a moral matter
- Do not talk loudly in public spaces
- Do not skip greeting shop staff on entering
Where to stay in Vienna
No Holistay rentals in Vienna yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Vienna on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Schwechat VIE
16 minfrom the airport· 19 km as the crow flies
City Airport Train in 16 min, or the S7 for a third of the price.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
