Should you wish to sit next to Empress Elisabeth, fly above Vienna, or see what AI can do with Mozart, then I have a few suggestions for you…
- Book a VR experience* in Vienna
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Virtual reality and more
Let us begin with some headset-based fun…
Indoor VR experiences
(Fly in a boat above Vienna)
Two indoor attractions in particular place the emphasis on virtual reality and immersion.
- Sisi’s Amazing Journey: a two-part attraction with a documentary film about the life of Empress Elisabeth followed by a virtual reality ride on a boat
The VR part is simply a bit of fun. You sit in an actual small boat, which moves to add another dimension to the adventurous journey through (and above) parts of the city. The monarch herself serves as your fellow passenger and guide.
(Another entertaining dip into the past)
- Time Travel tour: a sister attraction to the above and much more extensive. A bubbly mix of VR, 5D cinema, moving sets, animatronics and more with a little bit of history thrown in to give it a veneer of education
This takes you through notable events or Vienna-related themes, but the focus is on the entertainment part of infotainment.
VR tours
(Bus and VR tour in one)
These tours combine a real trip around Vienna sights with VR elements at particular stops.
- Future Bus: I enjoyed this one. A small tour bus takes you around some of the more prominent central locations
At selected stops, you don your headset to find yourself whisked up into the air or transported back to historical scenes created through both animation technology and reenactments with real actors.
- VR Tours Vienna*: a roughly two-hour walking tour I hope to get to soon (I’ve seen them out and about)
You’re escorted through the city centre, stopping at various key locations to put on a headset and view important historical events unfolding around you at the same spot via VR animations. Includes a multilingual audioguide.
Multimedia & immersive
(The Technisches Museum: a paradise for button pressers)
Various attractions and temporary exhibitions now involve clever use of multimedia, VR elements, AI, projections, and/or other technologies to create more immersive experiences.
- Mythos Mozart: five large rooms featuring unique audiovisual environments around Mozart’s life and music
Art meets music meets technology meets AI in dynamic wall and floor projections, an interactive performance of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and more.
(Just in time for Strauss year)
- The Johann Strauss Museum: another journey through the life and music of a renowned composer
Immersive projections, animations, and oodles of music combine entertainment with plenty of insight into the composer of The Blue Danube.
- The House of Strauss: dedicated to the dynasty as a whole
An exhibition with various interactive elements that explores the Strauss family, their music, and the surrounding era.
- IMMERSIUM:WIEN: a collection of rooms and stations on a changing theme (the world of animals just started up at the time of writing)
IMMERSIUM’s previous exhibition had everything from a 5D ride through a Jurassic environment to training an on-screen velociraptor. So I have high expectations for the new experience.
- IKONO: combining contemporary art with creativity and, frankly, simple fun
You wander through a series of rooms offering various degrees of immersion and interactivity. From giant ball pits to DIY light paintings.
(Create your own waltz with the help of dice; one of many interactive elements at the House of Music)
- The House of Music: has various interactive stations. You can create your own Clong sound creature using a VR headset, for example, or conduct an orchestra that responds to your baton movements
I should add that members of that orchestra make dismissive comments should your efforts as a conductor fail to live up to their expectations. The cheek of it.
- The Technisches Museum: the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology has an awful lot of buttons to press and levers to pull (to put it in old-fashioned terms)
Again, numerous interactive stations…from wheelchair simulators to cable car rides.
- The Retro Gaming Museum: a chronology of gaming tech that takes you from the early days of clunky monitors and cables through to today’s consoles
You can try out some of the equipment and associated games. Controlling the Pong paddle doesn’t quite count as a full immersive experience, but a couple of VR headsets let you enter the modern era of the video game world.
- Madame Tussauds: the famous wax museum has interactive sections
Take a VR journey inside a 1976 Mercedes 200 with the “Bergdoktor” (from the TV series) as your driver. Or experience a ski jump alongside Austrian ski star, Stefan Kraft.
Special exhibitions
(Look for immersive exhibitions in the Marx Halle)
Vienna has become a stop for some of the immersive and/or interactive exhibitions that now tour the world. The Marx Halle often hosts one, for example, and had the Last Days of Pompeii running across late 2024 and early 2025.
P.S. A fair few places offer what we might call a virtual tour of Vienna or of specific locations within the city without the need to leave your home. Here some suggestions.