Looking to explore the city and its attractions? Find your way to articles, tips, links and reviews for numerous tour options: from guided walks and movie-themed location maps to bus tours, boat trips and VR experiences.
- See also:
- Sightseeing in Vienna
- Review of Vienna All-Inclusive Pass from Go City
- …good for tours
Jump to:
- Walking & themed tours
- Tours of historical buildings
- VR tours and experiences
- Film locations
- Boat and river trips
- Segway & bike tours (work in progress)
- Bus tours
- Day trips
- Useful passes
Trips & tours, oh my…
We shall begin on two feet…and watch this space as I add more articles and reviews with time.
Walking & themed tours
(The Mozart monument in the Burggarten park)
This overview takes you through various possibilities, beginning with a detailed 4-part self-guided walking tour around the best bits of the historical centre.
Other options covered include links for guided services and various articles I put together that let you explore themes like particular architectural eras or historical epochs.
Finally, trace the lives & works of those notable composers, artists, and architects closely associated with Vienna. From Beethoven and Brahms to Schubert and Schiele.
Not to mention a certain Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (apparently he came up with a few good tunes).
Tours of historical buildings
(Tour the inside of the Austrian parliament)
Vienna is the kind of place where a restaurant bears a world-famous name because that same name used to live upstairs. We have a lot of history here. It oozes out of Gothic doors, Baroque portals, and Art Deco windows.
And many historical locations offer tours of their interiors in one form or another. Opera houses, palaces, concert venues, civic & religious buildings, and more.
VR tours and experiences
Virtual reality has put a realistic, well-animated arm around the shoulders of traditional Vienna to add another dimension to tours of and in the city.
Have a look at some seated and on-the-go VR tours and immersive experiences that transport you to places old and imagined.
Film locations
(Which shadowy figure once famously stood in this doorway?)
Vienna has provided outdoor and interior locations for many international movies and TV shows; from classics of the 1940s to today’s Netflix productions.
To follow in the footsteps of Harry Lime, Ethan Hunt, James Bond, Céline & Jesse, Jack Ryan and others, see this collection of articles. Most of the location guides feature a map and photos, as well as tips and anecdotes about the places you pass.
Boat and river trips
(Take a turn along the Danube)
Vienna owes much of its historical prominence to a convenient location on the banks of the continent-crossing Danube. The river itself passes through the northeast of the city, but one arm kindly snakes around the edge of the old town.
Some river trip options include boat transfers to Bratislava and back, various tours of the Vienna bits of the Danube (and beyond), and even a municipal service out to a wetland nature reserve.
Bus tours
Vienna has two main hop on hop off bus services that take you past and to important sights like the Schönbrunn and Belvedere palaces, the historical gems around the Ringstrassen, the Riesenrad giant Ferris wheel, the Danube, and Hundertwasserhaus.
They may also include bonus experiences with their higher-priced products, like a river cruise or guided walk.
Day trips
(Salzburg makes a great day trip and is easily reached by train in a little over two hours)
If we stretch our definitions a little, then a tour in Vienna might take you outside the city and back again…to such destinations as Salzburg, Hallstatt, the Alps, or Budapest. Which is why I have some day trip suggestions for you.
Useful passes
Finally, a couple of passes offer one-time free access to various tours. For example (at the time of writing):
- The attractions and activities in the Vienna All-Inclusive Pass from Go City include over 15 guided and non-guided walking, bus, bike, and virtual reality tours and experiences
- The Vienna Pass includes a couple of guided tours, a city cruise and (repeat) use of a hop on hop off bus service