Spittelberg was our "go to" area for many dinners, as our apartment was relatively close by. It's a…read moresmall district, maybe 4-5 blocks total - located right behind the Museumsquartier and entirely pedestrianized. Back in the day, this was the "red light" district for the soldiers serving the Hofburg palace. Most of the buildings are original, dating from the 18th and early 19th century - so you really get a feel for "old Vienna" here. The streets are cobbled and quiet so you don't feel like you're in the middle of a major city. During the day, there are cute (and pricey) boutiques, shops and art galleries. At night, there are a good number of restaurants and gasthauses to explore. We especially liked Boheme and Witwe Bolt but there are many more to pick from. If you're visiting during the Christmas season, the neighborhood hosts a popular Christmas market in the "village square" area.

Yelp Review 2023 #270:…read more Hochstralbrunnen is a small part of a park (Schwartzenbergplatz). It's looks nothing special in the winter months for a reason. They drain the water and turn off the pipelines. The fountain is only operating in the spring, summer, and beginning of fall. It's a powerful fountain that shoots up water like a jet and sprays people - you wouldn't want to get sprayed with water in the winter, would you? However, you can still make this fountain look more interesting and worthy of a visit during the winter. Do a light show...something! So, this fountain's pipelines are connected to the Central Eastern Alps so the water is supposedly potable. I'm not about to get pelted by water to test that. I ended up here while I was at the Karlskirche and trying to get to Belvedere. It wasn't part of my itinerary at all. I watched YouTube videos of what it looks like in the summer - and it's quite nice. So, go in the summer!

Beautiful and meaningful! We stopped by as we meandered through the city. Read about it online.read more

Ringstrasse is the street where most of the culturally important landmarks and tourist sites are…read morelocated. I recommend hopping on a tram/bus and taking it all the way around this circular boulevard so you get a sense of where everything is located in relation to each other, as well as to get a feel for the city. It's a main street, so it is extremely busy with both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. It was built on what was once the old city walls, hence it being a ring (same word in German). Hubs and I took the tram around it AND walked most of it, just to get up close and personal with some of the buildings, like the Parliament and City Hall. The best shopping and restaurants are inside the ring, the Innere Stadt, but you can find a few decent place on the outskirts. 72/2025

Nice park for walking or a workout and views of the Hofburg complex. Also check out the Volksgarten…read moreacross the street for lilacs and roses.

It's kind of creepy that this is where 200,000 Viennese gathered in 1938 to welcome Adolf Hitler…read moreand to celebrate the Anschluss. Interesting to stand here and to marvel how Austria could embrace Hitler and Dollfuss four years earlier.

This is a delightful little corner of Vienna you could easily miss even if you spent your while…read morelife in the city. But you definitely don't want to miss it! Over the years Yppenplatz has developed into a lovely place for people to come together. There are wonderful restaurants, a couple of artsy places and the classic Viennese Staud's marmelade store. You can spend an enjoyable morning or afternoon here and finish it all off with a trip next door to the Brunnenmarkt, an authentic market which, unlike many markets in Vienna, hasn't lost its ethnically diverse character. Personally, I like to treat myself to breakfast at An-Do or Rasouli, buy some fresh fruit and veg at the market and then stop by Halis Börek to pick up some sweetpotato börek for my kids. The wonderfully old-fashioned (in the experience-a-piece-of-history sense of the word) Kaffee Putz is a great place to stop in, too. Yppenplatz is an ideal example of true local character.

Graben is a wide pedestrian street lined with stores and restaurants in the heart of Vienna. It's…read moreclosed to traffic so you can stroll through blocks and enjoy some great shopping, restaurants, cafes and architecture. . Just steps from the landmark, St. Stephen's Cathedral it has been a central street since Roman times. Here you will find beautiful 17th & 18th century buildings and A mix of high-end international brands like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and some nice Viennese boutiques. Stop at Zum Schwarzen Kameel a landmark cafe, and if you can sit outside you'll be in for some great people watching.

This is a shopping street of about 4.5 blocks located in the historic city center of Vienna. Lots…read moreof international high end stores line the plaza, which contains a three notable monuments. These are: - Josefsbrunnen (Joseph's Fountain) - Wiener Pestsäule (Vienna Column of Pest) - Leopoldsbrunnen (Leopoldo's Fountain) The first and third stand on either side (to the east and west) of the second one, all designed in the Baroque style, and are respectively dedicated to St. Joseph, and Saint Leopold III. These two fountains were initially constructed in the late 17th century though the original bronze sculptures in 1803-04 were replaced with lead ones and remain so to this day. The composition of each fountains--a figure of Joseph leaning towards a boy holding a scroll showing his genealogy, with reliefs around the fountain depicting Joseph's flight into Egypt and dream with an angel;--a figure of Leopold holding a flag, dressed in armor and a crown, with relief panels showing discovery of Margravine's veil* and laying of the foundation stone for Klosterneuburg Abbey. The Column of Pest, or Plague Column, came about from the Plague which afflicted Vienna in 1679. King Leopold vowed to raise a pillar--a commemorative shrine of sorts symbolizing the mercy of God on Vienna--if the epidemic would end. In 1683, Leopold commissioned Matthias Rauchmiller to design this but he died in 1686, leaving his basic plans and three of his angel figures that are incorporated on the monument. New designs followed with several different designers and project managers, finally concluding with theatre engineer Lodovico Burnacini's idea of a Trinity being overhead a cloud pyramid with angel sculptures and kneeling emperor Leopold praying to a sculpture of faith. The sculpture was completed in 1694 and surprisingly looked pretty cohesive given the amount of change it had gone through. *according to Google: " "Margravine's Veil" is a legend associated with Stift Klosterneuburg, a monastery near Vienna. According to the tale, the veil of Margravine Agnes was blown by a gust of wind from the Leopoldsberg hill and landed on the site where the monastery was later built. This legend highlights the site's historical importance and is a key part of the monastery's identity."