Country guide
Austria is 83,879 km², and its nine states fall into two kinds of trip. Vienna, Lower Austria and Upper Austria lie along the Danube on level, easily crossed gr...
Photograph · C.Stadler/Bwag · CC BY-SA 4.0
Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor
Austria is 83,879 km², and its nine states fall into two kinds of trip. Vienna, Lower Austria and Upper Austria lie along the Danube on level, easily crossed ground, with Vienna alone holding 1,931,593 of the country's roughly nine million people. Tyrol, Salzburg, Vorarlberg and Styria are the Alpine states, entered by valley rather than by plain, and their capitals — Innsbruck, Salzburg, Bregenz, Graz — are each small enough to cross on foot in an afternoon. The distinction decides an itinerary: the Danube cities sit an hour apart by train and the mountain ones do not.
Checked 2026-08-25
Every city catalogued in this country so far, ranked by how much there is to see.
Photograph · Andrzej Otrębski · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
70 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
Interests
Stephansdom
St. Stephen’s Cathedral is Vienna’s working metropolitan church and the defining landmark of Stephansplatz. Its story reaches back to a foundation in 1137, while Gothic rebuilding began in 1359 under Duke Rudolf IV.
Wiener Staatsoper
The Vienna State Opera was hated when it opened and it killed both its architects.
Riesenrad
Wiener Riesenrad is Vienna’s historic giant wheel at the entrance to the Prater, built in 1897 for Emperor Franz Joseph’s Golden Jubilee. Harry Hitchins and Hubert Cecil Booth designed it, and Walter Basset Bassett built it.
The MuseumsQuartier is one of the largest cultural districts in the world by area, roughly 90,000 square metres, built inside the former imperial court stables, the Hofstallungen, originally constructed in the early eighteenth century under plans associated with Johann Bernhard…
Rathaus
The Rathaus is a Gothic cathedral that turned out to be a town hall, and it is the largest secular building on the Ringstrasse.
Karlskirche is Vienna’s great Baroque church on the south side of Karlsplatz, but its identity is unusually theatrical: a classical portico sits between two monumental spiral-relief columns and two tower pavilions, beneath a 70-metre dome.
Seven to ten days gives Vienna four days and leaves time for Salzburg, Innsbruck, or Graz by rail. Alpine excursions need flexible weather time and should not be treated as guaranteed additions to a tightly timed city route.
Austria follows Schengen entry rules, with document and visa requirements determined by nationality and route. Verify the current position through official Austrian or EU channels before departure.
ÖBB trains and coordinated buses link Vienna with Salzburg, Innsbruck, Graz, and other regions. Drivers need the correct motorway toll product, and some Alpine roads charge separately.
May to June and September suit many city-and-mountain routes, while December is a distinct winter-city period. Lift, pass, and high-road operating dates matter more than a national forecast for Alpine days.
Austria uses the euro (EUR). Cards are useful, but a euro cash reserve can help at smaller establishments; review the amount and currency before approving any terminal conversion.
Austria uses 112 as its general emergency line and 144 for ambulance dispatch. Its 230 V system takes Type C and F plugs. This guide holds no verified tap-water value, so leave that point unresolved until local guidance is checked.
