Vienna, the capital of Austria, is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It has awe-inspiring architecture, superb museums and a lively atmosphere. Whether you’re young or old, the city offers a wealth of options for every age! From amazing palaces to interactive museums,Vienna has something for everyone. In this guide to Vienna with kids I’ll take you on a journey through fascinating sites and exciting activities, and, just as important, give you tips for visiting the city and recommendations for the best hotels.
Very important: don’t forget that when you plan a trip with kids, you must prepare an arsenal of backup plans, just in case. Because as everyone knows, on a trip with kids there are endless things that can go wrong… So we made a special effort to put together a comprehensive list packed with activities for kids of different ages, so you can always pull a surprise attraction out of your sleeve, just when they’re in the middle of a tantrum or a downpour starts in the middle of the park. The list has light, fun attractions that young kids will love, alongside a range of museums and historic sites better suited to teenagers. And of course we haven’t forgotten recommendations for shopping and markets that everyone loves. So let’s get going:
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Important Information for Traveling in Vienna with Kids
Here you’ll find everything you need to know before you arrive in Vienna with the kids.
Getting Around the City
Vienna has excellent public transport that’s well worth using. On the other hand, the city isn’t friendly to private cars and parking costs a fortune! So unless you plan to leave the city to explore the rest of Austria, it’s not worth renting a car here.
If you still choose to travel by car, book it in advance and you’ll save yourself the hassle of comparing prices and looking for a reliable rental agency during your trip.
Getting Around by Public Transport
For public transport, Vienna has an underground (U-Bahn), trams (called Straßenbahn) and buses. The U-Bahn has 5 lines identified by color. Every station has very clear explanations of the different routes to help you reach your destination easily. On weekdays the trains run from early morning until 1:00 at night, and on weekends they run around the clock.
The tram is also very useful for getting from place to place in the city, and there’s also a suburban train called the
S-Bahn, which mainly serves the area outside the city, but you can use it between stations within Vienna too.
Public transport tickets in Vienna are valid on all modes of transport! You can buy them at every station, online, at the Tabaktrafik shops scattered around the city and in the various public transport apps for Vienna. Before each journey you must validate your ticket. After that it entitles you to travel to your destination, no matter how many modes of transport you change along the way. You can buy one-day tickets, two- or three-day tickets and even weekly or monthly tickets. Just note that the ticket machines sell a weekly ticket valid from Monday to the following Monday, so if you arrive midweek you lose several days! So it’s better to buy the weekly ticket valid for seven days from the day you validate it, which is sold online, in the apps and at the counters in the various train stations. Children up to age 6 travel free, and between ages 6 and 14 at half price. On Sundays and on school holidays, children up to age 14 also travel free.
An important tip: we recommend buying the Vienna City Card, which gives you unlimited public transport and discounts on attractions, making it convenient and good value for families.
Click here for prices and bookings.
When Is the Best Time to Visit Vienna with Kids?
The recommended season for a holiday in the city is from late spring to early autumn, roughly May to the end of September. In these months the weather in the city is ideal. However, this is also when demand from tourists is higher and prices are usually higher too. Bear in mind that in recent years Europe has warmed significantly, and the summer months can be very hot. Locals aren’t used to it, and not every place to stay or tourist site has air conditioning.
Traveling in summer? Bear in mind that rain can be expected all year round, including in summer.
Winter is very cold and the days are especially short (sometimes it even snows), so a winter holiday suits only travelers who can cope with low temperatures. It’s probably not the best season to come with young kids who need to burn off energy. The advantages of a winter holiday, however, are of course the lower prices and the fact that it’s a quiet tourist season, so the sights are less crowded. That is, of course, except over Christmas and New Year. Vienna at Christmas is simply beautiful. All the streets are decorated, street artists perform and lots of markets open. So if you’re planning a winter holiday in the city, it’s best to come during the Christmas market season (the markets usually open in mid-November and run until just before Christmas).
Currency
The currency in Vienna is, of course, the euro. With kids it pays double to be prepared for anything, so alongside your credit cards it’s worth carrying some cash too. Cards are widely accepted, and ATMs are easy to find all over the city.
Tours in Vienna with the Kids
If you’ve just arrived in Vienna and want to get your bearings without wearing out your legs, it’s worth taking one of the guided tours by vehicle or on foot. A guided tour of the city can enrich your knowledge and save you and the kids a lot of walking and getting lost. On a guided tour you only go where it’s worth going, without the headache of navigating! Meeting local guides also helps you experience the city from a local perspective and get lots of tips for the rest of your stay in Vienna. However, not all kids have the desire or patience for a guided tour, which suits teenagers and up. A tour on a sightseeing bus, on the other hand, is an experience most kids of all ages will be very happy to join.
Hop-On Hop-Off Bus
It’s a wonderful way to get to know the city without getting tired. Thesightseeing bus in Vienna takes you around all the city’s attractions for a whole day. You can get off and on as many times as you like, and it takes you comfortably everywhere. That way you’ll save yourself all the headache of getting to the main tourist attractions. The bus’s open top lets you experience the city up close, and the audio guide, available in many languages, will help you understand what you’re seeing.
Tip-Based Tours
This is one of the best and cheapest ways to get to know the city: a guided tour. If you don’t want to commit or pay too much, you can join atip-based tour. What does a tip-based tour mean? You join the tour and at the end decide how much money to leave the guide. I really recommend taking the tour on the first day of your holiday, because along the way you get lots of useful tips and recommendations for restaurants and sights worth visiting, and even warnings about tourist traps.
On the GuruWalk website you’ll find tip-based tours for getting to know Vienna.
A Cruise on the Danube
A unique way to see Vienna is on a cruise along the Danube Canal. The cruise takes about an hour and passes various landmarks in the city, with detailed explanations about each place. You can add lunch to the cruise, suitable for kids from age 10.
If you’d rather have strudel and a cup of coffee (or hot chocolate) instead of schnitzel, you can book this cruise.
A Virtual Tour of Vienna’s Old Town
This tour, which lasts about two hours, combines walking through Vienna’s old streets with virtual reality glasses in which you relive historical events that took place in the city. Among other things, you’ll take part in a war, a siege, a procession and an opera performance. The tour is a unique, innovative experience and suits kids from age 8 and up.
Click here to book the virtual tour.
Where to Stay in Vienna with Kids
Usually, when traveling with kids, it’s important to be close to services such as restaurants, shops, pharmacies and so on. And it’s important not to choose a remote place to stay, one that requires a lot of walking or a long public transport ride every morning. Personally, I think aparthotels are the best fit for families, because they give you independence when it comes to meals.
Vienna is divided administratively into 23 districts. District 1 (Innere Stadt) is the historic center of the city and one of the most touristy areas. It’s on the bank of the Danube Canal, with magnificent shopping streets and interesting historic sites. If you’re on a short visit to the city with young kids, it will be most convenient to find a hotel in District 1.
But if you want to cut accommodation costs, or get a little away from the hustle and bustle, there are many other areas to stay in, where you can discover the city’s local charm and not just the tourist areas. Just make sure to choose a place within walking distance of a U-Bahn station, so you can reach most parts of the city within 10 or 20 minutes.
Hollmann Beletage Design & Boutique Hotel
A small, family-run 4-star hotel in an excellent location near the canal, surrounded by the historic buildings of the Inner City. There are different types of rooms to suit families, an excellent breakfast and especially attentive service.
Click here to book a room at the Hollmann.
Hotel Stefanie
A 4-star hotel on the northeastern side of the canal, but still close to the city center. It’s the oldest hotel in Vienna, in operation since 1600! So guests here enjoy not just a place to sleep but a real historical experience. You can walk from here to the main sights or take the U-Bahn, which has a station very close to the hotel. The rooms are air-conditioned and decorated in an old-world style, and the breakfast is excellent. For travelers who keep kosher, it’s worth noting that the hotel is close to several kosher restaurants and a Chabad house.
Click here to book a room at Hotel Stefanie.
Recommended aparthotels for families in central Vienna are HeyMi Apartments Stephansdom, which has lovely, spacious apartments that are perfect for families, at an excellent price; Appartement-Hotel an der Riemergasse, with apartments in a range of sizes that include a kitchen; andApartments Opera, where you’ll find apartments in a more historic style and staff who really go out of their way to help you with anything.
Suite Hotel 900 m zur Oper
Want to get a little away from the center? You can choose to stay in the 4th district, a small district south of the city center. It’s between Vienna’s main train station and the 1st district. The district is close to Vienna’s main attractions and offers lots of options for shopping, food and going out, as well as excellent public transport to every other part of the city. The problem is that there aren’t many hotels in this district. But the Suite Hotel is one of the few, and it’s especially recommended for families. The hotel is in an 18th-century historic building, with pleasant air-conditioned rooms as well as family suites with an equipped kitchenette, at good-value prices. The hotel has a café and a good breakfast, and there’s a train station nearby.
Click here to book a room at the Suite Hotel.
Things to Do with Kids in Vienna
The Viennese menu is varied and includes parks, palaces, museums, adrenaline-filled attractions and of course shopping! Just choose the combination that best suits you and your kids.
The View from the Danube Tower
The tower is the tallest structure in Vienna, and you can go up and look out over the city from an open or enclosed observation deck, depending on the weather. The revolving café and restaurant serve Austrian delicacies such as strudel and Viennese coffee at a height of 170 meters, completing a 360-degree turn roughly twice an hour.
Click here to book tickets for the Danube Tower viewpoint, including skip-the-line entry.
Museums for Kids in Vienna
Vienna is blessed with countless museums, and many of them are designed especially for kids. Some are “heavier” and some lighter, and all are especially suitable for spending a few hours on a rainy day.
Schönbrunn Palace and the Children’s Museum
One of Vienna’s main attractions is visiting its palaces. Vienna is known for its rich collection of palaces, which are considered symbols of the city and must-sees for their beauty. However, you don’t want to drag your kids around to admire room after lavish room all over Vienna. So you can choose one palace as an example, and the most suitable palace to visit with kids is Schönbrunn Palace.
You can already see Schönbrunn Palace from afar, because it’s h-u-g-e and very impressive. But honestly, what impressed us even more were the gardens behind it. A tour of the palace reveals the life of the Austrian royal family, including a huge 40-meter gallery hall, their private rooms and of course amusing stories about the royals. After the guided tour you get the chance to wander the spectacular gardens at your own pace and enjoy their lovely corners, with fountains, small lakes and more. Kids will especially enjoy the hedge maze, which challenges kids and adults with brain teasers. It’s also worth sitting in the garden and enjoying coffee and cake and the spectacular view.
Schönbrunn Palace is also home to the unique Children’s Museum, where kids discover the differences between themselves and the children who lived at Schönbrunn Palace in the past. They learn about the food, clothing and games of the palace children, get to dress up as princes and princesses, and find members of the royal family waiting for them around every corner. Tickets must be bought separately here. They also include entry to the zoo.
Another unique and especially sweet experience at Schönbrunn Palace is the strudel-baking show at the palace bakery. The pastry-making show is truly mesmerizing, with the dough stretched so thin you could read a newspaper through it! At the end of the show you get to enjoy strudel, of course, and you also get the original recipe so you can enjoy it at home too.
Click here to book tickets for the strudel show.
The Chocolate Museum and an Extra-Sweet Workshop
There are no kids (or adults) who don’t love chocolate! Vienna is famous for producing some of the best chocolate in the world. So there’s no better place to experience Vienna’s tastiest export than the city’s chocolate museum.
In this special museum you dive into a multi-sensory experience in which you become chocolatiers for a day. After a tour of the museum, where you’ll learn interactively about the origin of cocoa beans and the history of chocolate, you’ll join an expert chocolatier and create your own chocolate bar with toppings to your taste, which you can take home.
Click here to book a visit and workshop at the Chocolate Museum.
Vienna’s Museum of Illusions
This museum drives kids and adults crazy, and offers endless opportunities for funny photos. Its aim is to confuse your senses, and it does so with a range of optical tricks that will make you think water is flowing upward, that people are the size of insects and more.
Click here to book tickets for Vienna’s Museum of Illusions.
Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
At this museum you and the kids get to take photos with celebrities from the past and present, such as Albert Einstein, Mozart, Freud, Beyoncé and Michael Jackson. The wax figures look so real thanks to more than 800 hours of work on each one! And there are more than 80 figures who will never refuse a selfie with you! Some of the figures come with scents, music and more, to make the experience as close to reality as possible.
Click here to book tickets for Vienna’s wax museum.
The House of Music (Haus der Musik)
This is one of the most recommended museums in Vienna, giving visitors a one-of-a-kind, hands-on encounter with music, which is so important in our lives. Viennese classical music, led by Mozart, Strauss and Beethoven, is still with us today. The museum offers a range of exciting interactive activities for kids, such as composing a waltz, conducting an orchestra, playing different instruments and more. The museum is in a grand palace where the founder of the Vienna Philharmonic once lived. So for adults there’s also a fascinating exhibition of historical items, including personal belongings of the great composers the city produced.
Click here to book tickets for Vienna’s House of Music.
The Technical Museum
This is an interactive museum that will fascinate young and old. It shows the impact of various technological achievements on humanity over the years. It’s one of Vienna’s oldest museums, with unique exhibits such as a steam locomotive you’ll get to see in action and Empress Sisi’s personal horse carriage. It suits kids and parents who love discovering “how things work”.
Click here to book tickets for the Technical Museum, including skip-the-line entry.
Time Travel Through Vienna’s History
If you’re interested in Vienna’s history, it’s worth joining this experience, which takes visitors on a magical trip through 2,000 years of the city’s history. It’s a virtual reality experience that lasts about 50 minutes. On your journey through time you’ll meet the royal family, get to know prominent figures who were active in the city, hear music by its finest composers, and finally fly virtually over its rooftops. It’s especially suitable for technology and history lovers, and if you’re both, even better!
Click here to book tickets for Time Travel Vienna.
A Tour for the Brave in Underground Vienna
There’s a side of Vienna that not many people know exists. If you and your kids (over age 10) love (mildly) scary experiences, join this tour, which goes down into the city’s cellars and shelters and visits, among other places, an old pharmacy, shelters for the city’s outcasts and more. These are private sites that aren’t accessible outside the tour, so you can be among the select few to see them. As mentioned, it’s a tour for parents and kids who love the dark side.
Click here to book tickets for the tour.
Parndorf Outlets
Vienna’s best-value shopping is actually outside the city, in nearby Parndorf. There’s a designer outlet packed with shops, with significant discounts, all in one place. The shops include Prada, Jimmy Choo, Tommy Hilfiger, Diesel, Levi’s, Vans, Skechers, Calvin Klein, Nadora, Adidas and many more. So if you have especially fashionable kids or teens, you’re guaranteed a day of fun for the whole family here.
The easiest way to get here is on a dedicated shuttle.
Parks
Vienna has several parks that can give kids a chance to burn off energy and get some air away from the busy city. Some are just green nature and some offer a range of attractions.
The Prater and the Giant Ferris Wheel
The Prater is a public park with a range of attractions for kids and parents. You’ll find lots of restaurants, souvenir shops, the Madame Tussauds museum, a variety of shows and, in December, a colorful Christmas market. You can spend a whole day wandering around the park. But its highlight is without doubt the Wurstelprater amusement park, one of the oldest amusement parks in the world, dating back to the 18th century. Among the rides you’ll find roller coasters and of course the famous Giant Ferris Wheel (Riesenrad), built in 1897 and one of the oldest operating Ferris wheels in the world. It offers a spectacular view of Vienna and its surroundings. A ride on the wheel takes about 15 minutes. It’s 65 meters high, and if you haven’t been on it, it’s as if you haven’t been to Vienna at all! Entry to the park is free, and you pay separately for each ride.
Rathauspark
A pleasant park established in the 19th century. It has walking paths and playgrounds for kids, ice skating in winter and open-air movies in summer. Next to the park stands Vienna’s City Hall.
Stadtpark
Another park that has been part of Vienna since the 19th century. It has statues of Strauss and Schubert, a river with decorative bridges and a pleasant atmosphere.
In this green, peaceful atmosphere I wish you lots of enjoyment on your trip to Vienna, and I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments.
