Three Days in Vienna

See Rick's prioritized list of indoor sites at https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/austria/vienna. You need not do all of them, and couldn't within three days. His book expands on that with practical details and recommendations for walking routes, heuriger wine evenings, etc. He has three separate books for your destinations of Prague, Vienna, Budapest, or you could get a slightly shorter version of each within the Eastern Europe book (and leave home the chapters you don't need; does not cover Lake Balaton).

Leave time to take a couple walking tours (DIY or guided) and enjoy the beautiful parks. If you visit the Schonbrun, then don't bother with the Hofburg Apartments/Sisi Museum - the rooms are much the same, just not as many. Leave time for the gardens at the Schonbrun too. Take the metro there and back. The opera performances can also be watched outside on a giant screen. Of course it's not anything like being inside, but it is free and you can see as much or little as you like.

Please note that the Opera is closed from July 1 - Aug. 31, in case that overlaps with your dates. During this time, the opera house is rented out to lower quality, tourist productions. My suggestion would be to grab a seat for an evening telecast of an Opera performance at the Rathaus (City Hall) during the Food and Music festival. This event goes all summer and include around 20 pop up restaurants with excellent quality food (many are run by very popular normal restaurants in Vienna). Excellent atmosphere.

So if I had three days, here's what I'd do:

Day 1 - The self guided walk of the center found here, allowing plenty of time for going inside sights and coffee/cake:

http://www.viennawurstelstand.com/index.php/discover-vienna/viennas-old-city-center-self-guided-tour-cobblestones-and-secret-alleyways/

I'd have schnitzel somewhere for dinner.

Day 2 - Breakfast at the Naschmarkt (not Sunday) and then head out to Schonbrunn for the day. I'd have dinner at the Rathaus festival.

Day 3 - I'd start out with the Belvedere and then head up to Kahlenberg for a walk down the hill. Take the U4 to Heiligenstadt and then take the 38A bus to Kahlenberg. Take Stadtwanderweg back down to town - an easy and exceptionally scenic walk through vineyards - down to Nussdorf. Dinner at the Schuebel-Auer (closed on Sunday and Monday).

Emily, thanks for the info! Looks great! The music film festival sounds really fun! I checked out the website but can't seem to locate what nights it runs - is it daily, weekends? Do you need tickets in advance?

The festival runs everyday from morning until night and it's free. Here's a link which will be updated as we get closer to June:

http://filmfestival-rathausplatz.at/en/

We recently completed a trip that included Vienna, Prague, St. Petersburg and Paris and the biggest disappointment of the trip was the Vienna Opera. We saw a just terrible production of La Traviata (well not entirely terrible in that the voices were great and that is ultimately what opera is about, but it as horribly staged and directed.) I expected great grand opera and am also not adverse to minimalist staging e.g. the Salzburg production of Traviata was both minimalist and spectacularly wonderful. This was a lazy cheap staging. I have seen Traviata half a dozen times and this was by far the least successful. I was shocked that the great Vienna Opera would present this.

On the other hand the Mariinsky in Petersburg and the Paris opera at the wonderful Bastille house were great successes.

Hello to you all: Many thanks for the information you've provided! This is very helpful and we are so very excited to be visiting. Best Regards.