Hello,
We will be in Vienna June 11-13. We arrive around noon on the 11th and leave around noon on the 13th.
Could someone please help with activities and restaurant recommendations? We will be staying at Urban Jungle Apartments but open to recommendations if there are better places?
Thank you
For a short stay, you can get a feel for Vienna by following any of the three Rick Steves audio tours available from this website: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-tours/austria-germany. Especially the tram tour of the Ringstrasse could be a good way to start. As for activities, we don't know what your kids would like, but Vienna is especially rich in music, art, and architecture sites and activities. Since you are staying near the Prater, that's an obvious choice even though I didn't get over that way during a 10-day stay. At least duck into the back of St. Stephen's Cathedral; if this will bore your kids, you wouldn't have to pay to get in for a closer look; from the rear of the cathedral, you can get a sense of the grandeur. Do one of the famous coffee houses, and for other food, see if you can get expose your kids to some wiener schnitzel. Otherwise, let the kids research and each pick one.
Thank you. Our kids are pretty flexible and will do anything but I think interactive things are probably top of list. We will definitely visit the cathedral
They don’t know about the trip so can’t have them research. We surprise them on the morning of the trip
Since you are staying near the Prater...
The Prater amusement park seems like a no-brainer with kids - you could go late afternoon/early evening and combine it with dinner. It's very easy to get to.
There is also the Schoenbrunn Zoo.
They may find a wurst stand more fun than schnitzel.
These two museums provide the most entertainment for kids:
https://www.technischesmuseum.at/en
https://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/en
If you visit the Prater amusement park and want to have a really hearty meal you may try this legendary place:
https://www.schweizerhaus.at/en/
(Here you can get the genuine European Budweiser beer, which has nothing in common but the name with the American swill.)
I believe that the Ring tram sightseeing tour was dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic and never restarted. You can, of course, still take the normal trams and use a guidebook.
I’m a mom to two similarly aged kids and I’ve lived in Vienna for nearly 18 years.
I just asked my kids what they suggest. Here’s their ideas:
As for restaurants, we like the following:
I’m sure your kids will love Schnitzel.
Emily, I love that you asked your kids! Thank you SO much!!!!
Remember, too, that the Prater is much more than the amusement park; it's an enormous place full of picnickers, walkers, runners, cyclists and horse riders. If the kids are horse lovers, the hippodrome across from the Schweizerhaus restaurant offers horse riding to children for a ridiculously cheap price.
I might use "kitsch" affectionately rather than "tacky" to describe Prater, as it has more of the atmosphere of an old-time amusement park as opposed to the glitzy, overly commercial Disney-esque venues more common today. And it's free to enter - you only pay for individual rides. And as stated above, it's a major outdoor recreation venue as well.
