How is it that practically every place we go immediately becomes a favorite and a “we-must-go-back-one-day”? Perhaps we just fall in love too easily, but when it comes to Vienna, I’m pretty sure this is the real deal.

We were lucky enough to spend four-and-a-half days in Vienna earlier this month and found it to be a perfect family-friendly spot. And while we originally intended to spend one of those days in nearby Bratislava, Slovakia — we ultimately abandoned this plan the morning of, in a fit of laziness — we still didn’t see absolutely everything we’d intended to. Which actually leads me to my first piece of advice: give yourself enough time in this beautiful city!

I’ll get to details like where we stayed, what we ate and how we got around toward the end here, but I wanted to start by talking about our favorite attractions. We took things at a pace about two main activities per day, so four-and-a-half days worked out nicely for us.

Vienna with kids: our favorite activities

1. Schonbrunn Palace, Gardens, Labyrinth and Gloriette

Schonbrunn Palace was the summer residence of the Austrian empire’s ruling family, the Hapsburgs. Having read a lot of historical fiction that involves this place I would have been interested regardless, but really got us most excited about going there wasn’t the fancy wallpaper — it was everything outside the palace. (Though the audio guide tour inside, which takes about an hour, was excellent as well.)

The grounds of Schonbrunn Palace were incredible, with lots of gardens (only a fraction of which we actually saw) and — best of all — hedge mazes! We must have spent at least an hour and a half in the hedge maze area of this place alone, as it was the absolute perfect spot for running around with kids. Owen had been complaining all morning that his foot hurt, but to no one’s surprise that alleged ailment disappeared almost as soon as we walked into the grounds. 

There was also a very nice park within this area, where the kids spent a considerable amount of time playing while we sipped coffee and chilled out.

After the maze we opted to head toward the Schonbrunn Zoo (more on that in our next item), but we finished up our day at Schonbrunn with a visit to the Gloriette. Located at the top of a hill at the far end of the Schonbrunn gardens, it was built to be essentially a big dining hall/party spot because of the spectacular views of the palace below. Definitely don’t skip the chance to pop up there!

1A. Schonbrunn Zoo (Tiergarten Schonbrunn)

I’m adding this as a separate item because honestly, we could have spent most of a day just hanging out here! A few things to know:

1. It is the oldest continuously operating zoo in the world, having opened as a royal menagerie in 1752
2. Operators seems to have a lot more faith that people won’t try to jump fences and go pet a rhino or whatever than any of the American zoos I’ve visited
3. Watch out for bats.

Story time, kids. So we were walking through a cool Amazon exhibit within this zoo, which was a building basically set up to resemble a rainforest. Very cool concept, right? Until we reach a spot where they had some kind of dual curtain set up, presumably to keep whatever was inside from accidentally escaping into the rest of the building. We don’t think much of it and head in. As we are between the little space between the two curtains (where we got briefly delayed) Chris informs me that, ‘heads up, one of the birds is in here.’

And then we walk into the room. And it is dark. And the birds are flying really erratically all around us.

Chris: ‘That’s a lot of birds.’

Me: ‘Those aren’t birds.’

IT WAS BATS, GUYS. BATS SWOOPING EVERYWHERE.

BATS.

Owen karate-chopped the whole walk through. I was apparently repeating “It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine” over and over (I don’t remember this). Chris and Fiona were just trying to find the exit as quickly as possible. Lochie was sleeping.

This was my face as we stepped out:

Despite this — and the fact that after leaving we realized there were GIANT BATS JUST CHILLING ON THE CEILING OF THE BUILDING — this zoo was excellent. Zoos are kind of one of our “things” we tend to seek out when we go to new cities, and this was definitely a good one.

It also had quite a nice park and a random climbing wall that the kids loved as well.

A note about tickets to Schonbrunn: Knowing we wanted to see it all, we opted to buy the Schonbrunn Classic Pass Plus, which included admission to the palace, privy garden, orangerie garden, hedge maze and labyrinth, gloriette and zoo. We did the family pass, which was good for up to two adults and three kids; it spendy at 89 euro, but cheaper than buying tickets for each individually. I think it worked out well for us, but I will caution that it is a LOT to see in one day. For the palace you have to select a time that you will enter if you pre-buy the tickets, and we selected 10 a.m. since we were getting in late the night before. We ended up staying at Schonbrunn until 6 p.m., and didn’t even see everything we could have wanted. If you don’t think that’s your travel style, you’d be better off splitting your visit into two days.

2. Prater Amusement Park

This was easily one of the kids’ favorite attractions — the amusement park at Prater Park, originally the site of the 1873 World’s Fair. Today there’s a ton going on in the Prater area, including plenty of green space, restaurants, a Madame Tussaud’s, a chocolate museum, indoor skydiving and more. However, we focused on the vast amusement park. The kids went on rides and into various fun houses (including Owen’s first roller coaster and some swings that Fiona adored and that made Owen and I nauseated).

Unfortunately, everything was a bit expensive so when we got to the historic Ferris Wheel — it dates back to 1873, whaaaaat — I ended up bailing on actually riding it because of the price. In the aftermath, that seems like a dumb call but oh well!

We ended the evening with a stop in at the park’s famous beer garden, the Schweizerhaus, for fuel for the trip home. 

3. Spanish Riding School stable tour

You can’t go Vienna without seeing their famous Lipizzan horses, right? Right? We didn’t end up seeing any of the actual “horse dancing” this time around (though if you are interested, look into attending morning exercises (most weekdays) or performances (weekends) when you are there.) We opted instead to take a one-hour tour of the stables, which I thought would be fun for the kids because they’d get to see the horses close up. It was also a nice opportunity to get to learn the history of the “Baroque” horses (tour guide: “We call them ‘Baroque horses’ because we don’t want you going home describing Vienna’s ‘short, fat horses’) and of the school itself. Highly recommend! Be warned, however, children under 3 aren’t allowed. Chris and Lochie hung out in a nearby cafe.*

*True story: people treat Chris like he is some kind of saint when he has the baby on his own, particularly if he is baby-wearing. Some woman came up to him and gave him a gift while I had the big kids elsewhere at Prater, and she apparently wasn’t even trying to rob him or shake him down (my first assumption). I’m still waiting for MY gold medal for carrying him around the other 95 percent of the time!

4. Museum of Natural History

Another popular destination for our crew was — no surprises here — the Natural History Museum of Vienna, an enormous facility with more than 100,000 objects on display. Its earliest collections date back more than 250 years to Emperor Franz Stephan, husband of the famed Empress Maria Theresa, who was passionate about natural history. While some of the museum seems “old school” — lots and lots of stuffed animal specimens behind glass — there are also quite a few hands-on activities for busy kiddos.

Probably the most fun thing we saw was a life-size animatronic Allosaurus that would periodically come to life and move its body around. Mostly to look as if it were hunting us, because obviously it is much funnier when people get freaked out and think the thing is going all “Night at the Museum.” Or, all “Jurassic Park.”

Second best part was Chris trying to grab* a bajillion-year-old spear at the Ancient Man exhibit, and setting off a super loud alarm. Picture the scene in Despicable Me where a million automated guns and bombs are pointed at Gru outside of Vector’s house. It was basically that.

*He maintains that he “accidentally grazed it” while trying to explain something to the kids. A likely story.

5. Hofburg Imperial Palace and Sisi Museum

The Hofburg is the former main residence of the Hapsburg family, and is currently the residence and workplace of the president of Austria. This visit, toward the end of our trip, was another compromise activity for the kids — something I really wanted to see but that they didn’t really care about. Luckily for Fiona, there was an audioguide and a grisly murder to obsess over. If you don’t know, Empress Elizabeth, or “Sisi,” was assassinated in Geneva in 1898. The famously beautiful and rather unpredictable empress is a figure of popular fascination for a lot of people, and thus there is an entire section of the Hofburg dedicated to telling her story.

Unfortunately, listening to the audioguide about all this meant Fiona had a LOT of follow-up questions about how Sisi was stabbed. And with what. And why. And whether she died. And if it hurt. And how, again? Whoops.

Anyway, we bought tickets for this one on the day of (compared to many other tickets we booked ahead of time) and it was a nonissue, though I’ve heard there can be lines in high season. Tickets included a visit to the Imperial silver collection, the Sisi Museum and royal apartments.

The second two were interesting enough (though between the two, we preferred Schonbrunn Palace), but the silver collection was the highlight.

Not because it was that interesting, but because I about died laughing watching my wonderful husband try SO HARD to be interested in these damn plates.

For my benefit, obviously, but um —

Second funniest was seeing Fiona’s frustration when we tried to move her more quickly though the plates when she was STILL LISTENING TO THE AUDIOGUIDE.

Owen was sulking, which would normally annoy me but in this case — solidarity, buddy.

Anyway, the Sisi Museum was cool and so were the apartments, but I think it was possible we were getting a bit “palace-d” out by this point. And yes, that is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. Just keeping it real over here.

6. Stadtpark and Ringstrasse 

We actually stumbled into this city park on accident after we stopped at a nearby train station, Wien Mitte, to leave our stuff in a luggage locker on our last day. We always like to seek out parks when traveling with kids though since it gives them a chance to recharge their batteries with free time after we’ve dragged them through, say, an endless display of Imperial place settings. This one had a couple different playgrounds, including one where Fiona made and split with a “best friend” within a roughly 10-minute period. Fun times.

The Stadtpark is also bordered by the tree-lined Ringstrasse, a grand boulevard built by Emperor Franz Joseph I to replace the city walls. A huge number of Vienna’s most iconic sights are on the Ring Road, so we were on and off it repeatedly during our trip. However, we liked this bit particularly because it was just so gorgeous with the autumn leaves.

7. Museum of Illusions, Vienna

This is another thing that’s become a bit of a habit for us — visiting illusions museums. The kids fell in love with them in Ljubljana, so now we make a point of going to them when we can. They tend to feature a lot of the same things, but they are always a crowd-pleaser. In this case, it was Owen and Fiona’s reward for going through the Hofburg.

8. St. Stephen’s Cathedral and other pop-ins

Yeah, yeah, this category is a bit of a cop-out. “And other pop-ins,” Kasey, really? Yeah, well, Vienna is chock full of incredible buildings and there are only so many you can marvel at. We popped into St. Stephen’s Cathedral on the way to getting schnitzel the size of our faces on Day 2. We stuck to the free stuff in the church and stayed for approximately four-and-a-half minutes. As it happens, we are also a little “churched out.” Sorry!

Now, on to something just as important — where we ate! 

VIENNA’S BEST NOMS (in our humble opinion)

or, “Where to eat in Vienna with kids”

or, “EAT HERE DUMMIES, THESE PLACES ARE DELICIOUS”

1. Figlmuller Backstrabe, “the home of schnitzel.” This is the only place we made reservations, and I’m glad we did because there was already a line forming when we arrived. We ordered three of these schnitzels because Chris and I usually don’t doubt our ability to finish a meal, but holy cow. These defeated us. The kids didn’t even make it through half of one. So delicious though! 2. Mnozil’s Gastwirtschaft Zum Kellergwolb. That’s one helluva a name, eh? Regardless, this was our last meal and possibly the best. Cozy atmosphere, absolutely delicious food and reasonable (for Vienna) prices. Definitely head here and get the kasespatzel with bacon and onions. It’s to die for!

   

   3. Augustinerkeller Bitzinger. We stumbled across this place en route to the Hofburg, and you better believe we made our way back after we finished plate-peeping (bet you thought I was done bringing up the plates, didn’t you? NOPE). It was everything we love about these “keller” (cellar) restaurants: warm, cozy and inviting. Plus, beer. 

   

   4. Glacis Beisel. Our refuge after a morning spent in the Museum Quarter, Glacis Beisel offered delicious food in a gorgeous setting. Get the dumplings! 

   5. Restaurant Schwabl. If you are looking for food near Schonbrunn, this is a good spot! We chose it for our first night because it was quite near our apartment and had excellent reviews. Not going to lie, we both had some serious doubts when we walked in but we ended up having an EXCELLENT meal here. I can’t remember what mine was actually called, but it was pork swimming in some kind of cream sauce and it was amazing.

   6. Naschmarkt. We also popped through the Naschmarkt (open-air market) one morning. While it isn’t anything compared to Barcelona’s food market, we had a few tasty snacks along the way. We were there in the morning so we didn’t indulge, but it looked like a decent place to have a casual glass of wine or beer as well. There’s a nice coffee/chocolate shop right in the middle that we recommend as well. As is always the case when we travel, we also ended up at a McDonald’s one night for the kids. If anyone is wondering, for some reason McDonald’s was cheaper there than in Italy! Go figure. Also, if you are looking for cheap eats, there are a lot of options just outside the Schwedenplatz U-Bahn station. On a couple of nights when we made lunch our big meal instead of dinner, we just grabbed sausages, slices of pizza or take-away noodles over there for super cheap on our way back to our apartment.

   

   Vienna with kids: where we stayed & how we got around

   Where we stayed: We booked an AirBnB near Schonbrunn Palace, in what proved to be a quiet little neighborhood. There were a couple good restaurant options near us and we were able to hit up our neighborhood Lidl every morning for breakfast. However, it was a little further from most of the attractions we wanted to see every other day. The U-Bahn station billed as being “close” was a bit of a walk, otherwise I don’t think it would have been all that annoying.

How we go around: On our own two feet, a lot of the time! We walked a little more than 35 miles in the five days we were in Vienna, which isn’t bad considering Owen and Fiona were almost-7 and just-turned-5 at the time of this trip! But beyond this, we took the U-Bahn pretty much everywhere, which worked out very well. As always, European public transit experiences makes us long for such efficient, easy-to-use systems in the U.S.

Airport transfers: Because we landed in Vienna so late, we prearranged a taxi-van to pick us up (with car seats and booster seats!) and deposit us at our AirBnB. We like public transit, but we weren’t about to deal with it with three cranky kids at 11:30 p.m., haha. On the way back, however, we took the EXCELLENT dedicated City Airport Train (CAT). I can’t say enough good stuff about this train — it only goes from the airport to Wien Mitte train station, and thus it delivers you there in only 16 minutes. It is a little pricey at 11 euro per adult, but kids are free so it worked out nicely for us. Even better, if you are flying on certain airlines you can check your bags in for the airport AT THE TRAIN STATION. For the rest of us, there were storage lockers where you could stash your stuff (free!).

*Be warned, however — our intent was to store our things in a different luggage room at Wien Mitte, and it was completely full. We were fortunately able to grab the last remaining locker at the CAT lounge and stashed half our stuff, but ended up having to drag one of our suitcases with us to the Stadtpark and to lunch (and skipped our last destination, the House of Music, because we wasted so much time trying to find another luggage storage place.) I wouldn’t count on being able to store your stuff if you are there in high season, and maybe not even in low season.

And now just some extra pictures of our adorable kids in Vienna