Vienna and the Wachau
Three days of imperial Vienna, then the Danube's terraced wine valley at walking pace.
City Classic · 6 days · May, Jun, Sep, Oct
The Wachau is normally a boat day-trip out of Vienna, which buys you four hours and two towns full of everyone else off the same boat. Sleeping in Dürnstein instead — an hour by rail from Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof to Krems — turns it around completely, because the villages empty the moment the last cruise ship casts off around six. Vienna comes first so you arrive in the valley already knowing what Baroque looks like, and the valley is run downstream, Melk to Dürnstein to Krems, in the direction the river and the vineyards are organised.
Day by day
- Day 1
The first district on foot
A short arrival day covering the cathedral and the coffee-house ritual that governs the rest of the week.
10:00Stephansdom
The south tower is 343 steps and no lift, and it is the only place the zigzag roof tiling reads as a pattern rather than as a postcard.
The nave is free to enter; the catacombs, each tower and the Albertine choir all need separate tickets.
12:30Café Central
The Viennese coffee house is a licence to occupy a table for three hours on one Melange, and Central still runs the waiter-in-tails formality that makes that socially possible.
Expect a short queue at the door around midday. It moves faster than it looks, and single travellers are seated first.
- Day 2
The Habsburg collections
One enormous museum in the morning, a smaller and better-lit one after lunch, and the market at the end of the day.
10:00Kunsthistorisches Museum
The Bruegel room holds a dozen of the forty-odd panels that survive anywhere in the world, hung in one square room you can circle twice.
Closed Mondays outside the summer season. The Kunstkammer downstairs takes an hour on its own and is usually near-empty.
14:00Albertina
Habsburg state rooms upstairs and Monet through Picasso downstairs, in a building most people walk straight past on their way to the Opera steps.
Late opening on Wednesdays and Fridays, which is by some distance the quietest way to see it.
17:30Naschmarkt
A kilometre and a half of stalls that shift from produce to restaurants as you walk west — eat at the far end, where the prices stop being tourist prices.
Closed Sundays. The Saturday flea market at the western end is the busiest morning of the week and worth avoiding if you only want to eat.
- Day 3
Two palaces
Schönbrunn at opening and the Belvedere after lunch, with a long garden walk in between.
09:00Schloss Schönbrunn
The Grand Tour shows forty of 1,441 rooms, but the first slot matters because it leaves the uphill Gloriette walk to you before the garden fills.
Palace entry is timed to the minute and latecomers are turned away. The park itself opens at 06:30 and costs nothing.
14:30Belvedere
Klimt's Kiss is here and is smaller than everyone expects, which leaves you free to notice the Upper Belvedere's own staircase — the best Baroque interior in Vienna.
Buy the Upper Belvedere alone unless the Lower's temporary show interests you; the two are a ten-minute walk apart through the terraced garden.
- Day 4
Into the valley at Melk
The upstream gate of the Wachau in the morning, then downstream to the castle ruin above Dürnstein at the end of the day.
10:00Stift Melk
The library and the church are a single continuous piece of Baroque theatre, and the west terrace gives you the Danube bend that boats charge for.
English guided tours run at fixed times only. The abbey park is a separate ticket and open in the warm months alone.
17:00Ruine Dürnstein
The ruin where Richard the Lionheart spent a year as a hostage: a steep twenty-five-minute climb out of the village, and the view down the river repays every metre.
Loose rock underfoot and no handrail on the final section. It is free and never closes, which is why late afternoon works.
- Day 5
Terraces, an abbey and the wine town
A hilltop monastery looking back across the valley, then the working town at the downstream end of it.
10:00Stift Göttweig
A Benedictine hilltop at 422 metres with Paul Troger's imperial staircase fresco, and a terrace that looks straight back at the Wachau's vine terraces from outside them.
The museum and imperial rooms run on a season; the church and the terrace restaurant stay open year-round.
14:00Steiner Tor
Krems is the working end of the valley rather than a postcard of it, and the 15th-century gate is simply the marker for where the Landstrasse's wine bars begin.
The Landstrasse behind the gate is pedestrianised; most of the wine bars only open from late afternoon.
- Day 6
Back in Vienna
A last day split between the Opera house and the Prater, timed so the wheel turns at dusk.
11:00Wiener Staatsoper
Standing room costs a few euros and is the cheapest seat in European opera, which is why the queue on Operngasse forms long before the box office opens.
Daytime tour times depend on the rehearsal schedule and are posted the same morning. Standing places for that night's performance go on sale eighty minutes before curtain.
18:30Wiener Riesenrad
Built in 1897 and still turning at walking pace, which makes the dusk rotation over the Prater woods a slow look rather than a ride.
One rotation takes roughly fifteen minutes; the cabins are wooden and unrestored, and several can be booked privately for dinner.
Questions
- How long is the Vienna and the Wachau itinerary?
- The Vienna and the Wachau itinerary runs 6 days and covers 13 stops across Vienna, Melk, Dürnstein, Krems an der Donau.
- When is the best time to do the Vienna and the Wachau itinerary?
- May, Jun, Sep, Oct is the best window for the Vienna and the Wachau itinerary.
- What happens on day one of the Vienna and the Wachau itinerary?
- Day one is the first district on foot: A short arrival day covering the cathedral and the coffee-house ritual that governs the rest of the week.
Sources
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