Hidden Treasures Map of Vienna
Resuscitating shadows of our musical past
“It is not down on any map; true places never are” — Herman Melville
Vienna has always inspired me. I’ve always felt curious about its history and most of all, its music, the entertainment scene, the glamour and the applauses.
I found myself exploring the map of Europe and looking at the many different places that would be crowded. For some reason I’m yet to understand, Vienna stood out from the numerous options. I remember identifying it on the map, pausing and reflecting on everything I knew about this place. I recall thinking about the great composers, the luxurious dresses from decades ago, the exotic animals brought to Europe to be “showcased” at its brand new zoo. So then it happened: I booked the flight straight from Edinburgh to Vienna, in Austria; looked out for potential hosts and packed my suitcase.
It was April 14th, a sunny summery day in this new country. I had to get some work done and my host suggested that I’d go to Jo&Joe’s — a hostel with co-working areas, including a rooftop! This place was the perfect intro to Vienna: it has panoramic views across the city, facing the stunning Kirche Maria vom Siege church, the Schönbrunn park towards the right and a sneak peek at the busy Mariahilfer Strabe — one of the main roads to the city centre.
The following day was dedicated to exploring places nearby and finally detail the itinerary for the 2 following weeks. With so much to see in this city, it’s nearly impossible to get to experience everything Vienna has to give! You cannot see all Vienna has to offer in 1 week; not even in 2 weeks! And if you’re also working while in Vienna, allow at least a month to make the most out of your journey here. Vienna has it all for all tastes, curious minds and entertainment seekers. If you’re planning to visit Vienna, make sure to plan your visit ahead of landing. Unless you’re staying for a year, you’ll need to compromise on the idea of “seeing everything”. Being one of the main cultural European hotspot for centuries, this is THE home of fairly everything we take for granted in today’s Western world — you name it, this is likely the place! There’s just so much to explore and so many off-the-radar places here… This city truly felt like Disneyland to me, can you imagine?
For Digital Nomads and Travellers like myself, this city is also a central place in Europe. Although pricy, it is indeed a great destination! It’s safe, it has many cultural experiences and events, it’s a central city in Europe with quick connections to all European capitals. Although there’s a stereotype that states that Viennese people are not the most welcoming or approachable, I strongly disagree — this city is so multicultural; this is indeed a great place to make connections, whilst enjoying the fast pace of a capital.
📍Vienna, Austria
⭐️ Solo Digital Nomad Rate: 7/10
Prepare Your Trip🧳
- Download the ivie App to your smartphone. This will be your personal digital Vienna travel guide, covering the main attractions not to miss and cultural walks compiled by theme! Follow the steps of Beethoven, Wagner and Mozart, explore the scents of the city, get inspired by the best Modern art on the planet and, obviously, disguise yourself as a local by doing picnics at Vienna’s green oases!
- Purchase the Vienna City Card for the ultimate discounted fares to explore the city! Includes free public transport, a Sightseeing Bus Tour, discounts for countless attractions, events, restaurants, shops, tours, hotels, sport activities, and even Airport transfers! Totally worth every cent!
- I don’t often talk about the weather on my articles, but this is an essential topic to discuss before going to Vienna (let alone the whole country)! Make sure to pack both T-shirts & sweaters, shorts & jeans, and, most importantly, both your sun cream/sunglasses and your umbrella/rain coat! Thank me later, you’ve been warned! 🔆☔
Attractions🪂
What is Vienna known for? Opera, Food markets & Picnics!
- Going to Vienna and not visiting the Schönbrunn Palace Park, is like coming here and not attending an Opera! Fine… You can live without both experiences, but what is actually the reason of visiting Vienna, then? This UNESCO protected park has it all: seasonal events, a palace, the most mesmerizing paths and trails, a dreamy fountain and even the biggest, the best and most definitely the oldest zoo in Europe! Just so you have a better idea of the dimensions of this park, I spend just over 4h walking around this park, non-stop and only got to see 1/5 of it in over 28,000 steps!🌳
- Austrian National Library — Being one of the 25th largest in the world, this library is a State Hall from the Baroque era and houses over 12 million items. Only 200,000 books are displayed on the main hall; if you could read 1 of these a day, it’d take you 550 years to finish this small section of the collection! Are you up to the challenge? The ceiling frescoes transported me to the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, with a refined detail and many figures from different areas of knowledge. Not only that, there’s also large collections of papyrus and globes, representing various ways of seeing the world — from the map of the land, to the map of the stars 🌎🌍
- Vienna Opera House — This is the absolute mandatory experience in Vienna! 🎶 For beginners, I recommend choosing a short (0–1 intermissions) Opera buffa (comic). For music and Opera lovers like myself, I was ready to watch Tristan und Isold (Richard Wagner) for 3h 50min straight — one of the longest operas being produced here. However, the show sold out before I had the chance to get my tickets, so I chose to watch the 2h 35min Don Pasquale (Gaetano Donizetti), on the following day. Absolutely no regrets; it was, in fact, very emotional for me, finally making it to one of the places that define this genre for so many years! Be aware that Opera seasons run from September until mid-July, closing during the Summer months. Note this is also the home of the monumental Vienna Opera Ball during the Viennese carnival season, in February. It is an extravagant yet luxuriously refined Waltz evening with admission ticket prices in the thousands of Euros per person, excluding a seat and catering.
Food Spots🍴
When abroad, aim to focus on eating traditional food at small businesses. That is one of the most beautiful parts of getting to know the culture of a place — food make the people! With that in mind, let’s start this section with the mandatory traditional Austrian dishes to try out in this capital:
- The main dishes: a traditional Original Wiener Schnitzel — a Veal/Chicken Scallop; the granny-tasty Großes Wiener Rindsgulasch served with Hausgemachte Käsespätzle — a Beef Goulash served with a twisted, yet authentic, Germanic Mac & Cheese; and a melting Cordon Bleu — a Veal/Chicken Scallop filled with ham and cheese.
- The deserts/snack: a Kaiserschmarn Oder Nougatchmarrn mit Zwetschkenröster— a delicious fluffy scrambled pancake, rum-soaked, served with berry compote.
- The salad/side dish: a Großer Gemischter Salat — a delighted mixed salad with the usual cabbage, cucumber, tomato, lettuce and a dreamy Austrian-style potato salad.
Restaurant highlights in Vienna:
- Mariahilferbräu — By far, one of the best places in Vienna to try out all the traditional homemade dishes of Vienna. Affordable, homemade, traditional and friendly are only a few adjectives I can use to describe this place. The menu is long and cover all you came here for — the soul of this city!
- Tesla Coffee & Concept — “Scientists, poets and thinkers have one thing in common: the search for a brilliant idea” is the motto to live for, don’t you agree? The most brilliant ideas are, yet, inspired by external factors — a landscape, a song, a velvet blanket, a flower, maybe a coffee. Search no further! This is THE place where you’ll have the delicious coffee along with a homemade cake. Maybe you’ll have an afternoon snack with your colleagues to discover the finest Italian charcuterie or traditional tapas. Looking for something more filling, yet as delicious? Head down the road and you’ll find Tesla Pizza & Concept 🍕! Expect the unexpected, the freshest ingredients and masterpiece pizza’s cooked authentically in a Stefano Ferrara wood fired pizza oven! Pair it with a cocktail and fire your creativity away — this is the concept to try and live for! ✨
- Juicedeli — Looking for a healthy, fresh, vegan and made-to-order granola pots & smoothies? This is the perfect place to hide from the crowds, while tasting the freshness of each ingredient! It will be a hard place to find, so make sure to save this gem close to your chest! Açaí is king in this place! Looking for a colourful salad or the sweetest afternoon tea? Keep on walking down this hidden lane — you’ll reach a cosy Secret Garden, an oasis for both your soul and your stomach! 🥗🙏
Places to Work From📶
- JO&JOE Wien — This place has it all for Digital Nomads and people on the move. Located above of the IKEA store, this modern building also houses the hostel JO&JOE, a sophisticated, safe, quirky space. At the hostel reception, there’s also a bar and restaurant open to the public. Upon request, you can also have access to their meeting room, a silent space if you need to be “heads-down” or attend a meeting. At the bar, they also host shows and open mics — be sure not to miss the events scheduled! Not convinced yet? I left the best for last: JO&JOE’s rooftop was my introduction to Vienna, how I fell in love with this city. Pick up a sunny day and head to the top of the building for the best views, street food, socialize and join the numerous remote workers there. Truly inspiring and one of the best spaces to work from in Europe!🌐
- GOTA Coffee Experts — If you’re aiming to find a quiet, modern, vegan and ambient friendly space to work from — this is the place to go. If you’re also looking for exceptional food and THE best coffee you’ve ever had in your life, then GOTA needs to be on your list! Head next door to buy coffee beans from all over the world! ☕
Hidden Treasures 🐾
- If you already follow my guides, you knew this was coming! Vienna’s Central Cemetery is one of the largest in the world and indeed one of the richest ones when it comes to housing the tombs of the most famous names in history, including artists, composers, writers, scientists, politicians and high-ranked Free Masons. Within the composer’s quarter, you can remember the lives and extraordinary work of the big masters: Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Strauss and Brahms 🕊️. It was an emotional rollercoaster for me: being in the presence of such genius, acknowledge the impact and continuous influence in today’s best music🤍. It inundates you with lost memories, and makes you feel humble and thankful for all these people have done, forever influencing the melodies of this world 🎵
- You’re likely to miss this one! At a glance, the Anker Clock on Hoher Markt is an intricate piece of decoration. Then you realize there are different figures, moving slowly as the time passes. Every hour, a new historical figure appears: princesses, emperors, kings, composers… 👑 However, the real magic happens every day at noon: a musical parade starts, the clock gains life and showcases all its beauty and engineering perfection 📐🥇
- Transformed by Friedenreich Hundertwasser, the Hundertwasser Village is the definition of insanity, weirdness and the realization of merging with natural lines, shapes and landscape. It’s a place where no straight lines are allowed, only those that follow the natural formations. This is the village of colour, truly mesmerizing 🍭
- Museum of Contraception and Abortion — This super and ever relevant museum was a hard one to find and I haven’t met anyone in Vienna that had heard about it. Nonetheless, it’s a mandatory stop that will “open your eyes” about a reality that was taking place “underground” until very recently. Educational, fun and totally off-the-radar ♨️🌶️
Honorary Mentions⛳
- Once known as the Otto Wagner Villa, Ernst Fuchs Museum, is an architectural monument that holds one of the most resilient stories ever written in modern history. It served as a studio for the legendary founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, Ernst Fuchs. Later, it welcomed many personalities in the Fine Art world, including Placido Domingo, Grace Kelly and Yoko Ono! The symbiosis of Otto Wagner and Ernst Fuchs can be found in every inch of this house, making it both a dream and a nightmare location, promised to inspire you to find the inner artist in you!🎨 “A world apart, a true world.”
- Seegrotte — Just on the outskirts of Vienna, you’ll find plenty of Austrian gems. This is probably one of my favourites! Firstly, this is one of the largest underground lakes in Europe, created due to the flooding of a gypsum mine. Having the opportunity to explore it by boat 🚣♂️, here you’ll also find a WWII aircraft factory 🛩️. This is the ultimate historic-nature combo. Head to the nearby Laxenburg Castle Park, for the perfect ending to this afternoon tour.
- Vienna Peace Pagoda — This city, is indeed full of surprises. By the edge of the river Danube, a modern Buddhist temple emerges, white, surrounded by greenery. In its center, a Japanese golden “peace pagoda”, a Buddha statue is found. The peace felt is indescribable, magical! ☮️
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About A Girl Gone Nomad Hidden Treasures Maps: they focus on highlighting the best underrated, unique places on each location. These places are often hard to find and most were suggestions made by the locals, others found by chance! They aim to offer off-the-radar places to visit to spice up the main attractions already on your travel list!
Watch out for the A Girl Gone Nomad’s Hidden Treasures symbol 🐾 throughout my blog posts for the ultimate gems found on the road!
Disclaimer: All of these suggestions are unaffiliated and I’ve not been offered any compensation or deals to mention these places on this blog. The aim of these guides is to show my journeys, travel suggestions, wins and fails to enrich your own adventures!
About me: My name is Vanessa, I’m a Female Solo Digital Nomad, working in the Music Industry and traveling the world hunting hidden gems🐾 for you to get inspired and follow these treasure maps! You can read a bit more about how this journey started and how I handed over the keys to my apartment and unlocked the world!
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