Travel Diary: 5 Days in Vienna, Austria, over NYE (with a Day Trip to Bratislava, Slovakia)
If you have the chance to spend New Year's Eve in Vienna, Austria — do it!
NYE 2023 in Vienna was one of my favorite New Year's Eves ever... which is saying a lot, considering my husband and I got married on New Year's Eve in 2019!
Note: This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you make a purchase after clicking on a link, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Since my husband has the last week of the year off from work and our anniversary is NYE, we like to make the most of it by celebrating in a city that's still festive for the holidays.
Unfortunately, many Christmas markets in Europe shut down by Christmas Day, but there are a few cities that keep them open through New Year's Day. In 2022, we opted to visit London to visit the Warner Bros. Studio Tour of Harry Potter, then added on Edinburgh.
This year, we really lucked out when we decided to do Vienna! Not only does Vienna have holiday markets into the new year, it also has a New Year's Eve street party known as Wiener Silvesterpfad ("Vienna's New Year's Eve Trail"), where everyone waltzes in the streets at midnight!
here's what to know
- The official language of Austria is German: Most people do speak at least a little English. We managed to get by not knowing much German, though we did at least try to say "Guten Morgen" ("good morning") and "Danke" ("thank you"). Also, Wien is the word for Vienna in German and is pronounced with a "V," so it sounds like "Veen." And I learned that "platz" means "place"/"square" in German (e.g., St. Stephen's Square is Stephansplatz).
- Make reservations! I don't know if it was simply because of the holidays or if it's normally like this, but we tried to walk into several restaurants and were told that they were only accepting reservations. The weeks before our trip were busy for both my husband and me, so I didn't spend much time researching and planning and thus didn't prioritize making reservations in advance.
- Bring cash! We can almost always use a credit card when we travel, but we didn't feel that was as much the case in Vienna. For example, in London, we were able to get by with credit cards at the markets, but in Vienna they were nearly all cash only.
- Purchase a Wien pass for free admission to up to 90 attractions, fast-track entry, access to hop-on-hop-off buses, and more!
- You do have to pay for public bathrooms, which is one of my pet peeves, so I try to wait until we're at restaurants or in hotels.
- We brought our universal adapters and had no trouble with the plugs. (Here's my affiliate link for the universal adapters we use.)
- Check ball dates! Vienna's ball season really kicks off in January and February, and I would have loved to plan our trip around a ball.
- Keep or return the Christmas market mugs: If you purchase a drink at a Christmas market and receive a festive mug, you can choose to keep it or return it for as much as 5 euros back.
- How to plan NYE: If you want to be in St. Stephen's Square (aka Stephansplatz) for midnight, be in the area by 10pm or so. We were on Graben Street nearby when we noticed around 10:45pm that displays in the area were announcing the square was closed because it was full. Fortunately, my husband wanted to stay on Graben Street anyway so that we could waltz underneath the giant lit chandeliers dangling overhead.
- Cigarette smell is everywhere: Smoking is much more common in Europe than in America. My husband and I were constantly adjusting our pace or location or whatever to try not to be directly in the path of someone's cigarette smoke.
In front of Belvedere Palace
I thought Edinburgh had the prettiest architecture of any city, but Vienna has it beat.
My husband and I often have different expectations for our hotels which has caused a fewww heated discussions in the past (like the time we learned our hotel didn't have a welcome desk or lobby, only a code to get into our room, with no option to store our luggage until official check-in).
So this time, I found 5 hotels I'd be happy to stay at, and he picked the Henriette Stadthotel from my choices.
It was also extremely conveniently located — we like walking and were able to walk to nearly all of the attractions we wanted to see, and the few times we needed public transportation, there was a subway stop right in front of the hotel.
The hotel also offered to arrange our pick-up from the airport, which we really appreciated because we landed pretty late!
Here's my affiliate link to learn more about the Henriette Stadthotel.
Our room!
I bought a Delsey suitcase during a holiday sale to fit all my coats!
what i recommend
So, looking back, we probably should have purchased a Wien pass. However, because I was too busy to really plan out our trip the way I normally like to, we weren't really sure what we'd end up doing and therefore decided to just wing it.
Here are our favorite activities from our trip:
- Schönbrunn Palace (Schloss Schönbrunn): This palace was the main summer residence of the Habsburg royal family. We purchased tickets (in advance of our trip) for both the Grand Tour of the palace and the Strudelshow in the Café Residenz of the palace. The apple strudel show was informative and entertaining (we learned so much, not just about how to make apple strudel but also the history behind it, and the chef switched flawlessly between German and English), and we appreciated getting to learn more about Austrian history during the palace tour through the free audio guide. We sandwiched our time with stops at the Schönbrunn Christmas market (Weihnachtsmarkt), which was open through January 4. Note: Traveling to the Schönbrunn is one of the times we took the subway.
- Albertina Museum: We are not art people, but I do like Monet, so we went for that. There was also an exhibit on Michelangelo that we walked through, which taught me a lot about the artist and his artistic evolution/process. But I have to admit that one of my favorite things about the Albertina was its terrace, which is beautiful in its own right and overlooks some gorgeous buildings, including the famous Popp & Kretschmer shop (which puts up a giant red bow during the holidays). We walked to the museum and bought tickets on site, with no wait.
- Vienna State Opera House (Wiener Staatsoper): When we couldn't find any ballet performances of The Nutcracker (my favorite holiday tradition), we purchased tickets (in advance of our trip) for the opera, to see Hansel and Gretel. I really wanted something that felt like an ~experience~ and this fit the bill! There are actually tablets in front of every seat that have subtitles for many languages, so we were able to easily follow along with the singing. Not to mention the building is stunning, I wish we could have had more time to just explore it and take it in.
- St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom): It is almost surreal the way this giant cathedral just pops out of the square. We actually attended New Year's Eve mass (conducted in German — fortunately, Catholic masses follow the same pattern, so we could more or less keep up!), and it was an experience both my husband and I are so thankful we were able to do. My husband was particularly enthralled by the organs. We forgot to climb to the top of the Tower, so we'll have to do that next time! We walked over 20 minutes before mass and at first were dismayed by the huge crowd of people waiting outside, thinking we were too late to grab a seat, but then it turned out most of them just wanted to see inside the building, not actually attend mass.
- We also visited St. Charles' Church (Karlskirche), which is considered the prettiest church in Vienna; St. Michael's Church (Michaelerkirche), across from St. Michael's Gate at the Hofburg Palace; and St. Peter's Church (Peterskirche), during Wiener Silvesterpfad and then for mass the next morning.
St. Stephen's Cathedral
- Wiener Silvesterpfad ("Vienna's New Year's Eve Trail"): This "trail" was essentially an outdoor street party, with several stages set up throughout, as well as food/drink stations and portable bathrooms interspersed, and occasional waltzing lessons! While certain areas did get crowded and there were still lines for the bathrooms, it's way better designed than NYC’s Times Square (and Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, in our experience). We were easily able to meander from one stage to the next, find food and drink, and visit the bathrooms without any issue at all. Some of the restaurants in the area are even still open. It's free to attend but bring cash for food, drink, and souvenirs!
- Belvedere Palace: We visited the Christmas market here (open through December 31) and purchased tickets for the Upper Belvedere to see Gustav Klimt's The Kiss. Buy your tickets in advance — I'd read that it sells out easily but never got around to purchasing tickets since we didn't have an in-depth itinerary. When we walked over around noon our first day in Vienna, it was already sold out for the day. We were able to easily get tickets for a later day, though, and still enjoyed the Christmas market!
- The Wurstelprater (or just "Prater"): This is an amusement park in Vienna that has a Christmas market open through January 7! It's free to enter, you only pay for food, drink, and any rides and games you want to do. We purchased hot drinks and wandered around taking it all in, then bought tickets to ride one of the 2 Ferris wheels to see the park from above.
- Holiday markets: I've already mentioned a few above, but here are the ones that were still open while we were visiting:
- Maria Theresien Platz (through December 31)
- Belvedere Palace (through December 31)
- Schönbrunn (through January 4)
- Winter Market at Riesenradplatz, at the Prater (through January 7)
- Day trip: With 5 full days in Vienna, we debated taking the train to other Austrian cities, like Hallstatt or Salzburg. On our penultimate day, my husband asked if I wanted to spend our last day in Slovakia — and of course I said yes! It was only an hour train ride to Bratislava, Slovakia, and then we took the bus straight to Old Town. We found Old Town picturesque and charming, and I loved seeing Bratislava Castle and all the churches. Some photos from Bratislava below!
what else was on my list
- A New Year's Eve ball! While Vienna's ball season really kicks off in mid-January, when I first started planning for this trip, I saw that there'd been a New Year's Eve ball in previous years. However, I didn't see anything for NYE 2023 and assumed maybe COVID had led to it never starting back up. Imagine my surprise when a few days before our trip, I read about a NYE ball — that was already sold out! I think my problem was that I'd looked too early, as I read that tickets for balls usually go on sale 2-4 weeks out. We ended up loving our experience celebrating midnight with thousands of other people on the street and waltzing in the open air, but my husband is now determined to spend next NYE at a ball in Vienna!
- Attend a classical music concert in one of Vienna's churches.
- Tours: So many options, from self-guided walking tours, to hop-on-hop-off buses, to Fat Tire Bike Tours!
- Danube Tower, to see Vienna from high up.
- Museums: Vienna offers all kinds of museums, from the Hofburg Imperial Apartments and Sisi Museum (about the Austrian Empress Elisabeth, who was assassinated when she was 60), to the Jewish Museum (and apparently Vienna's main synagogue, the Stadttempel, has a gorgeous dome ceiling), to the Museum of Technology, to the Beethoven Museum and Mozarthaus.
- Spanish Riding School
- Parliament Building
where to eat and drink
Vienna is particularly famous for its schnitzel, but I felt as though all of our food in Vienna was very good. Again, remember to make reservations as much as possible, and check the hours!
- Lugeck: This was my favorite meal of the trip! We split the truffle potato soup because we wanted something hot, and it was so good I could have licked the bowl. I ordered the Wagyu burger (after having had lots of Viennese fare the other days), and I couldn't have been happier. We had tried to go to Figlmüller first, which didn't have availability, but apparently Lugeck is a Figlmüller sister restaurant!
- Hotel Bristol: I had really wanted to do a holiday brunch here after seeing an Instagram post about their festive holiday brunch, but it was booked by the time I looked. So instead we did dinner here before seeing Hansel and Gretel because it's right across the street from the opera house! I ordered roasted sirloin in onion gravy and thought it was delicious.
- Pürstner: One of the blogs I read said that this was her favorite restaurant, and we somehow managed to be seated for dinner without a reservation (every single person who walked in after us was turned away). It was good, and we loved the atmosphere!
- Gasthaus Nestroy: We got lucky and walked in for dinner toward the end of our trip because it was near our hotel. Very cozy environment, meal was good.
- Demel: I meannn, we had to. This café came up on every list of recommendations I read! Demel doesn't take reservations, but the line moves pretty quickly (or you can order to takeaway). We stopped here on New Year's Eve to fuel up for the night.
- Figlmüller: Home of Vienna's largest schnitzel!
Here are some of the other places for food and drink that I came across during my (limited) research:
- Breakfast/cafes: Le Bol; Café Landtmann; Café Central; Sacher Café; Café Jelinek; Ramasuri; Adlerhof; Gerstner; Café Kriemhild; L'Amour du Pain; Café Sperl; Hawelka; Café Wortner; Vollpension Café; Balthasar Kaffee Bar
- Lunch: Hopferl; Pizza Randale; Ulrich; Tzesniewski; Habibi & Hawara
- Dinner: Gashaus Poschl; Mosaik; Marcodi; Gasthaus Pfudl; Schweizerhaus; Trattoria da Angelo; Meissl & Schadn; Plachutta
- Cocktails: Der Dachboden; Sofitel Hotel bar (Le Loft); Roberto's; Motto am Fluss
- Afternoon tea: Hotel Bristol; Hotel Imperial
- Sparkling wine breakfast: Schwarzes Kameel; Haas & Haas teahouse
Inside Hotel Imperial
what i packed
My #1 rule for this trip: I prioritized coats! I knew that most of our photos would be taken outdoors, so I didn't want to be wearing the same coat in every single photo. I think I definitely made the right decision, I only wish I'd packed more scarves than just two. The weather was 30s-50s °F when we were there, so I was comfortable (but apparently after we left the weather dropped to the teens!).
Here's what I packed below. All of the links are affiliate links, and you can click the image to shop as well.
- Accessories:
- My Illesteva sunglasses
- Beanies (available here and here). I ended up wearing my earmuffs instead because I didn't have to worry about hat hair, but there were definitely a few times I wish I'd been wearing a beanie instead!
- Ear muffs
- Gloves (good for using with a smartphone); I also packed fingerless gloves but didn't use them.
- Bags — I brought a Longchamp bag and a Kate Spade crossbody purse (mine was the Cedar Street Monday envelope bag, but this is similar; I wanted a purse that could fit my phone, cards, and lipstick but small enough to wear underneath my coat so I didn't have to worry about pickpockets or jostling people with it).
- Hiking socks (to keep my toes warm in my boots)
- Headbands (like this tartan one from J. Crew Factory and this bow one from Amazon)
- Tights
- Shoes:
- Sam Edelman combat boots, which I wore all day, every day (at least 15K steps per day)
- Hunter short packable rainboots (in case it heavily rained or snowed... while I'm glad we didn't get any rain, I was hoping for some snow!)
- Allbirds
- Old Navy flip flops for the hotel room and shower :)
- Outerwear:
- Lulus faux fur coat (which fulfilled my Samantha Parkington/Anna Karenina inspo dreams)
- J. Crew navy pea coat (mine is old, from an NYC sample sale)
- Amazon red pea coat (my husband said he loved this coat because I was easy to spot in the crowds, haha)
- Barbour quilted jacket (which I didn't wear)
- L.L. Bean rain coat (I brought this in case it rained or snowed, thinking I'd layer it with a heavy sweater underneath, but I didn't end up wearing)
- Pants:
- Old Navy high-waisted jeans
- Old Navy cropped leggings
- Amazon one-size-fits-all fleece-lined leggings, which were so comfy and so warm!
- Fleece-lined "liquid" leggings, also available here
- Skirts:
- Abercrombie tartan skirt
- Lulus plaid skirt
- J. Crew Factory tartan skirt
- J. Crew Factory plaid skirt
- Tops:
- Sweaters from LOFT and J. Crew Factory
- J. Crew tissue turtlenecks
- Long-sleeve/layering tops from Gap Factory
- Vests from J. Crew Factory and Amazon (which I didn't end up wearing because I wore coats instead)
- Pullover (which I wore on the plane — wish it had pockets, though!)
- Tools
- Universal adapter
- T3 travel blow-dryer (mine was discontinued so linking T3's updated version — it has auto dual voltage for when you travel!)
- ghd hair straightener with universal voltage
- MAC lipsticks and NARs lip pencils
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Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!
links i used
I love reading travel blogs, so here are some of the ones I looked at when we were deciding on Vienna or if I had questions.
- We Travel Happy: "Waltzing on New Year's Eve"
- Whiskied Wanderlust: "The New Year's Eve Ball at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna"
- Modern Gibson Girl: "Christmas in Vienna - A Full Itinerary"
In case it's not clear from this blog post... I loved Vienna!!! I feel like there's truly something for everyone... music, history, architecture, food.
While we normally like to pick somewhere new for our anniversary trip, I would happily return to Vienna for NYE again. Going to a Viennese ball is on my bucket list, and I'd love to see the Christmas markets at their peak. Not to mention the rest of Austria, like skiing the Austrian Alps!
Let me know in the comments if you've been or if you're planning a trip and have any questions!
love from
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Such a great post! I am putting it on my bucket list!!
ReplyDeleteSo much helpful information, thank you. We will visit late Feb 2025.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the review! I appreciate it.
DeleteI hope you have a great time. You will be there for ball season so I hope you're able to attend at least one if that's something that interests you!!
And please let me know if you have any questions -- I'd be happy to try to answer them!