What to do in Vienna in a day?

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Vienna is not a very big city and its main attractions are mainly grouped together. However, having only one day in the city is still pretty tight, so you need to carefully plan your visit.
First things first, you probably won't manage to visit Schonbrunn in such a short frame of time. The famous palace is a bit out of the way and it sits in a huge garden. It is also pretty vast itself, so a visit here will most likely take you from half a day to a whole day.

So better leave Schonbrunn for a future visit when you will have two, three, or even 4 days in Vienna to spare. And speaking of this, if you have extra days in Austria, I really recommend you add a day trip to Hallstatt to your itinerary as well). But of course, if you prefer to visit Hallstatt by tour from Vienna, you can do that too.

My recommendation for a packed full day in Vienna, Austria are:
- admire the Neo-Gothic architecture of Vienna City Hall (also called the Rathaus)
- walk-on Graben, the main shopping street located in the city center
- visit St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Stephansdom), one of the most iconic landmarks in Vienna; also don't forget to climb one or both of its towers for a nice panorama of the city (
- admire the Belvedere palace complex (consisting of the Upper and the Lower palace) and the vast park where they are located (the park, in fact, the palaces' gardens is free to visit)
- take a picture of the popular and colorful and ultimately kinda weird looking Hundertwasserhaus apartment building; since it's a private building, it cannot be visited, but there are some shops designed in the same style across the street that you can walk into
- take a ride on the Ferris wheel at Prater amusement park
- visit Karlskirche, a beautiful baroque church
- admire Hofburg, the former main imperial palace of the Habsburgs; it can also be visited, but this will probably eat up a lot of your available time in the city

Take into account that you'll likely be walking for most of the day, so take the comfiest shoes that you have. Also, depending on when you travel, make sure you have dressed appropriately for the wheater. Vienna has a reputation for being often very windy and I can definitely confirm this.
Even though it was pretty sunny when we visited (at the beginning of October) the wind made me go into the first h&m I saw and buy a shawl to keep me warm.

I hope this short guide for one day in Vienna gave you a few ideas on what there is to see in Austria's capital, even if you are super short on time. And I'm sure you'll want to return pretty soon to discover the city a bit more.

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