Rainy Day in Vienna: Best Indoor Things to Do
Vienna may be the best big city in Europe to be rained on — the Habsburgs left it stuffed with museums, gilded palaces and coffee houses where lingering is the whole point. Here is how to spend a wet day in Vienna entirely indoors, with the top-rated tickets and tours to book.
At a glance
- 1Kunsthistorisches Museum
- 2Coffee house & Sachertorte
- 3Belvedere & Klimt's Kiss
- 4Hofburg, Sisi & the Lipizzaners
Morning: old masters at the Kunsthistorisches
Begin under the dome of the Kunsthistorisches Museum on the Ringstrasse, home to the world's largest Bruegel collection, Vermeer's The Art of Painting and the Habsburgs' treasure-filled Kunstkammer. A timed-entry ticket gets you past the queue that forms on wet mornings, and the marble staircase café under the cupola is a destination in itself. Give it two to three unhurried hours.
Midday: a coffee house and the Sachertorte question
Viennese coffee houses were built for bad weather — UNESCO lists their culture as intangible heritage, and no waiter will rush you out. Settle in for a mélange and decide the city's oldest argument yourself: original Sachertorte at Café Sacher or the rival recipe at Demel. A guided coffee house tour with tastings adds the stories behind the marble tables and takes about 2.5 hours, all indoors.
