Explore the natural beauty of Austria!
We’ve been to Austria twice — once to the small western town of Feldkirch, and once to Vienna. Both times we left feeling like we barely scratched the surface!
Vienna
Starting off with the capital city of Vienna!
Vienna might be the most beautiful city in Europe. We kept turning corners and stopping in our tracks. We only had about a day there, and we kept it simple — walked the main city center, didn’t overplan. Fair warning: we were at the tail end of a two-week trip and the kids were fully museumed out, so we deliberately stayed close to the hotel. We know there’s a lot more to see, but what we did was perfect for where we were at.
We stayed at the Intercontinental Vienna on IHG points — right in the center of the city, beautiful hotel, great staff, excellent location. (Want to know how we got it for free? Reach out!)
Right across the street is Stadtpark, a lovely city park with walking paths and playgrounds. We were mainly there for the basketball court, obviously.
From there we wandered toward the pedestrian streets and the main churches. Along the way we stopped for lunch at Cafe de l’Europe — food was good, but the real draw was the gelato that looked like a plate of spaghetti. Sitting in the middle of the city people-watching while eating novelty ice cream is a solid afternoon.
The two churches are worth every minute. St. Stephen’s Cathedral has been standing since 1137 and it shows — massive steeples, intricate tile work on the roof (over 200,000 tiles), and gothic architecture inside that stops you cold. You can pay to go up top, but just walking around the main floor is impressive enough. A short walk away is St. Peter’s Church, built in the 1700s and modeled after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. We thought it was just as beautiful, and somehow less crowded.
We also spent some time in Volksgarten, a peaceful rose garden with thousands of bushes in bloom, then wandered past the Hofburg Palace — built in the 13th century, home to the Habsburgs for over 600 years, now the Austrian president’s offices. The Parliament Building is nearby. Basically every building you walk past is jaw-dropping.
The evening took a turn when it got cold and rainy, so we ducked into an escape room — First Escape. Not exactly a Vienna bucket list item, but the kids loved it and it was cheaper than anything we’d find at home. Dinner was at Chinacy, which does elevated Chinese food and was genuinely excellent.
We loved our day in Vienna even though we barely touched it. It also makes a great base for day trips — Bratislava, Slovakia is only an hour away and we visited the day before.
Feldkirch
We visited Feldkirch on our first trip to Austria, as a side trip during a week in Switzerland. We only had a few hours, but it left an impression.
Check out our full vlog here:
Feldkirch sits on the far western edge of Austria, right on the Swiss border and next to Liechtenstein. We drove over from Switzerland and next to Lichtenstein — no real border crossing, just a small unmanned stall. Easy.
The town is charming: a castle, a river running through it, walkable streets. Our first stop was the Wildpark, a free animal park that was a perfect leg-stretcher for the kids. Animals, a playground, and surprisingly great views over the town from above.
After that we headed into the center for lunch and grabbed groceries for our overnight back in Switzerland. Got pizza alongside the river. The town is small and easy to walk — a nice, low-key stop.
We didn’t get to do more because Liechtenstein and Switzerland were calling. But Austria is firmly on the list to revisit properly.
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