5-day itinerary

Vienna

Five days in Vienna is enough to move past the palace circuit and into the city's other registers. This plan starts with Schönbrunn and the Kunsthistorisches Museum — the Bruegel collection is one of the finest in the world — and then works through the Hofburg, the Naschmarkt (Saturday flea market at the far end is the best in Vienna), the Secession building with Klimt's Beethoven Frieze, and a Railjet day to Salzburg. The Stehplatz standing tickets at the Staatsoper are €4–12 and available 80 minutes before curtain; the productions are genuinely world-class. Café Central and Café Schwarzenberg are not tourist traps — they're how the city has always worked. Vienna is expensive; the Würstelstand sausage stands are one honest way to eat well for almost nothing.