When Empress Elisabeth was assassinated in 1898, Habsburg tradition required her body to be split three ways: intestines into a bronze urn at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, heart into a silver urn at the Augustinian Church a kilometre away, body into…
Richard the Lionheart spent Christmas 1192 in a cell 100 metres above the Danube, prisoner of Leopold V of Austria for insulting him at the siege of Acre the year before. The tower that held him still stands above the…
Hohensalzburg Fortress sits 120 metres above the old town and has never been successfully attacked in its 950-year history. Not once. The Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg built it in 1077 and kept expanding it until 1681; every siege army that turned…
Joseph Haydn walked into this first-floor drawing room in 1785, listened to six string quartets played by Mozart and three friends, and turned to Leopold Mozart afterwards with the line every Mozart biography quotes: “your son is the greatest composer…
The €128 Vienna PASS is the best money you can spend on a museum-heavy trip, and the worst money you can spend if you’re mostly walking the Innere Stadt and eating schnitzel. The €22 Vienna City Card is a different…
In 1752 Emperor Francis I of Austria ordered a menagerie built in the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace so he could eat breakfast watching exotic animals. He commissioned 13 baroque pavilions arranged in concentric circles around a central Imperial Breakfast Pavilion.…
In 2012 a Chinese property developer built a full-scale replica of Hallstatt in Guangdong Province. Austrian officials were furious at first, then realized it was free marketing for the original. The village now has 780 permanent residents and roughly 10,000…
Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted about 45 surviving works in his career. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has 12 of them — just over a quarter of Bruegel’s entire output, including Hunters in the Snow, The Tower of Babel, and…
Every night in Salzburg, a chamber quartet sits in the 300-year-old Marmorsaal at Schloss Mirabell and plays Mozart to about 120 tourists. The musicians are Mozarteum-trained; the hall is historic; the repertoire is superb. The only person who wouldn’t have…
Orson Welles delivered the most famous scene in post-war cinema on Vienna’s Giant Ferris Wheel — in The Third Man (1949), Harry Lime looks down from the gondola at the people below, calls them “dots,” and asks whether you’d feel…
Your complete guide to booking a food tour in Vienna, from the Naschmarkt to Sachertorte tastings and coffee house culture.
How to visit Eagle's Nest from Salzburg: the best tours, transport options, ticket prices, and tips for the 1,834m summit.
Your complete guide to Hofburg Palace and Sisi Museum tickets in Vienna, from official prices to skip-the-line guided tours.
Everything you need to know about Vienna hop-on hop-off buses, from routes and operators to tickets and the best time to ride.
Plan your Sound of Music tour in Salzburg with our guide to the best filming location tours, prices, and booking tips.
Your complete guide to Belvedere Palace tickets in Vienna, from timed entry slots and ticket types to the best guided tours for seeing Klimt up close.
Plan your Hallstatt day trip from Vienna with our guide to the best tours, transport options, and tips for visiting Austria.
Evening cruises, brunch boats, and private retro charters on the Danube. Four ways to see Vienna from the water, compared.
Your complete guide to booking a walking tour in Vienna, from hidden courtyards to Ringstrasse highlights. Four top-rated tours compared.
The white Lipizzaner stallions have been performing inside the Hofburg Palace for 450 years. Here is how to get tickets and what to expect.
Mozart performed here at six, Napoleon used it as his war room. Getting into Schonbrunn Palace takes planning — here is how.
Slide down wooden rails, cross an underground lake by raft, and ride a mine train into a mountain. Your guide to the Salzburg salt mines.
Vienna is where classical music was born — and the concert scene is alive every night. Here is how to book the right tickets.
Discover Austria Peak in Bolivia with this 10-hour, guided trek near La Paz. Enjoy stunning mountain views, lagoons, and a rewarding outdoor experience.