Vienna with kids – How to enjoy a city break with children

Top of my list when planning a family city break, is looking for places to see animals. It’s usually entertaining for us all, and means good facilities like play areas, children’s menus and baby-changing.

Haus Des Meeres - open daily 9am-8pm

Literally meaning ‘house of the sea’, this is a 10-storey aquarium and terrarium filled with interesting and unusual exhibits. The excited shrieks I heard from our toddler as she watched marmosets leaping around made the entry fees worth it. You’ll walk from floor to floor through a range of habitats, seeing 10-feet long anacondas, hammerhead sharks and a giant sea turtle named Puppi.
The layout is very confusing so you do need to ensure you walk through every door, and try walking up and down every staircase because we found several small areas of animals which no one else seemed to visit.
Being an indoor attraction, it gets very busy on a rainy day so I recommend getting here at 9am and booking your tickets in advance to avoid queues at the door. We had to leave our pushchair in front of some fish tanks on the ground floor, and there are two elevators which you can use. We spent just under two hours here, but you could stay longer and visit the rooftop restaurant or café. There’s also a play area behind the building for the kids to let off some steam afterwards. Entry was 22 EUR an adult, 6.50-10 EUR for children and under 3s go free.

Schonbrunn Palace Park - open daily

Schonbrunn Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage site and Austria’s most visited tourist attraction. It was historically the summer home of the monarchy and it’s set within a park and grounds so large that it has its own U-bahn station. You can pay to tour several of the grand rooms at the palace, but if you’re travelling to Vienna with kids then you might prefer the Children’s museum next door.
Here you can find out about the everyday lives of the imperial children, and use the time wheels to make comparisons to modern life. There are toys from the past to play with, and children can set the imperial dining table too. At the end of the visit they can dress up as princes and princesses. Entry is 8 EUR per person, and there are combination tickets available if you also want to visit the palace, zoo or other attractions.
There is a Baroque maze to explore, with a central viewing platform and ‘harmonising energy stones. Though at 4.50 EUR per person, I thought it was a little expensive for the size of it.
The palace park itself is free to enter and it’s huge. You could spend over an hour walking around and exploring, with several ruins and statues to find. There are horse and carriage rides available as well.

Tiergarten Schonbrunn (Vienna Zoo) - open daily

Vienna Zoo is the oldest zoo in the world, and one of the best that I’ve visited. I recommend following the trail of paw prints around. It took us three hours with a lunch stop, and meant we saw every animal there. You could of course spend shorter/longer there, particularly if you spend time at the parks and play areas.

There are over 700 species of animals here and they do a lot of conservation work. My highlights were the hippos; I hadn’t seen them out of the water before and was in awe of how huge they were. We also loved the giant pandas, elephants, giraffes, rhinos and polar bear. A top tip is to watch the sea lion feeding; it got busy 15 minutes before the start but was really entertaining.

Adult entry was 24 EUR, children 14 EUR and under 6s free, though there were family passes and combination tickets available.

Natural History Museum (Naturhistorischesmuseum) - Open Weds-Mon

In the Museum Quarter are two, near identical grand buildings which face each other onto a monument for Empress Maria Therese. One is an art history museum, and the other is the Natural History museum. There’s an impressive entrance hall, complete with marble staircases.

The extensive array of taxidermy isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it is awe-inspiring to see. The sheer number of animals and birds on display was impressive, and provides a way for children to see all of these species. There are also several dinosaur skeletons to see, as well as a Planetarium should you wish to buy a ticket.

We were disappointed that there was a 14 EUR admission fee per adult, given that the equivalent in London is free to visit, but under 19s don't have to pay.

The Spanish Riding School - dependent on training and performance timetable

For the chance to see the true elegance of the Lipizzaners, you can watch them in action at the riding school. For a cheaper way to watch, book to see one of the hour-long morning training sessions. You’ll see both the young, grey stallions and the more mature and famous white ones practise to classical Viennese music.

Alternatively, you can book tickets to a performance; but at 70 minutes long and prices starting from 27 EUR just for standing room in the gallery - only you can judge whether that’s a family-friendly activity.