Vienna

Landstraße & Belvedere (3. Bezirk)

The district where the aristocracy built its summer palaces because the land was cheap and the view back at the city was good. That view is still there — the terrace between the two Belvedere palaces gives you Vienna's best panorama, and Klimt's The Kiss hangs a hundred metres behind you. Beyond the palace grounds the 3rd is unglamorous in a useful way: a long shopping street, a botanical garden nobody charges for, the city's most consequential restaurant in a park pavilion, and Hundertwasser's kaleidoscopic council block twenty minutes north.

Who it's for: Anyone who came to Vienna for Klimt and Schiele — the Belvedere holds the largest Klimt collection in the world. Garden people, because between the Belvedere parterres and the free 80,000-square-metre botanical garden next door you can spend an afternoon outdoors for nothing. Serious eaters willing to plan months ahead, for Steirereck. Military and First World War historians, for the car Franz Ferdinand was shot in. Anyone who wants a base with excellent transport and lower hotel prices than the 1st.

Things to know

  • Buy Belvedere tickets by building, not by 'the Belvedere'. Upper Belvedere (about €23) holds the permanent collection including The Kiss; Lower Belvedere (about €20) is temporary exhibitions and the baroque state rooms; Belvedere 21 in the Schweizergarten is modern and contemporary. Combination tickets exist. Under-19s are free.
  • The garden between the two palaces is FREE and open to walk through without any ticket. If your budget is tight, the walk uphill and the view from the Upper Belvedere terrace cost nothing.
  • The Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna sits directly against the Belvedere's eastern wall, covers about 80,000 square metres with roughly 11,000 species, was founded by Maria Theresia in 1754, and is free. You can enter it from the Upper Belvedere end. Almost no visitors know it's there.
  • Steirereck was promoted to three Michelin stars in January 2025 and holds 100 Falstaff points. It books out months ahead. The same operation runs the Meierei downstairs, which serves breakfast and a famous cheese cellar at a fraction of the price and is far easier to get into.
  • Hundertwasserhaus is a residential building. You cannot go inside. The Hundertwasser Village opposite is a small commercial passage and is free; the actual museum, KunstHausWien, is a five-minute walk away and is the thing worth paying for.
  • The Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in the Arsenal has the Gräf & Stift car Franz Ferdinand was shot in, along with his bloodstained uniform. Parts of the museum were being reworked recently, with a redone display area reopening in June 2026 — check what's open if a specific hall matters to you.
  • Strandbar Herrmann on the Donaukanal is summer-only, reopened after flood-damage repairs, and has a Mexican menu these days. It is free to enter and one of the best cheap evenings in the city between May and September.
  • Trams are the way to move around this district: D runs along the Ring and up Prinz-Eugen-Straße to the Upper Belvedere, O and 1 serve the Hundertwasserhaus end, and 18 and 71 cover the Arsenal.
  • Wien Mitte in this district is the airport rail terminus — and from 7 September 2026 the S-Bahn Stammstrecke closes until the end of October 2027, so the airport S7 no longer reaches Wien Mitte and the CAT runs replacement buses. Do not plan an airport transfer here without checking.