Why You'll Want to Visit Vienna Right Now

Vienna’s breathtaking beauty, delicious cakes and rich cultural legacy make it an ideal European travel destination.

While sipping on a mélange (Vienna’s version of the cappuccino) and nibbling on sacher-torte at Café Sacher, a visit to see Gustav Klimt’s the “Kiss” at the Belvedere, and a night at the famed Vienna State Opera and a nightcap at Loos Bar are all good ways to see the Austrian capital, there’s also an emerging scene filled with food, fun, fashion, and art.

“It’s not only living on its past glory, but actually representing what the city stands for now,” said Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt, artistic director of the international art fair viennacontemporary.

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For eight years in a row, the Austrian capital — known as Wien in the local German — earned the top spot on the Annual Mercer Quality of Life Survey. Although the city of 1.8 million people is no longer the glimmering cultural capital that it was in the early 1900s, creatives are flocking there now thanks to its high quality of life, abundance of culture, carefully manicured cityscape, and low cost of living.

“It’s a really crucial point,” said Marianne Dobner, who recently returned to Vienna to serve as a curator at the Museum Moderner Art (Mumok). “More young artists are coming back. It’s cheaper.”

Alongside the requisite Vienna tourist stops, get a taste of the new Vienna through its people and places. Take in a cup of artisanal coffee while experiencing modern Viennese café culture at rien, catch one of the city’s many rising artists at its new galleries, and find items in its boutiques by one of the young fashion designers from the city. Maybe you’ll catch the next Klimt or listen to the next Mozart.