My Quest to Travel to Vienna’s 23 Districts!

Did you know that Vienna has 23 city districts? From the famous Innere Stadt with Stephansplatz and the main shopping roads to Donaustadt on the far east side of the city, each part of the city is separated into sections.

Towards the end of my time in Vienna, I decided to visit all 23 districts. Yes, it wasn’t easy. I had to spend time to figure out which ones I had already been in, and after a week of traveling around the city, I was still left with the task of visiting Wahring, Favoriten, and Simmering. Here’s what I did to check those off my list!

I effectively created a set of rules for myself. Namely, that I wouldn’t count going to a district unless I intentionally went there, did something (anything, but something intentional), and really consciously appreciated and took in the area I was in. So no counting tram rides through, no counting subway stops, it had to be purposeful walking.

Wahring was the first of my last three stops. Although Wahring is largely residential, I found a park, called Turkenschanzpark, which looked quite nice, and I heard that there was a very local Christmas market there too. So after a lazy Sunday, I got up, and took the S45 train from Handelskai to Gersthof and went on a short 1 kilometer walk. It was definitely a very settled area. The weather had just cleared up and the sun came out. While it was surprisingly quiet, I enjoyed the park thoroughly. There were some nice paved paths and an awesome lookout tower (not allowed to go up, unfortunately). I was quite impressed at the beauty of the small park—despite its small size, I was able to really appreciate the plants and the scenery. I then walked to a bus, which I rode through Wahring again towards a tram stop, then took it all the way back to Praterstern. Totally worth it, and the kebab I brought for the train ride was the perfect finishing touch.

Favoriten was a bit of an adventure. I decided on a split-second feeling to head down towards Reumannplatz. I’m not sure why I chose that area, because afterwards, I learned that that area is in general a bit shady at night. But for some reason, I went around the busy evening hours on the U1, getting off at the Reumannplatz station. I figured I would catch the tram to the nearby park, called Erholungsgebiet Wienerberg, for sunset, but for some reason, the tram was super delayed. My impression was still quite positive. It was full of life, grocers outside their stores, families walking by, young professionals and students like myself. I don’t think I saw a single tourist, to be honest. I eventually decided to just start walking along the tram route, and when the tram came about 10-minutes later, I got on it. By the time I got to the park, unfortunately, it was getting dark, plus it was still cloudy, so it was quite underwhelming. The park was also nothing to write home about. Cool, but dark and boring. I then took the tram back to Karlsplatz and headed home.

Simmering was the last of my explorations in Vienna. I decided after class to head towards Schloss Neugebaude, after hearing about a Christmas Market in the area. It was probably not the smartest idea. First, by the time I got to the end of the line, I had to wait for another bus, which took forever. Then, I got dropped off at what must’ve been a residential bus stop (basically in the middle of nowhere) where I had to walk along a dark back road with zero lighting towards the castle, which was poorly lit. When I got there, a man was walking his dog with zero lights and I nearly though I was going to die. The Christmas Market was super empty and mostly dead even though it was 7 P.M., and it was spooky throughout the entire castle. I ended up walking back to a tram stop in the cold winter winds of Vienna and coming back. That entire area had a super creepy vibe and I kept thinking about how if somebody kidnapped me, nobody would notice or even see it. But I made it just fine.

So that was my quest in Vienna to visit 23 districts. I highly recommend you do it too! You get to see every part of the city and experience all the flavors of Vienna. Just go on Google and search up some recommendations for things to do or go on Google Maps and find some parks or attractions. I promise you it’ll be worth it!