Money
Austria uses the euro. Cards are widely accepted, but Austria is more cash-attached than most of Western Europe — small Beisln, Würstelstände, market stalls, some Heurigen and the odd café are cash-only or set a card minimum. Carry some.
Withdraw from a bank ATM and decline any offer to charge you in your home currency.
Sunday closing
Supermarkets and most shops close on Sundays, and it is close to absolute. Restaurants, cafés, museums and the Würstelstände stay open; groceries do not. The exceptions are shops in the main railway stations and at the airport, which open seven days and are correspondingly busy on Sunday afternoons.
Buy what you need on Saturday. This catches out more visitors than anything else in Vienna.
Tipping
Five to ten per cent in restaurants and cafés, given by telling the server the rounded total when you pay — not left on the table. Pay to your own waiter rather than flagging down whoever passes.
Transport tickets
There are no barriers on the U-Bahn. Validate your ticket once, at the start, in the blue machines. Plain-clothed inspectors work in pairs and issue an on-the-spot penalty. This is the most common way visitors have a bad time here.
Safety
Vienna is consistently among the safest large cities in Europe. Pickpocketing occurs on the U1 and U3 and around Stephansplatz and Praterstern, and that is broadly the extent of it.
The one genuine nuisance is the costumed concert sellers around the Opera and Stephansplatz in Mozart wigs. What they sell is usually a tourist-market concert in a minor venue, not the Musikverein or the Staatsoper. It is legal, it is not what most buyers think they are getting, and the real bargains are the standing tickets you queue for yourself.
Smoking
Banned in all enclosed public spaces including bars and restaurants since November 2019. Terraces are fine.
Water and health
Vienna’s tap water arrives by aqueduct from Alpine springs and is excellent. There are around a thousand public drinking fountains. Do not buy bottled water.
EU citizens should carry an EHIC or GHIC. Pharmacies are Apotheke, marked with a red A, and closed on Sundays with a rota posted in the window.
Emergency numbers
112 for everything. 144 for an ambulance specifically. Operators speak English.
Odds and ends
Museum closing days vary and do not agree with each other. Check individually.
Greeting. Grüß Gott on entering a shop is normal and expected, and Auf Wiedersehen on leaving.
Jaywalking is fined and the Viennese wait at empty crossings. Follow their lead, particularly near a police officer.
Floors are counted European-style: the Erdgeschoss is the ground floor and the first floor is above it.