A short guide for Mom & Dad and Wes & Pam — one evening walk in Vienna, a day well spent in Salzburg, and three easy days in Prague.
From your front door to dinner, to a little sparkle, to the most famous slice of cake in the empire — about 1.8 km all told, and every step of it flat.
You're beautifully placed. The InterContinental Vienna sits on the Ring beside the Stadtpark, and Johannesgasse — the street the hotel is on — runs due west straight into the old town. You genuinely cannot get lost: step out the front door, head west along Johannesgasse (away from the park), and keep going until the street ends. That single street does most of the work.
Step out and turn onto Johannesgasse heading away from the park. You'll cross the Ring, pass the old Musikverein quarter, and after about ten minutes the street delivers you onto Kärntner Straße, the grand pedestrian spine of the old city. Turn right and walk north — you'll pass Swarovski's door on the way, which is stop 2 on the way back — then take Plankengasse or Donnergasse left into Neuer Markt.
The Plachutta family are the keepers of Tafelspitz — boiled beef in broth, served in its own copper pot with marrow bones, roast potatoes, apple-horseradish and chive sauce. It arrives as a small ceremony and the waiter will show you how to eat it. This newest of the Plachutta rooms opened on Neuer Markt, a handsome square with the Donner Fountain in the middle and the Capuchin Crypt (where the Habsburgs are buried) on one side.
Book ahead. Even midweek this room fills. Ask for a table in the main dining room rather than the bar side.
Walk back out to Kärntner Straße and it's a few doors along. This isn't an ordinary shop — it's three floors of crystal theatre, with art installations, 130-odd years of Swarovski history, and a Moët & Chandon bar if you want a glass of something before dessert.
Worth knowing: free personal introductions in English run at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. If you're on a Vienna PASS, the introduction and a small crystal gift are included — and on the Flexi Pass it doesn't use up one of your admissions.
Carry straight on down Kärntner Straße, past the State Opera, and the Ring opens up in front of you. The Hotel Imperial is just to your left — a palace before it was a hotel, and still behaving like one.
The Imperial Torte was invented here in 1873 by a young kitchen apprentice named Xaver Loibner, for the hotel's opening — an evening Emperor Franz Joseph himself attended. It's a square little brick of thin almond-marzipan layers and whipped chocolate cream under a dark chocolate glaze, and the recipe has never been published. Order a slice with a Melange in Café Imperial; they'll also box a whole one for you to carry home.
If you're planning to see more than a couple of the big sights, this is the one to look at: free entry to up to 90 attractions, fast-track lines at the busy ones, and the hop-on hop-off buses included — handy for Schönbrunn and Belvedere, which are a fair way out. There's also a Flexi Pass if you'd rather pick a set number of sights and use them across 60 days instead of consecutive days.
viennapass.deA city you can cross on foot in twenty minutes, with a fortress on top of it and Mozart around every third corner.
Salzburg's old town sits in a tight bend of the Salzach river, squeezed between the water and the cliff the fortress stands on. Everything below is walkable; the one thing worth riding is the funicular. Plan on one full day for the old town and fortress, and keep the afternoon of a second day free for Hellbrunn if you have it.
This is the rare city card that genuinely pays for itself here, because the two things you'll want most — the Festungsbahn funicular plus fortress admission, and Hellbrunn with the trick fountains — are both included, along with all city buses, the S1 railway and a Salzach river boat trip. Roughly €38 / €45 / €49 for 24 / 48 / 72 hours. Each sight can be visited once per card.
salzburgcard.comThe heart of it is Getreidegasse — a narrow canyon of a street where every shop still hangs a wrought-iron guild sign over the door, because signs had to be legible to people who couldn't read. Even McDonald's had to make one. Mozart was born at Getreidegasse 9 (the bright yellow house), and the little covered Durchhäuser passageways running off it lead through to Universitätsplatz and the daily Grünmarkt food market.
From Kapitelplatz, just behind the Cathedral, follow the signs a couple of minutes to Festungsgasse and the FestungsBahn. It's Austria's oldest funicular still running, the ride takes under a minute, and it saves you a steep fifteen-minute climb — take it up, and if your knees are willing, walk back down through the gardens for the views.
At the top: one of the best-preserved fortresses in Europe, never taken by force in 900 years. The state rooms and the Golden Chamber are worth the extra loop, and the ramparts give you the whole city, the river and the Alps in one turn of the head. The funicular and fortress admission are both covered by the Salzburg Card.
Do not skip this one if the weather is kind. Hellbrunn is a 1615 pleasure palace on the southern edge of town, built by a prince-archbishop with an unusually well-developed sense of humour: the gardens are plumbed with 400 years of hidden water jets — in the stone dining table's seats, in the grottoes, in the mechanical theatre — and the guide's job is to set them off while you're not looking. Bring a light jacket. You will get a little wet, and everyone under sixty laughs about it.
It's also where the Sound of Music gazebo now stands. The pavilion was built as a prop by Leopoldskron Palace for the "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" scenes, and was later moved here to the eastern side of the Hellbrunn park so that fans could visit it without trespassing. You can walk right up to it and photograph it, though stepping inside is no longer allowed. Between Hellbrunn, the lake terrace at Leopoldskron, the Do-Re-Mi steps and hedge tunnel in the Mirabell Gardens, and the gates of Nonnberg Abbey, the film is scattered all over this city.
Two or three days, laid out so you're never doubling back — one day on each bank of the river, and a third for the quieter, stranger corners.
Prague is compact but hilly and heavily cobbled, so the plan below groups things by neighbourhood rather than by fame. Wear the shoes with grip. A useful rhythm: be at the big sights before 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m., and eat two streets away from wherever the crowd is.
Free admission or discounts at more than 70 sights — Prague Castle, the Old Town Hall and its tower, Vyšehrad, the Jewish Quarter, seven towers in all — plus unlimited public transport and airport transfers, guided walks, Vltava river cruises and the vintage Tram 42. Sold as 48, 72 or 120 hours, as a physical card or an e-Pass on your phone.
prague.eu — Visitor PassBook Plachutta a few days out, and any Hotel Imperial dining ahead of time. In Prague, book dinner for a Friday or Saturday.
Café Imperial is smart-casual — no jacket required for coffee and cake, but leave the trainers and shorts at the hotel. The restaurant proper is dressier.
Austria and Czechia both round up: about 5–10%, handed to the server as you pay rather than left on the table. Say the total you want to pay, not "keep the change."
Austria uses the euro; Czechia uses the koruna (CZK), not the euro. Decline "dynamic currency conversion" when a card machine offers to charge you in dollars — the rate is always worse.
The U-Bahn is fast, clean and honour-system: validate your ticket before you board and keep it. Stubentor and Karlsplatz are your nearest stations.
Vienna–Salzburg by ÖBB Railjet is about 2½ hours and Salzburg–Prague around 6 hours by direct train or bus. Reserve seats in advance in summer.
A Melange is the Viennese cappuccino, a Kleiner Brauner an espresso with a jug of cream. Never order "a coffee" — and never rush; the table is yours.
Tap water is excellent in all three cities. Carry a light rain jacket — useful in a Prague shower and essential at Hellbrunn.