What does the Vienna scavenger hunt involve?
The Vienna scavenger hunt is a self-guided city game you play on your phone: you walk to 10 landmarks along the Ringstrasse and through the old town, solve a riddle at each one by looking closely at what is in front of you, and unlock the stories and legends behind it. It takes about 3 hours, with around 64 minutes of actual walking over 5.2 km, and you start whenever you like.
Highlights include St Stephen's Cathedral, the Anker Clock, the Hofburg, the State Opera and the Albertina, and the game ends at the golden Johann Strauss statue in the Stadtpark. Vienna's centre is compact and easy to explore on foot, so you move quickly between Gothic churches, imperial palaces and monuments to the city's composers.
- Durationabout 3 hours
- Walkingabout 64 min · 5.2 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
How the game runs through the old town
Answers hidden in plain stone
A single riddle belongs to each of the 10 stops, and nothing is hidden from you: a name under a bust in the university arcade, a figure on a clock face, the pattern laid into a cathedral roof. You read what is there and think it through, which is all the game ever asks of a player.
Clocks, tiles and emperors
A correct answer opens the story: the twelve figures from Austrian history that cross the Anker Clock, finished by Franz von Matsch in 1914; the roughly 230,000 glazed tiles that form the imperial eagle on St Stephen's; the two architects of the State Opera who did not live to see it open on 25 May 1869. Switch on the audio narration if you would rather be told than read.
Ring, lanes and one park
Navigation is handled by Google Maps, and the whole line comes to 5.2 km with 64 minutes of walking, from the Ringstrasse into the lanes behind the cathedral and out again to the Stadtpark. Vienna's centre is level, and the stops sit close together.
No start time, no finish time
The game is never counting, so a long coffee at a marble table costs you nothing. Carry on hours later or on a different day, and if your hotel is at the other end of the Ring, change the order of the stops in the app before you set off.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who the Vienna hunt is made for
A first look at imperial Vienna
The cathedral, the Hofburg, the museums on Maria-Theresien-Platz, the Opera and the Albertina stand within 5.2 km of one another, and a riddle at each gives you a reason to look properly. By the Strauss monument in the Stadtpark the city has stopped being a list of names.
Children on the trail of the Anker Clock
The clues are things to find rather than facts to recall, which children take to quickly: twelve moving figures on one clock, an eagle worked into a roof in coloured tiles, a gilded violinist under a marble arch. An adult has to hold the team together. The route rules out a wheelchair, and old-town cobbles make a pram hard work.
Office teams and visiting friends
Up to 5 players make a team and everyone follows the same game on their own screen, so a department or a group of friends can run several teams over the same 10 stops. Nothing is reserved and nobody is booked in, because the whole route lies on public streets and squares.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
The route: from the Ringstrasse through the old town to the Stadtpark
10 stops · about 64 min walking · start: University of Vienna · finish: Johann Strauss Monument
The hunt starts at the University of Vienna and heads into the old town to the Anker Clock, St Stephen's Cathedral and St Peter's Church. You continue to the Hofburg, the Natural History Museum and the Mozart Monument, then past the State Opera and the Albertina to finish at the Johann Strauss Monument in the Stadtpark. Both the first stop and the sequence after it can be reset in the app, and since every answer sits on the outside of these buildings, the hunt reaches the Stadtpark without a single entry ticket.
Open the route map ↗
1University of ViennaStart
Founded by Duke Rudolf IV in 1365, the University of Vienna is the oldest university in today's German-speaking world. Its main building on the Ringstrasse was designed by Heinrich von Ferstel and opened in 1884, and its arcaded courtyard is lined with busts of famous scholars such as Sigmund Freud and Erwin Schrödinger.
2Anker Clock (Ankeruhr)
The Anker Clock on Hoher Markt is an Art Nouveau clock set on a bridge between two buildings of the Anker insurance company. The painter Franz von Matsch designed it and it was completed in 1914: twelve figures from Austrian history move slowly across its face, and at noon all of them parade to music.
Read the full story →
3St Stephen's Cathedral
St Stephen's Cathedral has stood in the centre of Vienna since the Middle Ages, and its Gothic south tower, 136 metres high, is the tallest church tower in Austria. Look up at the steep roof: about 230,000 glazed tiles form the double-headed imperial eagle and the coats of arms of Vienna and Austria.
4St Peter's Church (Peterskirche)
St Peter's Church is a Baroque church modelled on St Peter's Basilica in Rome, built from about 1701 and consecrated in 1733, with Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt among its architects. Inside, Johann Michael Rottmayr painted the dome fresco of the Coronation of the Virgin, and a relief outside recalls the legend that Charlemagne founded the first church here.
Read the full story →
5Hofburg
The Hofburg was the main residence of the Habsburgs and the seat of the emperors of Austria until 1918. Over the centuries it grew into a vast complex of wings, courtyards and squares, including the Spanish Riding School and Heldenplatz, and since 1946 it has been the official seat of the Austrian Federal President.
6Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum opened in 1889 and faces its twin, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, across Maria-Theresien-Platz, both planned by Gottfried Semper and Carl von Hasenauer for the imperial collections. Its best-known treasure is the Venus of Willendorf, a small stone figure about 30,000 years old.
7Mozart Monument
This white marble monument to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was created by Viktor Tilgner and unveiled in 1896 on today's Albertinaplatz. Damaged in the bombing of 1945, it was restored and moved to the Burggarten in 1953, where you can study the reliefs on its pedestal.
Read the full story →
8Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera opened on 25 May 1869 with Mozart's Don Giovanni. Its architects, Eduard van der Nüll and August Sicard von Sicardsburg, died before the opening after harsh public criticism of their building, and after bombs destroyed most of it in 1945 the house reopened in 1955 with Beethoven's Fidelio.
9Albertina
The Albertina is a former Habsburg palace at the southern tip of the Hofburg, standing on one of the last surviving sections of Vienna's old city walls. It is named after Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, son-in-law of Empress Maria Theresa, who founded its collection in 1776, and it holds Albrecht Dürer's famous Young Hare.
10Johann Strauss MonumentFinish
In the Stadtpark stands the gilded bronze statue of Johann Strauss the Younger, the Waltz King who composed The Blue Danube. Designed by Edmund Hellmer and unveiled in 1921, it shows Strauss playing the violin in front of a white marble arch.
Read the full story →
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Maha– United Kingdom –
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Another fun way of discovering the sites and get the steps in! I definitely prefer this to going around with a tour as it is flexible and you can break whenever you want and just enjoy the sights!
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Melanie– Netherlands –
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Leuke route, goede puzzels. Echt een aanrader als je zonder gids de stad wil vernnen
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Erg leuk om te doen met kids van 9 en 11 jaar. Leuke manie
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Ich empfehle den World City Trail als eine tolle Familienaktivität.
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Die R?tsel waren sehr kreativ und witzig. Mein Sohn hat immer flei?ig mitgemacht. Nur leider waren die Wege meist etwas lang und die Highlights waren f?r mich weniger Wien Klassiker. Aber dennoch eine sch?ne Mischung aus Wien erkunden, Informationen zu ?ber Wien zu bekommen und etwas Spa?
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Zu Fu? gut zu bew?ltigen. Sehr interessant auch f?r Einheimische. Ideal f?r eine Gruppe von Kollegen oder Freunden, da man viele M?glichkeiten hat um sich zwischendurch mal zusammenzusetzen, zu essen, etwas zu trinken, zu plaudern und die Stadt und die Menschen genauer zu beobachten. Auch Einheimische entdecken dabei etwas Neues.
Nicky– Netherlands –
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Het was super leuk om met deze speurtocht Wenen te verkennen samen met onze dochters. Middels dit spel maakt het wel erg leuk! En ontspannen dat je gewoon je eigen plan trekt en zelf kunt kijken wanneer je pauze pakt etc.
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Coole Sache!
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Tolle idee
Peter– Austria –
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Tolle undx einfache Art, eine Stadt ein wenig kennenzulernen
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Usan– Germany –
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Sehr. Die Kinder (11j, 11j und 13j) waren begeistert, auch wir Erwachsenen haben befindet Erkundung Peens viel Spa? gehabt
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What a nice activity
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Sehr verwirrend Beginn! Bei Eingabe das Sysmbol Schl?ssel zu verwenden, ist eigentlich sehr unlogisch! Auch das Ende beim Stadtpark ist nicht gut – es sollte der Ausgangspunkt und der Endpunkt nicht so weit von einander entfernt sein!
Dana– Germany –
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Perfekt um selbst Wien zu erkunden. App funktionierte ohne Probleme.
Sixtine– France –
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Tr?s sympa. A faire en famille. Pr?voir une petite r?compense ? la fin pour les enfants. Ils sont alors encore plus motiv?s pour marcher !
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Viel zu laufen. Nur f?r Leute, die gut zu Fu? sind. Aber eine tolle M?glichkeit die Stadt kennenzulernen und auch versteckte Hotspots. Sehr zu empfehlen auch f?r Familien mit Kindern.
Meike– Germany –
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War eine informative sch?ne Route – man konnte im eigenen Tempo die Stadt erkunden, lief nicht ziellose herum, konnte aber jederzeit auch links und rechts abbiegen. Dazu tolle R?tsel! Nicht zu schwer, nicht zu leicht. Hat Spa? gemacht! 🙂
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Das Preis-/Leistungsverh?ltnis passte bestens. Sch?ne Besichtigungspunkte, wir haben viele Highlights gesehen. Gut dass man auch unterbrechen und rechts und links des Weges einen Stopp einlegen kann. Gerne wieder in einer anderen Stadt.
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!