Mappu
mappu.ai

Vienna walking tours, free and self-guided

2 free walks through Vienna that you take on your own, whenever you like. Each has a route map, its stops in walking order and a free audio guide at every stop that you play in your browser.

Self-guidedNo guide meets you: you follow the map and listen on your phone. Looking for a free walking tour with a live guide, the kind you pay for with a tip? The guided tours are further down this page.

See the guided tours

Is there a free walking tour in Vienna?

Quick answer. Yes, of two kinds. Mappu has 2 free self-guided walks in Vienna: you walk the route on your own and play a free audio guide at every stop, with no booking and no tip. The free walking tours that tour companies run in Vienna have a live guide, leave at set times and usually ask for a tip at the end; you book those with the company.

Self-guided walks in Vienna

Route map: St Stephen’s to the Hofburg, Vienna6 numbered stops in walking order. Stop 1: St Stephen’s Cathedral; Stop 2: Franciscan Church; Stop 3: Jesuit Church; Stop 4: Maria am Gestade; Stop 5: Minoritenkirche; Stop 6: Hofburg Palace.Stop 1: St Stephen’s Cathedral1Stop 2: Franciscan Church2Stop 3: Jesuit Church3Stop 4: Maria am Gestade4Stop 5: Minoritenkirche5Stop 6: Hofburg Palace6
6 numbered stops in walking order.

St Stephen’s to the Hofburg, Vienna

6 stops · about 3.5 km · about 45 min on foot · about 39 min of audio

Start on Stephansplatz below the glazed-tile roof of St Stephen’s Cathedral, then visit two churches where the Baroque painter Andrea Pozzo fooled the eye: the Franciscan church and the Jesuit church. Cross the old town to Maria am Gestade, the Gothic church that once stood on a branch of the Danube, pass Am Hof and the Freyung on the way to the Minoritenkirche, and finish at the Hofburg, the Habsburgs’ winter residence.

The stops and their free audio guides

  1. St Stephen’s Cathedralfree audio guide, about 7 min
  2. Franciscan Churchfree audio guide, about 7 min
  3. Jesuit Churchfree audio guide, about 6 min
  4. Maria am Gestadefree audio guide, about 6 min
  5. Minoritenkirchefree audio guide, about 6 min
  6. Hofburg Palacefree audio guide, about 7 min
See the walk
Route map: Hofburg to the Belvedere, Vienna4 numbered stops in walking order. Stop 1: Hofburg Palace; Stop 2: Vienna State Opera; Stop 3: Karlskirche; Stop 4: Upper Belvedere.Stop 1: Hofburg Palace1Stop 2: Vienna State Opera2Stop 3: Karlskirche3Stop 4: Upper Belvedere4
4 numbered stops in walking order.

Hofburg to the Belvedere, Vienna

4 stops · about 2.8 km · about 40 min on foot · about 26 min of audio

Start at the Hofburg, the seat of Austrian power for more than seven hundred years. Pass the State Opera, the first major building on the Ringstrasse, which opened on 25 May 1869 with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Cross to the Karlskirche, the church Charles VI vowed during the plague of 1713, with two columns inspired by Trajan’s Column. Finish at the Upper Belvedere, Prince Eugene’s summer palace, where the Austrian State Treaty was signed on 15 May 1955.

The stops and their free audio guides

  1. Hofburg Palacefree audio guide, about 7 min
  2. Vienna State Operafree audio guide, about 6 min
  3. Karlskirchefree audio guide, about 6 min
  4. Upper Belvederefree audio guide, about 6 min
See the walk

Prefer a live guide?

Guided walking tours in Vienna leave from a meeting point at set times with a local guide. Some are free and run on tips, others have a fixed price. Mappu does not run them: the partner below lists them, so you can compare and book.

Self-guided walk or guided free tour?

A Mappu walk is free and on your own time: start when you like, stop for a coffee, skip a stop, and listen to each place’s story in your browser. In the Mappu app, Walk Mode narrates each place as you walk: at the walk, your first two stories are free with a free Mappu account, and after that Walk Mode uses credits.

A guided tour gives you a person to ask and a group to walk with, at the tour’s time and pace. On a free tour that runs on tips, you pay what you think it was worth at the end.

More for your visit to Vienna