Dog Friendly City Guide: Vienna, Austria

At SiL, an all-day breakfast café on Babenbergerstraße in the Innere Stadt, the dog gets a menu of its own. That is Vienna in a sentence. This is a city where a dog on a lead is an ordinary sight in a café, an inn or a beer garden, where the City of Vienna keeps more than 200 dog zones and off-lead areas across its parks, and where two stretches of the Danube are set aside so a dog can swim. The rules are firm and written down, and once you know them the city opens up. This guide is built from our own venue and walk data, the City of Vienna's own park pages and the Vienna hotels we have assessed and ranked.

Getting There With a Dog

Austria follows the European Union's pet travel rules, and the EU's own Your Europe guide sets them out. Your dog must be microchipped before its rabies vaccination, must be at least 12 weeks old when that vaccination is given, and you then wait at least 21 days before travelling. From another EU country, the dog travels on its EU pet passport. From outside the EU, the dog needs an EU animal health certificate issued by an official state vet in the country you leave from, no more than 10 days before the dog arrives, and you must enter through a designated travellers' point of entry. From some non-EU countries a rabies antibody blood test is also needed, with a three month wait after the sample is taken, so check your own country on that page before you book. You can travel with up to five pets. Our guide to taking your dog abroad puts the paperwork in the order it has to be done.

Where to Stay

The hotel to know is Rosewood Vienna, ranked A+ and the best dog friendly hotel we have ranked in the city. It sits on Petersplatz in the Old Town, with rooms looking out over Peterskirche and the Graben, the Neue Hoheit restaurant, THE1835 rooftop bar and the Asaya Spa, according to the hotel's own site. The welcome goes a long way. Dogs can join you in the bar, the restaurant, the lounge and on the terrace, most of the rooms take dogs, and a bed, bowls and free treats are laid on. The hotel sells dog food, will point you to good walks, and can arrange dog walking, dog sitting and grooming. There is no weight limit and no limit on how many dogs share your room, and a settled dog can be left in the room while you go out for the evening.

A short walk away on Am Hof, Park Hyatt Vienna, ranked A, is a 143 room five star hotel where dogs are just as free to share the building: the bar, the restaurant, the lounge and the terrace are all open to them. A dog bed and bowls are waiting, the staff will help you plan walking routes and can arrange a dog walker, there is no weight limit, and your dog can stay in the room while you are out. The hotel's own site has rooms and dining.

Eat and Drink

Start with breakfast at SiL on Babenbergerstraße. It serves breakfast and brunch from 9am to 6pm every day to a soundtrack of jazz-hop, and its own FAQ answers the question before you ask it: yes, it is a dog friendly place, and it keeps a special dog menu so its dog guests feel at home. Tell them you are bringing a dog when you reserve and they will give you a suitable table, because, as the café puts it, there are sometimes a lot of guests with pets.

For a beer, cross to Favoriten and Schnauzer & Beagle Brewery on Hasengasse, a five minute walk from Matzleinsdorfer Platz. It is a family business founded in January 2020 by William Melling, John Melling and Tina Ganser: Will, a beagle lover who went back to home brewing, a hobby from his student days in Melbourne, and his uncle John, a schnauzer lover, with whom he talked over a few dozen of those home brews on a trip to England about starting a brewery. They call it probably the most dog friendly brewery in Austria, Europe or even the world. The beer is brewed in small batches, the coffee is Melbourne style, and the café page asks you to bring your dog and give it one of the house dog treats for a donation, with the money going to a different animal welfare organisation in turn. Wednesday is pub quiz night and Thursday is music bingo.

For dinner, Gasthaus Wolf in Wieden, on the corner of Große Neugasse and Rienößlgasse, is a Viennese inn open on weekday evenings from 6pm, with a summer garden, and it welcomes dogs. In Mariahilf, a short walk from Mariahilfer Straße, Shiso Burger on Theobaldgasse cooks in an open kitchen in front of you, with burgers such as the bulgogi, grilled strips of beef in a kimchi marinade, and the shiso burger, a marinated tuna patty with shiso leaves. Its dog guests get a fresh bowl of water every visit.

After a morning in the Prater, finish at the Wiener Rösthaus im Prater on Straße des 1. Mai, a coffee roastery that roasts single origin Arabica in the Viennese tradition under its roast master Silvia Maino. It is open every day from 9am to 6pm, and there are water bowls for dogs.

Walks and Parks

The walk to make first is the Prater, the great green park that Joseph II opened to every Viennese in 1766. The green Prater covers more than three square kilometres and has been under landscape protection since 1978, and the Hauptallee, its long tree lined avenue, runs straight through it. The City of Vienna's list of dog zones gives the Prater two vast off-lead areas, Pelzmais at about 120,000 square metres and Rustenschacher at about 187,000, with a drinking point for dogs at Rustenschacher, plus a small fenced dog zone on the Laufbergerwiese.

Closer to the centre, the Augarten is the oldest surviving baroque garden in Vienna, laid out in the 17th and 18th centuries and now home to the Augarten porcelain manufactory and the Vienna Boys' Choir, with two concrete flak towers from 1940 standing over its lawns. Dogs walk the avenues on the lead and run free in two fenced dog zones, Augarten Ost and Augarten West, both with water.

In Währing, the Türkenschanzpark is about 150,000 square metres of ponds, streams, waterfalls and rare trees, many of them labelled, with the Paulinenwarte lookout tower in the middle. Dogs stay on the lead, and there are two fenced dog zones with water, near Gregor-Mendel-Straße and Hasenauerstraße. On the western edge of the city in Hernals, Schwarzenbergpark has the Tiefauwiese, an unfenced off-lead area of nearly 80,000 square metres, and in Favoriten the Löwygrube park beside the Böhmischer Prater gives over about 221,000 square metres to dogs, with a drinking point. Both appear on the city's dog zone list.

For a swim, the City of Vienna keeps dog bathing places on the water. The Hundebadestrand Nord on the Donauinsel runs from kilometre 15.3 to 15.8 between the Floridsdorfer Brücke and the Nordbrücke, about 14,000 square metres reached by tram 31 to Floridsdorfer Brücke. The Hundebadestrand Süd on the Neue Donau runs between the Stadlauer Ostbahnbrücke and the Praterbrücke, about 21,000 square metres reached by the U2 or the 92A and 92B buses to Donaustadtbrücke. There is also a broad natural beach for dogs on the Alte Donau beside the Angelibad, with a drinking fountain and training equipment.

Good to Know

In Vienna a dog must be on a lead or wearing a muzzle in every public place, according to the city's visitor guide for dog owners, and the breeds on Vienna's list (among them the Rottweiler, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Mastiff, Bullmastiff and Dogo Argentino, and their crosses) need both. In parks dogs stay on the lead and off the lawns except in the marked dog zones, they may never go into playgrounds or sandpits, and fouling is fined, with bag dispensers across the city. Theatres and museums do not admit dogs other than assistance dogs. On the U-Bahn, trams and buses a dog needs its own ticket at half fare and must wear a muzzle and be on a lead; a small dog in a suitable carrier rides free, and the Vienna City Card lets one dog travel free. On the Donauinsel the muzzle or lead rule applies everywhere outside the dog areas, and some stretches are marked dog free. At SiL, mention the dog when you reserve; Gasthaus Wolf is closed at weekends and on public holidays; Schnauzer & Beagle opens Wednesday to Saturday evenings. Rosewood Vienna charges €50 a night for a dog, and Park Hyatt Vienna charges €50 a night with no deposit. Tell either hotel you are bringing a dog when you book.