Satisfy your love for music with a trip to Vienna where it plays on and on. And on. Well, why wouldn’t it? After all Vienna is packed with opera houses, orchestras and choirs, such as the infamous Vienna Boys Choir that dates all the way back to 1498. It’s home to some of the world’s greatest composers who ever lived—like Schubert, Haydn and Strauss. And there’s even a museum, the House of Music, dedicated to the sweet sound of music. (Not to be confused with Maria and the von Trapp story.)
Start in Vienna’s historic city center, a UNESCO World Heritage site and walker’s (in addition to, waltzer’s) paradise. Here you’ll find Mozarthaus, Mozart’s actual 18th century apartment where he hosted lavish concerts and threw wild parties (particularly when his good friend, Haydn, joined the ruckus). Just around the corner is St. Stephen’s Cathedral where it’s rumored that Beethoven discovered he was deaf after seeing birds fly from the bell tower without hearing the bells. And check out the Beethoven Memorial opposite the Konzerthaus (or Concert House) that was erected in 1880 and funded, in part, by the proceeds of Liszt’s last ever public performance 50 years after Beethoven’s death.
If more modern sounds are your thing, head straight for Vienna’s Guglgasse Street. It’s in this industrial enclave where you’ll find Austria’s answer to Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Known as the Walk of Stars, you’ll spot contributions from rockers Kim Wilde, Alice Cooper, Jamie Cullum and Suzi Quatro. And catch four 19th century gas tanks, called gasometers, which were converted into an impressive urban center in the 1990s. One now contains a music hall that can hold up to 3,000 music lovers.