Sex addict Arthur Schnitzler (his Traumnovella later inspired Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 Eyes Wide Shut) once wrote about romantic Viennese men and women wallowing under the linden trees and behind the box hedges of the “Green Prater”—just as the Viennese do to this day.
Many locals use the word “Prater” as shorthand for the Wurstelprater or Wiener Prater, the oldest amusement park in the world where Vienna’s landmark Riesenrad ferris wheel is situated. But make no mistake—with 6,143,984 square meters of green belt, Prater offers all the entertainment and leisure time activities imaginable in a city park. From horse racing to clubbing, from roller coasters to motocross, from a pleasure pavilion to a beer garden, from cotton candy to pork knuckles, Prater only gets better after each mug of beer and rickety ride.
If nausea and pork skins aren’t your cup of tea, one can always opt for a bucolic day in the park. Tranquil options abound: strolling on the Hauptallee with chestnut trees in bloom, sunbathing on the meadow of the Jesuitenwiese or gazing at stars in the Planetarium. Additionally, the Prater caters to almost every form of sport—you can trot in the Freudenau, swim in the stadium pool, play football in the Ernst Happel stadium, cycle in the Ferry-Dusika stadium, bowl and play tennis at the WAC courts and bet on horses at the Krieau.
A tip: if you want to get around the Prater the easy way, take the Liliputbahn, the miniature railway spanning nearly five kilometers.
