Ask your question in your own words and get a short answer with matching places. How the assistant works, where its information comes from and where its limits are.
You're standing on Karlsplatz, it's just before five, and you want to know which museum is still open. Or you're planning a rainy day with kids. That's what Ask the Guide is for: you type in your question and get a short answer with the matching places from our guide, including admission and today's opening hours.
Here we explain what the assistant can do, where its information comes from and when you're better off checking for yourself.
How to Ask Your Question
Write the way you'd ask a friend in Vienna, in English or German. A few examples that work well:
- What's still open right now? Shows places that are open at the moment.
- Which coffee house is already open at 08:00 on Sunday? Works for other days and times too.
- What can I visit for free? Places with free admission.
- It's raining and we have kids with us. What's a good option? Suggestions for indoor places.
- How much is the Giant Ferris Wheel? Admission prices from our price index.
- Is the Leopold Museum open right now? Questions in English get answers in English.
The more specific the question, the better the answer. Feel free to mention a day, a time, a district or who's coming along.
What You Get as an Answer
The answer is short: a few sentences, with the most important places first. Below it, the places appear as cards with a photo, district, admission and today's opening hours. One click takes you straight to the listing with all the details. If a post from our blog fits the question, you'll find it under “More on the blog.”
An example: asked “How much is the Giant Ferris Wheel?”, the guide answers “A ride on the Giant Ferris Wheel costs €14.50.” and shows the card for the Giant Ferris Wheel (Riesenrad) below, with today's operating hours.
Where the Information Comes From
Ask the Guide only answers from our own listings: almost 90 places in Vienna, plus our blog posts. It doesn't make up anything that isn't in our guide. If you ask about a place we haven't covered yet, it tells you so openly.
There are two things where we deliberately don't rely on the AI:
- Opening hours: Whether a place is open right now is calculated by our system from the stored hours, including past midnight and on closing days. The AI only words the answer.
- Prices: Admission prices come from our listings and, for the major venues, from our price index, where every price is backed by a source. If the AI mentions an amount that doesn't appear in our guide, the answer is discarded and generated again. If we don't have a price on file, the guide says so.
When You're Better Off Checking Yourself
The guide is a planning aid, not a replacement for the venue's official website. There are a few limits you should know about:
- Public holidays and special opening hours aren't something it knows about. On public holidays, during events or in school vacations, hours may differ.
- Special exhibitions and events aren't in our listings. The museum's website is the better source for those.
- Booking isn't possible: it can't book tickets or hotels.
- Mistakes can happen. Check times and prices in the listing or on the official website before your visit.
What Happens to Your Question
The answers are generated by a language model from Mistral AI on servers in the EU. Only the text of your question is sent to Mistral, together with our listings: not your IP address and no cookies. We don't store your question. Even so, please don't enter any personal data. You'll find all the details in our privacy policy.
To keep the guide fast for everyone, there's a limit on questions per minute and per day. In everyday use, you won't notice it.
Try It Out
The best way to understand the guide is to try it. Ask your first question here, for example, what's still open tonight. And if an answer seems odd to you or a place is missing, write to us via the contact form. Every piece of feedback makes the guide better.
