Zoos – you either love or hate them – but no one can deny that they play an important role in conservation and education. London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Prague, Bristol – all the major European cities have one, and they make for a great day out.

But if you want to visit a zoo with a difference, head for Vienna’s magnificent Schönbrunn, the former imperial summer palace. For in the beautiful gardens you’ll find the baroque menagerie of Emperor Francis Stephen, an Amazonian rainforest, a polarium designed for animals from the arctic, and if you’re very lucky (and they’re awake) a gang of rather bored Giant Pandas.

As well as the usual ‘wander round and have a look at the animals’ type of self-guided visit, there are more unusual ways to enjoy the place. Get up early and you can take a tour that provides the opportunity to watch the morning feeding, look behind the scenes and enjoy a delicious ‘imperial’ breakfast. Or if you’d prefer a lie-in, join a nocturnal expedition that equips you with a woolly hat and a pair of infrared binoculars, and get to see what the animals get up to after lights out.

But should you find the animals and their antics just too wild, take comfort in the fact that you’re only a few minutes from an U-Bahn station and a couple of stops to the centre of the city, where you’ll find plenty of opportunities to enjoy the human pleasures of Vienna’s lively cafés, bars and restaurants.