VIENNA, Austria
General Info
Country: Austria | Language: German | Currency: EURO (EUR) | Flag: 🇦🇹 | When visited: May 2024, July 2023
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🚗 How to commute
The best and cheapest way to reach the city centre from the Airport, Central Station or even a bus station on the city outskirts, is the public transport. Public transport includes trains, subway, buses and trams, is well-developed and operates during both day and nighttime. If you plan to move around multiple times during the day, it makes sense to buy a Day pass for 1 person, or a standard ticket Gruppe for 2+ people. Both are pretty inexpensive and provide access to all public transport till 3am of the next day.
🏨 Where to stay
This time we have been staying at Bratislava, which is just in 1,5-2 hours ride by train, and has comparable accommodation prices (read about the place we've stayed in the post about Bratislava). Previous time we have stayed at Smart Apart Living complex near Vienna Central station, featuring really convenient self-service check-in/out, comfortable apartments with a small kitchen and balcony, and common areas like beautiful garden, or a room where one can buy cold/hot beverages and some snacks, and just sit and charge devices.
🍽️ What and where to eat
One can enjoy both Austrian and Hungarian traditional cuisine as well as some others like Turkish, Croatian etc. in Vienna. Of course, famous Austrian Schnitzel and Strudel are available in many cafés and restaurants, and there are so many of them everywhere! And, of course, multiple food options are available to choose from: from affordable snacks in supermarkets to traditional dishes in fancy old restaurants!
Some highlights include: -Interspar Pronto or Interspar Market Kitchen (with multiple locations) is a pretty budget place all over the city, where one can get some snacks, salads, ready to consume hot dishes, and beverages. One can also check Billa supermarkets, but there is no hot food/drinks usually, just snacks and salads.
-There are multiple Turkish pretty nice places where one can get traditional Simit bread and breakfast. Simit Sokaği (near Reumannplatz) is one of such places with multiple breakfast options, which are not expensive and super tasty.
-Both Café Landtmann and Café Central are definitely worth a visit. These both are venues with long-standing history, serving Viennese cuisine, and they are popular because so many famous people such as Freud, Trotsky, Stalin, Hitler and so on were regular guests here. Prices are a bit higher than in average across Vienna's restaurants, but food is delicious and portions are generous!
-Café Diglas is another good place with an authentic interior, and traditional tasty food. I would say that prices here are a bit lower comparing to two cafés above, and recommend asking for their “Daily Menu” (Tageskarte) to try something new.
-AIDA Café Konditorei is located close to Diglas and they are both not far from the famous Stadtpark of Vienna. Here you can get a yummy Strudel with coffee or tea, as well as many other sweet cakes and pastry.
Of course, it's just impossible to check out and recommend all good places in Vienna, because there are so many of them everywhere, including all familiar fast-food chains too. I would recommend just to Google for something you want to eat, or just to check some places while you are walking by :)
👀 What to do and what to see
Vienna City Centre (Innere Stadt) is actually the place where we have been mostly spending our time. There are a lot of beautiful old churches, palaces, squares, houses, and small streets and passages such as St. Stephen's Cathedral, Hofburg, Vienna State Opera, Rathausplatz, Catholic Church Maria am Gestade, Jesuit Church, Imperial Crypt, St. Charles Church and so on.
Vienna Parks surely worth a visit, not only because they are beautiful, but also because there one can find monuments devoted to famous Austrian musicians and other important historical people! Rathaus park (Statue of Duke Rudolf IV etc), Burggarten (Mozart Monument etc), Stadtpark (Strauss, Schubert monuments, and Beethoven statue near there). In the Stadtpark also, multiple fairs and events take place during the year. We were lucky to take part in the Genuss-Festival, which highlighted wine, beer, appetizers, and products from various Austrian regions.
Other activities may include visit to multiple museums, including houses of famous musicians, visiting of various palaces (like Schönbrunn Palace, Belvedere Palace etc.), spending time at Prater Park with its Giant Ferris Wheel, and even shopping in multiple small shops selling local products of all kind.
💡 Some highlights
- From Vienna it's totally make sense to go to Bratislava (Slovakia) for a day trip by train. These days and I guess till the end of July 2024 there are some construction works, and trains are replaces with buses at the part of the road, but it's still possible to reach another country and capital just in 2 hours! One can buy single or group roundtrip ticket which will be pretty cheap.
- We were impressed with how good-looking and well-maintained are all the historical buildings in Vienna. It's obvious that this city (and country) has pretty much money! Quality of living in various living districts looks to be really high, as well as quality of food and product overall.
- If one haven't been to Hungary, Check Republic or as already mentioned Slovakia, it's pretty easy, quickly, and inexpensive to go to Budapest, Prague or Bratislava from Vienna either by train or by bus.