Vienna recs? Leaving in two weeks.

[Whitecaps]

In two weeks we (husband and I) will be on a plane for a last-minute trip. Mostly to visit my sister in Prague, but we'll have two nights in Vienna. If you had a day and 2/3rds in Vienna, where would you go? What would you see? What tips would come in handy? We have been to Europe before, but never to Austria. We love photography, local experiences, history, good local food, etc. Not big on museums. 

And any great hotel recommendations there? Our stay with my sister in Prague will be free lodging, so we don't have to go super-budget-friendly on the Vienna hotel. However, our departing flight leaves at 6:30 a.m., so something convenient to the airport would be handy (if that also makes sense for proximity to area attractions). 

Thank you!

[jennybee1018]

I love Vienna!! Love!!! :-)

We've stayed at the Intercon, Marriott and a Best Western there - all were nice! The Marriott and Intercon were perfect central locations, and just a hop to the metro, in addition to the main city area.

Here are my eating/touristy recommendations:

We were just in Vienna in May (my absolute favorite city!!!). We are big beer drinkers so I do have some recommendations that serve great beer, but they also serve great food :-) I got a Radler everywhere we went - half lager, half lemonade. It's my favorite drink in Vienna!

First and most importantly, 1516 Brewing Company. If not for the beer, for the soft pretzels! Their ribs and spatezle were also amazing! Also, it's sort an expat bar so English is widely spoken. It's the best! (Honestly, we spent half our trip here :-P)

For breakfast, we loved this little place called Corns and Pops! They had 11 different kinds of muesli, bagel sandwiches, waffles, pancakes and good coffee :-) Here is the yelp page, with reviews in English. www.yelp.com/biz/corns-n-pops-wien-2

Corns and Pops is super close to the Naschmarket, which is like an open air farmers market, with restaurants and stores throughout. This is our favorite place to get a doner kebab! And falafel!

A friend had posted about a hot dog cart by the opera house (it's actually outside the Albertina Museum), and we finally got to try it on this visit. It's SO good. They hollow out a huge hot dog bun, fill it with ketchup and mustard and stick the hot dog in the bun. No seats here - just enjoy being outside with the delicious hot dog and fries! It's called Bitzinger, make sure you get there ;-)

I like cats, so when I found out Vienna had a cat cafe, I had to go :-) It's called Cafe Neko and it's really cute! They have tea, coffee, cakes, etc. And cats!

My DH's favorite place is the Schweizerhaus - we happened upon this place two years ago when we stayed close to the Praterstern. It's a beer place - but it's also well known for it's pork knuckle! I had bratwurst when we went, and it was delicious. (They also had some veggie options - pasta, etc) It's also a fun atmosphere - located in the middle of the amusement park, and it has this outside beer garten area that is just kind of magical :-) Definitely try to go!

Praterstern is also fun to wonder through! Amusement parks aren't super popular these days any more it seems, but this one is still popular and frequented by tourists and locals :-)

We also like the Siberstern Brau, which is a beer place, but again has good food - and is pretty touristy so the food must be good! (It's close to the naschmarket so we've always had a doner kebab before going and didn't eat!) They brew their own beer right on premises, so it's a fun place to go.

Not particularly a restaurant rec, but I highly recommend checking out the MQ or Museums Quarter! There are restaurants in the museums which are supposed to be good. Also, there's a neat courtyard area where you can just hang out and relax, and they have free wi-fi :-) So we would stop there to relax and kill some time before heading to our next destination.

Oh!!! And you should go to Tichy!!! It's an ice cream store/parlor - it's located all the way at the end of the Red Line at Reummanplatz, and it's totally worth it :-) You'll see signs all over the city, so make the effort to go. It's really good ice cream :-)

Of course, there's also Schronbrunn, the Opera House and Sacher Torte to experience :-) But these are some of our favorite places to check out in Wien :-) Have a great time! (Just writing this is making me want to go back) :-P


All the URLs for the places listed here are in the thread below :-) Have SO much fun. I love Vienna!

Read more: pandce.proboards.com/thread/357418/vienna-recommendations#ixzz3GBxfYGB2
 

[sarahsas]

We just checked out of the Hotel Beethoven. It was great! Walkable to attractions. Right by Naschtmarkt, a huge market with tons of little ships and restaurants. We enjoyed the Prater, as the above poster mentioned. Going up in the Ferris wheel offers great views. I also really enjoyed their aquarium. It's in a crazy weird and awesome 12 story building with exhibits on each floor and lots if cool stuff to see. There is a terrace in a top floor that has 360 views of the city- worth admission alone! We also just liked walking around the shopping area, hofberg, and all the museum area without actually going in. Sitting outside at cafe sacher and having sachertorte is also a must do!

[dearprudence]

I know you're not a museum person, but Shonbrunn is my favorite thing in Vienna - it's outside the city limits and features an amazing palace, gorgeous grounds, and a zoo.

I also recommend taking the tram out to Grinzing and visiting a heuringer (winery). They do a traditional meal there and I would imagine this would be a great time of year for it.

I also kind of feel like opera is a must do in this city of music. There are 2 opera houses - the Staatsoper and the Volksoper.

[gtkim]

Oct 15, 2014 8:40:17 GMT -5 sarahsas said:

We just checked out of the Hotel Beethoven. It was great! Walkable to attractions. Right by Naschtmarkt, a huge market with tons of little ships and restaurants. We enjoyed the Prater, as the above poster mentioned. Going up in the Ferris wheel offers great views. I also really enjoyed their aquarium. It's in a crazy weird and awesome 12 story building with exhibits on each floor and lots if cool stuff to see. There is a terrace in a top floor that has 360 views of the city- worth admission alone! We also just liked walking around the shopping area, hofberg, and all the museum area without actually going in. Sitting outside at cafe sacher and having sachertorte is also a must do!

We stayed at this hotel in July and loved it as well!!

Also tried the 1516 Brewing company mentioned above and agree that it is a good choice.  We loved Schonbrunn, and we also took a tour of the opera house which was really cool to see.

Have fun!

[shel]

Just came back from Vienna a couple of weeks ago...wish I had all of these recs first, now I want to go back. knew this would happen but couldn't resist clicking.  

I stayed in the Margareten neighborhood at the Holiday Inn Vienna City, much nicer than the US version, cute neighborhood, shops, Indian, creperie but since you're not necessarily looking for budget friendly, feel free to keep going. 

The city was beautiful although the countryside was even more amazing.  Since you're pressed for time, would definitely second the heuriger visit via tram instead, they vary from very touristy to a little more traditional.  Either way, definitely worth trying Austrian wine. If there's any Sturm left by the time you get there, order some, basically fermented grape juice/young wine that goes down dangerously easy.  

The city itself was enough of an attraction.  Walk around the Naschtmarkt and even the museum area, no need to go in.  Since you love history, worth a visit to St. Stephen's and some of the older churches.  Have fun!

[Whitecaps]

Oct 15, 2014 21:33:34 GMT -5 shel said:

The city was beautiful although the countryside was even more amazing.  Since you're pressed for time, would definitely second the heuriger visit via tram instead, they vary from very touristy to a little more traditional.  Either way, definitely worth trying Austrian wine. If there's any Sturm left by the time you get there, order some, basically fermented grape juice/young wine that goes down dangerously easy.  

Do you or dearprudence have any specific winery recommendations? That sounds like something we'd love to do.

And thank you all for the great ideas so far!