Are you in for some action and adrenaline while in Vienna? Prater is for sure a place you should visit during your stay.
We have earlier written about how you can get to the Familypark by the Neusiedler see from Vienna. But, you do not have to travel there to get adrenaline and experience some fun. Prater, also known as Wurstelprater, is a fantastic area in the city of Vienna, and here you will find fun for people of all ages. Just take a look at the fantastic ride at the picture beneath.
The Olympia Looping in Prater Vienna
The Olympia Looping is one of the most famous rides available in the park. It has been rumored that it will retire soon, but it is still there, and you better try it if you like such kind of rides. It first saw the light of day in 1989, and it has been at several locations in Europe before it ended up in Prater.
The price for a ride is 8,50 Euro, and for this money, you will get one minute packed with action. There is a total of 5 loops during the ride, and the highest speed during the ride is 100km.
Since you buy tickets individually for all rides in the park, there is normally no line and you can go ahead and enjoy a ride at once without standing in line!
Does this look like a nice ride to you? We have tried it… it’s amazing!
Are you going to visit Vienna and dream of spending a lot of time in Mariahilferstrasse, the most popular shopping street in Vienna? NH Hotel Wien City might be exactly the hotel you are looking for!
NH Hotel Wien City is a four-star hotel, located just by the popular shopping street. The hotel doesn’t have their main entrance from the street, but walking through a short tunnel you can get to the main entrance, and living in the hotel, it feels like you live in the shopping street.
The hotel is perfect if you want to spend most of your time outdoors, but if you are looking for a hotel with lots of indoor services, you should probably book a room somewhere else. But, as a four-star hotel with a perfect location in Mariahilferstrasse, this hotel will be more than enough for most people.
The rooms are nice (and not that small), and the people working in the reception are nice. The hotel has a parking lot available, but they do not have space for lots of cars, so you might be unlucky and discover that the parking lot is fully booked upon arrival.
The biggest minus with NH Hotel Wien City
Before arrival, we read that NH Hotel Wien City has splendid free WiFi available in the hotel, but that is very far from the truth. They have free WiFi, but it is so slow and terrible, that I would not even dare to call it free WiFi. It reminded me of the days when I used a modem to connect to the Internet, only slower. There were times when I couldn’t even download my emails due to the speed.
There was, of course, a way to get faster Internet, but you would have to pay 10 Euro a day for that service. In other words, what NH Hotel Wien City call free WiFi is similar to calling a dog-poop a chocolate.
The hotel was perfect for some days of shopping and sightseeing in Vienna. We had a great stay, and we would have no problem returning. But, the WiFi was a big disappointment, so if that is important to you, prepare to pay or to live somewhere else.
This is a fantastic panorama night shot of Vienna. It might not be as impressing as this shot made in Budapest, but it is still amazing. If you haven’t been to Vienna yet, this image might inspire you to come and to pay the city a visit.
Read more about all the goodies Vienna has to offer here in our Vienna Guide.
The fantastic Christmas markets will return to Vienna again in 2018. Here are the most important dates and some useful information.
A photo from the Christmas market in front of the City Hall in Vienna – Shutterstock / Burben
There are lots of beautiful cities worth visiting before Christmas, but we dare to say that Vienna is the most beautiful of them all before Christmas. The reason is simple, Vienna is a giant Christmas market in itself. There are some beautiful Christmas markets worth visiting, but as you walk around in the city, you will discover small and larger markets everywhere. You will find people drinking hot wine everywhere, and the city is simply stunning. If you haven’t been to Vienna before Christmas, 2018 is your year!
The biggest and most famous Christmas market in Vienna is the one in front of the City Hall (Rathaus). This will be open from November 17th till December 26th in 2018.
Another very nice Christmas market is the one by Belvedere. This will be open between November 23rd and December 26th in 2018.
There is an annual Christmas market at Maria-Theresien Platz (between the Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Natural History). This will be open from November 21st till December 26th.
If you haven’t been to Schönbrunn yet, visit the castle between November 18th and December 26th to enjoy the Christmas markets there.
The most special Christmas market in Vienna is located in Spittelberg. Here you have several small streets with stands everywhere. So, it is not a giant market, but lots of small streets making the entire area into a Christmas market maze (almost). It is absolutely worth a visit. It will be open from November 16th till December 23rd.
These are the most important dates and Christmas markets in Vienna. Are you looking forward to these markets already? As you plan your trip, read through our list of recommendations for those coming to Vienna for the Christmas markets. These are useful pieces of advice that might give you a helping hand as you plan your trip.
Have you got any questions related to the Christmas markets in Vienna? Write a comment and we will do our best to help you out!
Are you considering a stay at the Marriott Hotel in Vienna? Here are some stuff worth knowing before you make your booking!
The Marriott Hotel in Vienna is located next to the Stadtpark, a beautiful area for a nice stroll and also an area with a nice playground area for kids. The most famous restaurant in Vienna might be “Steirereck im Stadtpark“, a two-starred Michelin restaurant. This is also located a few hundred meters from the Marriott Hotel entrance, making it very easy to visit the restaurant during your stay at Marriott.
So yes, Marriott is a five-star hotel in Vienna, but it is worth knowing that the standard is different from some of the other five star hotels. As you walk from Marriott towards the Opera-house you will pass by Grand Hotel Vienna and Hotel Imperial. You do not need to look hard to understand that those hotels are more elegant and luxurious than the Marriott hotel. So, if gold and glory are important to you, then the Marriott hotel might feel a bit old (on the outside).
But, the Marriott hotel gives you whatever a normal five-star hotel should. The staff is nice and polite, the rooms are spacious, and unfortunately, you will have to pay for the Wi-Fi (in most situations). This is worth knowing about, and if you ask in the reception, they might give you information on how to get free access to the Internet, but in general, this is a service you will have to pay around 13-14 Euro for (per day).
The breakfast in the Marriott hotel is delicious. The price is 35 Euro per day per person (if it isn’t included already in the price). Here you can sit in a nice environment and enjoy a glass of champagne while eating the omelet prepared for you by staff upon request from you. Yes, they are preparing it for you (in front of your eyes), and you even get to say what sort of ingredients you want to add to the omelet (mushrooms, bacon, onion, cheese, tomatoes, peppers etc.)
If you want to walk from the Marriott hotel to the Stephansdom, it can easily be done. You don’t need to walk more than 5-10 minutes, and you will find yourself in the Kärtner Strasse (one of the famous shopping streets in Vienna), and this leads you to the Stephansdom.
Vienna might be the most beautiful city in the world to visit during the Christmas market season. It has a fantastic atmosphere, tons of Christmas markets and beautiful lights everywhere.
Those who love a city with Christmas markets will love Vienna. If you haven’t been to the city before, you must visit it during the Christmas market season. We have been to Christmas markets all across Europe, but nothing can compare to the city of Vienna before Christmas. It isn’t just a city with Christmas markets; it is a big Christmas market in itself. You will find stands everywhere where you can buy hot wine, there are lots of markets, and there are some unique markets entirely different from the markets you find elsewhere in Europe (for example the Spittelberg market).
Visit the beautiful Christmas markets in Vienna – By Burben / Shutterstock
The goal of this article is not to tell you about the different Christmas markets in Vienna. If you want to read more about the Christmas markets in Vienna, click the link and read that article. In this article, we will give you some recommendations and tips that will help you as you visit Vienna in November/December with the intention of visiting the Christmas markets.
Vienna Christmas market recommendations
Be ready for crowds
Vienna is fantastic before Christmas. As a consequence, you should prepare yourself for crowds everywhere, especially during the weekends. The most famous Christmas market in Vienna, the one in front of the City Hall (Rathausplatz), is the most crowded of them all. It can sometimes be hard to look at all the products at different stands because of the amount of visitors. Some people enjoy the crowds, but if you do not particularly enjoy them, try visiting the Christmas markets during day-time on weekdays (not weekends). In the afternoon/evening, there will be crowds every single day of the week.
Walk around on foot
As we mentioned in the introduction, Vienna is a fantastic city in the Christmas market season. There are Christmas fairs everywhere. As a result, we recommend you to discover the city center of Vienna on foot. Walk around, feel the smell of the city, and discover Christmas fairs you did not read about in our Vienna Guide or elsewhere on the Internet. Stop to taste some hot wine at a stand somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Bring a GPS (or have Google Maps ready) so that you will find your way back home after walking up and down streets in the center of Vienna because you might not actually know where you are!
A picture from the Christmas market at Karlsplatz in Vienna – By trabantos / Shutterstock
Buy a hot wine mug
As you visit the Christmas markets in Vienna, you are most likely to fall in love with the city. By the time you return home, you will be eager to plan your Christmas market trip to Vienna next year. One of the nice traditions you can create is to buy the annual Christmas market cup at the fair in front of the City Hall. Every year they produce a new cup, and thus this can be a nice souvenir to bring with you back home.
Bring warm clothes
Do not forget that Vienna can get quite cold in November and December. You might not feel it at once, but if you plan on walking around the city for several hours, you might get cold feet, or your ears might get red. Bring some extra warm clothes instead, ensuring you can stay outside for hours without feeling miserable because of the cold.
Eat at the Christmas markets
You might not want to eat all your meals outside at the Christmas markets, but make sure to eat at the Christmas fairs a couple of times. There are so many interesting things to taste, and you will probably have the chance to eat some food you haven’t tasted before. Maybe you are a skeptic who only loves food you love from before, but sometimes you had to fall in love with that food as well, so why not try something new, and maybe you will fall in love once again? If you taste something you do not like, so what? You spent a couple of Euro tasting something, which makes you a few Euro poorer, but an experience richer. We think you will say that it was worth it!
Live in the heart of Vienna
There are Christmas markets everywhere in Vienna. Most of them are located in the heart of Vienna, with some exceptions, for example, the Christmas fair by Schönbrunn. Still, you will save a lot of time if you live in the heart of Vienna, which will give you immediate access to the shopping opportunities Vienna has to offer during this period. You should know that living at a hotel in Vienna is quite expensive, at least if you compare it with Budapest and Prague, but that is a part of what you need to calculate as you plan your trip to Vienna.
We wish you a merry Christmas from Vienna – S. Borisov / Shutterstock
Be early with your bookings
It can get really crowded in Vienna during the Christmas fair season, but not only on the Christmas markets but also in restaurants. As a result, you should book your table at your favorite Vienna restaurant as soon as possible. The same is true if you want to book an airport transfer in Vienna, enjoy a concert or take part in a guided tour of some sort.
Bring your camera
You probably have a good camera on your phone, but if you want to travel back home with some fantastic pictures, you might want to bring your real camera as well. As you visit the Christmas markets you will have plenty of chances to make some awesome pictures, especially in the evenings. But, making a good photo in the evening can be a hard task, so if you have a stand for your camera, bring that with you as well.
What is your advice?
Have you been to Vienna for the Christmas markets before? Do you havesome experience or piece of advice to give? We would love for oyu to share whatever comes to your mind!
Are you going to have a one-day stop in Vienna? Do you have 12 hours in which you want to discover as much as possible? Here is our suggestion for a 12-hour program in Vienna.
You can discover large parts of Vienna in 12 hours if you have a well-planned program. You can jump on a hop-on hop-off bus, and within a few hours, you will have seen the most significant places. Do you want to discover Vienna on your own in 12 hours using nothing but your feet and public transportation? Here are some suggestions from us on how to discover Vienna in 12-hours.
Why 12-hours and not 24-hours? You will often meet articles on how to discover Vienna in one day or 24-hours. The reality is however that most people sleep quite a lot, meaning that you do not spend 24 hours discovering the city, but rather 12-hours. For that reason, our guide is on how to discover Vienna in 12-hours.
Vienna in 12-hours
Discover the city center at first
We will recommend starting the tour from the State Opera in Vienna. The building in itself is a real beauty, and from here, you can walk into the city center of Vienna. Start your walk in the Kärntner Strasse, and just keep walking. This part of the walk will show you the famous shopping street of Vienna, and after some minutes (depending on your speed), you will end up at the Stephansplatz. Here you can look at the Stephansdom (and maybe even visit it), and even eat a little piece of cake before you move on.
Start your 12-hour tour in Vienna from the State Opera – By Noppasin / Shutterstock
As you finish your business at the Stephansplatz, walk back to the end of Kärntner Strasse, and walk left. You will then walk in Graben, another beautiful street. Here you can marvel at the beautiful architecture, the big squares, and a beautiful inner city.
At the end of Graben turn left. You will then walk along the Kohlmarkt. At the end of the street, you will discover the entrance to Hofburg. We do however recommend a stop at the famous Confectionary Demel, located on your right-hand side as you walk towards the Hofburg entrance (in Graben). Be aware of the fact that Demel is often full, so you might have to spend quite some minutes waiting to order.
Walk across the Michaelerplatz and enter into the Hofburg complex. This is yet another architectural beauty. Here you can find the riding school, the Royal palace, fantastic outdoor areas, and so much more. Walk around, sip in of the air, and continue straight ahead until you leave the Hofburg area, and continue your walk on the big ring in Vienna.
Hofburg in Vienna – By UKRID / Shutterstock
Now is the time to visit a museum if you want to
As you leave Hofburg, you will look straight onto the Maria-Theresien Platz. Here you will find the two most famous museums in Vienna, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Natural History Museum. These are both fantastic museums, so if you want to visit a museum during your 12 active hours in Vienna, now is the time.
As you leave Hofburg and look towards the Maria-Theresien Platz, turn right. Walk along the Burgring, and as the ring starts turning right, you will soon discover the Austrian Parliament. Make a few photos, and then walk on, because you are just about to discover the magnificent City Hall (Rathaus). The Rathausplatz is the location of the most famous Christmas market in Vienna. As you keep on walking, you will see a university next to the City Hall, and after this, you get to the metro station named Schottentor.
Here we would jump on the metro and travel with the metro to Karlsplatz. There you change lines for the red line and travel to VIC (Vienna International Center). From there you either walk or travel by bus 20A to get to the Danube Tower. Travel to the restaurant floor where you grab yourself an something to eat while enjoying the view from the tower towards the city of Vienna.
You are not finished discovering Vienna
Time is flying, meaning that you do not have so many hours left in Vienna. But, before finishing the day, you need to get back to the metro. You are now going to visit the other Palace of the Austrian Emperor back in the days, Schonbrunn. Get back to the Karlsplatz metro station, and travel with the green line to the Schönbrunn stop. Leave the underground, and walk for a few minutes until you get to the Schönbrunn entrance.
The magnificent Schonnbrunn Castle – By Muellek Josef / Shutterstock
When you get to Schönbrunn, there are several exciting programs available. If you travel with kids, they will for sure be happy to visit the zoo by now. If you want to visit the building itself, do a castle tour. If you want a nice overview of the area, jump on one of the sightseeing “trains” taking you around the entire area. You can of course just walk around on your own to see the area and the park as well!
Would you like to do some more shopping?
If you still have some energy left after Schönbrunn, head back to the metro and travel to the stop Langenfeldgasse. Change for the brown metro line and travel to Westbahnhof. Now you leave the metro system, and you are now at the end of the super-famous Mariahilferstrasse. This is a giant shopping street in Vienna. Walk down Mariahilferstrasse, and as you get to the end of the street, you will arrive at the Maria-Theresien Platz again, in the heart of the city of Vienna.
Did you enjoy your 12 hours in Vienna?
You might do all these activities in 6-7-8 hours, but most people will probably find 12 hours to be too little for all these activities. Try it, then come back and tell us what you think!
Are there any other places, attractions or activities you would add to this list? Use the comment field beneath and let us know.
On March 24th Andrea Bocelli will sing from the stage in Wiener Stadthalle. Would you like to be there to listen? It is 100% possible.
While other artists like Coldplay, U2 and Bruno Mars have five concerts a week during their tours, Andrea Bocelli is taking it in a much nicer pace. In 2018 he will celebrate his 60th birthday on September 22nd, and probably not for that reason, but he still does his tour with about one concert a week. Sometimes even less, because when he comes to Vienna on March 24th, his former concert was in Zagreb exactly two weeks earlier.
Andrea Bocelli is one of the most influential singers of our time, and he has recorded more than 15 albums. He was born with poor sight, but unfortunately his sight was totally lost at the age of 12 after a football accident.
Would you like to be there in Wiener Stadthalle on the concert on March 24th in 2018? It can be done. Use the ticket link beneath to grab hold of your tickets.
If you visit the ticket link, do a quick search for Andrea Bocelli. You can then look through all sorts of Andrea Bocelli tickets and buy whatever you want to. If you do a search for Vienna, you will find a list of other events and concerts in Vienna, and can choose freely for yourself what you want to do while in the Austrian capital.
Would you rather like to know more about the Austrian capital? Stay here in our Vienna Guide to read more about the attractions, restaurants, hotels and activities in the beautiful city.
We have been traveling around Europe to visit the beautiful Christmas markets here and there. Know what? If you want to visit the nicest city in Europe before Christmas, come to Vienna!
There are lots of cities in Europe with beautiful Christmas markets. Lots of people praise the markets in Prague and the markets in Budapest. Why do we have the courage and baldness to say that Vienna is the best city in Europe before Christmas? Are the Christmas markets in Vienna better than the Christmas markets in the mentioned and other cities in Europe?
S.Borisov / Shutterstock
The difference between Vienna and the other cities
If you visit a city like Krakow before Christmas you will for sure be able to enjoy the fantastic Christmas market at the Main Market Square. As you visit Budapest you can go to the Vorosmarty square or in Prague you have the markets at the Wenceslas square and at the Old Town Square. In Vienna it is completely different. The city has some very famous and magnificent Christmas markets, but we dare to say the difference is as follows:
“In other cities you visit a Christmas market. In Vienna the entire city is a Christmas market.”
If you go for a walk in the city center of Vienna you will of course see the magnificent Christmas market in front of the City Hall. This is the most famous Christmas market in town. But, as you walk towards the St. Stephens Cathedral you will most likely meet several other markets as well. At some locations you will just see a stand where you can buy hot wine, while you at other locations will see lots of stands creating their very own little Christmas market. And yes, Vienna is packed with such markets and stands everywhere. And what makes it even better is that all stands are packed with people out there enjoying life and drinking some hot wine, especially during the weekends.
The fact that the streets are illuminated and that the Christmas markets all have special lights on during the evening makes everything even more fantastic. Again the Christmas market by the City Hall is the most beautiful of them all, but all the other markets are fantastic as well!
Vienna has some very special Christmas markets
As mentioned earlier Vienna is like a living Christmas market. You will find lots of smaller and bigger markets around, but you most not forget that Vienna has even more to offer. The so-called Christmas market by Spittelberg is one of the pearls you definitely have to experience. As someone who likes shopping you will of course visit the Mariahilferstrasse while in Vienna. Just by the metro stop Neubaugasse you will find a church and the Stiftgasse is located next to it. Enter into this street, pass by the parking house and you will soon understand that you are in Christmas wonderland. There are lots of streets next to one another packed with stands, small stores and it is one of the most amazing Christmas markets in Europe. And yes, it has an amazing atmosphere.
What are you waiting for? Jump on the plane and come to Vienna! The city has the most amazing Christmas markets, and the city in itself is like a giant Christmas market throughout December! If you haven’t seen it yet, hurry up! If you have been there once, you for sure understand what we are talking about!
