Sleeping: If you have loads of money, you probably can stay in a fancy/non-fancy hotel. I didn’t want to spend too much money, so I decided to stay in a hostel. I stayed at Wombat’s Vienna (voted one of the best hostels in the world, etc.; they have one in Munich, and are going to have another one in Vienna sometime in May 2006). The place is awesome. They do their best to make sure you don’t pay more than you need to: 16â¬/night in a four bed dorm; eat-all-you-can breakfast for 3â¬, etc. Bed linen, pillows, etc. are provided. Bring your own towel and toiletries.
Wombat’s has a pretty good bar too. It’s almost always packed in the nights.
When you check-in, they give you a map of Vienna that has pointers to places to visit, cafés—kaffe haus, as they are called here, bars/pubs, and dance clubs. Vienna has very good public transport—the underground trains, trams, and buses. Using the map you can easily figure out how to get to one place from another.
Getting there: Just follow the instructions mentioned here. It’s at a place called Westbahnof. Trains are available every few minutes, so it’s a good idea to use the S-Bahn and then U3 to get there (3â¬), instead of using the City Airport Train (8â¬).
Other things: Instructions/information in most places are available only in German, so it’s a good thing to learn a thing or two. At least, make sure you know common words like ausgang (exit), eingang (entrance), StraÃe (street), gasse (lane), etc.
Unlike most Europeans (or at least the impression given by books like Lonely Planet), Austrians are a very friendly bunch. (A couple of times, I was actually offered help while I was trying to figure something on the map.)
You can see a *lot* of Vienna in a couple of days, but you’ll end up not seeing a lot too. But I recommend not to plan things to the smallest detail. It’s more fun to not have a direction.
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