Vienna Unwrapped Inspiration and Planning For Independent Travellers who are visiting Vienna
Since this part of your Vienna trip tool box focuses on flight, accommodation and local transport make it your first port of call.
Hotels And Vacation Rentals
Hotelscombined.com (affiliate): For several years in a row Hotels Combined has won travel awards. The meta search engine, owned by Booking, helps you compare hotel deals from various hotel search sites like Booking.com, Hotels.com and Expedia; They also offer holiday apartments and B&Bs. This is the short link to Vienna hotel offers; you can switch to more than a dozen languages for your booking;
Chez Cliché: Because of its eclectic offer of beautifully designed boutique apartments in top locations this small Viennese apartment network stands out from the crowd. Above all, Chez Cliché offers the perfect accommodation for couples and small groups of friends as the apartments are not the most spacious.
Grätzlhotels: Founded by three Viennese architects, these individual neighborhood stays aim to immerse guests into the real Wien before they even get out of bed. Located in residential areas such as Leopoldstadt, Meidling and Wieden these hotels host their guests in stylishly transformed former street lofts. Instead of a hotel buffet guests take breakfast in nearby partnering neighborhood cafés. And to replace boring receptions, the Grätzlhotel in Meidling welcomes guests in the delicious cake shop Hüftgold.
AirBnB Vienna: Like elsewhere around the world, AirBnB offers private room rentals in Austria’s capital, too. In Vienna, expect to choose from more than 1,000 places in private residences across its various districts and neighborhoods.
Wimdu.com: Unlike AirBnB, Wimdu is an international apartment rental meta search engine. This means, you get access to apartment rental offers from the likes of booking.com, Expedia, Homeaway, HousingAnywhere, and more. Being able to compare thousands of Viennese apartments from across the web on one page definitely saves time, and likely money.
Flight Search Tools And Airlines
Kayak: Being part of the Booking group like HotelsCombined, travel meta search engine Kayak enables you to compare flight (and hotel and car) offers across various platforms. If I want to sanity check any Austrian Airlines offers I like to use Kayak. What’s more you can also search for combined flight and hotel packages, and get alerts of the best deals delivered to your smartphone.
SkyScanner: Another easy-to-use international flight, hotel and car search tool, SkyScanner is known for its green travel ambitions. When you book a flight, look out for the ‘Greener choice’ label which highlights the flights that emit less CO2. This means you can choose the lowest emissions flight to Vienna.
Austrian Airlines: If you like to get a Grüß Gott when you enter the plane and land to the tunes of Strauss’ Blue Danube waltz, go straight for the official Austrian carrier. Besides, they usually offer some of the cheapest deals.
Booking Trains To Austria
Depending where you come from there are a couple of good train operators, most of them national. If you plan a European round trip I share the most popular trains from 7 cities to Vienna.
Austrian Railways (ÖBB): Austria’s national train operator has a mostly good track record and client satisfaction rate. ÖBB operates throughout Europe, for example its Nightjet sleeper trains from Brussels to Wien, and the Railjet. You can book tickets using the journey planning tool Scotty (English and German).
Westbahn: For budget-conscious travellers, private operator Westbahn is a good alternative when travelling from and to Linz and Salzburg. Although only running trains every 2 hours, Westbahn often beats ÖBB in price.
RailEurope: To arrange multiple train journeys across Europe, RailEurope provides an easy one-stop-shop. Except train journeys in the UK, all train bookings carry a booking fee of £4.95, €5.95 or $5.95 for bookings exceeding a total value of £15, €15 or $15. To sweeten the deal during the current Corona Virus pandemic, fees made for bookings until 31 December 2020, will be removed at the point of purchase.
Airport Trains And Taxis
City Airport Train: This direct train is the fastest public transport option as the CAT whizzes you to Wien Mitte/Landstrasse adjacent to the city center in just 16 minutes for EUR 11. For a cheaper alternative, take the S7 train for EUR 3,90.
Flughafentaxi Wien: the site offers a list of all major cab companies operating taxi transfers from and to Vienna International Airport; site is in German but you’ll understand the list and contact details;
Taxi calculator: To get an idea of costs for a taxi in Vienna, simply type in your start location and destination. I’ve been using this free service for Vienna and it works brilliantly.
Car Rental And Private Transfer
At Vienna International Airport you can rent cars from half a dozen international car rental firms, including Hertz, Avis and Sixt. To get the best deals upfront, I have been using this car rental search engine from DiscoverCarHire, one of my affiliate partners. Other than that, bear in mind that flight and hotel search engine Kayak (see above) also offers rental car deals.
Continental Chauffeurs Drive (affiliate): Even after years of ferrying my clients to the Vienna Woods, Wachau Valley, Bratislava, and Salzburg, and taking them on winery tours, CCD owner Mr Namini harvests praise after praise for his reliable, professional and flexible drivers. I remember his last minute emergency pick up of a group of Danube river cruisers on a little known pier between Vienna and Bratislava…
To take advantage of this local connection with CCD, Vienna Unwrapped users get a 15 per cent discount upon booking. Just use the voucher code VU-CCD14 in your inquiry.
Uber: If you live in a larger city chances are you already got the Uber app on your phone. When in Vienna you can can use the same app to get a quick and safe ride, at an equally cut-price offer. Apart from the usual UberX, luxury cars and vans for up to six people Uber in Vienna also operates electric and hybrid vehicles for a green ride.
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