Where to stay in Vienna

Vienna is the capital, most populous city, and one of the nine states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants.

The low-lying Danube plain in and around what is now Vienna has had a human population since at least the late Paleolithic (see Prehistoric Europe); one of the city's most famous artifacts, the 24,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf, now in Vienna's Natural History Museum, was found nearby. Vienna's own recorded history began with the Romans, who founded it in the 1st century CE as Vindobona, one of a line of Roman defensive outposts against Germanic tribes.

Vienna is broadly divided in inner (1–9) and outer districts (10–23). The 23 districts or wards each have a name and a number. They vary immensely in size and each has its own flair. These function subordinately to the city as decentralized administrative branches of the commune, and make local decisions. Wikivoyage has divided the 23 official districts of Vienna into 13 here for travel purposes.

Vienna is a major tourist hotspot and offers a complete range of accommodation options. Prices are relatively higher than in neighboring countries, or even in the rest of Austria. Many of the Viennese hotels, hostels and pensions, especially its centre, are housed in historic buildings dating from before the Second World War, most from the 19th-century Gründerzeit. This means that many of them offer relatively small rooms with sometimes compromised views, and rooms within the same property can vary widely, even at the same price. You will probably find that Viennese hotels usually offer very traditional decor, bathrooms with bathtubs and, again, relatively space-limited quarters.

Getting in

Direct regional services from some Czech border towns (e.g. Znojmo, Breclav) are available, most of them calling at stops along the Stammstrecke (see later). A twice daily regional service runs to the small terminus Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof from Prague, mainly serving the smaller towns in between it (e.g. Tábor, Trebon on the Czech side). From Budapest-Keleti buy a discounted round-trip ticket, kirándulójegy (excursion or 4-day ticket) for €31. It includes the return within 4 days and is valid for all public transportation in Vienna for 2 days.

Getting around

Vienna has a good public transportation system, which includes rail, commuter rail, underground, trams (trolleys), and buses. The underground is very efficient and will take you to within a few minutes walk of anywhere you are likely to want to visit. The subway alone has the second highest per-capita ridership in the world, and that is not accounting for the 27 tram lines, dozens of train lines or numerous buses. Enquiries for routes and timetables are possible with the mobile application WienMobil, that is supplied by the public transport operator.

Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.