Reply To: Vienna – recommendations?

[runnerbean]

@Gordon, as requested, headlines as follows:

Firstly, if I’d read the Vienna thread before our trip this week it may have helped us find better evening meal choices. Safe to say I have no dinner recommendations but decent coffee and delicious breads and pastries were everywhere.

Four nights, three days was pretty perfect for a short break and to get our fill of galleries and museums. It’s a lovely city and easy integrated transport system.

Overall, we really rated the Kunsthistoriches Museum, the House of Austrian History Museum in the Hofburg complex, Papyrus Museum next door, Leopold Museum and the Albertina. There were generally queues for Kunsthistoriches tickets so would be worth booking ahead for this one, and I’d highly recommend paying the few euros extra for the excellent Rembrandt exhibition.

Mumok (sorry Vienna) just didn’t do it for me.

I think every museum had just one cafe. We did go to pretty much all of them but the surrounding cafes were more relaxed, quieter and of the same/ better offerings. What’s more, the Kunsthistoriches only allow re-entry to the Museum when the cafe is closed, so if it’s busy can’t or you can’t face the queue it’s tough luck. I don’t know if that’s the case with all of them.

We followed Lonely Planet to the Naschmarkt but I wouldn’t recommend it if you actually want to buy food rather than wander round looking at spices, sausage and cheese. It was pretty close in experience to being in the Grand Bazzar and showing interest in a rug. Lots of eye watering prices for tourists including cheese for 9-12 euros per 100g, and the piece we were hassled to buy for this price looked nearer 25g. We declined, repeatedly.

Vienna Lounge was good. I believe we were unlucky with our timing through passport control ie we were there 45-50 minutes before our flight and there were initially just two desks open and a massive queue. Got to the gate with minutes to spare.

Overall, great city. I’d probably not go back, but I would go back to other recent European cities such as Berlin and Florence.

Hope this helps!