Caitlin Jean Russell

There’s little to nothing about Vienna that I don’t adore. Last time we visited, on a day trip from Budapest, we only had a few hours to cram in as much as possible. It was cold, raining and we were both a little grumpy thanks to a 5am start to the day. I remember being marvelled by the architecture and admiring the pristine city streets, jumping on the subway to Schönbrunn Palace and being blown away by the incredibly massive building. The grounds weren’t looking their best due to the time of year, so instead of exploring them we spent an hour or so at the zoo within them. It was a very small taste of the city, but it left a good enough impression that I insisted we visit again to see more (obviously I won).

Like last time, we took the two and a half hour train from Budapest Keleti to Wien Hauptbahnhof. Unlike last time, we didn’t book our tickets in advance and so the single journey was €66 with no seat reservation. The train itself was relatively painless and after being extremely sweaty and uncomfortable for the remainder of Hungary, once we crossed the Austro-Hungarian border we managed to get a seat each. On arrival we switched to the U-bahn, which consists of only 6 lines in Vienna and can get you to all of the main sights without too much of a struggle, via the U1 and U3 to Westbahnhof, just five minutes from our accommodation.

We stayed at the stunning Mercure Raphael Wien which you can read about on the link. With great train, bus and tram links it was perfect for our purpose in the city.