We’re spending a few days in Vienna again. Meeting friends and enjoying culture in all its forms. We are staying in the centre of Vienna, Hotel Capri, right between the Prater and the Danube Canal. The hotel offers parking spaces for guests in the inner courtyard and the Nestroyplatz underground station is right on the doorstep. The staff are excellent, very courteous but not intrusive.
Champagne and sweets are waiting in the large room, the balcony faces the quiet inner courtyard. The room in the hotel in the centre of Vienna is very well equipped: Flat screen TV, free Wi-Fi, desk, fridge, large wardrobe with safe, cosy sitting area, king-size bed and bright bathroom with walk in shower. We set off straight away.
The best thing about the hotel is its location: right in the centre of Vienna. It’s a 5-minute walk to the Prater, where we take a few extremely windy “laps” in the world’s highest chain carousel at a height of 117 metres. More exciting than a rollercoaster. In 15 knots of wind, we spin in an egg, not in a circle. Now in the off-season, it is surprisingly quiet in the otherwise so busy amusement park.
In the immediate vicinity of the Hotel Capri there are easily 50 top restaurants in the centre of Vienna in all price ranges, countless bars, theatres, live music venues and museums. I hardly know what to do, so we just go out for a meal. Panco, a very good Mexican restaurant round the corner. Afterwards, a bit of barflies in a pleasantly boozy pub that hasn’t been renovated to death. Last night was just four hours long. This one will be a bit longer.
Although our hotel is right in the centre, it is very quiet. You could even sleep with the windows open. The breakfast buffet is absolutely amazing. A few extras have been added since our last visit. Several types of muesli, fresh fruit or dried fruit with yoghurt or fresh milk, hard or soft-boiled breakfast eggs, four types of organic honey from the wine region, jams, fresh pastries, several good types of bread and wholemeal rolls, even rice cakes and rusks for the little ones.
Cheese and sausage selection like in the land of milk and honey, tuna paste, egg salad with Liptauer and fresh feta or mozzarella with tomatoes and vegetable sticks…the day could hardly start better :) The best juices such as apple and elderberry. If this doesn’t wake you up from the realm of the dead, you’re probably lost for good. The only negative thing about the whole breakfast at the hotel in the centre of Vienna: the staff are so quick and courteous when clearing away dishes that are no longer needed that after a while you lose track of what you’ve already eaten.
The Hotel Capri in the centre of Vienna has three stars, but looks like little more than one. The rooms in particular are very classy in terms of furnishings (and colours, Miss Uli’s note). For more stars, however, you probably have to offer something like a spa or swimming pool. If you need something like that in a place like Vienna, you’re doing something wrong anyway. The prices are very good for a room in the centre of Vienna. The service is good.
It is only a 15-minute walk from the hotel in the centre of Vienna to all the major sights: Prater, St Stephen’s Cathedral, Uniqa building, Urania, Otto Hahn’s post office. Within 25 minutes you can be at the Vienna Opera, Kärntner Strasse and the shopping centre. There are countless lovely bars, the Jewish synagogue, the bathing ship, the Vienna-Bratislava jetty and much more.
We are lucky on the second day: I manage to get two tickets online for Tosca, which is already sold out. On the way to the vendor in Wiener Neudorf, Vienna gives me another good reason why you really should stay in a hotel in the centre of Vienna. The traffic in Vienna is regular and not just at rush hour. After all, almost a quarter of all Austrians live here. Despite the motorway, it takes me almost half an hour to cover 20 km. Then up to the mountains behind Ottakring. The wind on a lookout tower almost knocks me out…but it’s just too cold for kiting.
Another few days in the centre of Vienna…there’s never enough time to do everything…
Frank Woelky, born in 1973. Kitesurfer since 1998. Since 2006, I have been combining kitesurfing and web design on trips lasting several months off the beaten track.