Sleep Vienna

For a right royal experience, a stay in Vienna is hard to beat. Yet amid the regal villas, palaces, opulent art galleries and traditional coffee houses, there are many surprisingly affordable places to bed down. Words:

 

- Julia Buckley

If you plan on visiting Vienna, you’re in luck. Not just because of the wealth of impressive sights: the imperial palaces, the art, the landmark coffee houses, where tradition dictates you may while away hours with a single drink... When it comes to hotels, Vienna is highly affordable, and even the budget hotels have style. The first district, or Innere Stadt, is the obvious place to stay — most of the best sights for first-timers are in this largely pedestrianised zone, encircled by the Ringstrasse, with St Stephen’s Cathedral and its ornate tiled roof as the focal point. Many of the grand, neo-baroque buildings here have been converted into luxury hotels. Second timers might like to stay in a district beyond the Ringstrasse. Not only is it cheaper, it can give a completely different take on the city. And don’t let the names fool you; the ‘outer’ districts, for example, encompass the Innere Stadt, and in the seventh district, you’re often closer to the grand cathedral than in the second. Neubau is the hipster hub, Wieden’s residential streets unfurl onto the Belvedere Palace, and Leopoldstadt has the Prater park with its iconic 19th-century Ferris wheel. From each, it’s a short metro or pretty tram-ride back to the Ring.

HOTEL SACHER

The Sacher has come a long way since it was a mere delicatessen — thanks largely to its status as the birthplace of the Sachertorte. It was here in 1832 that Edouard Sacher created the famous chocolate cake that was to bear his name. On the back of that, he opened what’s still Vienna’s only family-run five-star hotel — today boasting 149 rooms spread across six buildings.