In two weeks Vienna will welcome more than 2200 WordPressers and according to our stats, 2000 of you are not Austrian! So in this post, we’ll try to give you some useful tips about getting around the town.
General information
Vienna is the capital of Austria, the main language spoken is (Austrian) German: “Wien” [vi:n] is the German name for Vienna. The local currency is the Euro. We have recently grown to almost 2 million inhabitants (Austria: 8.7mio) and rank top in the World’s most liveable cities. This is in part because Vienna is considered a very safe city (don’t push it, though), with good and affordable restaurants, and has an excellent public transport system.
Getting to Vienna
Airport
Vienna International Airport (IATA: VIE) is located about 16 km southeast of the city center.
From the airport to Vienna
Vienna Tourism has a good overview page but here is a quick list of the most useful options:
Take the regional train S7 (operator ÖBB) for 4.40 Euros (buy two single tickets at the machine, located directly on the platform – one to the city border plus one to any destination within Vienna). Make sure to validate the tickets before boarding the train! The train runs twice every hour at :18 and :48. At Wien Mitte – Landstraße station, 24 minutes later, change to the orange U3 (destination Ottakring) to get off at the venue at station Volkstheater.
City Airport Train (CAT)
The City Airport Train is more expensive but a bit quicker. It also runs twice every hour at :06 and :36 and will take you in 16 minutes non-stop for 11 Euros (17 return; buy at a machine upfront) to Wien Mitte – Landstraße station. Then buy a ticket (see below) and change to the orange subway U3 (destination Ottakring) to get off at the venue at station Volkstheater.
TAXI
A Taxi will cost you between 28 and 50 Euros and takes about 25 minutes. It can be cheaper to book it in advance.
UBER
Uber operates in Vienna and offers both UberX and Black Car services.
Train into Vienna
You will most likely travel with the ÖBB and arrive at the new central station, Hauptbahnhof Wien. Buy a ticket (see below) and take the tram line D (destination Nußdorf) and get off near the venue at stop Dr.-Karl-Renner-Ring (adjacent to Volkstheater).
Bus into Vienna
Most international buses stop at the Vienna International Busterminal (VIB) at Erdberg. Buy a ticket (see below) and take the orange subway U3 (destination Ottakring) to get off at the venue at station Volkstheater.
Getting around Vienna
Public Transport
The three main types of public transport in Vienna (the name of the operating transport company is Wiener Linien) are subway (“U-Bahn”), tram (“Straßenbahn”, colloquial “Bim”) and bus. They mostly run very often, with intervals of up to 5 minutes. One ticket is valid for all types of transport.
Last trains and busses leave around 1am, though there is a separate night bus network; subways run all night on Fri-Sat and Sat-Sun.
Be aware that for political reasons public transport routing is not included in Google maps, so consider to download the official app qando (Android alternative: Öffi). Web version Journey planner.
Tickets
You can buy tickets online (you will have to create an account, though) or at the multilingual ticket machines (at all subway stations). Single tickets are also available in trams and buses with a surcharge for 2.30 EUR (children: 1.20 EUR). They are valid for one ride including transfers.
On ticket machines, the area of Vienna is sometimes also called “Zone 100”, so apart from the airport, you’ll always be travelling within that zone.
- One-way: 2.20 EUR (unlimited changes, also available as 4-strip version for 8.80 EUR)
- 24hr/48hr/72hr ticket: 7.60 / 13.30 / 16.50 EUR
- Vienna weekly ticket (careful: only valid from Monday to Monday 9am): 16,20 EUR
- 8-day-ticket Vienna: 38.40 EUR (8 independent strips, invalidate one per person, valid all day until 1am), can be used as a 4-day ticket for 2 people always travelling together.
- Trivia: a yearly ticket is only 365 Euros.
Children up to the age of 6 travel for free. Children up to fifteen years of age ride free on Sundays, holidays and during the Vienna school holidays.
Bike around Vienna
Vienna is also great to get around by bike! There are a lot of biking lanes and tracks and a convenient system to rent bikes: At 120 Citybike stations all around town, you can rent a bike (almost) for free, and ride from one station to the other. At the stations’ terminals, you can find out where other stations are and the number of available bikes or empty bike boxes.
Registration: Online at www.citybikewien.at (website optimized for mobile use!) or at a Citybike Terminal with a credit card (Master Card, Visa, JCB) or a Maestro Card (debit card) issued by an Austrian bank. One-time registration fee: 1 Euro.
Rental charges: The rental starts with the removal of a Citybike from the bike box and ends when the Citybike is returned to a bike box. Caution: Wait until the green lights come on, which signals the end of the rental. Per rental, the first hour is free, 2nd hour 1 Euro, 3rd hour 2 Euros, for every further hour 4 Euros.
Warning: If the bike is not returned after 5 days, a flat rate of 600 Euros is charged.
If you want to use a journey planner for biking around Vienna, we recommend the website AnachB or their app .
Whether it’s by bike, foot or tram – have fun exploring Vienna!
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