Discount Cards & Concessions

Vienna Card (Die Wien-Karte; €20) Three days’ unlimited travel on the public transport system (including night buses) and discounts at selected museums, cafes, Heurigen (wine taverns), restaurants and shops across the city, and on guided tours and the City Airport Train (CAT). The discount usually amounts to 5% to 10% off the normal price. Purchased at Tourist Info Wien, the city’s main tourist office, the Airport Information Office and many concierge desks at the top hotels.

Concession prices Many museums and sights have concessions for families and children (generally for children under 16 years), which are listed in this book along with practical details. Many museums in Vienna are free for anyone under 19 years. Some places also have reduced student and senior citizen admission prices, which are generally slightly higher than the child’s price. Children under 12 years usually receive a substantial discount on rooms they share with parents; ask when booking. Children also travel at reduced rates on public transport.

Electricity

Emergency

In case of emergency, the general number for ambulance, fire and police is 112.

Ambulance (Rettung; 144)

Fire (Feuerwehr; 122)

Police (Polizei; 133)

Internet Access

Many of the main streets leading away from the city centre outside the Gürtel are lined with cheap, albeit slightly grungy, call centres doubling as internet cafes. Expect to pay anything from €4 to €8 per hour. Additionally, a large number of coffee houses, cafes and also some bars have free wi-fi, called WLAN ( vee-lan) in German.

Free wi-fi hotspots can be found at Tourist Info Wien (Click here) as well as the Prater, Rathausplatz, Naschmarkt, Donauinsel, Westbahnhof (main hall), Museums­Quartier, and most likely Hauptbahn­hof when it opens fully. To connect, you often need to go to a website and confirm (Bestätigen) conditions or click the connect (Verbinden) button.

Most hotels in the midrange and upwards have wi-fi, usually for free. Sometimes you will need to ask for a password.

For online lists of places with wi-fi check www.freewlan.at and www.freewave.at/en/hotspots.

It can be useful to have a Skype or other calling app installed on your smart phone to use in places with wi-fi.

While there are sufficient free hotspots to rely on around town if you have a mobile device with wi-fi capabilities, if you don’t want to use hotspots you can buy prepaid SIM cards without formalities. This will allow you to surf with your tablet computer, surf stick or mobile phone (if there is no SIM lock). Drop into any shop selling SIM cards and ask what’s currently the best deal.

Money

Austria’s currency is the euro, which is divided into 100 cents. There are coins for one, two, five, 10, 20 and 50 cents, and €1 and €2. Notes come in denominations of €5, €10, €20, €50, €100, €200 and €500.

For the latest exchange rates, check out www.oanda.com. Note that travellers cheques are no longer commonly exchanged in Austria.

ATMs

Bankomat s (ATMs), which accept credit cards and debit cards such as Maestro, are never very far away in Vienna – just look for a neon sign with two green and blue stripes sticking out from a bank facade. Bankomats can also be found in the main train stations and at the airport. Many ATMs close at midnight, but many of those located inside a foyer operate 24 hours, including Bank of Austria branches on Stephansplatz.

Check with your home bank before travelling to see how much the charge is for using a Bankomat in Vienna; normally there’s no commission to pay at the Austrian end.

Changing Money

Banks are the best places to exchange cash, but it pays to shop around as exchange rates and commission charges can vary a little between them. Typically, there’s a charge of about 3% on currency exchange, with a minimum charge, so it’s best to exchange larger amounts at one time.

There are plenty of exchange offices in the Innere Stadt, particularly around Stephansplatz and on Kärnt­ner Strasse. Commission charges are around the same here as at banks, but quite often the exchange rates are uncompetitive.

Credit Cards

Visa, EuroCard and MasterCard are accepted a little more widely than American Express and Diners Club, although a surprising number of shops and restaurants refuse to accept any credit cards at all. Boutiques, high-end shops and restaurants will usually accept cards, though, and the same applies for hotels. Train tickets can be bought by credit card in main stations.

Opening Hours

The hours provided in this book are for the summer months, which is the peak period. Many places have reduced hours from November to March, when it can sometimes be useful to check ahead.

Banks 8am or 9am to 3pm Monday to Friday, with extended hours until 5.30pm on Thursday. Many smaller branches close from 12.30pm to 1.30pm for lunch.

Cafes 7am or 8am to 11pm or midnight, some traditional coffee houses and cafes close at 7pm or 8pm.

Post Offices 8am to noon and 2pm to 6pm Monday to Friday; some also open 8am to noon Saturday, and many are open all day Monday to Friday. The main post office (Fleischmarkt 19) and branch at Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof have extended hours.

Pubs & Clubs Opening times vary; closing is normally between midnight and 4am throughout the week.

Restaurants Generally 11am to 2.30pm or 3pm and 6pm to 11pm or midnight. Some kitchens are open all day.

Shops Usually open 9am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday and until 5pm Saturday. Some have extended hours until 9pm on Thursday or Friday.

Supermarkets Among the most widespread, Billa is open from 7.15am to 7.30pm Monday to Friday and until 6pm Saturday. Hofer is open from 8am to 7pm Monday to Friday and until 6pm Saturday. All close Sunday.

Public Holidays

The only establishments remaining open on holidays are bars, cafes and restaurants. Museums are usually open except for New Year’s Day, Christmas Day and sometimes May Day. The big school break is July and August; most families go away during this time, so you’ll find the city is a little quieter, but the downside is that a high percentage of restaurants and entertainment venues close.

New Year’s Day (Neujahr) 1 January

Epiphany (Heilige Drei Könige) 6 January

Easter Monday (Ostermontag) March or April

Labour Day (Tag der Arbeit) 1 May

Ascension Day (Christi Himmelfahrt) Sixth Thursday after Easter

Whit Monday (Pfingstmontag) Sixth Monday after Easter

Corpus Christi (Fronleichnam) Second Thursday after Pentecost

Assumption (Maria Himmelfahrt) 15 August

National Day (Nationalfeiertag) 26 October

All Saints’ Day (Allerheiligen) 1 November

Immaculate Conception (Mariä Empfängnis) 8 December

Christmas Eve (Heiligabend) 24 December; everything closed afternoon

Christmas Day (Christfest) 25 December

St Stephen’s Day (Stephanitag) 26 December

Telephone

Country code Austria’s country code is 0043.

Area code Vienna’s area code is 01. When calling from overseas drop the zero in the Vienna code; eg the number for Vienna’s main tourist office is 0043 1 245 55. When calling from inside Austria but outside Vienna, use the 01 area code.

Directory assistance For domestic assistance dial 11 88 77, for international assistance 0900 11 88 77.

Mobile phones Begin with 0650 or higher up to 0699.

Roaming Network works on GSM 1800 and is compatible with GSM 900 phones. US mobile phones (cell phones) will only work here if they are at least tri-band. Japanese phones need to be quad-band (world phone).

Prepaid SIM cards Phone shops sell prepaid SIM cards for making phone calls or SIM cards capable of being used on smart phones for data (ie surfing) as well as making calls. Typically, you pay about €15 for a SIM card and receive about €10 free credit. To use one, your mobile phone should be without a SIM lock.

Surfing & wi-fi on mobile phones Make sure the data transfer capability is de­activated while you are roaming. Austria has lots of wi-fi hotspots which can be used for surfing on smart phones with wi-fi capability.

Free phones Numbers starting with 0800 are free, numbers starting with 0810 cost €0.10 per minute, whereas 0820 numbers cost €0.20 per minute; other 08XX numbers are relatively inexpensive, while numbers starting with 09XX are exorbitant and best avoided.

Phone booths These take either coins or phone cards and a minimum of €0.30 is required to make a local call. Many post offices have phone booths where both international and national calls can be made. Another option is a call centre; they’re generally found outside the centre and offer very competitive phone-call rates.

To reverse the charges (ie call collect), you have to call a free phone number to place the call. Ask directory assistance for more numbers.

Australia 0800 200 202

Ireland 0800 200 213

New Zealand 0800 200 222

South Africa 0800 200 230

UK 0800 200 209

USA (AT&T) 0800 200 288

Time

Austrian time is on Central European time, one hour ahead of GMT/UTC. If it’s noon in Vienna it is 6am in New York and Toronto, 3am in San Francisco, 9pm in Sydney and 11pm in Auckland. Clocks go forward one hour on the last Saturday night in March and back again on the last Saturday night in October.

Note that in German halb is used to indicate the half-hour before the hour, hence halb acht (half-eight) means 7.30, not 8.30.

Tourist Information

Airport Information Office ( 6am-11pm) Full services, with maps, Vienna Card and walk-in hotel booking. Located in the Vienna Inter­national Airport arrival hall.

Jugendinfo (Vienna Youth Information; Click here 4000 84 100; www.jugend­infowien.at; 2-7pm Mon-Wed, 1-6pm Thu-Sat; Museums­quartier, Burgring) Jugend­info is tailored to those aged between 14 and 26, and has tickets for a variety of events at reduced rates for this age group. Staff can tell you about events around town, and places to log onto the internet. It’s on the corner of Babenbergerstrasse and Burgring.

Rathaus Information Office OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP ( 525 50; www.wien.gv.at; 01, Rathaus; 8am-6pm Mon-Fri; Rathaus, D, 1, 2 Rathaus) City Hall provides information on social, cultural and practical matters, and is geared as much to residents as to tourists. There’s a useful info-screen.

Tourist Info Wien OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP ( 245 55; www.wien.info; 01, Albertinaplatz; 9am-7pm; ; Stephansplatz, D, 1, 2, 71 Kärntner Ring/Oper) Vienna’s main tourist office, with a ticket agency, hotel booking service, free maps and every brochure under the sun.

WienXtra-Kinderinfo OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP ( 4000 84 400; www.kinderinfowien.at; 07, Museums­platz 1; 2-6pm Tue-Fri, 10am-5pm Sat & Sun; Mu­seumsquartier) Marketed firstly at children (check out the knee-high display cases), then their parents, this tourist office has loads of information on activities for kids and a small indoor playground. It’s located inside the courtyard, near the Mariahilfer Strasse entrance.

Travellers with Disabilities

Vienna is fairly well geared for people with disabilities (Behinderte), but not exceptionally so. Ramps are common but by no means ubiquitous; most U-Bahn stations have wheelchair lifts. All U-Bahn stations have guiding strips for the blind. All buses these days have ramps (the driver will assist) and tilt technology, and half of the trams in service have low-floor access allowing entry in a wheelchair. A symbol on the arrival board at tram stops indicates trams with low-floor access. Traffic lights ‘bleep’ to indicate when pedestrians can safely cross the road.

Tourist Info Wien can give advice and information. Its detailed booklet Accessible Vienna, in German or English, provides information on hotels and restaurants with disabled access, plus addresses of hospitals, medical equipment shops, parking places, toilets and much more. Send an email (info@wien.info) for more details. It’s available for download at www.wien.info/en/travel-info/accessible-vienna.

Organisations

Bizeps OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP ( 01-523 89 21; www.bizeps.at; Schönngasse 15-17, Vienna; Museumsquartier, 49 Siebensterngasse/Stiftgasse) A centre providing support and self-help for people with disabilities. Located three blocks behind the MuseumsQuartier.

Faktor i OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP ( 01-274 92 74; www.faktori.wuk.at; 05, Rechte Wienzeile 81; Pilgramgasse) Faktor i offers information to young people with disabilities. Located just north of the Pilgramgasse U-Bahn station.

Visas

Visas for stays of up to 90 days are not required for citizens of the EU, the EEA (European Economic Area) and Switzerland, much of Eastern Europe, Israel, USA, Canada, the majority of Central and South American nations, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia or New Zealand. All other nationalities, including nationals of China and Russia, require a visa.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (www.bmaa.gv.at) website has a list of Austrian embassies where you can apply, and the Austrian embassy in Washington (www.austria.org/visa-residence-/do-you-need-a-visa) lists all visa-free nationalities. For some nationals a biometric passport is required.

Austria is part of the Schengen Agreement, which includes all EU states (minus Britain and Ireland) and Switzerland. In practical terms this means a visa issued by one Schengen country is good for all the other member countries. You can stay for a maximum of 90 days within a time frame of 180 days.

Czech Republic & Slovakia

Both the Czech Republic (for Znojmo) and Slovakia (for Bratislava) are part of the Schengen Agreement. A Schengen visa allows travel to both countries.