What area to stay in Vienna.................

99.9% of the hotels mentioned in previous posts are within the Ring. That's the area you would want to stay in. If you're within the Ring, you can pretty much walk to most of the sights in the old city section.

The City of Vienna consisits of 23 districts.
The city center is the 1st District , known as the Innere Stadt - that portion of the city inside of the Ringstrasse. The Ring a grand boulevard built on the site of the former city walls of long ago.
You can easily know what hotels are in this District by just looking at their postal codes.
The code for this City center is 1010.

Many of the major tourist sights are within this District and allow easy walking for visits . You will find the following among others in this District- Hofburg Palace, Spanish Riding School, Stephansdom Cathedral, Augustiner Church , State Opera, Burg Theater, BurgGarten and VolksGarten, ,Haus of Music It also offers excelent dining,cafe shopping possibilities.
Just across the Ringstrasse from the Hofburg will be the Fine Arts Museum , Museum Quarter and Natural History Museum,

The area has good public transprt with easy connections to the airport and train stations.

We booked Hilton Danube, which is at he Staidium Station, a bit on the outskirt, overlooking the danube.
But the City Hilton inside the Ringstrasse has a free transport to this one. 15 min. by there car.
It worked just fine. The hotel has a nice Jacuzzi and a health club with a good view on the higher floor.
We got the 280 Euro room for 110 Euro for 2 adults 2 kids. Very large rooms unlike other hotels.

Hi; We stayed at this hotel that has a great location. It's just behind St. Stephens Cathedral, which is in the main square in Vienna. www.kvu.at

Either inside the ring, or near a metro station. My first visit I stayed out near the Westbahnhof, but right next to a metro station, and it worked fine - I enjoyed being on busy Maria-Theresienstrasse. The next time I stayed on the Graben, and that worked out too.

I can second Iris' hotel recommendation--great hotel, great location.

The Konig von Ungarn mentioned above is a nice hotel in the center of the first distict.
An ideal location.
The Hilton Danube is not a good situation in my opinion.
It is in an isolated location along the Danube much outside of the city center. No nearby sightseeing , dining etc.
You need a Ubahn trip into the center for most everything.

If you are looking for a moderately priced hotel, we have stayed at the Hotel Admiral on two separate occasions. It is well located just a few minutes walk to the Ringstrasse and Ubahn, right behind the Museum Quarter. In a couple of minutes, you can be anywhere in the Innere Stadt. Prices for a double go for 90-130 Euro. They also having parking for guests if required.

http://www.hotel-admiral-wien.at/Comfort-in-the-center-of-Vienna

hi karamia,

having visited Vienna in the summer, i woudl tend to agree that staying in the centre is best, particularly if you are happy walking around. if you intend to use underground and buses all the time then possbly being further out would be ok.

we stayed at the hotel austria, which was ideally placed, about 5 minutes walk to the Stephansdom and less than that to SChwedenpltaz which is a major crossroads/terminus for metro, bus and the all important tram lines. the staff were lovely, the breakfasts very good and the rooms were very quiet.

have a great trip,

regards, ann

Another vote for the Hotel Austria.

We also stayed at the Hotel Austria. The staff was wonderful and went out of their way to make our stay comfortable.

we loved staying in the graben..the pedestrian strip that lead us o st stephens cathedral
it was all easy walking
we stayed at a lovely pension..nossek...owned by two sisters
great breakfast and the best coffee ive had overseas
the room was spacious and the bathroom new..floor got wet though
we had geraniums in window boxes and we could look out over the graben...
it was reasonable at 110 euros a night back in2005

thank you all for your help. I guess the area around St Stephens is going to win out.

Hi; A litle information on Vienna. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/vienna

The Austria Trend Europa, GREAT central location and reasonable!!!

http://www.austria-trend.at/Hotel-Europa-Wien/en/

Very near the Stephansdom is the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth.
http://www.kaiserinelisabeth.at/

It is a very pleasant and charming, thoroughly Viennese, boutique hotel. If you contact them directly, they may give you a discount. We saved 10% by booking directly. It is a four-star hotel, I think. It is near a U-Bahn stop, and an easy walk to the Stephansdom and Hofburg palace.

I booked three nights on Hotwire at the Hilton Vienna Plaza for $119 per night, plus tax and fees, for a total of $414. It's located on Schottenring, next to the Bourse.

Enjoy Vienna. It is lovely.