2 Vienna questions about CAT and hotel
 

Question about the City Airport Train - - - we'd like to stop at Zentralfriedhof and St. Marx to visit Mozart memorial sites since they are more out of the way of our city center sightseeing. First of all - is this creepy at any hours of the day/night, or are there plenty of people milling about - what hours would you, personally, not visit - ha! But, my question is - can we, with 1 ticket, get off on the way from the airport to visit these sites and get back on the train into Wien Mitte/city center and pick up with our metro visitor card? Or do we have to buy additional tickets if get off and get back on?

Second question: we'd planned to stay near Stephansplatz, since that's what was suggested with such little time in Vienna. we'd always kind of figured that Viennese hotels might have a view of the Danube as a highlight/selling point - would you recommend any hotels convenient to Stephansplatz that ALSO have a view of the Danube?

Thank you.

I can't imagine that any Stephensplatz hotel would have a view of the Danube. It's too far. The Sofitel has wonderful Danube views, but it's on the opposite side of the river.

We stayed at the Hotel Austria - close to the Stephansplatz but also near to a U bahn and bus stop at Schwedenplatz, so convenient all round and very comfortable.

http://www.hotelaustria-wien.at

CAT is a non-stop service to Vienna. If you want to stop, take a s-bahn. However, in that case, you can get there easily by s-bahn or tram from the center.

Thanks, and sorry, I'd ignored the S Bahn. That is still outside the metro of the city though, right? So is it practical to get a ticket following along S Bahn from airport, to Zentralfriedhof, to St Marx, then on to city, all somehow on one ticket/pass?

And I'll assume we will either need to choose river view or central location for tourists - and I think the central location will win out, but Hotel Austria looks great. Annhig - did you end up walking mostly from there or taking public transportation?

itspat, that is an ambitious route, with or without luggage. The S-Bahn from the airport stops at Zentralfriedhof, but you'll have considerable walking (more than 20 minutes, assuming you can navigate the cemetery lanes) to reach Group 32A, where Mozart's empty crypt resides. Unless this is a must-do, I would just head directly to St. Marx and return to Zentralfriedhof later using the trams. From the S-Bahn to St. Marx you'll have about a 10 minute walk along a safe, but uninteresting part of the city. St. Marx is partially below an overhead highway, so the setting is a little more urban than you may be expecting.

Vienna's tickets are fared by zone. The airport is outside Zone 100 (Vienna) and a one-way fare from the airport to "the city" is something like €4,00. The ticket is valid for traveling one way with endless changes, but you can not interrupt your journey.

For geographical reference, the body of water that cuts through the center of Vienna is the Danube Canal, an arm of the Danube.

IMO you do not need whatever you think is a "central location" if you are near a public transport stop and, frankly, even if you aren't depending on how much walking you are willing to do.

We recently stayed at the Park Hyatt located on the AmHof Platz and there are a LOT of people who would tell you this is not "central."

There was a rail stop a couple blocks away and we often walked over to the Hofburg so please do not limit yourself to what SOME people consider to be "central."

itspat - we mainly walked around the places within the Ring, but used public transport the rest of the time. it is REALLY easy to use, and you don't need to stay within the Ring to feel that you are at the centre of things. that said, the Austria was a very good place to stay [very quiet and clean, excellent breakfasts and lovely helpful staff] so you can be close to good transport links and the centre at the same time.