I selected the Altwienerhof Hotel, at Herklotzgasse 6, based on its website, price and location. (Interestingly enough, the Baedeker Guide did not list the hotel, but did list the restaurant, describing it as a luxury establishment with superb winter garden and wine cellar.) The hotel's website is www.altwienerhof.at and its rooms and restaurants are as shown. The hotel is family owned and operated, as is the restaurant. All of the staff we encountered spoke excellent English. We reserved a double room, however my wife, who needs elbow room and bright lighting to transform herself into someone looking 20 years younger, conned me into upgrading to one of the suites, which our traveling companions also chose to do. The suite contained a bedroom with good-sized closet, a sitting area with couch, desk and TV, a small room with toilet, sink, mirror and bidet, large bathroom with oversized tub and separate stall shower with a number of spray jets, dual sinks, hair dryer and frankly inadequate lighting. Only the lighting at the desk and on bedside night tables was truly bright. Cost of a double room would have been 1160 shillings a night; the suite cost 1800. Breakfast, included in the price, was comprised of meats, cheeses, soft boiled eggs, breads, croissants, fruit juices and fruit preserves, cereals and coffee or tea and was served in the winter garden. The hotel made arrangements on our behalf for transportation to and from the airport. <BR> <BR>We dined in the hotel's restaurant on our last evening in Vienna (and applied for a second mortgage on the afternoon of our return home). There is a large and varied a la carte menu, which would allow one to keep costs under control, but also a choice of a six or eight course dinner. We opted for the six course dinner comprised of a rustic pate, followed by a delicate goose liver dish, followed by an herbed fish, followed by venison or veal, followed by a variety of cheeses and then dessert. The first four courses were preceded by a variety of wines. Total cost including tip came to $110.00 per person. (I get seriously intimidated in restaurants where spoons at a place setting outnumber the diner by a ratio of 6:1. I get equally intimidated when a course requires more than one waitperson to serve it. The Altwienerhof restaurant is assuredly a bit intimidating for one who has "dined" in the Waffle Houses of the Southern U. S.) <BR> <BR>I selected the hotel in part because of it proximity to public transportation. Busses, trams and the Ubahn were less than half a block away. Schonbrunn palace was four stops away on the Ubahn, the Westbahnhof train station one stop away, the Ubahn connected with the bus service to Grinzing. The Westbahnhof has shuttle service to the airport, but is also the terminal for trains going to Budapest, an intended day trip. I also selected the hotel, which is about a twelve-minute bus ride from the Hofburg, in order to take advantage of neighborhood restaurants and cheaper dining costs (other than our one splurge!). <BR> <BR>One final comment regarding costs and money conversions. One of our traveling companions had secured a small amount of money from his local bank, which paid for our airport shuttle. In Vienna, we first visited a bank with an ATM where he tried his Optima, Visa and Mastercard to no avail, only to discover that the ATM only accepted Diners' Club cards. He cashed dollars and, after fees, netted 12.42 shillings to the dollar with the shilling being worth approximately .0805 cents. All of my subsequent cash withdrawals were made at ATMs recognizing "Plus" and "Honor". They averaged 12.74 shillings to the dollar or about .0785 cents. <BR> <BR>The Viennese public transportation system is truly excellent. While the Ubahn (subway) is nowhere near as extensive as London's underground or Paris' Metro, the Ubahn is complemented by an excellent tram and bus system. Unfortunately, while the Transportation information office can provide maps of the Ubahn and Sbahn, it doesn't have tourist maps of the 200 plus bus and tramlines. You'll find a free "CityMap" at hotels which does list bus and tram lines but has no street index. The Wien Touristplan city map has larger print and a street index as well as clearly marked Ubahn, tram and bus lines identified. It costs 50 shillings ($4.00). The weekly (Monday to Sunday) travel pass, available at Ubahn stations, Transport information offices and tobacco (Tabak) shops costs 155 shillings ($12.50) and is a bargain if you plan extensive travel within the city over a period of days. <BR> <BR>Our first day was devoted to scouting the neighborhood for potential dining places, securing transport passes and recovering from jetlag. The second morning was spent at Schonbrunn palace, the Baroque residence of Empress Maria Theresa. Some 30-odd rooms are open to the public and a tour is well worthwhile. Three tour options are available. A self guided tour with audio narrative of half the rooms at 90 shillings ($7.25); a self guided tour with audio narrative of all the rooms for 120 shillings ($9.60) and a tour of all rooms with tour guide at the latter price. I'd suggest the full self guided tours, which can be done more leisurely. I was surprised at the number and size of guided tours so late in the tourist season. Surprisingly, too, the formal gardens were still in full bloom. The "Gloriette", the arcade at the top of the hill opposite the palace offers a fine view of the city. The Neptune fountain is presently enshrouded and being cleaned. <BR> <BR>An aside: the veneration of Britain's Princess Diana is equaled by the Viennese adoration of Franz Joseph's equally beautiful and tragic Empress Elizabeth (Sissi) whose ghost seems ever present in Schonbrunn. <BR> <BR>The afternoon and into the evening was spent at Grinzing, a neighborhood within the city limits, although it appears to be a quaint rural village. The main street and alleys are lined with wine bars and "Heuriger", where the new wine is available. We visited many Heuriger and wine gardens, found some charming and delightful with strolling musicians playing Strauss waltzes and found one, the Altes Prekhaus that catered shamelessly to older American tourists. Envision an Austrian string trio playing the "Funky Chicken"! For younger Americans, there's a "Hooters" bar and grill in town, as well. Avoid both and look to some of the smaller places down lanes and alleys off the main street or visit the less frequented but more authentic Heurigers in Sievering, Nussdorf or Heiligenstadt. <BR> <BR>Thursday was devoted to city center beginning at Stephansplatz and its cathedral, a 40 minute Fiaker ride through the historic town with hours spent people watching from sidewalk cafes and window shopping on Karntnerstrasse, Kohlmarkt, Graben and the adjoining pedestrian only streets. Some observations: there are high profile merchants vending on these streets, Marks and Spencer, Louis Vuiton among many other famous and costly shops. We saw no one shod in sneakers. We saw any number of overweight, non-American, non-tourist people, male, female and child. (These folks must hide out in the suburbs during peak tourist months, leaving the city to sleek, svelte young people who intimidate the stereotypical American tourist.) Final observation: with the untold wealth of the Vatican, it would be nice if it invested in some subdued electric lighting in its churches and cathedrals rather than depending on votive candles for illumination. <BR> <BR>We stopped in to a neighborhood wine bar for a beer and wine late in the evening. (We had lunched there on the day of our arrival.) The barrel chested proprietor, who spoke no English remembered us from our previous visit, seated us with an English speaking Austrian couple and their German Shepherd, joined us, downed great quantities of wine and proceeded to burst forth with any number of German and Viennese opera and operetta arias in a fine, obviously trained voice. At one point, he sang both the roles of Pappageno and Pappagena, shifting to a falsetto for the latter. At the end of the evening, which was a long and thirst quenching one, he had no idea what we had consumed or what to charge us for it. After much consultation with the Austrian couple and some bystanders at the bar we paid what we thought we owed, plus tip and left amidst a great deal of hugging, kissing and handshaking. An interesting experience, to say the least. <BR> <BR>An aside: we found it interesting when dining that no waiter ever wrote down our orders despite our ordering different wines, beers and entrees in order to sample as large a variety of foods as possible. Interesting, too, that no waiter ever mistakenly delivered the wrong plate to the wrong diner. Most fascinating, we found, was that invariably when asked for the check, the waiter asked each of us what we had had and dutifully recorded our reply. <BR>Both Friday and Saturday were devoted primarily to the Hofburg and the city's museums with the occasional coffee break in the Kohlmarkt's cafes. <BR> <BR>The Hofburg is enormous and an architectural student's delight with styles ranging from Gothic, Italian Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo to late 19th century. It houses a church, a chapel, state rooms, a museum of Holy Roman Empire religious objects, the Lipizzaner museum, national library, Albertina museum of drawings and prints, all open to the public with admission costs ranging from 100 shillings ($8.00) to the treasury to 250 shillings ($20.00) for admission to the Saturday morning training sessions of the Lipizzaners. I'm not certain that seeing the Lipizzaners as we did was worth either the time or the cost. Horse fanciers would, I'm sure be delighted. The Hofburg and its contents occupied our time for two days. Saturday evening we thoroughly enjoyed a concert of Strauss waltzes and polkas and Mozart arias performed by the Wiener Hofburg-Orchester and soloists in the Hofburg Festaal. This is apparently Vienna's small-scale version of the Boston Pops, having presented concerts of light music from May to October for over 20 years. Individual tickets were 450 shillings ($36.00) <BR> <BR>Sunday was spent in Budapest. A segment of the Orient Express leaves Vienna's Westbahnhof at 9:06AM arriving in Budapest about noon. This allowed time for a leisurely lunch followed by a comprehensive three hour guided tour of the city by bus and a return on the EC train "Lehar" at 6:58PM arriving in Vienna's Sudbahnhof at about 9:30. Cost: 578 shillings ($46.25) roundtrip per person. <BR> <BR>An aside: the Hungarian waiter in the dining car on our return trip was a delight. When questioned about the soup of the day, he replied in perfect English: "Madam, remember, this is a dining car. The soup is just like that your mother made - right out of a can! Later, I said to him: "Your English is excellent." His reply? "Thank you, so's yours!" <BR> <BR>A further aside: there is a Dunkin Donuts in the Budapest station and from the side entrance one can see a KFC, Wendy's, Burger King and McDonalds. Ah, the Americanization of Europe! <BR> <BR>The tour, via "Queenybus" cost 4800 forints ($20.00) and was extremely informative and comprehensive commencing at St. Stephen's Basilica and encompassing drivebys of Parliament and the scenes of the Hungarian uprising in '58 and lengthy stops at Heroes Square, Castle Hill, Fisherman's Bastion, Matthias church and the Citadel. The cost included a taxi from the train station to the Basilica. The guide, a distinguished professorial type spoke excellent English. I was amused by his references to the former communist regime; thirty seven times he referred to the "so-called socialists". <BR> <BR>Budapest, despite it's vistas from Castle Hill and stunning buildings offered a stark contrast to the effervescence of Vienna. We saw strong evidence of poverty and a depressed economy, few pedestrians on the streets, a noticeable absence of vehicular traffic, many street beggars and uncrowded subways. <BR> <BR>An aside: On Saturday, Vienna's pedestrian streets were packed with people, strolling, window shopping, seated at cafes. On Sunday, Budapest was relatively deserted though as trains arrived in early evening, hordes of people, predominantly young, descended on the city. <BR> <BR>Our final day, Monday, began at the Naschmarkt, a five or six block long open-air market lined with purveyors of all kinds of meats and produce stunningly arrayed. At the southern end of the market a number of stalls are devoted to souvenirs, T-shirts and the occasional handcrafts and antiques. Interspersed throughout are small cafes and fast food restaurants. <BR> <BR>The day ended with a tour of the Staatsoper, a highlight of the trip, 60 shillings adults, 45 shillings for seniors ($4.80/$3.60). Tours are grouped by language and proceed through various doors to the opera house proper. As cavernous as it is, we experienced no delays or congestion. We found it fascinating at three in the afternoon to see stagehands setting the stage, not for that night's performance, but for an opera in rehearsal stage. Not an old building since it was virtually destroyed in the Second World War, its restoration is redolent of the opulence of late 19th century Vienna. A visit is an absolute must. <BR> <BR>I was delighted to find the Sacher Hotel on our way back to the bus stop. It gave us an opportunity to indulge in a Sachertort to cap our stay in Vienna. <BR>

I was thinking of this hotel for a planned trip on April. Thank you for your detailed description, but finally, do you recommend the place? Also, what is the neighbourhood like? I will be travelling with a young child. <BR>Thanks.

Don, <BR>I would recommend it based on the reasonableness of its rates. It is not centrally located, however, it is less than 200 yards from a Ubahn station (Gumpendorferstrasse) and bus route 35 which goes to the Burgring at the southern end of the Hofburg (about a ten minute ride). Its accommodations were fine and clean. A large breakfast served in the "wintergarden" is included in the room rate. Cereals, baked goods, meats, cheeses are served buffet style. <BR>The neighborhood is certainly not "touristy" though perfectly safe based on our experience. There are a number of inexpensive and good restaurants in the immediate area. Exit the hotel, turn left, cross the intersection under the rail tracks. Walk one block on Gumpendorferstrasse to the post office; there is an excellent Italian restaurant a short block to your left; a drug store and grocery store opposite. Continue on Gumpendorferstrasse another block and a half and you'll find an inexpensive Austrian restaurant that serves foodstuffs grown on its own farm. <BR> <BR>Exit the hotel, turn left and left again at the corner. One block away is a Chinese restaurant. Continue to the next corner to another reasonably priced Austrian restaurant in a corner wine bar. Look for the name "Franz Fischer" over the portal. An excellent lunch of soup and Wienerschnitzel cost less than 5.00. <BR> <BR>Exit the hotel and turn right. Walk about two and a half blocks and you'll find a small park and playground on the opposite side of the street. Continue to the end of Herklotzgasse and you'll find another small shopping area. There are a number of Italian restaurants here and on the way. <BR> <BR>During our week's stay we saw a number of families with children at breakfast. <BR>Hope this helps.

M. Fowler, <BR>Thank you so much for your generosity, sharing this charming week in Vienna. But when exactly did you go (i'm mean dates, month)? I'm curious because i dream going there september next year. Thanks a lot in advance!

PH, <BR>The trip extended from October 5 through October 12.

What a great trip report, Wes. As soon as I get over my jet lag, I will do one too on my two weeks in southern England, just back last night. I saw your Viennese Hotel on the web and it looked delightful. I love Vienna! Not so much Budapest, but then I was there ten years ago. Sounds like it might have been better then than now. Cheerio.