Greetings! My adventurous mom and dad are currently touring through the Czech Republic by car. They have emailed me that they would like to detour and spend a few nights in Vienna. They are nervous about driving their car into the city and how they will get to a decently-located hotel. Can anyone please offer advice I can send them? They will be coming into Vienna on the A1. Is there a hotel easily accessed from the freeway that would be easy for them to get to? Should they park the car somewhere outside the city and leave it there while they go in to the center of Vienna to stay? I would love to send them into the city center to stay but am not sure how to advise them concerning dealing with their car. I would be very grateful if anyone can offer any advice for them.
Many thanks and happy trails,
JB
Stuck at home and living vicariously through their emails!

My husband and I drove from Budapest to Vienna to Prague and found the roads very easy to follow.

We stayed at the Hotel Sacher in the city center. If you go to their website, they have very good instructions for people entering the city by car. I would recommend staying in this area as it is close to many of the attractions in Vienna. We valeted the car when we arrived, and walked or took public transportation/taxis while we were there. Leaving the city was easy as well. In fact, a Czech gentleman asked us for directions to Prague as we were departing, and we had him follow us to the motorway.

Here's a link to the Sacher website with driving directions: http://wien.sacher.com/layout/dfltfr...=inhalt_en.asp

We enjoyed our stay there, but there are many other hotels nearby to choose from.

I would recommend the Hotel Wandl which is cheaper and also within the Ringstrasse. It is important to stay in the Ringstrasse or else it doesn't feel like Vienna. I don't know about cars, though

Thank you very much for your comments, I appreciate it. I think I will try to talk them into driving into town and parking the car as one of you suggested. I agree, they have to stay in city center. Thank you so much for your kind help!
JB

I've driven into Vienna several times. Once there at the hotel, I unload the luggage and then either have the hotel park the car, or I take the car to an underground parking lot in the center of town. Getting into the center isn't difficult, and almost all of the hotels are accessible at least for luggage unloading. The only difficulty, even with a good city map, is that there are several one-way streets in the city center. But getting a hotel near the Ringstrasse will generally avoid that problem. Good luck.

Just a quick note about the Hotel Wandl, which I stayed at 3 years ago: great location, lovely hotel, but the concierge staff there was very, very unpleasant. I can't honestly say why this was unless maybe they had something against a woman traveling alone? However, after 3 years they may well have had a change of staff. Hope so!

Next time in Vienna I do plan on staying elsewhere which is too bad because Wandl was otherwise a very nice and reasonably priced hotel in an unbeatable location right behind St. Peterskirche by the Graben. However, I would think that parking in that area could be a bit of a problem.

By the way, the Hotel Wandl is near the Graben and St. Stephens Cathedral, not within the Ringstrasse, which I don't believe is part of the old city center at all.

Rebeka, the Ringstrasse is effectively the circular boundary of the first district and is most definitely part of the old centre - the Rathuas, Opera House, Museums etc are all on the Ring, so the Wandl is also definitely within the Ring. You may have got mixed up with the Gurtel which is another major ring road a little further out and is wider with traffic going both ways. Some detours near Wandl making the immediate area of the hotel even worse than usual for parking. By the way Tpl is pretty lucky on Sacher - rack rates are over 300 euro per night now.

Travelnik,

I should have checked a map before making that statement. Having been in Vienna for only 5 days, my knowledge of its streets is obviously rudimentary. Thanks for the correction!

My wife and I stayed at the Koenig Von Ungarn which is a block or so away from the Stephansplatz which is the center of the City. I do not recall seeing anyone drive up in a car other than a taxi. Great hotel and I will stay there again if I am ever in Vienna.