Waltzing in Vienna
 

I'm planning a trip to one of the Waltz Balls in Vienna for Jan. '01. Other than the Opera and New Year's Eve balls, has anyone been? Who are the best US tour operators to use? When do the schedules come out?

Check the websites: <BR>www.info.wien.at/e/programm.htm and www.info.wien.at/mpr/01-00/baele.htm <BR> <BR>The latter site will give you addresses and phone numbers of eleven venues where balls are staged

I would have thought you are nuts to be planning this so late, but in fact, there are good air fares still available. I just helped someone locate a fare of $551 yesterday for Atlanta-Munich / Graz-Atlanta (traveling Dec 25-Jan 6). Kinda makes me envious that I'm not spending the New Year "over there". <BR> <BR>I have a somewhat odd collection of travel articles (mostly internet-newspaper links), and you might find the following fun to read. <BR> <BR>A night at the opera ball <BR> <BR>It's the premier event in Vienna's social calendar <BR> <BR>By Alan Behr, Globe Correspondent, 01/31/99 <BR> <BR>http://travel.boston.com/world/europ...vienna_2.shtml <BR> <BR>It won't necessarily tell you about a tour operator to take you there (though I might volunteer, especially if you have some other people), but it will give you some ideas about what to expect. <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Rex <BR>www.allexperts.com

Thanks Rex, but actually I'm already planning for NEXT year (2001). It could be tough because we need a ball that's on a Friday night in January. Living in Atlanta, you might be able to do even better than $551. Have you tried Travelocity to Vienna? Delta has a code share with Austrian Air.

You might be right that a better fare could possibly exist, but the traveler who contacted me had some fairly specific dates, a desire to NOT fly a straight roundtrip (i.e., she WANTED a triangle that she could complete by ground travel), and one end kinda needed to be Graz. This close to Christmas, I felt like the fare was pretty good! <BR> <BR>Waltzing in Vienna for January 2001 sounds pretty good (I assume you are not interested in 29 Dec 2000) - - want to make it a group trip? (25th anniversary for me and my wife is 3 Jan 2001 - - but we'll join you on the 5th, if you find a ball that meets your criteria!) I can probably learn to waltz with 12 1/2 months notice! <BR> <BR>By the way, what does braindancing.com signify - - is it your own personal domain? I don't find a www.braindancing.com

Rex, We'd love to have you and your wife if you don't mind spending a few days with some 30 something year old couples and a 15 month old. We're only planning to spend 2 nights in Vienna and then take a train to Zell am See for our annual ski trip. Why don't you e-mail me at home ([email protected]) in April if you're interested. By the way "Braindance" is the company I work for which is a marketing firm. I specialize in the healthcare industry