9 Vienna Hotels You Can Walk Home to After the Opera

The Vienna State Opera stages roughly 300 performances a year across about 60 different productions, which is a repertoire system rather than a run system and means something different is on almost every night. Add the Musikverein, the Konzerthaus, the Volksoper and the Theater an der Wien and Vienna has more classical performance per resident than any city in the world.

Most of it finishes between half past nine and eleven. And the thing nobody mentions about an opera evening is the twenty minutes afterwards: the crowd, the cloakroom queue, the taxis, and the walk in a coat in February.

Why the Ringstrasse changes the evening

Vienna's inner city, the first district, is enclosed by the Ringstrasse, the boulevard built on the line of the demolished city walls in the 1860s. Inside it sits the opera, the Hofburg, the cathedral, the main museums, the coffee houses and almost every restaurant worth booking. It is about a kilometre and a half across.

Stay inside it and the walk home from a performance is ten minutes through streets that are quiet, safe and well lit, past buildings that are the reason you came. Stay outside it and you are in a taxi queue with four hundred other people, or on a tram, in the cold.

The other thing the first district gives you is the coffee house culture, which is a real institution rather than a marketed one. The good ones are old, indifferent to you, and will let you sit for three hours with one melange and a newspaper.

The ten below are all inside or on the Ring.

Around the opera house

The southwestern corner of the first district, within a few hundred metres of the Staatsoper.

Hotel Sacher Wien sits directly behind the opera house and is the most famous hotel in Austria, with red velvet, a cafe that sells its own cake by the thousand and a level of ceremony that is either wonderful or a lot. Book a room facing the opera.

Hotel Bristol, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Vienna occupies the building opposite with a smaller, quieter operation, one of the best hotel bars in Europe and a corner suite with a view straight down the Ring. It is the more discreet of the two.

Hotel Imperial, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Vienna sits on the Ring near the Musikverein with a 1873 interior, a marble staircase and rooms that vary from grand to modest. It is the third of the great opera-quarter hotels and the least busy.

Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth occupies a position beside the opera with contemporary rooms and considerably lower rates than its neighbours. It is the best value within two minutes of the door.

The Hofburg and the inner city

The centre of the first district, around the palace, the cathedral and the shopping streets.

Park Hyatt Vienna occupies a former bank on the Am Hof square with a spa in the vaults, a rooftop restaurant and the most polished service in the city. It is the best hotel in Vienna.

Rosewood Vienna sits in a converted 1930s building near the cathedral with a rooftop bar looking over the roofs and the most contemporary interior in the first district.

Anantara Palais Hansen Vienna - A Leading Hotel of the World occupies a palace on the Ring near the Danube canal with a spa, a pool and large rooms. It is the quietest of the grand hotels.

Grand Hotel Wien sits a few steps from St Stephen's cathedral in a small building with a family operation and the best position in the city for walking. It is a four-star and it belongs here on location.

The museum quarter side

The western edge of the Ring, by the museums and the MuseumsQuartier.

Hotel Sans Souci, Vienna occupies a nineteenth-century building near the Volkstheater with a spa, a pool and a design-led interior. It is the pick if the museums matter more than the opera.

The Ritz-Carlton, Vienna sits on the Ring by the Rathaus with large rooms, a rooftop and a straightforward luxury operation at below the opera-quarter rates.

What we have left off

The hotels in the outer districts along the Gürtel are excluded, and several are good value with more space. They are a tram ride from the Ring, which is a small thing at six in the evening and a considerable one at eleven at night in January.

What to do

Go to a performance. Standing-room tickets at the Staatsoper go on sale shortly before curtain for a few euros and the view is often better than the cheap seats. The Musikverein's golden hall is the best-sounding room in the world and worth any concert in it.

Do two museums rather than six. The Kunsthistorisches for the Bruegel room, which is the largest collection anywhere, and the Belvedere for the Klimt.

Sit in a coffee house properly: Café Central, Café Sperl or Café Hawelka, order a melange, and stay.

Eat schnitzel once at a proper Beisl, and then eat at the Naschmarkt and in the newer restaurants around Neubau, which is where Vienna has got interesting.

Take the tram around the Ring, line 1 or 2, which is a full architectural tour for the price of a ticket.

Practical notes

The airport connects by CAT express to Wien Mitte in 16 minutes, or on the S7 for a few euros in 25.

May, June, September and October are excellent. The opera season runs September to June, and the city is quieter and cheaper in July and August when it is closed. December has the Christmas markets and is beautiful and cold.

Buy opera tickets the moment the season opens. The good performances go quickly.

Questions people actually ask

Do you need to dress up for the opera?

Not formally, but Vienna does dress. A jacket is normal in the stalls and standing room is come-as-you-are.

Is the first district too expensive to stay in?

The grand hotels are. The four-stars inside the Ring are frequently cheaper than the newer buildings outside it, and the walk home is the point.

Vienna or Prague or Budapest?

Vienna for music, museums and coffee houses. Prague for the setting. Budapest for the baths and the value. They are all within a few hours of each other by train.

How many nights?

Three, four if you want a day at Schönbrunn and a concert on separate evenings.

If you only book one

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