Where to stay in Vienna

The Innere Stadt, the 1st district, is the Historic Centre of Vienna on UNESCO's World Heritage list, a city that grew from Celtic and Roman settlements into a medieval and Baroque capital, and the part of Vienna best seen on foot.

Leopoldstadt's Karmeliterviertel is a down-to-earth quarter around the Karmelitermarkt, with kosher shops and bakeries and a farmers market on Fridays and Saturdays, about 1 km from Stephansplatz. Spittelberg in the 7th district, next to the MuseumsQuartier, packs restaurants and courtyard bars into Biedermeier lanes, and the Freihausviertel in the 4th, a few minutes from Karlsplatz, mixes galleries, bars and second-hand shops.

Further out, Hietzing borders Schönbrunn Palace and is mostly green space, with the U4 to Karlsplatz in 11 minutes. Grinzing in the 19th district is wine-tavern country, where a Heuriger hangs out pine bushes when it opens. Both sit about 6 km from Stephansplatz in a straight line.

Since March 2022 all of Vienna has been a short-stay parking zone, Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 22:00, with a two-hour maximum on a ticket or by HANDYPARKEN. The fee is EUR 1.70 per half hour, EUR 3.40 an hour and EUR 6.80 for the full two hours, and the first 15 minutes are free on a separate ticket. Vienna has no street ticket machines: you buy paper tickets at tobacconists, filling stations, post offices and Wiener Linien machines, or register a phone for HANDYPARKEN, which works with foreign numbers (via GetCar). A ticket is needed from the first minute, even to unload luggage.

Evenings, weekends and public holidays are free, with two catches. Resident-only spaces, signed with an extra panel naming the district's permit, stay closed to visitors at weekends too. And the Parkpickerl, the permit that lets residents park without a time limit, is issued only to people whose main residence is in the district, so a visitor with a rental car cannot get one.

That leaves garages and park and ride. The tourist board lists 24-hour garages in the zone districts, among them Freyung, Am Hof and the Operngarage in the 1st, Stiftgasse in the 7th and Südbahnhof in the 4th. The ten park and ride garages, at Erdberg, Spittelau, Hütteldorf, Ottakring, Aderklaaer Straße, Leopoldau, Donaustadtbrücke, Siebenhirten, Liesing and Perfektastraße, sit on U-Bahn or S-Bahn lines and charge EUR 4.60 a day; WIPARK's park and ride sites also sell weeks at EUR 23.10 and months at EUR 86.20. The tourist board advises asking the accommodation about parking before arrival.

The S-Bahn core section between Praterstern and the Hauptbahnhof is closed from 7 September 2026 to the end of October 2027, which changes the train link to the airport. Rental cars for the trip are on GetCar's car rental page for Vienna.

Vienna's Ortstaxe is a percentage of the price. For nights from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 it is 5 per cent of the price of the stay, excluding VAT and breakfast; from 1 July 2027 it rises to 8 per cent. The rate follows the night, not the booking date, so a stay booked in spring at the old 3.2 per cent pays 5 per cent for nights after 1 July 2026.

The City of Vienna counts cleaning fees, late check-out and upgrade surcharges, and platform service fees charged to the guest as part of the price. Garage and bar bills paid separately on site generally are not. The host collects the tax and must show the amount to the guest, and nothing is due on a cancellation or a no-show.

Every host, private flats included, keeps a guest register, and the Meldegesetz requires each guest to be entered within 24 hours of arrival, with the travel document details of foreign guests. Short-term letting of flats is restricted: in residential zones regular letting for short stays is not allowed, and since 1 July 2024 a flat elsewhere needs a permit of at most five years to be let for short stays beyond 90 days a year. Offering a flat for short stays beyond 90 days a year without a permit carries a fine of up to EUR 50,000.

The Ortstaxe rises to 8 per cent for nights from 1 July 2027, so a trip that spans that date pays two rates. Parking follows the calendar: a Friday-evening arrival parks free on most streets until Monday 9:00, apart from resident-only spaces and shopping streets that charge on Saturday mornings, while a weekday arrival pays from the first minute. Non-EU travellers entering Schengen pass through the EU Entry/Exit System, fully operational since 10 April 2026. Compare prices on this page before booking.

A first visit on foot: the Innere Stadt, with a garage for the car.

A market street and short walks to the centre: Leopoldstadt and the Karmeliterviertel.

Museums and evenings out: Neubau and Spittelberg.

A neighbourhood near Karlsplatz: Wieden and the Freihausviertel.

Schönbrunn and the Hütteldorf park and ride: Hietzing.

Wine taverns and the Spittelau park and ride: Grinzing and Döbling.