Vienna Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

Vienna currently has no central bus station and national Bundesbuses arrive and depart from several different locations, depending on the destination – many routes south (eg Eisenstadt) go from Südtiroler Platz. The Eurolines Bratislava service makes a stop here. For information, call 711 01 (open 7am to 8pm).

Car & motorcycle

All the major car rental companies are represented in Vienna.

Avis (587 6241; www.avis.at; 10, Laaer-Berg-Strasse 43; 7am-6pm Mon-Fri, 8am-2pm Sat, 8am-1pm Sun)

Denzeldrive (0501 054190; www.denzel­drive.at; 15, Europlatz (Westbahnhof); 8am-5pm Mon-Fri, 8am-1pm Sat)

Europcar (714 67 17; www.europcar.at; 01, Schubertring 9; 7.30am-6pm Mon-Fri, 8am-1pm Sat, 8am-noon Sun)

Hertz (512 86 77; www.hertz.at; 01, Kärntner Ring 17; 7.30am-6pm Mon-Fri, 9am-4pm Sat & Sun)

LaudaMotion (0900 240 120; www.laudamotion.com; 15, Europlatz; 9am-6pm Mon-Fri, 9am-noon Sat, 4-6pm Sun) Cheap deals and (almost) free city sponsor cars.

Train

Vienna has excellent rail connections with Europe and the rest of Austria. Not all destinations are served by one station, and schedules are subject to change. The following stations (except Meidling) have lockers, currency exchange, Bankomats and places to eat and buy provisions for your journey.

Westbahnhof

Trains to the west and north depart from Westbahnhof. Hourly services head to Salzburg (€43, 3½ hours) and four travel to Munich (€72, five hours). Seven daily direct trains run to Zürich (€88, six hours), frequent direct trains go to Frankfurt (€112, 7½ hours), one night train goes to Berlin (€155, 12 hours) and six go to Budapest (Keleti; €34, 2¾ hours). Westbahnhof is on U-Bahn lines U3 and U6, and many trams stop outside.

Südbahnhof

From Südbahnhof trains travel to Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. One direct train leaves each evening for Rome (€100, 13½ hours; via Klagenfurt, Venice and Florence); more services require a change at Venice. Hourly trains go to Bratislava (€13, one hour); there’s six a day to Prague (€47, 4½ hours) and one each morning to Berlin (€98, nine hours).

Trams D (to the Ring and Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof) and O (to Wien Mitte and Praterstern) stop outside. Transfer to Westbahnhof in about 20 minutes by taking tram 18, or the S-Bahn to Meidling and then the U6.

Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof

This station handles regional and local trains, including to Tulln, Krems an der Donau, and the Wachau region. From outside, tram D goes to the Ring, and tram 5 goes to Westbahnhof (via Kaiserstrasse) in one direction and Praterstern (Wien Nord) in the other.

Other stations

The smaller stations Wien Mitte, Wien Nord and Meidling all have U-Bahn stops and the former two have connections to the airport.

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Boat

Steamers head west (mostly from Krems) and fast hydrofoils head east.

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Air

Vienna is the main centre for international flights. Flying domestic routes offers few bene­fits over trains. Although there are frequent flights to Graz, Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Linz with Austrian Airlines from Vienna (from about €78 each way), Innsbruck in Tyrol is the one place where flying is considerably faster than train (from about €93, one hour, five times daily). Book early for the cheapest fares.

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