Local Knowledge

Taxis

There are plenty of ranks although you can also flag down taxis in the street. If you get your hotel to order a cab for you specify if you want a regular taxi or a hotel limo service.

Tipping culture

Service is normally included in price in restaurants, although it’s common practice to round up the bill to the nearest €5 or leave about ten per cent.

Siesta and fiesta

Restaurants are busy from early in the evening with most locals eating before 20h. Most shops are shut on Sundays, even in the city centre.

Packing tips

Bring a high-brow book with you – preferably something by an obscure French philosopher. You won’t need to read it but it will come in handy if you want to look the part while soaking up some of Vienna’s café culture; the Viennese like to think they’re a bit intellectual.

Recommended reads

The Third Man by Graham Greene is set in the city and has become something of a mini industry; alternatively anything by Rousseau or Voltaire for that café posing.

Cuisine

Vienna’s café culture is a fantastic experience and the list of coffees is quite baffling, from Melange (milky coffee) and Einspänner (with whipped cream) to Kapuziner (like an espresso machiato) and Maria Theresia (with orange liqueur); this is most definitely not the city to ask for ‘a coffee’. The cafés also have an equally befuddling selection of strudels and cakes. Austrian cuisine such as Weiner Schnitzel and Weiner wurstel (sausages), smoked meats, potato dumplings and strews spiced with paprika, is delicious if a bit heavy. Zweigelt reds wines from Kamptal are very drinkable.

Currency

Euro.

Dialling codes

Country code for Austria: 43. Vienna: 1.

Do go/don't go

Summer is inevitably busy and while winter can by bitingly cold, the days are often clear and there are always the excellent Christmas markets in December. Spring and autumn are perhaps the best seasons to visit Vienna, but avoid September when there are usually many conferences are in town.