Vienna, Austria

Grand Ferdinand

Price per night from$181.83

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR167.30), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Viennese world

Setting

Right on the Ringstrasse

Grand Ferdinand in Vienna is home to a few of our favorite boutique-hotel things: a rooftop pool, seriously cool design, exhibitionist-pleasing bathtubs in the suites, classic cars to hire for the day, three restaurants (two with bars), and, yes, plenty of schnitzel…

Smith Extra

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A serving of goulash each at the hotel's restaurant Gulasch & Soehne

Facilities

Photos Grand Ferdinand facilities

Need to know

Rooms

186, including four suites and one lavish Grand Ferdinand Suite.

Check–Out

Noon; late check-outs (until 4pm) can be arranged subject to availability for a charge of €50. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £161.55 (€189), including tax at 13 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of 3.2% per room per night on check-in.

More details

Rates generally exclude breakfast. You can choose between a buffet (€32 a person) or à la carte breakfast at Gulasch & Soehne.

At the hotel

Pool, fitness room, free WiFi throughout and valet parking. In rooms: flatscreen TV, minibar.

Our favourite rooms

Each room has beautifully clean design, an inviting cloud of a bed and an open-plan bathroom. If you’re craving a luxurious soak, spring for a Suite: the claw-foot baths are front and centre and the seventh-floor Vienna views are pretty spectacular, too.

Poolside

The rooftop infinity pool has impressive views over the Ringstrasse; it’s open in summer from 7.30am to midnight. The pool is flanked by wicker chairs and tables for after-swim drinks, and towels and slippers are provided.

Packing tips

Bring gallery-worthy LBDs for a night in Grand Ferdinand’s bars.

Also

Smoking is only permitted on the balconies of suites and on the roof terrace of the Grande Etage.

Pet‐friendly

Pets are welcome for €30 a day, but you’ll need to provide the chow. See more pet-friendly hotels in Vienna.

Children

This boutique bolthole is best suited to grown-ups, but baby cots and extra beds (for a charge) are available on request. Little 'uns are welcome in all restaurants – high chairs can be supplied on request, and meals adapted to suit younger palates.

Food and Drink

Photos Grand Ferdinand food and drink

Top Table

Nab a window seat in the Meissl & Schadn for a side of people-watching with your strudel, or on the balcony of Grand Etage for panoramic city views.

Dress Code

Break out your sultry Helmut Lang threads and bespoke Natalie Rox shoes.

Hotel restaurant

Grand Ferdinand has three eateries, all dishing out Viennese classics. In the mornings, go up to the Grand Etage for buffet breakfast with a view, or to the ground floor Meissl & Schadn for à la carte breakfast and picture windows. At stylish Siegfried Wolfram-helmed bar Gulasch & Soehne, Vienna’s most mobile rub shoulders over delicate drinks and snacks including Debreziner sausages, Leberkäse and, natürlich, goulash. Our favourite dishes in Meissl & Schadn are the beef roulade, Wiener Schnitzel and minced meat fritters à la Metternich, but fear not, vegetarians – there’s plenty for you, too, such as the baked pumpkin and spinach dumplings. (Both camps will enjoy the violet ice cream.) 

Hotel bar

Rooftop Grand Etage serves cocktails, wine and beer along with a stunning view over Vienna exclusively for members and guests. At ground-floor bar Gulasch & Soehne, pair Viennese ‘fast food’ with fine fizz or a glass of Velkopopovický beer.

Last orders

Imbibe bubbly in the Grand Etage until 2am or in Gulasch & Soehne until half past midnight. The Grand Etage is open for meals from 6.30am to 11.30pm; Meissl & Schadn is open from 7.30am to 11.00pm and Gulasch & Champagne bar opens for snacks

Room service

There’s no in-room dining, but raid your minibar for drinks from water to Champagne, classic Austrian sweets (try a Manner wafer) and an assortment of salty snacks.

Location

Photos Grand Ferdinand location
Address
Grand Ferdinand
10-12 Schubertring Vienna
Vienna
1010
Austria

You’ll find the Grand Ferdinand on the Schubertring section of the Unesco-listed ring road encircling Vienna’s historic centre, close to the city’s most famous museums and galleries.

Planes

Vienna International Airport is 19 kilometres from the hotel (20 minutes’ drive). The hotel’s car service costs €60 each way; your driver will pick you up in the arrivals hall. The CAT (City Airport Train) will get you from the Flughafen Wien (Vienna Airport) railway station into town in just 16 minutes.

Trains

Trains from across the Continent pull into Wien Central Station. The Südtiroler Platz metro station is there, too; take line U1 toward Leopoldau and get off at Karlsplatz station, about half a kilometre from Grand Ferdinand.

Automobiles

Valet parking is available for €40 a day; cars are parked at the nearby Corso underground car park. DIY at the same garage for €29 a day.

Worth getting out of bed for

Vienna is up to its ears in history: you’d have to make a concerted effort to avoid music venues, museums, royal residences and parks named after famous psychoanalysts. Book tickets ahead for a night at the Wiener Staatsoper or the Wiener Konzerthaus. Wien Museum is a five-minute stroll south of the Ringstrasse, and home to eye-catching works by noted native creatives Klimt and Schiele. Further west, the breathtaking royal summer residence Schönbrunn Palace is worth a detour. 

Local restaurants

Laid-back Ulrich is good for modern European sharing plates and snacks. For modern farm-to-table fare, Labstelle is 10 minutes' walk just past the Domkirche St Stephan; it’s open from breakfast to dinner and has a seasonally changing menu. Book ahead for a Michelin-starred meal in the nearby Stadtpark at elegant Steirereck – the culinary artworks are almost too pretty to eat, and the wine list is impressively diverse.

Local cafés

Nobody takes coffee and cake as seriously as the Austrians: follow Vienna’s in-crowd for your daily Mélange (somewhat like a cappuccino), and a slice of Gugelhupf (a type of Bundt cake) at a café. From the hotel, take a stroll through the Stadtpark to bakery, pâtisserie and bistro Joseph Brot von Pheinsten for fluffy ricotta pancakes, healthy smoothies, or a traditional Viennese breakfast of sweet Semmel rolls, boiled eggs and cold cuts. Or, if you’re headed towards the Hofburg palace complex, follow in the footsteps of Austrian royalty and have your Kaffee und Kuchen at Demel pastry shop. Stop by Jonas Reindl’s fresh breads, homemade pastries and cakes cooked in wood-fired ovens by organic bakery Gragger & Cie. Konditerrei Oberlaa’s café on Neuer Markt and its chocolatey Sachertorte and pillowy macaroons will never be far away.

Local bars

Take the glass lift to the top floor of the Steffl department store and Sky Bar; sip on a pink grapefruit Maserati or a violet- and lychee-infused Fleur de Sky cocktail while you enjoy the panoramic view. Step back into the roaring Twenties at Kruger's American Bar on nearby Krugerstrasse; it's allegedly the oldest cocktail bar in the city and the perfect place to order Old-fashioneds, Sidecars and Rob Roys.

Reviews

Photos Grand Ferdinand reviews
Luke Batchelor

Anonymous review

By Luke Batchelor , Interiors whizz

Gustav Klimt once said,true relaxation, which would do me the world of good, does not exist for me’. Perhaps this Viennese artist would have changed his mind, had he been able to stay at Vienna’s glittering modern masterpiece, the Grand Ferdinand hotel: a granite- and stone-clad 1950s affair, situated on none other than the infamous Ringstrasse (the main road circulating the heart of the city). Transformed by hotelier Florian Weitzer into a contemporary hub of unparalleled cool, the hotel’s slick design showcases works by leading names in the interiors business: Lobmeyr, Gubi, Augarten Porzellan…  

On arrival we’re greeted by the hearty smell of Viennese cuisine wafting in from Gulasch & Soehne, one of the hotel’s three restaurants. This small eatery, which serves authentic goulash and enough champagne to fill the Danube, is ideal for a quick lunch during a busy day of sightseeing or a welcome retreat after a spending spree in Dior. 

‘More is more’ has always been Vienna’s philosophy, so if ever there was a time to show off and pack your finest wares, this is it. The marble-clad, candlelit foyer is strewn with Vuitton luggage, guarded by the hotel’s resident stallion… not a member of the hotel’s team, I hasten to add, rather a handsome life-size statue. We decide (after surviving a very dry January) to stay in one of the hotel’s suites. It’s a large, elegant room with the obligatory cast-iron roll-top bath tub, which is crowned with a sparkling chandelier evoking the jewels worn by Vienna’s ill-fated Empress Sisi. The bed is obscenely big: a cloud-like affair dressed in white linen, which starkly contrasts with the masculine slightly Germanic freemason-lodge – furniture. A leather chaise-longue reminds us that Sigmund Freud’s office and apartments happen to be a short walk away and are well worth a visit. A private balcony, the same length as our suite, lets you admire the gold statue-anointed rooftops of old-world imperial Vienna. If you’re visiting in summertime, raid the room’s champagne fridge for an alfresco apéritif, then wander around the corner to the city’s opera house when the wind blows, you can almost hear it carrying the notes of one of Beethoven’s many masterpieces.

The next morning, after coming to terms with the hotel’s lack of room service (my fancy Instagram shot of an eggs Benedict breakfast-in-bed totally goes out of the window), we haul ourselves out of bed, pull on our cashmere roll necks and take the epic journey up one whole floor up to the hotel’s Grand Étage restaurant. Here, we sample a delicious European buffet; those interested in the hangover-curing Grand Ferdinand omelette can find it on the à la carte. The staff are a patient bunch who – a little later on in the day – are happy to suggest a delicious wine (or wines, in our case – hey, it is a holiday…) from a vineyard located in the heart of Vienna. They also direct us to the must-see sights, such as the Secession Building on the edge of the city’s trendy Naschmarkt district – it’s a bit rough around the edges but home to an array of interior-design emporiums and after-dark haunts where Grüner Veltliner flows till the early hours of the morning.

Whether you’re an art lover or not, you’ll find it hard not to be inspired and moved by the sheer number of outstanding galleries to be visited. And even if the bath tub and champagne in your suite threatens to keep you hostage, you must visit the Belvedere; it’s home to one of the world’s greatest collections of Klimt paintings, displayed in breathtakingly opulent surroundings. Top tip: make a beeline for the Klimt rooms as soon as the gallery opens, as they’re one of the tourist hotspots and you may find yourself forced into battle with a sea of selfie sticks otherwise.

When it all gets a bit too much and you need to sit down and think about the sheer wealth in those artworks, take yourself off to one of the many local cafés for a restorative slice of Austria’s pride and joy, Sachertorte, and a steaming cup of Melange coffee. After a long day spent embracing Viennese culture it’s time for a quick snooze before heading to the bar, where we discuss how much we’ve fallen in love with this beautiful hotel and extravagant city, a place where the burden of modern everyday life seems to disappear. 

Sadly, our four-day love affair with Vienna comes to an end and, as we struggle to roll our arty, coffee table-book-filled suitcases down the hall, we catch a glimpse of another suite through an open door, and an intense, fiery burst of red meets our eyes. A floor-length Valentino gown with matching fur stole hangs in waiting like a beautiful phoenix, ready to be worn that evening. Could the owner be off to the opera we wonder, or perhaps a visit to one of many award-winning restaurants? Maybe she is just going to stroll the illustrious streets of this magnificent city, where style is essential and love is inevitable… it is home to the world’s most famous kiss, after all.

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Price per night from $181.83