My 26th Birthday||Vienna, Austria
I am sure you are all already aware that I have just come back off an amazing birthday weekend in Vienna, Austria with my boyfriend. We were supposed to be visiting back in April but both our work schedules got the better of us so we decided to postpone the trip, little did I know but my boyfriend booked up to go for my Birthday this year instead, and totally surprised me with what was an unforgettable 3 nights in the city. Here I am to tell you everything we got up to on our 3 night stay.
So we flew out from London Gatwick the day after my birthday, we were lucky enough to have an early evening flight which I loved (as I am really not a morning person) and luckily our flight took off with no problems or delays which is quite rare considering the airline we were flying with. We landed into Vienna International Airport at around half 8 that evening, we found the Taxi rank and a Taxi took our straight to our hotel in the heart of Vienna. The Taxi ride took us approx. 40 minutes and it cost around 40 euros, which we thought was quite reasonable.
We pulled up outside our beautiful 5 star Hotel which was located extremely centrally in the Parkring area. The hotel we stayed in was the beautiful and very grand Vienna Marriott Hotel, (the photo's honestly don't do it any justice). My boyfriend surprised me with a Suite and honestly the room was huge! You could have actually fitted in at least 4 other people.
As hopefully you can see in my panoramic photos below the Suite came with a sofa/living area with a massive wide screen TV on the wall, a desk area in the corner and an area where the mini bar/ coffee facilities were kept. Next to that you have just 1 of our 4 massive sliding wardrobes, there is also a separate smaller toilet opposite that, and opposite the toilet there is yet another huge sliding wardrobe, with a floor length mirror & a chair (all of this is out of shot).
Now on to the bedroom, as can also be seen in the photo's below, you have the huge king size bed which stole the show! (Most comfiest bed I think I have ever slept on) Then you have more wardrobes next to the main bathroom, and then round the other side which is also out of shot you have yet another wide screen TV on the wall. The Bathroom was a large space complete with a bath, walk in shower & two sinks opposite a glass door which stood our second toilet.
Once we unpacked our bags and freshened ourselves up from our flight we decided to go and explore our hotel, and surrounding area in the hope to catch a quick bite to eat. As it was quite late by this point, say around 9:30pm/10:45pm, we didn't venture too far outside because we didn't think many restaurants would be serving food this late. We had a little explore around our hotel and found loads of hidden gems, including 1 main bar area (can be seen in photo below) a dining area, a really nice lobby area with lots of seating, a cake shop (the cakes were all delicious) a gift shop and other Viennese boutique clothing shops, and Champion's Sports bar.
We ventured into Champion's sports bar, their American sports bar and restaurant and decided to have a quick bite to eat here as it was getting really late now. The food in here was cheap and cheerful, obviously wasn't no Michelin star but it certainly served a purpose. We left the restaurant feeling very content and full for the evening. It was your typical American bar and if you like sports you will love it here because they play sports on the big screen A LOT, the vibe seemed to be busy and lively which we found out was the case most days when we walked past.
The restaurant can be found inside the Marriott Hotel 12a Parkring and is open from 5pm every week day until 12am (1am friday & saturdays).
Once we were back nearer to the city we decided we wanted to check out the famous St Stephan's Cathedral and all of the shops which are near to it, so we hopped into a taxi which are all conveniently located right outside out Hotel and asked to be dropped at 'Goldenes Quartier', which is one of Vienna's most famous and exclusive shopping streets. You can find all the designer brands here, including Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Burberry, Yves Saint Laurent, Prada and so many more.
If you take a little walk down from there you will find some of the more affordable popular clothing brands, like Zara, Mango, Adidas, Forever 21, and Footlocker. There are an abundance of cafes and restaurants/bars here (including popular chain's McDonald's and Starbucks), and Stephanplatz Underground Station is just down the road from the shops and the Cathedral itself. This is the main tourist place to visit in Vienna, hence the shops cafes & bars it does get extremely busy here so be careful especially if you are on your own!
You have the first landmark which is more towards the 'Goldenes Quartier' shopping area lies the 'Katholische Kirche St. Peter' Church & of course the one everyone is here to visit St Stephan's Cathedral a few roads down on Stephanzplatz, and we were lucky enough to stop and get some amazing photo's of both.
-Day 2 (PM)-
We got back to our hotel for around 5pm absolutely shattered, so we chilled in our suite watching films for an hour or so and then slowly got ready for the evening. We had a reservation booked (by our lovely concierge team, who also recommended the restaurant to us) and walked a few blocks down the road to the 5 star hotel The Ritz Carlton and waltzed in to their gorgeous restaurant 'Distrikt Steakhouse'. I wont bore you with an account of our entire evening, but I did write in some details about the restaurant and our dinner here , so please give that a look for more info.
To sum up the meal though it was lovely, better than we could have hoped for and there was even Birthday Cake, it was such a special evening and the hotel was so luxurious too.
-Day 3 (AM)-
Up early again on our last proper day here in Vienna. We were off sight seeing once again! This time we were going further a field to visit the famous 'Schonbrunn Palace', the 'Parliament Building' & the 'Museum Quarter' in the 7th district of the city (also the 8th largest cultural area in the world!).
We got dropped off outside the Parliament Building first and took lots of selfies outside it. Here's a few I got of the actual building itself.
Our next stop off on our sight seeing route was the famous Museum Quarter. We spent around half an hour here and didn't actually go inside any buildings because we still wanted a decent amount of time at the palace so we just took some pretty photo's of the area and left. Here they are....
Once all our sight seeing was done in the area for the day, we headed back to our hotel to freshen up for Lunch. We found a lovely little Italian restaurant again not far from where we were staying. It is called 'Da Mortiz Huth', they had an amazing pizza and pasta menu, we were extremely hungry at this point so both opted for one of their pizza's each. (We could have just shared one though it was that big!). You can find all the info about my lunch at 'Da Mortiz Huth' on my Vienna Restaurant review here.
-Day 3 (PM)-
We decided to make this our 'big night out' if you like because we knew that we would be flying home tomorrow and wanted to be prepared for the flight tomorrow. We visited yet another Steakhouse (we both love our meat as you can tell), called 'Porterhouse' which was a 5 minute walk round the back of our hotel, this time I went for the Rib Eye steak and my boyfriend chose the tenderloin (both well done), I have to admit now I am not sure what steak I preferred, this one certainly matched up the one we had the previous evening! Again I wrote about our evening here in my Vienna restaurant review please read about it here.
Once the mains were out the way, we decided to hail down a cab and we got it to take us to a cocktail bar called 'The Sign', I saw an article about 'The Sign' in a magazine which our airline provided us with on the plane on the way over, it was one of there recommendations and I am so glad I picked up that magazine now, because it was honestly one, if not THE best cocktail bars I have been to (even in London, where they are obvs all amazing). We were given a cosy corner complete with a rocking chair, blankets and the lights were dimmed down low the staff were so accommodating as well they even gave us English menu's (the only 2 they had in the entire bar). We stayed here until close and drank the night away
-Day 4 (AM)-
So we are now on Day 4- boo! The very last morning of our trip, and what an amazing trip it was. We actually managed to pack in so much during our 3 night stay, and I think this was mostly down to the fact that our hotel was so amazingly central to the whole city we had so much time to explore. I cannot recommend the Marriott enough! Day 4 was very depressing we just simply did not want to leave this beautiful city, so the little morning we had left we decided to take a stroll round the beautiful park opposite our hotel, which we hadn't had a chance to visit yet. It was lovely, and we both wish we had more time to spend there, sadly we didn't. We didn't really have any time for a proper sit down meal so we just ate a small snack at the Airport whilst we were waiting to board. We touched back down in London at around half 5, and couldn't have been more upset.
As I said earlier, Vienna was an amazing trip, it was such a lovely city to visit, the streets were kept so clean, the landmarks were so grand, the food was lovely & the people so friendly. I would recommend this city to anyone who is looking for somewhere to explore for the weekend, we loved it and would give it a 10/10 rating!! (It might even be up there on my list next to Rome).
-Day 1-
So we flew out from London Gatwick the day after my birthday, we were lucky enough to have an early evening flight which I loved (as I am really not a morning person) and luckily our flight took off with no problems or delays which is quite rare considering the airline we were flying with. We landed into Vienna International Airport at around half 8 that evening, we found the Taxi rank and a Taxi took our straight to our hotel in the heart of Vienna. The Taxi ride took us approx. 40 minutes and it cost around 40 euros, which we thought was quite reasonable.
We pulled up outside our beautiful 5 star Hotel which was located extremely centrally in the Parkring area. The hotel we stayed in was the beautiful and very grand Vienna Marriott Hotel, (the photo's honestly don't do it any justice). My boyfriend surprised me with a Suite and honestly the room was huge! You could have actually fitted in at least 4 other people.
As hopefully you can see in my panoramic photos below the Suite came with a sofa/living area with a massive wide screen TV on the wall, a desk area in the corner and an area where the mini bar/ coffee facilities were kept. Next to that you have just 1 of our 4 massive sliding wardrobes, there is also a separate smaller toilet opposite that, and opposite the toilet there is yet another huge sliding wardrobe, with a floor length mirror & a chair (all of this is out of shot).
Now on to the bedroom, as can also be seen in the photo's below, you have the huge king size bed which stole the show! (Most comfiest bed I think I have ever slept on) Then you have more wardrobes next to the main bathroom, and then round the other side which is also out of shot you have yet another wide screen TV on the wall. The Bathroom was a large space complete with a bath, walk in shower & two sinks opposite a glass door which stood our second toilet.
Once we unpacked our bags and freshened ourselves up from our flight we decided to go and explore our hotel, and surrounding area in the hope to catch a quick bite to eat. As it was quite late by this point, say around 9:30pm/10:45pm, we didn't venture too far outside because we didn't think many restaurants would be serving food this late. We had a little explore around our hotel and found loads of hidden gems, including 1 main bar area (can be seen in photo below) a dining area, a really nice lobby area with lots of seating, a cake shop (the cakes were all delicious) a gift shop and other Viennese boutique clothing shops, and Champion's Sports bar.
We ventured into Champion's sports bar, their American sports bar and restaurant and decided to have a quick bite to eat here as it was getting really late now. The food in here was cheap and cheerful, obviously wasn't no Michelin star but it certainly served a purpose. We left the restaurant feeling very content and full for the evening. It was your typical American bar and if you like sports you will love it here because they play sports on the big screen A LOT, the vibe seemed to be busy and lively which we found out was the case most days when we walked past.
The restaurant can be found inside the Marriott Hotel 12a Parkring and is open from 5pm every week day until 12am (1am friday & saturdays).
-Day 2 (AM)-
Day 2 for us was alllll about the sights & shopping!!! We awoke to some amazing room service breakfast, I recommend the granola with berries below. It was definitely needed as we had a VERY busy day ahead of us.
After Breakfast we decided to have a little wonder about the city, we didn't really have a plan of where we wanted to go we just knew we wanted to see some of the main landmarks. We past a few pretty buildings and eventually made our way to 'Prater' Amusement Park which is one of the oldest parks in Vienna. It also features the famous 'Wiener Riesenrad Ferris Wheel' (similar to our London Eye). We couldn't resist a ride.
We stayed in the park for a few hours, went on a few more rides and tried out a few of their amusements which of course is always fun. We found ourselves a bit peckish so headed to the local pizza shop for a slice and some fries to share. By this point it was turning cold so we made our way back to the hotel to wrap up some more. It was decided we had some more time to kill before dinner, so we ventured towards the main area of the city, where we saw more pretty buildings along the way.
If you take a little walk down from there you will find some of the more affordable popular clothing brands, like Zara, Mango, Adidas, Forever 21, and Footlocker. There are an abundance of cafes and restaurants/bars here (including popular chain's McDonald's and Starbucks), and Stephanplatz Underground Station is just down the road from the shops and the Cathedral itself. This is the main tourist place to visit in Vienna, hence the shops cafes & bars it does get extremely busy here so be careful especially if you are on your own!
You have the first landmark which is more towards the 'Goldenes Quartier' shopping area lies the 'Katholische Kirche St. Peter' Church & of course the one everyone is here to visit St Stephan's Cathedral a few roads down on Stephanzplatz, and we were lucky enough to stop and get some amazing photo's of both.
-Day 2 (PM)-
We got back to our hotel for around 5pm absolutely shattered, so we chilled in our suite watching films for an hour or so and then slowly got ready for the evening. We had a reservation booked (by our lovely concierge team, who also recommended the restaurant to us) and walked a few blocks down the road to the 5 star hotel The Ritz Carlton and waltzed in to their gorgeous restaurant 'Distrikt Steakhouse'. I wont bore you with an account of our entire evening, but I did write in some details about the restaurant and our dinner here , so please give that a look for more info.
To sum up the meal though it was lovely, better than we could have hoped for and there was even Birthday Cake, it was such a special evening and the hotel was so luxurious too.
-Day 3 (AM)-
Up early again on our last proper day here in Vienna. We were off sight seeing once again! This time we were going further a field to visit the famous 'Schonbrunn Palace', the 'Parliament Building' & the 'Museum Quarter' in the 7th district of the city (also the 8th largest cultural area in the world!).
We got dropped off outside the Parliament Building first and took lots of selfies outside it. Here's a few I got of the actual building itself.
Our next stop off on our sight seeing route was the famous Museum Quarter. We spent around half an hour here and didn't actually go inside any buildings because we still wanted a decent amount of time at the palace so we just took some pretty photo's of the area and left. Here they are....
Once all our sight seeing was done in the area for the day, we headed back to our hotel to freshen up for Lunch. We found a lovely little Italian restaurant again not far from where we were staying. It is called 'Da Mortiz Huth', they had an amazing pizza and pasta menu, we were extremely hungry at this point so both opted for one of their pizza's each. (We could have just shared one though it was that big!). You can find all the info about my lunch at 'Da Mortiz Huth' on my Vienna Restaurant review here.
-Day 3 (PM)-
We decided to make this our 'big night out' if you like because we knew that we would be flying home tomorrow and wanted to be prepared for the flight tomorrow. We visited yet another Steakhouse (we both love our meat as you can tell), called 'Porterhouse' which was a 5 minute walk round the back of our hotel, this time I went for the Rib Eye steak and my boyfriend chose the tenderloin (both well done), I have to admit now I am not sure what steak I preferred, this one certainly matched up the one we had the previous evening! Again I wrote about our evening here in my Vienna restaurant review please read about it here.
Once the mains were out the way, we decided to hail down a cab and we got it to take us to a cocktail bar called 'The Sign', I saw an article about 'The Sign' in a magazine which our airline provided us with on the plane on the way over, it was one of there recommendations and I am so glad I picked up that magazine now, because it was honestly one, if not THE best cocktail bars I have been to (even in London, where they are obvs all amazing). We were given a cosy corner complete with a rocking chair, blankets and the lights were dimmed down low the staff were so accommodating as well they even gave us English menu's (the only 2 they had in the entire bar). We stayed here until close and drank the night away
-Day 4 (AM)-
So we are now on Day 4- boo! The very last morning of our trip, and what an amazing trip it was. We actually managed to pack in so much during our 3 night stay, and I think this was mostly down to the fact that our hotel was so amazingly central to the whole city we had so much time to explore. I cannot recommend the Marriott enough! Day 4 was very depressing we just simply did not want to leave this beautiful city, so the little morning we had left we decided to take a stroll round the beautiful park opposite our hotel, which we hadn't had a chance to visit yet. It was lovely, and we both wish we had more time to spend there, sadly we didn't. We didn't really have any time for a proper sit down meal so we just ate a small snack at the Airport whilst we were waiting to board. We touched back down in London at around half 5, and couldn't have been more upset.
As I said earlier, Vienna was an amazing trip, it was such a lovely city to visit, the streets were kept so clean, the landmarks were so grand, the food was lovely & the people so friendly. I would recommend this city to anyone who is looking for somewhere to explore for the weekend, we loved it and would give it a 10/10 rating!! (It might even be up there on my list next to Rome).
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