Getting to Vienna

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Vienna airport outside panorama
S-Bahn logo

Contents

By Plane

The Vienna International Airport (VIE) is located just outside the city at the border to Lower Austria. Most European airlines have direct connections to the airport. Budget airlines that have flights to Vienna are: Sky Europe, Fly Niki, Air Berlin, ClickAir and Germanwings. Check also this group post for more airlines flying to Vienna or to nearby cities.


There are several options to get from the airport to the city centre of Vienna:


  • S-Bahn

The cheapest way to get to the city center from the airport is the S-Bahn (local railway). You can either buy a ticket for two zones for € 3,40 at the VOR Ticket machines (not the green ones!). Or you can buy a ticket for one zone (€ 1,70) plus a ticket for Public Transport in Vienna (see page Vienna - Getting around). The S-Bahn runs twice an hour from about 5:00 a.m. to midnight. Through summer there is also a hourly train between midnight and 4 am. It takes around 25 minutes to get to the center.

Check the exact timetable here. Look at "Wolfsthal -> Flughafen Wien (VIE) -> Wien Floridsdorf" to get from the Airport to Vienna and look at "Floridsdorf -> Flughafen Wien (VIE) -> Wolfsthal" to get from Vienna to the Airport. The name of the station at the airport is "Flughafen Wien (VIE). If you don't know where to get out in Vienna, take "Wien Mitte" (the most central one) or any other with a little blue "U" next to the name - this sign indicates that there is an underground connection.


City Airport Train near Vienna
  • City Airport Train

There is also a special City Airport Train (CAT, tourist trap!). One way costs € 8,00 and the return ticket is € 15,00 (only at green ticket machines). The train leaves every half hour and takes 16 minutes to the center. The CAT offers also offers to check in your luggage in "Wien Mitte" on the day before which might come handy if you travel with a lot of luggage or have an inconvenient flight schedule.

Check the exact timetable here. The first box shows trains from "Wien Mitte" to the airport, the second box shows trains from the airport to "Wien Mitte".


  • Bus to/from airport

A similarly expensive bus (€ 6) runs from the Airport to Südbahnhof, Schwedenplatz and Westbahnhof, the UN HQ and through some southern suburbs to Liesing.

Check here for the timetable.


  • Departure

If you want to know whether your flight is delayed or cancelled before you actually journey out to the airport, check the airport's website.


Bratislava-Airport Vienna's second airport is just across the border in the Slovak capital of Bratislava (BTS). It is mainly served by low cost carriers. Several companies run busses from Bratislava Airport to Vienna (underground U3 stop Erdberg or U1 stop Südtiroler Platz), one company also connects the two airports. Direct buses from Bratislava airport to Vienna take about 100 minutes, tickets cost around 10 Euro one way. One of the cheapest connections is the Terravision Bus for Ryanair customers. (But anyone can use the bus.) A single is 8 Euros if you book online: www.terravision.eu


By Train

Westbahnhof in Vienna
There are two main and several smaller train stations in Vienna. The main train stations are:


  • Westbahnhof: serves mainly trains to and from the west and north-west (Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Germany, France, Switzerland, Netherlands,…) and some trains, that go from east to north-west.
  • Südbahnhof: serves mainly trains to and from the south, east, north-east (Graz, Klagenfurt, Bratislava, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic …)

Some international trains also arrive at smaller train stations like Wien Meidling or Wien Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof.


There are special train offers to many bigger cities close to Austria, mainly destinations in Germany and Italy. The offer is called SparSchiene. A list of the destinations can be found on the website of the Austrian railway company (ÖBB) - SparSchiene. Prices for a seat are 29 Euro, for a couchette 39 Euro. Tickets have to be booked quite a bit in advance (one - two months), especially for popular destinations like Berlin or Hamburg.

There is a door to door timetable service on the website of the Austrian railway company, which also includes the trains of most other European countries.

By Bus

The Vienna International Busterminal is located right next to the underground station Erdberg (line U3). Amongst others, Euroline buses arrive and depart from there. For more information which Euroline buses go to Vienna, visit the Eurolines-Homepage.

Some other international buses arrive next to the railway station Südbahnhof.

a Student Agency Bus
  • Czech Republic

There is cheap Czech bus company called Student Agency which has daily buses to Vienna. A ticket from Brno costs 6 Euro, a ticket from Prague costs 12 Euro to Vienna. If you're a student or below 26 you can also get a discount. Student Agency also has destinations in a lot of other countries. For more Information have a look at the Student Agency-Homepage.

  • Budapest

There is also a cheap bus to Budapest. The bus company is called Orange Ways. A one-way ticket to Budapest costs around 8 Euro. From Budapest you also have cheap buses to Ljubljana, Zagreb or Romania. For more Information have a look at the Orange Ways-Homepage(Note: In Hungarian Vienna is called Becs).

By Boat

Twin city liner
There are scheduled services between Vienna and Bratislava, Budapest, Passau, Linz and some smaller places along the Danube. Between Vienna and Bratislava there is a fast catamaran service four to five times a day for €26 (more Info here).

Hitchhiking

Hitchhiking definitly is the cheapest way to get to Vienna. All neighbouring states of Austria have highways to the city, which makes it relatively easy to get to Vienna. Good locations for hitchhiking are gas stations or feeder roads to the highway. Hitchhiking on the highway itself is illegal, as in many other countries. Tips for hitchhiking in and out of Vienna can be found on the Hitchwiki. Tips about hitchhiking itself can be found on Travelwiki.

Ride sharing/ Car pooling

A quite popular way to travel esp. within Austria or to Germany is ride sharing. People are traveling with their own car from A to B and offer rides to other people for a share in costs.

Check also the CS group Car-Ride-Sharing - From Vienna to the World

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