Austria Travel Guide
Gay Hotels / Hotel Saunas / Vienna Hotels / Hotel Spas / → All Tags
This Hotel In Vienna Isn't Doing Such a Great Job Staying In the Closet
With everyone talking about New York's upcoming gay-themed hotel, The OUT NYC, we thought we'd take a look at some of the world's gay-friendliest hotels and resorts. Keep an eye out for that later next week. In the meantime, we thought we'd share a tip we received yesterday from a HotelChatter maven about a place called The Wild in Vienna.
Despite its evocative name, The Wild is in fact just a family-owned (Wild is their last name) European pension hotel located in Josefstadt, with free breakfast buffets, reasonable rates (from EUR 41), and close proximity to Vienna's sights. Interestingly, what their website chooses not to mention is Sport Sauna, a thriving sports-themed gay bathhouse, bar and general "cruising area" located in the basement. Oops. Guess we just outed them.
Hotel Hype / Park Hyatt Hotels / Vienna Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
Park Hyatt Will Open in Vienna in 2013
Park Hyatt Hotels are on an expansion whirl this year. The Park Hyatt Maldives debuted the other month, the Bermuda location is later this year or early next and even NYC will be getting a Park Hyatt soon. And now come 2013, the Park Hyatt will open its doors in Vienna.
Hyatt Hotels made the announcement this morning, saying the hotel would open inside a historic building in the city's Innere Stadt, or First District.
Park Hyatt Vienna will feature 143 rooms, including 35 suites. In addition to an all-day dining restaurant, lobby and cigar lounges, and a hotel bar, the hotel will include a premier meeting facility with 640m2 of conference space, a fitness center, and a spa. The world-class luxury hotel, which will reflect the intimate and understated elegance of the Park Hyatt brand, is being designed by architects Neumann & Partners and interior design firm FG Stijl.
Shangri-La Hotels / Abandoned Hotels / Vienna Hotels / → All Tags
The Intended Shangri-La Vienna ISO of Love, Companionship and an Operator
While the former Mandarin Oriental Marrakech recently got snapped up by Taj Hotels, the planned Shangri-La Hotel Vienna is still searching for the perfect companion. We reported that Shangri-La shockingly pulled out back in February and since then, the hotel has been sitting empty.
A tipster tells us that the local media refers to it as a "ghost hotel" and that despite everything being finished and furnished, there's been no takers from the operational standpoint.
That sounds surprising for a completely finished property with 207 rooms and an indoor swimming pool but then again the Shangri-La dumped it because of poor construction quality. So that probably rules out any other luxury brands like Four Seasons and Ritz-Carltons to come in and snap it up. But perhaps there is a "lifestyle" brand that would consider it? (Since they've been known to open up in former Holiday Inns and the like.)
Hotel Woes / Hotel Closings / Shangri-La Hotels / Hotel News / Vienna Hotels / → All Tags
Shangri-La Dumps Its Vienna Plans, Will Never Open
Wiped off the map. Gone but not forgotten.
Sometimes, with all these hotel openings, we forget there’s that small matter of wavering economies. But today we’ve been brought back to reality with a jolt, with the news from a tipster that the Shangri-La Vienna will never open.
The hotel has already been removed from the Shangri-La website, as if it never existed. Very secret agent.
It was originally down to open in 2009 and Shangri-La had bought up an entire city block on the 19th century Ringstraße in order to turn it into a 207 room hotel. But things haven’t gone to plan, because, according to our tipster:
Shangri-La has terminated the management contract with immediate effect due to poor construction quality
Shoddy work in precise Austria? Wow. Also, that’s a pretty major step to take – things must really have been dire.
The move has left about 70 pre-opening staff laid off (saddies). And there’s no word yet on what will become of the property instead.
Hotel Technology / International Hotel WiFi / Vienna Hotels / WiFi Heaven / → All Tags
Grand Hotel In Vienna Grandly Gives Us WiFi
When you turn up to stay at the Grand Hotel Wien in Vienna, you'll likely be thinking along the lines of "old elegance" and "grand luxury" rather than "high technology" – but you might be pleasantly surprised.
This grand old dame of a hotel has just got itself hooked up to a WiFi network system which claims to be one of the best. (Well, actually it claims to be the best, but we think that's hard to prove). The NonStop Wireless Networking, a Belden brand, has been installed in 140 different access points within the hotel – we assume that means that most or all of the guest rooms now have WiFi. The system has actually been extended to the hotel across the road, The Ring, which is owned by the same company.
Austria Hotel Guide / HotelChatter Reviews / Hotel Video Tours / Wine-Tasting Hotels / → All Tags
Urban Vibe, Rural Setting At Austria’s Loisium Wine Resort
HotelChatter's Eric Rosen recently spent some time in Austria and Germany. All this week, he'll be rounding up his hotel observations. Any tips, suggestions, questions? Let us know.
Though it has been open since 2003, the futuristic Loisium Wine and Spa Resort in Austria’s bucolic Kamptal Valley has maintained an air of quiet sophistication even while educating visitors on Austria’s burgeoning wine scene.
That is partly thanks to its out-of-the-way location in the small town of Langenlois, about an hour northwest of Vienna. However, the Loisium is at the nexus of several of Austria’s wine appellations—the Wachau, Kremstal, Kamptal and Weinviertel—so it makes for an ideal base from which to explore many of Austria’s most famous wineries.
Not only that, but the welcoming staff, the gourmet restaurant, the Aveda spa, and the on-site “Wine Cellar World” vinotheque make the minimalist-mod resort an all-in-one stop.
Austria Hotel Guide / HotelChatter Reviews / Vienna Hotel / Art Hotels / Design Hotels / → All Tags
Wein and Design Hotel Has Fanciest Breakfast Spread in Vienna
HotelChatter's Eric Rosen recently spent some time in Austria and Germany. All this week, he'll be rounding up his hotel observations. Any tips, suggestions, questions? Let us know.
The key to “doing” Europe properly, is to start your day with a sensible breakfast at the hotel.
For a long time we resisted taking breakfast at the table d'hôte, rejoicing in the five euros we were saving by foregoing bad coffee, stale rolls and a few greasy cold cuts, while saving our ducats for a leisurely lunch instead. But as we’ve grown older, we’ve come to see the logic of shelling out a little extra cash for a hearty breakfast so that we don’t get cranky scouring the continent for a decent cup of coffee, or fainting from hypoglycemia and cutting out of a museum early for lunch.
No need for such a strategy while staying at Vienna’s Rathaus Wein and Design Hotel, though.
Hotel Video Tours / Austria Hotel Guide / HotelChatter Reviews / Hotel Baths / Le Meridien Hotels / → All Tags
Shower Power at Le Meridien Vienna
HotelChatter's Eric Rosen recently spent some time in Austria and Germany. All this week, he'll be rounding up his hotel observations. Any tips, suggestions, questions? Let us know.
If you’re anything like us, the first thing you want to do after a transatlantic flight is to wash all the grit and grime of airports and planes off your fatigued body. That’s why, for the first installment in our Austria-Germany Field Trip guide, we’ve decided to tell you all about the fabulous showers at Le Meridien Vienna, the first stop on our trip.
Cubicle Dreamin' / Austria Hotels / Leading Hotels of the World / Schamanisches / Sommercamp / Schamanische Ferienwoche / Schwitzhütte / visionssuche / → All Tags
Channeling Julie Andrews in Austria
Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.
In this episode, Hotel Maven Katie K visits Austria...in her mind. Enjoy.
The recent teases of springy weather have me in a Julie Andrews sort of mood. (I’ll tell you one thing: If my neighborhood had more — er, any — grassy hills, I would spend a lot less time blogging, and a lot more time running around singing about how, you know, alive it all is.) But rather than fantasizing about my frolics on faux hills, I’d rather let my mind drift straight to the source — specifically, the Hotel Schloss Fuschl in Austria.
Alpine Austria Hotel Guide / Austria Hotel Reviews / Austria Hotels / Hotel Spas / → All Tags
Try The Cryotherapy Chamber at The AlpenMedHotel Lamm
This week we will be bringing you a special series from contributor Carolyn Banfalvi on the most luxe Alpine hotels in Austria. If you ever fancied a "Sound of Music" getaway, here's how to do it without taking the Vow of Poverty. Any questions or suggestions? Let us know.
It’s easy to find a hotel in Seefeld, one of the greatest destinations for cross-country skiing in the Austria. The town has one of the highest concentrations of five star hotels in Austria.
While the four star AlpenMedHotel Lamm doesn’t rank among the town’s most luxurious, it has something that few hotels in the word have: a cryotherapy chamber.
Alpine Austria Hotel Guide / Austria Hotel Reviews / Austria Hotels / Hotel Spas / → All Tags
Pamper Yourself at The Die Krone Von Lech
This week we will be bringing you a special series from contributor Carolyn Banfalvi on the most luxe Alpine hotels in Austria. If you ever fancied a "Sound of Music" getaway, here's how to do it without taking the Vow of Poverty. Any questions or suggestions? Let us know.
Lech and Zürs, two neighboring towns in Austria’s Vorarlberg region, are among the country’s most fashionable ski resorts. Skiers love the ski pass system here, in which passes are valid on a huge network of lifts spanning several towns.
Zürs is solely a ski town, with no actual residents just a row of hotels, which is why the more year-round Lech attracted me more. Lech, too, has tons of hotels, and the central Die Krone Von Lech is one of its stand-outs.
Alpine Austria Hotel Guide / Austria Hotel Reviews / Austria Hotels / Hotel Spas / Hotel Pools / → All Tags
Kick It Austrian-Style at The Hotel Schwarzer Adler's Rooftop Pool
This week we will be bringing you a special series from contributor Carolyn Banfalvi on the most luxe Alpine hotels in Austria. If you ever fancied a "Sound of Music" getaway, here's how to do it without taking the Vow of Poverty. Any questions or suggestions? Let us know.
Despite its location smack in the center of Kitzbühel, rooms at the Hotel Schwarzer Adler have gorgeous mountain views,some with floor-to-ceiling windows. From the outside, the place might look like your typical Tyrolean ski chalet, but the hotel has done so much updating in recent years that it feels more like a super-stylish boutique property.
The spacious rooms feature either a cozy country-style decor or a sleek and minimalist one, all with high-tech amenities like iPod docking stations, stereo systems, and flat-screen TVs.
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