We have just a few days to explore the area at Christmas time and again around New Year (we must visit friends in Iserlohn, Germany a few days in between). We arrive in Vienna the evening of Dec 23rd. We would also like to see Budapest and maybe stay there some nights. We also want to ski at an intermediate level. What are the best places to go and things to see and do? What is there to do Christmas day? We want to decide soon to make reservations for lodging. Also, is it better to go from Vienna or Budapest to Dusseldorf (or Iserlohn), and by plane, train or car? We are a family of 6 and need the best price.
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Hello,
How many days are we talking about approx. ? Because I am fraid you are trying to put a bit much into one package ...
Travelling between Düsseldorf and Vienna by plane costs you 1/2 a day, by train or car a day, Vienna - Budapest or Vienna - any better Skiresort takes you another half day by train or car, + you will notice that a) you are already fairly late into booking accomodation in the ski-resorts for christmas, and most places don´t take bookings for just one or two nights in this season, they will require you to stay longer or even a full week ! So I would think about if you really want to include the skiing, it also means packing completly different clothes and stuff, and definetly raises your trip costs a fair bit. So in my honest opinion, which doesn´t have to be yours of course, I´d say if we are not speaking about at least a two weeks holiday here, stick with the Vienna and Budapest package, everything else will be very stressy ! Or do Vienna or Budapest for the Christmas days, and then see if you find dome nice resort in bavaria or the Black Forrest, where you can go back skiing after you have seen your family, could save few hundred hundred mile travelling !
Greets, Fritz
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Thank you for responding. Perhaps a skiing day trip to Semmel? I saw on another post. Is there good snow at Christmas? Do you know if skiing is open Christmas day? I would imagine the trains run.
We arrive in Vienna the evening of the 23rd and will leave from Vienna the morning of Jan 2. Looking at posts, it appears there will not be much open or to do on the 24th and 25th. Although we will want to see the Christmas market that I saw links to. We are trying to decide if we should just take a day trip to Budapest or go stay there a few nights.
Our friends in Germany want us to come either the 26th-27th or 29th-30th. We are trying to decide if we should drive and visit some things on the way, or take the train or fly so that we have more time in Vienna and Budapest. We have been to Germany before (driving from Salzburg) and seen the Black Forest, Munich, and more. We are more interested in seeing new places such as Hungary. But we are a little timid as we know nothing of the language. Family members do speak some German.
We tried the oebb.at site to find out about the night train to Germany as that will save us the cost of a hotel. But it was difficult to understand and we did not find out the cost for beds on the train.
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www.stuhleck.at/html/E/anreise.asp…
Thats the %26quot;Semmel%26quot; mountain you refer to, its called Semmering, and the ski-resort is %26quot;Stuhleck%26quot; ....:-) At the moment there is piles of snow, but nobody can predict christmas from that, but they have a very efficient snow-canon system ... You could do it as a daytrip, like most people there, and it will be open on the christmas days as well, but be prepared that there will thousands of others with the same idea ...
Regarding the train, you will have to call them, there are so many options and differnt classes and tickets, thats too much for displaying it online, there callcentre is: +43 (0)5-1717, and its available 24/7 !
Greets, Fritz
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If you arrive on the 23rd of Dec. I would enjoy the lovely Christmas atmosphere in Vienna on the 24th with all the Christmas markets, explore the inner historic city center and have a nice dinner at night. Maybe also try to visit Schoenbrunn castle as there will be a wonderful Christmas market as well!
If you really want to go skiing I would do this on the 25th, because as you mentioned the town will be very quiet then and there will not be too many people on the slopes. As mentioned above the closest area is the Semmering:
There leaves a direct train from Vienna main station %26quot;Suedbahnhof%26quot; at 8:14 am which will arrive on the Semmering at 9:57am. You do not have to book in advance, just go to the train station and buy tickets.
oebb.at/pv/…index.jsp
oebb.at/pv/…index.jsp
For going to Budapest I would use the train, easiest way to travel there - in my opinion 2 days are enough to see this city.
oebb.at/pv/…index.jsp
For going to Duesseldorf I would use the plane as there are several companies that offer flights like Austrian, lufthansa, Airberlin, ...:
http://www.aua.com/at/eng/default.htm
lufthansa.com/online/portal/lh/us/homepage…
www.airberlin.com/site/index.php?LANG=eng
By train you could get recuctions as a goup as well:
oebb.at/pv/…index.jsp
oebb.at/pv/en/Travel_within_Europe/index.jsp
If you would like to drive there and see some new places, you could also drive through Czech Republic (Prague) and then in Germany visit Dresden and Weimar or Nuremberg and Heidelberg.
Or directly from Austria to Germany from Vienna via Linz, Regenburg, Nuremberg, Weimar to Duesseldorf - you would see beautiful towns and it would be a 2 days trip. Driving will be no problem at all!
For driving look here:
viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/…MaHomePage.htm
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Some links:
Vienna:
www.wien.info/article.asp?IDArticle=10063
www.wien.info/article.asp?IDArticle=10451
www.weihnachtsmarkt.co.at/engl/info.html
www.wien.info/article.asp?IDArticle=10463
www.wien.info/article.asp?IDArticle=10068
Semmering:
noe.co.at/partner/hirschenkogel_e/default.asp
www.bergfex.com/semmering-hirschenkogel/
Germany:
regensburg.de/tourismus/…index.shtml
www.nuernberg.de/internet/portal_e/reiseziel/
http://www.weimar.de/nc/en/tourism/homepage/
www.dresden.de/index_en.php…
heidelberg.de/servlet/…index.html
Budapest:
http://www.budapestinfo.hu/en
Prague:
czechtourism.com/eng/…index.html
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Thank you for all the info. We also are wondering about finding an economy priced bed and breakfast outside of Vienna for a few days. We stayed in private homes in Germany for some excellent prices and had very nice accomodations.
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I would not stay outside of Vienna!
Some recommendations for reasonable, but very central accomodation:
http://www.hollmann-beletage.at/
www.hotel-rathaus-wien.at/en-index.shtml
hotelaustria-wien.at/en/welcome/index.html
http://www.pertschy.com/start_e.html
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May I ask why you recommend not to stay outside of Vienna?
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...why would you like to stay outside of the city?
Although Vienna is the capital of Austria the inner historic city center is really beautiful and you do not have the feeling that you stay in a big city - some areas are even pittoresque.
All sights (besides from the Schoenbrunn castle) are located in the inner city center and if you stay there nearly all sights, restaurants, cafes...are walkable or easily reachable by public transport.
If you stay outside of the city in a residential area or a small town you will have to communte into the city everyday by car or train/subway which is not very convenient - especially in the evenings after dinner....
Only very few people ever have the wish to stay outside, that is why there is not too much choice concerning accomodation outside of the city....
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