SFOBayFlyer

I just checked in to the Bristol in Vienna a few hours ago on a 5 day award stay (17th - 22nd). I was told the hotel was pretty empty and was "upgraded" to room 664 - (top floor standard size room with a small terrace). My ammenity was a bottle of water, about a dozen grapes and a pear. I would like to have a bit larger room, but don't want to seem demanding...Does anyone know what type of room they gave me is on the spectrum (deluxe, jr suite, etc)?

Is this the ammenity I should expect?

I did some searching through the threads, but the most recent post I noticed was about 5 months old and want to have an up-to-date opinion if possible.

Any help would be appreciated (and if you recommend anything fun in Vienna, that would be appreciated as well!)

BTW: I am a SPG Plat...Thanks!

dhammer53

Amenity is sort of the same as we received last summer.

As for your room, is the bed on one side, and a desk on the other? Is there a bathroom on one side of the room, and a toilet on the other? Do you have a door in the middle of the room leading out to a small balcony?

If you've answered the above with a yes, that's considered a small suite.
If you answered no to the above, you'll have to wait for the next person to post.

That was my Platinum upgrade.

yvrdude

ditto for me... I had two rooms on the top floor identical to DHammer53's description as a Plat.

SFOBayFlyer

That is the exact layout. Large built-ins with the tv on one side and the tub/shower/vanity, entrance in the middle and balcony, and bed on the other side/closet/toilet.

The room is definitely nice, but compared to some other "grand" hotels I have stayed at (like the Westin Excelsior in Rome), this room would be considered more like a grand luxe, with a junior suite more like a room twice this size.

martinplas

The room to go for is located ont he corner with the tower that you see from the street facing the opera building. I was upped to that 2 years ago as a gold when they overbooked and had no choice. BTW the internet on the floor below is pricey and you can often just walk in and find someone forgot to log out and use it for free

number_6

The Imperial offers that kind of room (actually a lot bigger and more lavish). But at a much higher price. You could have redeemed your points for the Imperial if this is important to you; obviously it isn't as you chose the Bristol. They give lavish upgrades but some are slaves to lavishness. I admit that I am, thus I stay at the Imperial and close my eyes when paying the bill.

SFOBayFlyer

I agree with you...I love having the lavishness, but when it came down to redeeming the points, it was either 40k for 5 nights @ the Bristol, or 64k @ the Imperial high season. I figure it is worth about 20% or so more for me (like 48k pts low season), but at 60% more, that's another 2.4 nights @ the Bristol or some other awesome place. I guess this answers my question...if I want oversized lavishness like the Excelsior in Rome, I need to pay oversized lavish prices (or points) to receive this! The Bristol is still of very high quality...I guess I have already spoiled myself!

number_6

Price/performance is rather hard to calculate for hotels. The Bristol shares infrastructure with the Imperial and is a very fine and well run hotel; it suffers from the building which was built to different standards than modern hotels. This makes square footage much more precious. The restaurant in the Bristol is generally considered to be better than the one in the Imperial and much cheaper (roughly half the cost) -- never mind that Imperial has excellent food. So you do have one bonus from staying there. Also the concierges are very well connected for getting you opera tickets or anything else; quite a valuable service in Vienna. Be sure to visit a heurige during your stay, Grinzing is a wonderful experience during your stay (and ordering wiener schnitzel is mandatory, you get these beautiful schnitzels that are bigger than your plate, and cost peanuts). Enjoy your stay in Vienna, it is a wonderful city and there is lots to savour (my own favourite is Meinl coffee, so simple but so divine).

james1

Hi FlyerTalkers,

I'm headed to Vienna next weekend and was curious if anyone can advise me with some trip/hotel related questions. It seems like everyone recommended Hotel Bristol, and I have made two reservations (2 separate rooms for the weekend) on points.

Specifically, I have questions on the following:

1. I have two rooms booked, one is for king and another for doubles. How is the platinum upgrades for the king size room? Is there a specific room to ask for? Do they upgrade you automatically? Also, there doesn't seem to be too many non-smoking rooms. Is it a problem asking or getting a non-smoking room?

2. What's the best way to get to the hotel from VIE airport? Seems like there is an efficient city transportation available.

3. What's the best way to exchange Euros? It's been a while since I traveled internationall to Europe, is ATM still the way to go? What are the major banks with ATM in the Vienna?

4. Is there any good restaurants around the hotel? Anything I should look for?

Any help you guys can provide is appreciated.

Thanks,
James

ldsant

You need to ensure you have Euros prior to leaving the airport - no matter what mode of transportation you're taking you'll need them. There is usually an ATM in the airport itself or a currency exchange. If you have time you may want to check with your bank and get $100 worth of Euros prior to leaving.

There are many great restaurants all throughout Vienna. If you walk around the city you'll be able to find quite a selection. I would also recommend you read/search the posts in Trip Reports as well as Travel & Dining forums on FT to gain more information.

Eastbay1K

I was just there in July (but stayed at the Imperial - a short walk from the Bristol). There's a rapid train to the city centre. From there, just hop a cab at the arrival train station. There are plenty of ATMs to get your money in the City. While I didn't get any at the airport (I paid for the train with a CC), I used the ATM at the train station - it is past the supermarket a bit and then to the right, if I recall correctly (way past where you grab the cab). Find $ in the airport instead.

Just walk around the streets - you will find plenty of appealing looking food, at all price points. The schwarma (everywhere) aren't nearly as good as in Paris, however.

Eau Rouge

I actually just returned from a stay at the Bristol last week. We had a great time but a rather small room which had clearly been smoked in. We were staying on points, which meant we got a bit of the shaft even as SPG Gold/Plat members, but had a great time nevertheless. There whole smoking/non-smoking set up is hard to decipher, especially online as their rooms seem to always default to showing "smoking". Call the hotel directly or send them an email making a specific request for a non-smoking room and they will do their best. You may still get the lingering odor of smoke as a lot of people smoke and plenty ignore the smoking/non-smoking label on their room. We bought a candle at l'Occitane while we were there which helped freshen things quite a bit.

The most convenient way for us to get downtown was to have the hotel car pick us up. This cost about EUR45 for a nice Merc E-Class and was the most welcome thing for us after three flights and almost 23 hours of travel time. Not sure if that is in the budget but it was perfect - nice having somebody waiting for you right outside customs and not much more than a taxi. There are trains that go downtown and there is a U-bahn stop right around the corner from the hotel which would be the most cost-effective.

As for money, I wouldn't bother changing much before you leave as you will get screwed changing money in the US at an airport. You might want to have EUR 50 or so to make sure you have some cash but my experience is that almost anything you will need in your hours after arrival could be paid for with a credit card (especially the case for train tickets which can be bought with CC through the ticket machines.) There is an ATM right around the corner from the front door of the hotel (turn right outisde the door, then right again at the corner and it will be ~150 feet down on your right.) I found that taking cash out seemed to slightly better than the rates on CC charges, depending on bank and credit card. My bank gave me very good exchange rate close to the published interbank rates plus a modest $2 fee. One thing to note when you are returning is to try and dump as many coins as possible before you leave for the airport as echange bureaus normally will not change any coins less than EUR1 in denomination.

Restuarants: Loads of great ones in Vienna. Depending on how nice you want to go, I would recommend a couple: 1) The cafe at the Sacher Hotel which is just a block away. Very nice food and make sure you get a slice of the famed Sacher Torte for dessert! You can walk down the Kartnerstrasse (the main shopping drag in Vienna) and off the small side streets and find lots of great places. 2) One other we found which was fun/packed was a British style pub with GREAT homebrewed beer, great food and atmosphere called 1516. Mix of local food and traditional dishes which were all good and relatively inexpensive. Service not the greatest (this is a very different speed place from something like the Sacher) but good nevertheless. It is a block or two off the Kartnerstrasse (the concierge should be able to give you directions.)

Other recs would be to make sure to sit at a cafe and have some great Viennese coffee. Also take in a drink at the Sacher bar or a drink/coffee at the Imperial as it is so impressive.

Hope this helps and have a great trip.

SportsTech

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...hlight=bristol

In re restaurants, I posted this a couple months ago:
"after reading the threads about "best restaurant in Vienna" over in the Travel forum, we decided to stick to the Bristol's fine dining restaurant, Korso, for one of our dinners. It turned out to be an excellent choice, and we'd recommend it. Our host, Herr Thyringer, clearly enjoyed his job and his recommendations for traditional Austrian dishes (they have several scattered through the otherwise contemporary continental menu) were terrific. The vanilla creme desert crepe is also worth the (quadruple digit) calories."

Have a great trip, and read the above thread for a lot of good trip reports that will answer the questions in your OP.

davidjdewey

It sounds like the Bristol is pretty popular. I was planning a trip for next spring using points. I was going to stay at The Imperial. Is Bristol a better choice, assuming the extra points aren't a factor?

Eastbay1K

I have to say that the Imperial was a quite nice place. The upgraded suite was beautiful with a really opulent bathroom - the main restaurant was closed in late July, so I can't give you any good/bad/indifferent on that. Location-wise, either is great.