JerseyJoe

After spending a week or so in the "hinterland" of Slovakia visiting MrsJJ parents ancestral home, I'd like to give her a "second honeymoon'" with a long weekend in Vienna. We are considering the Grand Hotel Wein, Hotel im Palais Schwarzenberg (although the rates might make this a one night stand) and Hotel Imperial. Would staying at a slightly lower rated hotel such as the Hotel Intercontinental, Hotel Astor or the Radisson/SAS Palais Hotel and paying for a junior suite be a better deal than a standard room at the top hotels?
Any experiences either way? Thanks for the help.

Raffles

The InterCon is bog-standard concrete block with bog-standard shoe-box shape rooms, albeit relatively pleasant none the less as long as you get one overlooking the park. Not really honeymoon material, though. The Imperial is (by all account) an amazingly over-the-top riot with surprisingly good food and service - I'd go for it!

yep

Grand Hotel, Palais Schwarzenberg and Imperial are all impressive hotels with an 18th century "heavy" decor. If you can stand to furnishings from all the King&Queens&Princesses movies of 1950 it would be ok. But I got blind after 15 minutes in such a suite

A good and modern 5* hotel is the Starwood LeMeridien Vienna which has a great location on the Rings (across from the opera). The hotel is approx two years old and situated in a classic building (torn down and rebuilt), they have very contemporary rooms and suites (with Hermes amenities ).

yep

livefromtuscany

Another honeymoon-worthy place to stay is the Palais Coburg (www.coburg.at) - siutated in a newly renovated old palace, very individual rooms (from historic to modern loft style), one of the top 3 rated restaurants in Vienna and a nice spa area with indoor pool. Great location and ambience, would be my choice for a second honeymoon.

number_6

In addition to the excellent advice previously on this thread, keep in mind that the older (historic) hotels all have a few rooms that are very cheap and very small/disappointing. Very cheap in this context means circa USD 300 per night, but those rooms are not like the rest of the hotel, and the regular rooms (which would be double that price) are much nicer. These "cheap" rooms are a legacy of a different era (they were servants quarters when people traveled with their own valet/maid). The Imperial has some amazing suites, which can easily hold 50 of your closest friends -- simply huge. My favourite suite at the Imperial has 2 classic chandeliers ... in the bathroom. The bathroom is at least 600 square feet and includes tub, shower and a swimming pool (or rather a roman bath that holds 10 comfortably). I've seen houses in Austria smaller than the bathrooms at the Imperial (but these suites are expensive, even in the off-season, and unobtainable at any price in high season, such as NYE).

luxury

If the OP is interested in the Imperial or Bristol (or the Le Meridien for that matter) there is extensive discussion of these hotels in the Starwood forum.

I have stayed at both the Imperial and Bristol and I enjoyed both my stays. I give the Bristol a slight edge, but that's probably because we were upgraded on a redemtion stay to the Prince of Wales Suite.....

Kagehitokiri

I highly recommend staying at a Starwood. Call ahead and explain the situation, and they'll probably give you a great upgrade for free.

SPG status / AMEX are pluses, but I've heard great things, even from those with no status. (regarding upgrades etc)

SPG forums have a lot of info on the different properties.

jsturm

Dear JJ

if you like Austrien wines (there is a lot to be discovered) you may want to check a little hidden hotel close to the Vienna City Hall; "Wein and Design Hotel" in Lange Gasse has named all of its well designed rooms to an Austrian wine maker and therefore offers a remarkable selection of wines in each room.

Sure, this is not the Imperial, nor the France, nor the Sacher - but it is definately something very special and recommendable.