Welcome to Backpacker’s Boutique. Every Sunday, this spot will feature a new travel blogger. Some weeks it will be a really fun interview about packing, fashion, and fitness so you can snoop inside their bags & lives a little bit and other weeks it’ll be a detailed luxury guide to a city the featured blogger/expat knows very well. E-mail me if you’d like to be featured.

A Luxury Guide to Vienna

Tell us a little about  yourself and tell us why you’re an expert on luxury travel in Vienna.

I’m an Australian traveller-turned-expat who’s been living in Vienna for 3 years now. I love discovering the hidden nooks the city has to offer. Over time I’ve developed a taste for the finer things – my Austrian partner has 5-star habits, so has made it a mission over the last few years to convert me from a budget backpacker traveller into a discerning luxury lover. So far he’s succeeding! I write about the places we discover at Austrian Adaptation and love sharing insider tips with visitors to Vienna.

Enjoying Austrian outfits, wine and sunset views at a Heuringer!

What makes Vienna a perfect destination for travelers seeking a glamorous trip?

Vienna is one of the original ‘glamour cities’ of Europe. Historically it was home to royalty for centuries and even now it has an understated elegance and luxurious lifestyle. The most luxurious thing about the city is not the architecture, or the classical music, or the cuisine (although they are all fab!) but the calm, quiet atmosphere. Walking the city centre of Vienna you never feel rushed, or surrounded by crowds. It’s truly luxurious because it moves at its own, relaxed pace. There’s also so much to choose from – art, museums, fantastic outdoor activities, historic sightseeing….you cannot get bored here.

What 5 star hotel is the best in Vienna?

The Grand Dame of luxury hotels in Vienna is the Hotel Imperial. With original architecture from 1863, this is the ultimate in 5 star luxury. Butler service and views across the Ringstrasse included. This is the kind of place diplomats, Queen Elizabeth II and Brangelina stay in when they visit Vienna. Extremely traditional and a good option if you want to experience life like a European Monarch on your visit! For more info on where to stay in Vienna, click there.

What about boutique hotels in Vienna, of them all, which would you send your friends or family to stay at?

The boutique hotels in Vienna are, to my mind, much more interesting than the traditional classic hotels. The best of them is the Hotel Altstadt which offers suites, single rooms and apartments designed by famous architect Mattheo Tun and local fashion designer Lena Hocheck. This place is in the über-cool 7th district, housed within a Viennese apartment block just a short walk from the Museums Quartier. The Altstadt has individually designed rooms, with works by  Niki de Saint Phalle, Annie Leibovitz and Andy Warhol scattered throughout. Its an art-design boutique hotel dream! I would recommend this to everyone to get a real feeling of artistic Vienna.

Are there any fun activities in Vienna for the adventurous traveler?

The Viennese are all about getting outdoors – there’s fantastic cycling paths, hiking trails in the national parks surrounding the city and loads of city parks and gardens to burn your energy. The best place to head in summer for adventure activities is the Donau Insel – you can go rock climbing, kayaking, try wakeboarding on a cable across the Danube, hire a Stand Up Paddleboard, cycle the length of the island and even go retro and try in-line skating.  Afterwards there’s some great bars along the canal to wind down and watch the sunset.

Chilling beside the Danube

Where are the best hang outs during the day?

The cafe culture in Vienna is ingrained in the cities identity. You can spend hours in coffee houses where Einstein, Freud and famous artists of the 20th century hung out. Cafe Hawelka and Cafe Central are two of the best traditional coffee houses. For non-traditional, head to Zamm, Wirr or Liebling, the cities best third-wave coffee hipster cafe’s.

Traditional Cafe Hawelka – philosophers hangout spot

Let’s talk desserts- what place makes the best desserts in Vienna?

Vienna is a dessert obsessed city. I definitely put on about 5kg’s in my first months of living here, and I blame it entirely on the dessert options! Vienna is the birthplace of apple strudel and Sacher Torte, so you are never going to be short of choices here. The best traditional dessert experience is in Cafe Demel. They have been making pastries and chocolates for the Viennese since 1786 – and for centuries were the official bakers of the royal family. The mini-cakes are to die for and especially good if you can’t make up your mind!

Tell us all the hot shopping spots in Vienna; who’s carrying the trendy local designers?

The Golden Quartier in Vienna’s 1st district is home to all the major international designers – Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Yves St Laurent and major luxury labels. But if you want more local luxury designers you are better off heading to the grittier 4th district. There you’ll find Mäannersache, an Austrian cravat & shirt designer for men that sources and produces all products locally. Their classy and colourful shirts are not for shy guys. If you’re a luxury vintage fan Flo Vintage has a lovingly curated collection from the last 100 years of fashion. Wall in the 7th district offers the best in local and European designers – it’s especially good for leather jackets and accessories for the home.

Wall in the 7th District

Time for a great sunset view… where would you go?

Head for the hills and sit in a local ‘Heuriger’. These are little wineries that offer small tasting plates and delicious, locally made wine. There’s some gorgeous Heurigers with views looking over the city of Vienna and the Danube which are perfect for sunset views. My personal favourite is a tiny little hut on Wilhelminenberg – Heuriger Leitner offers killer views, and the best home-made desserts in all of Vienna. Their meals are excellent value and it is so small you can be guaranteed an exclusive view over the city.

Now that the sun’s gone down, fill us on the best places to go for some evening drinks.

There’s some excellent cocktail bars throughout the city but the absolute best is The Sign in the 9th district. They have award winning mixologists and make creative cocktails in a classy lounge setting. From sweet fairy-floss encased drinks, to concoctions in popcorn containers and the best damn martini’s in the city, you’ll plan on starting the night here, and probably end up accidently staying all night! I love this place for the atmosphere and surprising combinations in a really smooth setting – always good for a glamorous girls night out.

Read on: Travel Guide to Austria — there’s so much more to see after Vienna!

Carly Hulls writes at Austrian Adaptation about her expat life in Vienna and the places she discovers on her part-time travels. She is an Australian writer, traveller, brunch-fiend and book-nerd who can’t resist a good castle or historic monument. After 5 years travelling to over 34 countries she currently calls Vienna home, facing the daily struggle of the German language! You can follow her adventures on Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat @CarlyHulls.

The post Luxury Guide to Vienna appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

After two weeks in London, Tonbridge, and Tunbridge Wells, we were off to Vienna to see Ben’s dad and his partner Olympia. They live 20 minutes outside Vienna in Achau. His dad has been there for almost 20 years and Ben actually went to school in Vienna as a kid.

His dad was nice enough to show us around Vienna (where I’ve been before, but not really experienced) and around his home’s surrounding villages: Schloss Laxenburg, Mödling, Gumpoldskirchen, and Baden. It’s hard to believe there were so many cute places to see just within 20 minutes of such a big European city and all of these would make easy day trips from Vienna.

Schloss Laxenburg

The first place we went to was Schloss Laxenburg with means Laxenburg Castle. These palaces were the summer homes of the Habsburg dynasty. Now it’s a park & event complex where people have weddings. The park was gorgeous and Ben’s dad explained a lot of what we saw, like holes in the ground that were for ice storage for the royalty back in the day.

He also showed us how they replicated random architecture. The ponds and “moats” were all made back in 1800 but are literally perfectly done. They knew what they were doing!

You can connect with them here: Schloss Laxenburg Betriebsgesellschaft m.b.H., Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg & on their website. There is an entrance fee.

Mödling, Gumpoldskirchen, and Baden

We saw all of these in the same day and I really enjoyed exploring the villages more than Vienna itself and totally recommend taking the train out. You can take the train to Achau for sure, but I imagine these bigger towns have train stations too (although didn’t check). Gumpoldskirchen was mostly a wine town which beautiful vineyards all over the hills.

There were tiny cafes all over the place, pubs, and stunning old churches. We had a “Schinken–Käse-Toast” which is a toasted ham and cheese and is apparently very famous there, like the schnitzel!

His dad also made us a killer Irish stew at the end of the night – YUM!

Loved this little old hat shop. All the shops were adorable. I didn’t have time to shop but it didn’t matter because although cute, most of the things weren’t practical for me since it was cold weather clothes and we live in South India!

This is a shot from the vineyards, but no I didn’t try the wine. I did however try a LOT of beer! One of the common beers there is called Stiegl. It’s brewed “strictly in accordance with the Bavarian purity law of 1516” and it must have been since I didn’t have a hangover after.

We did go into Vienna two days. The first time into town we had lunch at the famous Sperl (Restaurant Sperl Karolinengasse 13, 1040 Vienna). We had a mixture of schnitzel and cordon blue. It was sooo good! Of course because I’m a fatty, I got the tomato soup too which was slurpable for sure.

Later, we boozed it up at Flanagan’s Irish Pub and had a bunch of imported ciders. We also stopped at a couple of cafes: Cafe Pruckl & Cafe Mozart (really famous & expensive)

The photo above is a holocaust memorial of books facing backwards, symbolized their inaccessibility. 65,000 Austrian Jews were killed. It is smack dab in the middle of the square, with cafes and shops all around it so that people see it every day and never forget!

Ben’s dad gave us a mini history lesson. Was great to actually learn about Vienna since last time I was there, almost 7 years ago, I just wandered aimlessly. I wish we had more time to explore, but we only had 4 days in Austria. We’ll be back though!

The post 4 Day Trips from Vienna to Cute Villages appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

Western europe was the first trip I took abroad. I was so new to travel I didn’t think of it as Western Europe because I was completely unfamiliar with the East. It was just Europe! I’ve put together a sample Western Europe Itinerary that could be done over the course of 1-2 months, or of course longer if you want to travel slower.

This is the route I took my first time abroad. It’s not perfect; I missed some cool places but I did hit the popular “highlights”. I’ve written about each place already but thought it would be helpful to see it all in one post.

In order to travel this route, it was all by train, metro, and local bus once. I actually never had to take a cab. Okay, there was also some hitchhiking. I bought a Eurail pass & did have to make reservations in the popular cities. I visited during summer. Each city has a link to a blog post written about it with tips.

Before you start planning your Western Europe itinerary, make sure you…

1. Find a cheap flight on using my tips.
2. Get travel insurance with World Nomads. Here’s a comparison of plans and price calculator.
3. You can usually stay just 90 days as a tourist.

Backpacking Western Europe Sample Itinerary

Sample Western Europe Itinerary

1. London, UK. A staple in any itinerary to Europe, London has so much to see that you’ll NEED at least 3 days but could of course spend more time here. Your feet will hurt after all the sightseeing but from Big Ben to the London Eye and Westminster Abbey, it’s pretty dreamy. I see people walking to and from work past such amazing architecture and think maybe I could do a 9-5 if it was in London. Here are some Luxury tips for London and here’s a guide for a revisit to London.

2. Paris, France. Of course you should spend a couple of days in Paris. Beware it’s a little hard on the budget. Before the movie “Taken” came out, we were in a train station in Paris trying to think of where to spend the night when a cute young Parisian guy noticed we were lost and offered us his home. It was awesome and we saw Paris with him over the next few days. Sometimes travel is about taking risks, and this one paid off!

3. Zurich, Switzerland. Certainly not my favorite place on this list, but a hub nonetheless. We were forced to go here when trying to leave Paris for Rome and realizing the train was full for two days. This is a problem sometimes in the popular summer months. We showed up the day of the Summer Parade and it was WILD! Again, we couchsurfed but stayed only 1 night because it wasn’t part of our itinerary.

4. Finale Ligure, Italy. We wanted to go somewhere that was on the coast, but not as expensive. I saw online this castle you can stay in Italy for 20 bucks so I emailed them right away to make a booking. It was a cute town and a great introduction to Italy. We stayed 3 days.

5. Rome, Italy. WOW! This is a city that takes some time to see (Colosseum, Vatican city) . We made a mistake of not staying long enough. It is a bit overwhelming so I suggest taking a free walking tour through your hostel. Another suggestion is stay somewhere a bit pricier if it means you’re closer to the center of town. You’ll save on transport- not only money but more importantly TIME.

6. Florence, Italy. Florence was just stunning. I’ve never forget walking the market with gelato and watching the sunsets. You’ll need to save extra with the intention of buying leather in Florence and other goodies like pashmina scarves (which are clearly fake since they are 5 usd). I stayed 3 days here.

7. Venice, Italy.  I know I should go back to Venice because I was a little worn out and didn’t really enjoy my time there. I feel like all I saw were tourists and it was packed to the brim. People go for a reason tough: the little lanes of water and boats instead of cars. Expect high tourist priced food here that won’t be as good as other places. Stay 1 or 2 days. Here are some Venice travel tips.

8. Vienna, Austria. This was also during my “burnt out” phase and also we showed up on a Saturday night, Sunday everything was closed, and Monday we left. I’ve been back since, actually this month, and got to see a lot more. A post on that is coming soon!

9. Salzburg, Austria. The COOLEST place in Europe, maybe!? I loved Salzburg. Talk about a fairytale land. It’s incredible. We went to a beer garden first, got drunk, realized we had nowhere to stay, and crashed with new friends we made at the cutest little Austrian farm-house. Unreal little town! Stay a couple of days at least. The museums and fortress are really cool. A little peak into the magic of Salzburg’s fortress.

10. Interlaken, Switzerland. If you’re traveling solo, this is a town you’re sure to meet some people. There are two popular hostels and lots of youngsters hanging out for extended amounts of time. Hang-glide, paraglide, sky dive, ice climb, rock climb, kayak, or canyon; this is the epitome of adventure in Europe. Situated between two glacier lakes, with the Swiss Alps in the background, it’s the most beautiful place I’ve seen. Stay 4 days or more so you can do more activities and budget for them. Read more; Guide to Interlaken and Canyoning Interlaken.

11. Berlin, Germany. Berlin is the “cool” city of Europe. It’s trendy, fashionable, has great clubs and bars, and has some very open-minded people. Overall, I never hear travelers say a bad thing about Berlin. I think it was a bit cliquey and many cool places are hush-hush, so Couchsurfing and meeting locals is imperative here. I also LOVED the free walking tour of Berlin and learned a lot.

12. Amsterdam, Netherlands. Amsterdam is full of history, but it’s also full of “coffee shops” and you’ll need to make a bit of an itinerary so that you can be sure to see what’s there. I was 19 and did not see all that I should have. Walking the streets and seeing the lifestyle and everyone riding around on bicycles is adorable so even if you did nothing, you’d see a cool scene.

13. Delft, Den Haag, Maastricht. I’m putting all this together because they’re all very small towns in Holland. I changed my flight and stayed solo when my travel buddy went home and Couchsurfed to these towns. They were very cute and fun. I recommend seeing one country a little more in-depth and I chose Holland (because it seemed safe). Couchsurfing Holland was ideal because I had a host and I really got to see the towns the way locals do. Delft was my favorite.

A few extras…

You’ll have noticed I missed biggies like Ireland and Spain. They usually require flights which I couldn’t afford, so I waited and hit these up on my next trip to Europe, before I traveled onward to Eastern Europe. I don’t want to write about Ireland and Spain in my “Eastern Europe” post as it’ll confuse people, so will mention them here, now.

• If you have the budget, add Dublin to the top of this list, and head to Spain after France, before Italy.

Dublin, Ireland. One of the many places that I wish I’d had more time in- but not in Dublin. Two days were enough in Dublin, but I wanted a week to see the countryside (a week which I didn’t have). I did take a train out and see a bit, but it’s truly gorgeous so don’t spend too much time in Dublin downing Guinness. 7 Travel Tips for Dublin.

Madrid, Spain. Madrid was culturally impressive but for me, a little boring. Many people argue about which is better: Madrid or Barcelona? But I think they are so different you can’t really compare. Madrid seemed more old-fashioned to me. Tips on backpacking Madrid.

my couchsurfing hosts in Madrid who showed us everything!

Barcelona, Spain. The party place! I had a BLAST in Barcelona, even though I got pickpocketed and had to call my couchsurfing host from jail. Eating delicious food, downing sangria, checking out amazing art like Park Guell, and enjoying the incredible nightlife. Nowhere has such life in it like Barcelona.

Valencia, Spain. Valencia was much more chilled out, kind of like a typical beach town- but old school. I really enjoyed my time here although didn’t stay in “Old Town” as we should have. The beach was stunning and we had a blast at the bars. I did find the buses hard to navigate mainly because of language barriers. Tips for Visiting Valencia.

Read next | sample itinerary for Eastern Europe

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There are more reasons to go to Salzburg than for the Hohensalzburg fortress. It felt like a crime to go to Salzburg having never seen the Sound of Music. Just 3 hours by train from Vienna, this little town in Austria was like a fairytale. Horses outside a castle or more accurately; a fortress, couples taking carriage rides around town, and perfect cobblestone streets.

Don’t worry they don’t use a crimper on the horses, they braid their hair :)

The whole picturesque town was engulfed by massive mountains, a pristine turquoise river, baby blue sky, and open areas of luscious green lawns.  Little houses looked like dotted lines from up above the town.

Views from Hohensalzburg Fortress, how perfect is that?

The Sound Of Music

Although a tourist hot spot partially because of its quaint beauty, but also because of The Sound of Music being filmed here, it didn’t feel as touristy as the places I’d been to in Western Europe.  It felt like an escape. It wasn’t a planned stop. Someone told us in Vienna we shouldn’t miss this town, so we went without doing any research. It was a welcome surprise.

Being so small a town, all our options on hostelworld (within our price range) were booked. But, absolutely nothing could ruin the magic of Salzburg. Suddenly we felt like little kids again. It was peaceful and everyone were so welcoming, we didn’t care we had nowhere to stay. Something about Salzburg makes you believe everything will work out.

We paid the 8 Euro and wondered around the Hohensalzburg fortress for over 4 hours. I usually never spend this long in a museum. You can get up to the top by trolley or walking. To help keep our budget and our asses tight we chose walking. The museum inside is full of weapons, armor, torture equipment, marionettes, and loads of history. Audio tours are available, and I actually liked this one! Typically I don’t take the audio option.

(creepy) marionettes, armour and weapons

Exhausted from all the learning, and because all the shops (aka Louis Vuitton, as if I could shop there…) close up around 7 PM, we surveyed the street food and got what seemed like the only option: bratwurst with sauerkraut. Seriously, thank you Austria. So much better than the Doner Kebab I ate everywhere else- although those aren’t too bad either. We went to a gorgeous beer garden, and sipped on strong dark beer with some people we met there.

Eventually, it started pouring with rain. It was time to leave and we realized our pseudo plan of sleeping in the park was ruined by the storm. Luckily, the new friends offered us a room at their Aunt’s house. She lived in the cutest little place at the base of the mountain, with adorable goats in her backyard. Unreal, and so much better than a hostel!

I really think some of the best times happen when you just get off track, don’t worry about money or where you’re sleeping, and have no plans. It’s the best to travel with zero expectations. We didn’t know a thing about Salzburg, therefore didn’t know what we should see and do. Because we let go of our worries, the universe rewarded us with an amazing day and nice safe place to sleep. Had we shown up, realized we had nowhere to stay, and fretted about that for hours… we would have never got the experience we did. It’s also nice to not worry about “wasting time”, so the longer your trip the more at ease you will feel when things go differently than planned. I hope everyone backpacking Europe adds Salzburg to his or her list!

Thanks for reading, and as always, remember to subscribe!

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