World's Best

Travel + Leisure Readers' 5 Favorite Hotels in Vienna of 2023

Readers voted this utterly luxurious hotel as their No. 1 pick in Vienna in our annual “World’s Best Awards” survey for 2023.

By

Brad Japhe

Updated on July 13, 2023

Vienna is a city showcasing more than 2,000 years of history across its tidy promenades. It was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a hub for arts and intellectualism throughout the Renaissance. Names no less prominent than Mozart, Beethoven, and Freud have all called it home. But the Austrian capital won’t be regarded as some preserved relic of antiquity. Vienna remains a vibrant cultural destination today. For proof, you needn’t look further than its sterling stable of high-end hotels.

How Voting Works

Every year for our World's Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Nearly 165,000 T+L readers completed the 2023 survey, an increase of nearly 25 percent over pre-pandemic voting levels. A total of more than 685,000 votes were cast across over 8,500 unique properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.).

Hotels were classified as either resort hotel, city hotel, or safari lodge based on their location and amenities, and they were specifically rated on the criteria below:

Rooms/facilities
Location
Service
Food
Value

For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses.

A room at Hotel Bristol, a Luxury Collection Hotel with a balcony view of Vienna — Courtesy of The Luxury Collection

What Readers Loved

These are stately properties meant to cater to worldly travelers with discerning tastes. And many of them are housed in buildings with a sense of history all their own.

Perhaps you’ve arrived in hopes of catching a performance at the legendary Vienna Operahouse. Book a stay at The Ritz-Carlton, Vienna, our readers' No. 1 pick, or Hotel Sacher Wien (No. 4), and you’re treated to compelling artistry before you even head out for the evening. Palatial lobbies are the norm in this part of the world. Often you’ll find them appointed with antique furnishings and accents of plush red velvet, lit overhead by outsized chandeliers of opulent crystal. It’s not hard to imagine yourself in the time of Mozart here.

Yet our winners this year are informed by a decidedly modern interpretation of luxury. Hotel bars and restaurants are enhanced by global flavors and techniques; spa treatments incorporating cutting-edge modalities, heated pools, and the latest in exercise equipment. And it’s all bound comfortably within the city’s timeless sense of hospitality.

A stay at any of these reader-beloved properties grants you a portal to an impressive past and a front-row seat to a city with an exciting contemporary relevance.

The Winner

The Ritz-Carlton, Vienna

This ornate outpost in the heart of the city boasts a massive footprint. It unfurls across four historic palaces, comprising one grandiose property. Rooms are commensurately large, yet, on the whole, the hotel maintains a sense of warmth and quaintness throughout. A rooftop bar with a view, as well as the club lounge, are popular perks with guests. And so is the hotel’s positioning, with one reader describing it as a “lovely hotel in a convenient location to museum, art, and Operahouse.” Another bonus: it features the largest indoor pool in Vienna, with charm amplified by an underwater sound system piping in classical music.