I landed in Vienna to an overcast sky, a freezing cold terminal, and a squeaky clean airport. No joke, the Vienna airport, or from what I saw of it, looked beautiful and super high tech and clean. There was a classy white bar in the middle, where ladies were drinking champagne and there were some awesome neon green and blue lights decorating the tables around it.
Beware there are some very nice shops in the Vienna airport, available for you right off the plane. I’m not going to lie, after landing and feeling the chilled Vienna air and seeing the rainy forecast, I did take some time to look at warmer jackets in the terminal ha.
After I got my bag I made my way out of baggage claim into a busy area with more shops and lots of signs. Immediately I got the impression that Austrian people are not that friendly. I asked two people for directions to the metro and help. The first said hold on and walked away and came back and ignored me. The other person pointed to a sign and said ‘go there’. I finally found the information booth and asked for help there. He handed me a sign and said ‘go down’. I knew I needed to catch an airport tram from the airport to the city center and metro center. I will warn you, the Vienna airport is not very tourist friendly. It was quite daunting not knowing what any of the signs meant and not being able to understand anything! Even the people I asked for help barley understood or spoke english.
So, once I’m down under at the train area, I couldn’t figure out how to work the machines. Note: When you land in Vienna, be sure to buy a ticket for the CAT Train. It’s a blue/green ticket machine and it goes directly, nonstop, to Vienna’s center, where you can then change trains and get to where you need to be. It’s about 15 minutes direct. It does cost about 12 euros. It’s well worth it though! Personally, I could not figure out the other metro train lines and could not decipher which was where and which. It’s not your normal metro! I was bewildered and walked around in circles trying to find my way. There is no help down there, so it’s up to you to know where to go and get there!!
I advise, when you come to Vienna, to know where your destination is. Ask your hotel or hostal how to get to the location best. Hopefully, they can tell you to take the CAT train, then which metro lines to connect to next. You will want to know your way because many people, I found, in Austria don’t understand English. In the airport, you may be out of luck!
I arrived in Vienna, panicked about the weather, annoyed with the lack of service, and quite astonished at how nothing was in English. For me, it was like a whole new world, and now I really had no idea where I was or how to communicate. I was at ease once I made it to my hotel destination and was able to put my bags down and check out the Vienna map to see what was next!