In recent years, New Year's tourism to Europe from the countries of the former Soviet Union has become widespread. Especially big growth of tourists is observed from Ukraine, which is quite logical, considering the new visa-free regime. During three days in Vienna, we heard Ukrainian and Russian languages more than any other one, except German.
For us it was the first trip abroad during the New Year, before we always celebrated the holiday at home with the family. There are a lot of travel options: Christmas markets exist almost in any city in Europe. We chose Vienna due to fireworks.
Flights are very inexpensive. For example, we bought 6 UIA tickets to Vienna for 70 euros for a return ticket, which is comparable to the price of any low-cost airline. There is Uber in Vienna and you can call a minibus for 6 people which cost 50 euros from the airport.
Hotel prices in the center of Vienna during the New Year start from 150 euros for a double room or an apartment. Such prices are available if you book in advance. In our case we were looking for an apartment for 6 people, so there were fewer options. In the center the price is 500-600 euros per night. We found the apartment quite close to the center - Apartment Vienna ES (booking.com). The usual residential apartment which the owners periodically rent to tourists.
If your budget is smaller, then you can find a hotel / apartment on the outskirts of the city for 130 euros per night. Vienna has a good metro network, a three-day metro pass cost 17 euros per person.
You also need to decide where to have a dinner on December 31. Prices in Viennese restaurants start from 120 euros per person (advance booking). We prepared dinner ourselves and spent about 270 EUR for the food. Thus, the total three-day budget for celebrating the New Year in Vienna is about 1300 euros for 6 people.
New Year in Vienna
In Europe the main holiday is Christmas, a family holiday that is celebrated at home on the 24th of December. The New Year is just a day when people are walking on the street, having fun and watching fireworks. It is called Sylvester. Therefore, if you want to see the Christmas markets then you need to come from the end of November until the 24th of December.
On December 31 only the main market near the Town Hall with a large skating rink is left and a few more places with a small markets. But various performances and concerts are held throughout the old city.
There are not many people in the city by they all are concentrated in several places. Therefore you can walk for a while along absolutely empty city and then you will hardly be able to cross the street completely filled with tourists.
Vienna is one of the cultural capitals of Europe and during the New Year holidays many different events take place. We planned to visit the exhibitions of Bruegel and Monet, but realized that this would be impossible. Tickets online were sold out many months ago and there were queues around 200 meters near the museums! If you plan to visit something - buy tickets in advance.
During our visit, the weather was sunny and quite pleasant, so we walked around the city almost all the time. The temperature was somewhere around +8. Keep in mind that European winter weather is usually different, it is cloudy and rainy. Think in advance what you will do in this case.
Most of the streets in the city center are beautifully decorated. According to taxi drivers, some of the decorations have already been removed after the Christmas, so we did not even see them.
There are two viewpoints on the top: one is openair with an elevator, the second has a staircase. There was a line of 300 people near the elevator, so we immediately went to the stairs.
However that was also a mistake. At first everything was fine, but then it turned out that the passages were too narrow and there were too many people. 20 minutes we were waiting in the very narrow tower. There were even cases of falling and tantrums. Do not go there if you have claustrophobia!
The end point of the ascent has become the apotheosis of this disgrace. This is a small room with 4 dirty closed windows!!!
Vienna Opera. In general, dozens of balls and concerts are held throughout the city on New Year's Eve. If this is interesting to you, then check the official website of the city https://www.wien.info/en and find the schedule. The culmination of the night is the concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which is broadcast in many countries around the world.
New Year's fireworks near the Town Hall frankly disappointed. They were very low and the organizers for some reason decided to turn off the illumination of the Town Hall. We came to Vienna to see fireworks with a city symbol in the backgound and saw only black sky...
New Year's Eve in Vienna is highly recommended, especially if the weather is nice. If you want to save some money, come for two days and one night. Not taking into account the fireworks and the tower of the cathedral, everything else was very nice.
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