Vienna Layover: Westbahnhof to Mariahilfer
Part of the full Vienna Layover: 15 Minutes From VIE by Rail
Mariahilfer Straße starts at the front door of Wien Westbahnhof and runs downhill into the centre for nearly two kilometres, which makes this the one Vienna layover you can do entirely on flat pavement with a metro line under your feet the whole way.
Mariahilfer Straße, with a metro line running under it
Westbahnhof is not the station it used to be. Since the main station opened across town it has kept the services from the west, from Salzburg and Linz, while the international trains and everything airport-bound moved to Wien Hauptbahnhof. What it kept is position: it sits at the top of Mariahilfer Straße, Vienna’s biggest shopping street, and the street runs from here to the Ring.
The full length is 3.7 kilometres, of which a 1.8-kilometre stretch is pedestrianised, with more than 400 shops, cafés and restaurants along it. It falls gently downhill the whole way east, which matters more than the shopping does if you have been sitting on a train for four hours.
The genuinely useful part is underneath. A metro line follows the street and stops at Westbahnhof, Zieglergasse, Neubaugasse and Volkstheater, so this is a walk you can abandon at any point without penalty: get tired, get rained on, or misjudge the time, and there is a station within a few minutes in either direction.
Most people arriving here have come off a long-distance train rather than a plane, which means a full-size case and several hours of sitting already behind them, and a shopping street is the worst possible surface to tow one down.
The gun tower in the middle of the park
A block south of the street, in Esterhazypark, stands something that stops people mid-sentence: a windowless grey concrete block seven storeys high with gun platforms jutting out near the top.
It is a wartime anti-aircraft tower. Vienna built several, and they turned out to be effectively impossible to demolish safely in a dense city, so they simply stayed where they were. This one now houses Haus des Meeres, an aquarium and zoo running up eleven floors inside the concrete, with over 10,000 animals in it and a terrace on the roof looking out over the sixth district.
It opens daily from 9am to 8pm, last entry half an hour before, and costs 23.50 euros for an adult. On a two-hour window that is probably too much of your time. On a four-hour one it is the most unusual indoor hour available anywhere near this route.
No airport train from this side of town
The catch with starting here is the ending. Airport trains do not leave from Westbahnhof: you cross the city to Wien Hauptbahnhof on the U3 or the U6 first, and only then get the 15-minute run out to VIE.
Budget for that properly. Half an hour across town, plus a half-hourly departure interval at the far end, plus the ride, means about three hours from Westbahnhof to your gate rather than the two you might assume. If your window is tight enough that this sounds uncomfortable, the better plan is to ride straight to the main station and use the Belvedere and St. Stephen’s route, which starts where the airport train leaves from, or stay closer in with the park and museum walk at Hauptbahnhof itself.
Done with the time it needs, though, this is the least demanding few hours Vienna offers: no hills, no gravel, no queue, and a train station every four hundred metres.
Frequently asked questions
Do I walk the whole street or take the metro along it?
A metro line runs directly underneath, calling at Westbahnhof, Zieglergasse, Neubaugasse and Volkstheater, so you can walk as much of it as you feel like and ride the rest. That is the practical advantage of this route over most layover walks: you are never more than a few minutes from a station, so the plan degrades gracefully if you are slower than you expected or the weather turns.
What is the concrete tower in the park?
An anti-aircraft gun tower, built during the Second World War and far too solid to demolish afterwards, so Vienna left it standing in the middle of Esterhazypark. It now holds Haus des Meeres, an aquarium and zoo stacked over eleven floors with more than 10,000 animals. It opens daily 9am to 8pm with last entry half an hour before, and adult admission is 23.50 euros.
Is Westbahnhof or Hauptbahnhof the right station for my train?
Westbahnhof handles services from the west, so trains from Salzburg and Linz and the private operator on that corridor. Almost everything else, including the international services from Munich, Budapest and Prague and the fast trains to the airport, now uses Wien Hauptbahnhof instead. If you are heading for a flight, note that the airport trains do not leave from here: you cross the city first.
How do I get from here to the airport?
Take the U3 or U6 across to Wien Hauptbahnhof and pick up the airport train there, which is 15 minutes non-stop and runs every half hour. Allow a good half hour for the cross-city leg on top of that, and remember the connection is only as good as the interval, so budget about three hours from here to your gate rather than two.