Driving to Vienna from Munich

Hello!!
Just wanted to see if anyone has driven from Munich to Vienna and has any tips or observations for the trip??! May be know of any hotels on a budget?? How long would you say the trip takes?
Really appriciate any advice! THANKS!

Done it often enough to be sick of that stretch of road
Clearly it depends on how fast you drive and when you are driving. On average (with decent traffic) I'd allow about 4 hours.

I've done it a couple of times, and its taken anround 4 to 4.5 hours. Its quite a boring drive, but late evening, its not too bad.

Although in Germany there are a lot of stretches of motoway that does not have speed limits, remember (unlike me) Austria does have speed limits. I managed the drive in 3 and half hours, but well very lucky nobody pulled me over in Austria.

There was a story circulating at work about an American visitor who came over for a few weeks on business and rented a car at the weekends to do a bit of sight seeing. He arrived at work one Monday talking about his trip to Vienna, claiming a journey time substantially lower than 4 hours, and saying how much he liked the 'no speed limits' travelling. It appears the minor point about crossing a border, with its associated change in motoring rules, had completely escaped his notice. Could have been a very expensive learning experience.

Don't know if it's true but...

Have done that trip many many times. Best time was about 3hrs45mins (in GP) and worst time was just over 11hrs.

Mondsee is a nice stop-off point.



Mondsee Panorama

Also thinking of making a trip to Vienna 2 weeks from now. Does anyone have any good hotel recommendations for a 2 night stay?

We always stay in the Hotel Atlanta on Wahringerstr. Nice little place very close to Schottentor and directly above a bar called Shooters. Great little spot to start off any evening. The hotel is about a 15-20 minute stroll from Stephansplatz.

Hotel Atlanta
Währingerstr 33
A-1090

+43 1 4051230

Thanks, keydeck. I checked out their website and it looks like an interesting place. How's that bar downstairs, is it good to spend the evening? Any chance a baby would be OK in there or is it smoky? Would be nice to have a few drinks and not have to go far to get home.

Shooters is not too smokey. They have a downstairs section which can get bad but upstairs is usually fine. I'm a smoker myself but always notice that kinda thing. The owners are Albanian as are some of the staff and are very friendly. To be honest I've never seen kids in there but then I generally only have a few beers between about 7 and 9 and then maybe one if I get back in time. Just down the road you also have Charlie P's Irish pub which is a very good spot. Again I can't really vouch for its child-friendliness. If you're concerned about the smoking thing be aware that Vienna is (in my opinion) substantially more smokey than Munich. Having said that, I do believe it is changing and things are quite different to when I lived there in 98. Since then I've probably been back about twice to three times per year.

Just a small tip to add:
In general, if you want to know how long will you need to drive from A to B, use a route planner.
There are lots of them on the internet, I like map24.
So far it was always about right (for me) with the time estimate.

There were some pretty major roadworks going on when I drove there in january , might still be on.

Looking at the map, it looks like they share exactly the same latitude, or pretty close, certainly they overlap, they are big cities.

Any other good places to stop off halfway?...thinking of driving over early tm morning

not quite half way but Salzburg and maybe Melk (about 1 or 1.5 hrs from Vienna)

Dont forget, in Austria you will need to stop off before or just over the boarder to get yourself a Road Tax Sticker (vignette) to stick on your windscreen.

The Fine for not having this vignette when controlled is €120. It costs around €10-€12 for 10 days. 2 Month and Annual Vignettes are also available.

You can buy them at petrol stations up to 20km from the border in germany, or at the border crossing. Look out for Mautstelle/Vignette Verkaufstelle.

Speed limit on the autobahnen in Austria is 130kmph by the way, but in many places its restricted to 80 or 100 due to the aforementioned road works.

sorry, my bad. its something like €7.60 - €7.80 for a 10 day vignette.

make sure that the vignette is stamped properly. (they punch out the month and day of purchase) it happened to me once that they sold me an old vignette (3 days old) and didnt notice until a couple of hundred Kilometers down the road. could have been a mistake. meh, just check it.

In fact, it's normally limited to 100 due to environmental rules.. once the sensors find that the air has become too bad, they drop it down..

All tunnels in Austria - 100kph. No excuses.

I prefer the train which takes almost 6 hr. No petrol, no vignette, no parking headaches. Parking is expensive in town. Deutshe Bahn has pretty good offers if going on the cheap. If not, my favorite hotel is König von Ungarn. Normally quiet lobby bar and excellent breakfast. In the middle of everything yet very quiet.

FF

The fastest train from Munich to Vienna takes just over four hours. Other services typically take a little over five hours. If you want a full day in Vienna without paying for accommodation, you can also go by night train. Prices on all trains start at €29 one way.

If you are driving and want to make a day of it, visit Melk and from there leave the motorway behind and drive alongside the Danube. The Wachau region is a World Heritage Site, with castles, pretty towns, vineyards etc. Highly recommended. You're still heading towards Vienna, but taking the route used for the 6,000 years before the motorway was built.


Melk Abbey