Hip Apartments in Vienna You'll Want to Call Home

For business travellers favouring rail, these apartments are a no-brainer: super-conveniently located by Vienna’s main station. Interiors-wise, they’re designed to make you feel instantly, fashionably at home: check the on-trend open-plan layout, the hip dark-grey palette with hot-mustard accents, smart kitchenettes and the snug curtained-off beds. Guests can socialise in the industrial lobby with its coffee bar, and you’re a quick walk from the historic heart.

Vienna’s 6th district is abuzz with shops (stroll the backstreets off Mariahilfer Straße) and bohemian cafes (try well-worn Café Kafka). These simply-styled apartments with cool kitchens, 12 minutes on foot from the Westbahnhof train station, make the perfect base. They’re easy on the eye, bathed in cool creams with pops of bright orange; for panoramic views book a suite with a balcony. There’s a lounge downstairs with drinks and snacks, but you’ll be near the stalls of the vast Naschmarkt for fresh produce to cook up at home.

Not aimed primarily at gritty-city hipsters, PhilsPlace is a good 5km (3mi) south of the centre, in a modernist building on long and leafy Triester Straße. But business travellers love it for the comfort levels: luxury, pale interiors with heated oak flooring (Vienna gets icy-cold in winter), as well as soft robes to slip into after your rainfall shower. There’s a fitness centre and a restaurant for a healthy continental breakfast (if you don’t overdo the pastries). Golfers, note: there’s a nine-hole course close by, at the City & Country Club Wienerberg.

Calling all first-timers to Vienna: here you can hole up in the heart of the city, a five-minute walk from St Stephen’s Cathedral and the vibrant shopping mile Kärntner Strasse. The picturesque Old Town location will beckon you out, but you’ll love coming home, too: from standard studios to a penthouse suite, the apartments radiate luxury, all cream fabrics, soft rugs and marble bathrooms. Snap sunset over the cityscape from the roof terrace; and burn off the breakfast pastries in the on-site gym.

Warm colours and parquet floors impart a homely feel without downplaying the grandeur here, in Vienna’s 1st District. The location’s a dream, 10 minutes on foot from the ornate sweep of the historic Hofburg Palace, once the Habsburg dynasty’s winter residence. With tartan curtains and parquet floors, the rooms are upbeat, and you’ve got classic Viennese coffee houses on the doorstep for breakfast, if the inhouse rolls won’t do.

First, note the top location, metres from the Stephansplatz station and St Stephen’s Cathedral. Now check out your base for the weekend (or longer): marble bathrooms, feather-soft beds, parquet flooring, kitchens with dishwashers – whether you pick an entry-level classic studio or one of the four top-end penthouses with terraces overlooking the city rooftops. There’s a supermarket nearby for your self-catering needs, and a restaurant on site for those mornings after the night before, when you want someone else to cook your bacon and eggs.

Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss is one of the main attractions in Vienna. You’ll find it, with other glittering works of his, at the Schloss Belvedere, an easy walk from these traditional apartments, set in an attractive 19th-century building. From smaller studios to grand two-bedroom spaces, they afford leafy garden views, with tiled bathrooms and well-equipped kitchens. That said, you’ll prefer the local cafes, for slices of Vienna’s sweet apfelstrudel with endless coffee. If you’re with kids – or you’re a big kid yourself – stroll to the Prater amusement park. You can ride the Ferris wheel immortalised on film by Orson Welles in the 1949 thriller The Third Man.

The clue’s in the name of these well-pressed, well-dressed serviced apartments in the city’s (somewhat so-so) 10th District – super-handy for Vienna Main station. The snug entry-level SMARTments Studios are a steal; they include a flatscreen TV, dishwasher and microwave. Double the money and you can nab an apartment, with a separate bedroom and living room. If you fancy an indulgent bathing experience, you’re close to Amalienbad, Vienna’s art deco indoor pool and (naked, so not for the shy) sauna.

Nicely positioned in the artist quarter, near Karlsplatz station, these apartments have bright and airy rooms with honey-hued parquet floors, seating areas for coffee mornings and sleek kitchen spaces; some have balconies for a breath of fresh air. Conveniently, since you’re likely self-catering, you’re a stone’s throw from the Naschmarkt: Vienna’s best known market, lined with colourful stalls creaking under the piles of Viennese specialities – sauerkraut, sausages and other cured meats and olives.