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City break guide: Vienna
  • As hotel concepts go, this is one we welcome with open arms; Vienna's wine and design hotel - the Rathaus - is a celebration of just that; intoxicating liquor and brilliant interior design. Independently run by the wine-loving Fleischhaker family, the hotel marries contemporary design with a connoisseur's palette for fine wine, offering special tasting courses and evenings. The wine element even extends to the breakfast table in the guise of a special wine-infused cheese.

  • Vienna's coffee and cake ritual is not one to be taken lightly - from the infamous Sacher torte to Demel's delectable artisan chocolates, the Viennese know how to put on a good spread. Cafe culture is big here - either settle down with your laptop and an espresso at the lively Das Model near the Museum Quarter, where all the furniture is for sale, or go the refined route at the Sacher coffee house.

  • Traditionalists will fall in love with Palmenhaus; sophisticated Viennese cuisine and the melt-in-your mouth pastries served in the architectural gem that is the Jugendstil glass house.

  • For vodka cocktails, the style mavens are currently propping up the bar at Drings in The Ring Hotel, but if you want to dip your toes into Vienna's young art scene then you need to be pulling up a stool at the Camera Club - where there' s an electric, low-key and genuine underground feel.

  • Design and innovation are the cornerstones of Viennese shopping. While you can pick up fancy designer goods in the Kohlmarkt area, its the gift shops around the Museum Quartier and Neubaugasse, that will offer something a bit more tantalising. Analogue fans can hang out at the original Lomography Camera Store; 20th century furniture buffs should head to Lichterloh and fans of cult European labels should look up Park for Ann Demeulemeester, Martin Margiela and Acne.

  • Bypass the lure of the horse drawn carriages for your own two legs, and walk the cobbled streets of Vienna's elegant old town, Kohlmarkt, instead.

  • As you're in their home town it would be rude not to pay a visit to Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt at the fabulous Leopald Museum in Vienna's self-contained Museum Quartier; where there's also plenty of bars and cafes to keep your energy levels topped up.

  • Brush up on your Tosca and take in a performance by the Vienna State Opera. While for those that can afford it there's plenty of decadence to be enjoyed, the fun is in joining the ruckus which gathers just before the start of each performance when the cheap seats are released.

  • Kristalltherme Bad Fischau is like a little window into 19th century Vienna; imperial cabins, manicured lawns, spring water pools and a wellness spa - this is where Vienna Society goes to do its unwinding.

  • A Vienna cliche, but one well worth embracing is organising a visit to one of the showcases given by the Spanish Riding School, who perform classical dressage in a sun-flooded 18th century palace.

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