As you stumble out of the Staatsoper, emotionally exhausted by that final aria, you might like to find your hotel within walking distance. So here a few suggestions.
- Add a concert experience* to your stay
- See also:
- Accommodation in Vienna (useful articles)
- Best central hotels
At the time of writing, reviewers gave the following locations a rating of at least 8.4 at booking.com. All are within a close and easy walk of the state opera house; most are literally just over the road.
After the hotel recommendations, find a few helpful tips for enjoying the opera and locality, advice on how to reach the area, and some more options for places to stay on a map that also covers apartments.
In no particular order…
Hotel Sacher Wien
(As much a Viennese institution as a hotel)
Possibly the city’s most famous hotel. Sitting on the opposite side of the road from the rear of the Staatsoper, this traditional Viennese establishment is a one-time star of The Third Man and also home to the iconic Sachertorte cake.
I’ve spent time in one of their suites. Put it this way: you don’t need to worry about quality.
(The local chamber of commerce grades the hotel as five-star superior: one of only four locations to carry that top-end designation at the time of writing.)
If you stay there, you really ought to have coffee and cake inside. Alternatively, as a non-guest, reserve a table for Café Sacher, where queues to get in are common and often quite long.
- Philharmoniker Straße 4
- Hotel & booking details*
Living Hotel an der Oper
(Just exit and go left for the opera)
Offering rooms and serviced apartments further up Kärntner Straße (the street that passes by the opera house). It has an entrance to Karlsplatz subway station practically outside for easy access to Vienna’s excellent public transport system.
Go around the other side of the block to find Café Museum: one of Vienna’s historical coffee houses and a former haunt of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. We had a good meal once at the more down-to-earth Bier & Bierli restaurant on the same street, too.
- Kärntner Straße 44
- Hotel & booking details*
Hotel Bristol
(Jugendstil metalwork on the building’s façade)
An official five-star location right opposite the opera house; you can book rooms with a direct view of the Staatsoper.
The hotel has a fair few connections to the operatic and classical music world, given the likes of Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Mahler, Caruso, and Richard Strauss all stayed within its walls. .
Hotel Bristol first opened at the end of the 19th century. The current look dates back to the early 1910s: the external railings and style hint at the rise of modernist tendencies in the architecture of the time.
Note that the hotel remains closed during major refurbishments from early March 2025 until a (planned) reopening in time for Christmas 2027.
- Kärntner Ring 1
- Hotel & booking details*
Le Meridien Vienna
(The Le Meridien borders a small park)
If you walk from the hotel in the opposite direction to the Staatsoper, another operatic icon actually appears in the form of the Mozart monument in the Burggarten Park.
The Burg Kino almost next door to Le Meridien is one of Vienna’s English-language cinemas and probably best known for regular showings of the film perhaps most associated with Vienna: The Third Man.
For another cultural highlight, walk across the adjoining park and past the Schiller monument to visit the Gemäldegalerie of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. This “paintings gallery” holds such treasures as Hieronymus Bosch’s The Last Judgment.
- Robert-Stolz-Platz 1
- Hotel & booking details*
Hotel Astoria Wien
(The entrance sits on a side street just off the busy shopping paradise that is the pedestrianised Kärntner Straße)
This rather historic location used to be part of a 14th-century convent, though the current rooms represent a significant upgrade on the nun’s former accommodation. Especially given the extensive €15 million renovation programme that preceded the 2024 reopening of this art deco establishment.
Just behind Hotel Sacher toward the centre of Vienna’s old town. Keep going along Kärntner Straße to reach Stephansplatz square and the very heart of the city. Or try your luck in the building opposite. Literally: it’s the Casino Wien.
- Kärntner Straße 32/34
- Hotel & booking details*
O11 Boutique Hotel Vienna
(Another hotel with ornate metalwork)
A smaller location that still retains some of the Art Deco elements characteristic of the original building. Just up from the hotel is a branch of Café Aida, one of Vienna’s local confectionery chains, with famous pink branding and a name rather suitable for opera goers.
- Opernring 11
- Hotel & booking details*
The Amauris Vienna
(Opened in 2023)
Part of the Relais & Châteaux group, the luxury boutique hotel The Amauris Vienna opened in early 2023 on the site of the former The Ring property. The 2024 Gault&Millau guide to the best hotels in Austria named the hotel as its “new opening of the year.”
The biggest room is the Opera Suite, whose balcony looks out across to that very building.
Incidentally, the Amauris takes its name from a butterfly, which makes a pleasant change. That theme continues in the name of the hotel’s Glasswing Restaurant and Bistro & Bar.
- Kärntner Ring 8
- Hotel & booking details*
Hotel zur Wiener Staatsoper
(The rather elegant hotel entrance post-refurbishment)
Built in the late 19th-century and reopened in early 2024 after extensive refurbishment.
A location sandwiched between musical establishments, since the Haus der Musik (see below) is about 100m away.
- Krugerstraße 11
- Hotel & booking details*
Other hotels and apartments
I have a couple of other worthy hotels to add as soon as time permits. In the meantime, try the map below for more suggestions…Vienna’s not short of decent places to stay:
(Map provided by booking.com*, who I am an affiliate of)
(The State Opera House is marked at the centre of the map)
The local area
Surprisingly, given the topic of this article, you should find yourself close to…
The Staatsoper
(The Staatsoper at night)
Your hotel may have its own sources and suggestions for tickets, but the opera house itself will happily sell you one direct.
Immediate sales are normally possible online from two months in advance of a performance. Otherwise, you put in a prebooking request for dates that are further away. I have some advice on getting hold of inexpensive tickets here.
Another way to experience the building is through an in-house tour, which shows you places you won’t see when you attend a performance. The live guide also has plenty of intriguing stories and anecdotes.
My suggested self-guided walking tour of Vienna also starts at the Staatsoper.
Nearby
(The Musikverein with Karlskirche behind it)
A hotel near the opera house puts you at the edge of the old town and within a short walk of Stephansdom cathedral, the pedestrianised centre (with its broad historical streets and architectural delights), and Karlsplatz square with the Karlskirche church.
The opera also backs onto the Albertina art museum, home to fabulous permanent and temporary exhibitions as well as palais staterooms. And the Albertina Modern, Künstlerhaus, and Heidi Horten Collection (all with special exhibitions of modern and contemporary art) are close, too.
Given the central location, bars and restaurant are plentiful.
(Pop into Sluka for some gorgeous interior décor)
Traditional cafés and coffee houses nearby include the popular Café Sacher (mentioned above) and Café Mozart. Also consider popping down Kärntner Straße to Sluka, which has a quite wonderful Jugendstil interior to go with your cake and coffee. One of my favourites.
And if you’ve had enough of highbrow culture, the nearby Flanagans pub has plenty of screens for watching football and rugby.
Finally, two nearby alternatives for extending your musical experience are:
- House of Music: a museum of sound which also has rooms dedicated to composers claimed by the Viennese as one of their own, like Beethoven, Mozart and Mahler
- The Musikverein: a short walk from one of the world’s greatest opera houses is one of the world’s greatest classical concert venues, which the Wiener Philharmoniker call home
How to get there
Vienna is a compact city with an excellent public transport system. The Staatsoper sits next to one of the major transport hubs: Karlsplatz station has the U1, U2, and U4 subway lines, and trams 1, 2, D, 62, and 71 all stop at the Oper/Karlsplatz tram stop.
Clearly, you can get to and from the opera house very easily (and not forgetting taxis).
So if you wish to stay in a hotel elsewhere in Vienna, it should not be a problem getting to the evening performance and back again. For example, I live in an outer district and have a direct tram line that takes me door-to-door to the Staatsoper in about 25 minutes.