Your device is only as good as the electricity inside it. Or something like that. So, when it comes to charging phones or plugging in laptops, do you need an adapter for Vienna and Austria in general?
- Austria uses 2-pin Schuko sockets and plugs (see below)
- UK and US visitors, for example, need an adapter for electrical items
- The big electronics stores in Vienna (and a newsagent in airport arrivals) should sell appropriate adapters
- See also: Common visitor questions
Plugs and sockets
Austria uses Schuko / Type F sockets, as pictured below.
(A typical Austrian socket)
This is the same 2-pin system as in much of continental Europe, including Germany, Greece, Portugal, Sweden, and Spain.
These sockets take the equivalent 2-pin Schuko or Type F plug, but are also compatible with the Europlug and the CEE 7/7 plug.
(A typical Austrian plug)
All of which means visitors from the UK, for example, need an adapter to fit a 3-pin British plug to an Austrian socket.
Post-Brexit, visitors from the UK also need a special certificate from the Foreign Office granting permission to use EU electricity. (Just kidding.)
Visitors from the USA, for example, typically need a combined adapter and converter, since the standard voltage in Austria is higher than in the US (at 230 V): the standard frequency of 50 Hz is different, too.
Where can you get travel adapters in Vienna?
If you haven’t brought the appropriate adapter with you, then your accommodation may, of course, be able to lend you one.
There’s also the newsagent in the arrivals hall at Vienna airport. It sells books (also in English), international papers, and…travel adapters (at least it did when I last flew). Look for the Schmitt & Trunk signs when you exit from the baggage area.
In town, the large electronics department stores stock travel plugs, adapters and similar accessories. The two main chains are MediaMarkt and Saturn. You might find what you need in the smaller independent electronic stores, too, but I’m skeptical.