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 Austria and Vienna?
- Austria uses 2-pin Schuko sockets and plugs
- UK and US visitors, for example, need an adapter
- Find appropriate adapters at:
- …the big electronics stores in Vienna
- …a newsagent in airport arrivals
- Book a walking tour* for your Vienna trip
- See also:
Plugs and sockets in Vienna
Austria uses Schuko / Type F sockets, as pictured below.
(A typical Austrian 2-pin 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 2-pin plug)
Do you need a travel adapter?
All of the above 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 import certificate from the Foreign Office granting permission to store and use EU electricity in a British device. (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?
(Find electronic outlets on the long Mariahilfer Straße shopping street)
If you haven’t brought the appropriate adapter with you, then your accommodation may, of course, be able to lend you one.
Or try the newsagent in the arrivals hall at Vienna airport. That store sells books (also in English), international papers, and…travel adapters (at least it did when I last flew).
Look for the Relay signs at arrivals, though the store location is actually almost immediately opposite where you emerge when you exit from the baggage collection & customs area.
In town, the large electronics stores stock travel plugs, adapters and similar accessories. The main chain is MediaMarkt, which has several outlets.
At the time of writing, find MediaMarkt at, for example, Wien Mitte railway station: this is where the express train from the airport arrives. Or in the Gerngross department store on Mariahilfer Straße, which is a popular street for shoppers.