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Working Remotely in Vienna, Austria as a Digital Nomad and Freelance Memoir Ghostwriter

As part of my job as a freelance memoir ghostwriter, I was recently flown out to Vienna, Austria by my client as part of the book writing and researching process. Glamorous? You bet. It’s one of the reasons why I love my work, and why I also teach other writers how to kickstart their own freelancing careers

While I can’t discuss any of the work I did for my client, I can talk about the days I spent as a solo traveler exploring the city of Vienna and my recommendations for what to eat, where to stay, and what to do in Vienna, Austria for digital nomads, remote workers, and other travelers coming to visit this gem of a European city.

How to Get to the Vienna City Center from the Vienna Airport (VIE)

There are two trains that go from the airport to the city center: the City Airport Train — also known as the CAT — and the cheaper local train. Just take the local train, and buy your tickets using the red kiosks. If you get lost (like I did) just follow the mass crowd of locals walking to the train with their suitcases and you’ll know you’re headed to the right train. 

There’s nothing wrong with the City Airport Train, but it’s just unnecessarily more expensive for the exact same service. 

Where to Stay in Vienna, Austria for Digital Nomads and Remote Workers

I stayed in this stunning apartment* with a nice private balcony, huge skylights, and modern fixtures and wood floors. I loved spending time here resting and relaxing in between meetings and adventuring around the city. I highly recommend this apartment because it’s cheaper than a lot of the hotel rooms in the city, and you get way more space. It’s just so peaceful and cozy — and perfect if you’re a digital nomad looking for a nice place to live and work!

Location-wise, this apartment was right next to a tram stop and was only a ten-minute walk from the train station (that goes right to the airport) and it was about a 10 or 20-minute walk to some great restaurants.

What to Do in Vienna, Austria for Digital Nomads and Remote Workers

Most people who come to Vienna go see an opera or a show at the Spanish Riding School. Or, they may go to the Belvedere Castle. 

Personally, I’m a bit burned out on castles and churches (my fellow digital nomads understand!) and I don’t love the opera. If I had more time here, I probably would have gone to some of the art galleries, however — these looked cool, but I simply didn’t have time to get lost in the art.

But if you only have one full day of sightseeing in Vienna, I recommend doing these two tours back-to-back:

1. Hidden Gems of Vienna, Photography Session and City Tour. This tour is nice to do first thing in the morning (as early as you can wake up!) to avoid crowds. Mustafa, the photographer/guide who runs this tour, is great at helping you pose and has quite an eye for great lighting (as you can tell from the photos on this blog post!) The “walking tour” component of this photoshoot also gives you a speed run through the city’s history, and is a good primer for your next tour. Consider getting brunch at Erich after this tour.

2. Best of Vienna Walking Tour. It’s rare to have a great tour guide with a sense of humor and an appreciation for a city’s history, but this tour checks all the boxes. While it did cross over a few spots from the photoshoot walking tour, this is a much more in-depth historical tour that spans huge swaths of the old town city center. 

Beyond these activities and grabbing some good food, there wasn’t much else that jumped to the top of my radar. To be fair, I was only in Vienna for a week, which is much shorter than my usual trips of 2-4 weeks that I usually do as a full-time digital nomad. So it’s likely I missed quite a bit of the city. 

To be completely honest, my favorite part of Vienna was simply strolling around and admiring the architecture and gardens. Aimless wandering paired with guided walking tours felt like the best version of my time here — especially as the September weather was so nice and sunny when I visited.

What to Eat in Vienna, Austria for Digital Nomads and Remote Workers

Almost all of my favorite foodie spots ended up having men’s names, which I found funny.

While I had quite a bit of traditional Viennese food here (vegetarian schnitzel was pretty good), I still ended up gravitating to the more modern restaurants and cuisine.

Here are my favorite restaurants in Vienna: 

• For Brunch: Ramasuri. This quaint brunch spot has a nice outdoor patio and a great avocado toast. Go here before you start your work for the day!

• For Brunch: Erich. I’m a sucker for a good brunch, and Erich didn’t disappoint. Their huevos rancheros really hit the spot, especially when paired with a fresh carrot and ginger juice. This spot is trendy and relaxed with great service. Highly recommend.

• For Hot Chocolate: Elias. I stumbled upon this coffeeshop while en route to a hair appointment I had booked for myself, and the art deco interior is just so cozy! Since I no longer drink caffeine, I got their hot chocolate which was not too sweet and a perfect warm treat for my morning walk. They seemed to have an extensive coffee menu with some snacks and food as well. 

• For Dinner: Pizza Randall 1020. The first night that I arrived, I had this pizza delivered using Wolt (their version of Uber Eats) and indulged in some good ol’ cheese and bread on my balcony overlooking the city. Their four-cheese pizza was sublime, and it looked like they had some interesting other concoctions, such as a fig pizza if you want a more adventurous topping option. 

There were a few places I didn’t get the chance to go to, including Cafe Kandl and Bruder. These seemed to be some of the most interesting trendy food spots, and they’re on my list for the next time I return to Vienna. 

Overall Thoughts on Vienna, Austria as a Digital Nomad

Vienna is a small city with a big focus on art and music. If you love art galleries, stunning architecture, lush parks, and ornate opera houses — Vienna should be at the top of your list. 

If you’re looking for a more traditional “modern” city, however, you may be disappointed. Vienna doesn’t feel like it’s tapped into a greater heartbeat or energy in the way that cities like NYC or London do. But Vienna is much more peaceful, which makes it an ideal place to enjoy art and long walks. This is a good place to spend some time doing self-reflection or creative projects.

After my week here, there were still some things on my list that I would be interested in doing on a return trip, but I’m not in a rush to come back. I feel similarly about Vienna that I do about Krakow: beautiful cities and parks that make for a nice lifestyle, but there’s nothing so vibrant or unique that makes me want to convince you to come here (like I felt about Madeira — one of my favorite destinations this year next to Istanbul, Kyoto, and Buenos Aires!) I think there are more dynamic and affordable cities to work remotely (like Buenos Aires and Istanbul) and the surrounding nature is nice but not as unique as places like Madeira.

So it’s worth a trip, but maybe not a destination to spend more than a week.

My Ratings of Vienna, Austria as a Digital Nomad

Affordability: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. Vienna is by no means a cheap city, but it’s not exorbitantly priced, either. I feel like things could have been about 10-20% cheaper as some of the restaurants felt a bit overpriced, but otherwise Vienna is your typical European city when it comes to the cost of things.

Food Quality: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. I thought the food was pretty solid here with some standout dishes. I wasn’t particularly blown away by anything, but that could be because I wasn’t here long enough to try all of the restaurants on my list. 

Vegetarian Options: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. Most of the restaurants I visited had vegetarian options — even the ones further out from the city center! This is a stark difference from places like Seoul that would laugh in your face if you asked for a vegetarian dish. So it’s an accessible city, but I don’t know if I’d classify Vienna as a vegetarian food hotspot, either. 

Adventures/Day Trips: ⭐️ 1/5 stars. I may have missed something because of my short trip, but it didn’t appear like there were many huge day trips and tourist attractions — especially not on the scale from what I’ve experienced in places like Peru. 

Cafes/Co-Working Space Availability: ⭐️⭐️ 2/5 stars. When I was doing my research on what coffeeshops were laptop friendly, I found a few places that looked cozy. But when I was walking around, I didn’t see a density of cafes and coffeeshops nearly on the level of cities like Seoul or Buenos Aires, the gold standard of amazing cafes and co-working spaces in my mind. Some of the more famous cafes here have lines along the block, and are more sit-down cafe affairs compared to casual coffeeshops that I love. I think there just isn’t enough of a demand for these types of places in Vienna because there aren’t a ton of remote workers. 

Digital Nomad-Friendly: ⭐️⭐️ 2/5 stars. Austria is not the easiest place to navigate in Europe: the train station attendants pointed me in the wrong direction at the airport, fewer people speak English compared to the other places in Europe I’ve been, and the public transportation is not as user-friendly as it could be. However, it’s also not unmanageable: with a bit of Google Translate and Internet article help, you can figure out where to go and what to do. 

Value of Accommodations for Remote Workers: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. My Airbnb was very nice and spacious — and still cheaper than fancy hotels in the city. For longer term stays I imagine you could get a better deal, but overall I’m not sure if you get the value of what you pay for here. There’s just not enough to do here as a digital nomad, so if you’re not coming to Vienna with a specific purpose (i.e. a work trip) I don’t know if it’s worth it. I found more cultural richness and high-quality food and experiences in cities like Istanbul, which is why Vienna isn’t claiming the top spot on my destination list anytime soon.

General Weather: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. I caught a few good days of weather in Vienna, but it was a bit gloomy and rainy. Recently they’ve been having some flooding problems, but otherwise the weather is pretty solid here.

Air Quality: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. Overall, Vienna’s air quality is pretty good, and it helps that there are a ton of lush green parks and walkways in the city.

Water Quality: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 stars. Vienna’s water comes straight from the countryside, and is among some of the best tap water in the world. It comes cold and crisp out of the tap, and tasted almost as good as Bariloche’s glacier water. 

Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. Listen, Vienna is a beautiful city. There’s an abundance of stunning architecture, parks, and museums. However, I think there are more interesting places to work remotely from for long periods of time. But just because Vienna doesn’t have the “wow” factor I’m so picky with these days doesn’t diminish its good qualities. It’s worth a visit — just maybe a shorter stay.

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