Even not very big fans of shopping trips, once in the Austrian capital, are happy to indulge in this occupation. Shopping in Vienna for many turns into a fascinating trip in order to please friends and relatives with wonderful gifts and souvenirs. And all because the shopping streets and spaces of the Austrian capital are organized beautifully, well and correctly, and many of them are also examples of outstanding architecture.
Features of Vienna Shopping
Anyone who wants to bring from Austria several expensive and elegant things, a direct way to shopping in Vienna, in the corners of the “golden triangle” which appear: Cathedral of St. Stefan – Opera House – Hofburg.
Tourists and guests will find products of more democratic brands – both local Austrian and European – in stores on Mariahilferstrasse.
The large shopping centers of Vienna and its famous outlets are placed outside the city limits in the suburbs of the capital. Shopping lovers will find a lot of goodies in the large Nashmarkt city market.
Well, if you missed something, you can buy the necessary goods already when you fly home in the halls of a huge duty-free at Schwechat Airport and, thus, complete this useful and exciting activity.
Important! “Tax free Shopping.” When purchasing goods worth more than 75.01 euros by presenting the necessary documents, at the airport you can return part of its value – up to 13% VAT.
Most often, tourists bring colorful Piatnik playing cards with views of the capital’s sights on the back side and original glass balls with snow.
Manner waffles and the famous Viennese marzipan sweets Mozart Kuegel are on the obligatory list of edible souvenirs. Marzipans are packed in colorful boxes with a portrait of the composer.
Another popular sweet is candied flowers. If you believe the reviews, the most delicious are sold in the famous confectionery Bluhendes Konfekt and Demel.
The real Austrian mulled wine Gluewein closes the list of desired souvenirs – a semi-finished product for the most delicious winter alcoholic drink. Like a bottle of Mozart chocolate liquor, iced grapes riesling and Marillen Schnaps apricot moonshine, every self-respecting traveler should bring it from Vienna in at least one copy.
18 ideas on what you can bring from Austria as a gift, see on this page .
Each trading network sets their size and time on their own, but the general trends are as follows: summer sales begin around June 20 and last until the end of August, winter sales begin a week before Christmas and continue until the end of February. The most significant discounts on almost all goods in stores in Vienna and throughout Austria are in July and February. Starting at the beginning of sales seasons from 20-30%, by the end they can reach 70-80%.
A nice feature of the Christmas and New Year sale in Austria: at this time, the rules allow you to return to the stores those purchased goods and gifts, which for some reason is not suitable for you.
Shops and shopping centers of Vienna
We will dwell in more detail on the most iconic places of shopping in the Austrian capital: from expensive to more budget ones.
Streets of Körtnerstrasse and Graben
The respectable Kärntner Straße stretches along the axis connecting the Vienna Opera House and St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The seven-story building of the Stefl shopping center (Steffl, No. 19) presents the best products of all, without exception, the leading European and world brands.
Sleeves from the central axis depart the same pathos in shape and content of the trade routes Rotthurmgasse and Graben. Luxury boutiques are located here: exclusive clothes and shoes of the most famous designers, leather and furs, jewelry and crystal. The most famous boutiques on this street are Hermes, Parfumerie JBFilz and Josef Kober. In the latter, you can buy a cute (and not cheap!) Teddy bear.
In addition to expensive and luxurious shopping, it is also a favorite meeting place for citizens. Here, with a cup of coffee, you can taste the famous Viennese cake Sahcer in the equally famous Sahcer Cafes.
Galleries on the Ringstrasse
In the shopping arcade, reminiscent of the “merchant” galleries, on the cozy Karntner Ring (No. 5–7), in addition to boutiques with clothes, shoes, jewelry and accessories, furniture and toys, there was a place for an optics store, beauty salon, real estate agency, flower salon and even art gallery. Well-known brands represented in the passage: Bella Donna, BR-Moda, Mark OꞌPolo, Fritsch, Armani, Diesel, Pandora, Swarovski and many others.
Mariahilferstrasse
In almost all stores on Mariahilferstrasse in Vienna, local Austrian brands, as well as most democratic world and European brands, are “registered”. That is why in each of them the prices are lower than in other popular places for shopping, which we have already talked about.
So what does this longest shopping street in the Austrian capital offer customers? First of all, the signs over the entrance and the well-known logos in the windows: Peek, C&A (Clemens & August), H&M (Hennes & Mauritz AB) and many others are striking along its entire length.
Need good and relatively inexpensive shoes? Be sure to pick up a couple or two in the huge “Humanic” (No. 37-39). It will cost from 25 to 150 euros (www.humanic.net/at). Here you will find a large assortment of women’s and men’s sports, casual and model shoes and accessories from Nike, Boss, Vabene, Kalman & Kalman, Lazzarini, Birkenstok Michftl Kors, and a dozen more relatively inexpensive brands.
On the even side of the street in several buildings under No. 38-48 there is the Gerngross department store, where the website www.gerngross.at/de will help customers not get lost.
Mariahilfer Straße also houses the Prada and the Genereli Center.
Having familiarized with the main shopping streets, their shops and boutiques, we will now visit several popular shopping centers in Vienna.
Donau Zentrum – Donau Plex
The largest and most popular shopping and entertainment center in Vienna will celebrate its first half-century anniversary in a few years. In 2010, it has already undergone large-scale reconstruction and now occupies a vast territory of 260 thousand square meters. In addition to cool shopping, you can relax and have a good time here.
212 Donau Zentrum stores and boutiques offer visitors and potential buyers products of more than 260 of the best brands. Here are just a few of them:
- Clothing: Vero Moda, Zara, Benetton, Esprit, Levi’s, H&M, Gant, C&A, Monki
- Shoes, bags and accessories: Salamander, Crocs, Birkenstock, Geox, PANDORA, Claire’s, Swarovski
- Sports Products: XXL sport & outdoors, Nike
- Cosmetics & Perfumes: Yves Rosher, L’occitane, Lush, NYX
Their complete list is on the official website of the shopping center: www.donauzentrum.at/
In addition, there are more than fifty tasty “gastronomic objects”: grocery supermarkets, cafes and restaurants, fast food establishments. And in 13 ultramodern digital cinema halls with Dolby Atmos-sound and DBOX seats, 2700 spectators can simultaneously be accommodated. Every day in their “menu” – more than three dozen different films. The only laser projector IMAX in Austria allows you to watch movies on a screen with an area of 240 square meters. m!
The list of other services under the roof of this shopping center is also impressive: there are branches of the largest Austrian banks, a post office, exchange offices, fashionable ateliers and hairdressers, travel agencies, pharmacies, sports, entertainment and children’s clubs, a parking lot for 3000 cars and even … a driving school!
On weekdays, shopping areas are open from 9 am to 8 pm, on Saturday stores close two hours earlier, and on Sundays it is a day off.
The opening hours of the Donau Plex and Cineplexx cinema halls, the schedule of events and the repertoire can also be found on the shopping center website.
How to get there (address: Wagramer Straße 81)
- Metro: from Stefanplatz on the U1 line to st. Kagran. Travel time is 12 minutes.
- Tram: No. 25, buses No. 22A, 26-27A, 93-94A (to the stop Siebeckstraße)
Designer Outlet Parndorf
In the 157 Pandorf outlet stores, about 300 brands are represented. These are shoes, clothes, jewelry, perfumes and cosmetics and other products from:
- Adidas
- Armani
- Polo ralph loren
- Gucci
- Prada
- Lacoste
- Diesel
- Golfino
- Regatta Great Outdoors and Le Petit Chou
- Peek & cloppenbur
- Nike
- Zegna.
All year round you can buy goods of the outgoing season of the named brands at a discount of 30 to 70%. And at the end of the sales seasons – both summer and winter discounts can reach 90%.
The outlet is located in the suburbs (40 km from the center of Vienna) and is a “town in the city.” Get to shopping at the Outlet Parndorf by shuttle – from the Opera House on Friday and Saturday, ticket price is 15 euros; on other days, by train from the Wien Hauptbahnhof station. It takes 30 minutes by car.
Sunday is a day off, and on weekdays outlet stores work:
- Monday to Thursday – from half past nine in the morning until 20:00
- Friday an hour longer
- Saturday – from nine in the morning until six in the evening
In the main large building of the shopping center, relatively low-cost brands are sold, and luxury brands are sold in expensive stores on the streets of the outlet village of Pandorf.
Fans of discounts will learn about all the news of the functioning of this and other Vienna outlets in the corresponding sections of the site: www.mcarthurglen.com/de/outlets/at/
Shopping city
The 2 largest shopping centers in the Austrian capital are located outside the city. The first of them is located in the southern suburbs of Vösendorfer Südring, the other in the northern (Ignaz-Köck).
IKEA buses leave for the SCS from the Opera, and a free shuttle runs from Floridsdorf Station twice a hour to SCN.
About 300 shops, restaurants, bars and cafes, an entertainment area and a huge parking lot with 10,000 seats. In addition to Sunday, the shopping center is open daily from 9 a.m., closes at 19:00 (Monday-Wednesday), at 20:00 (Thursday-Friday), and at 18:00 on Saturday. Everything else that may interest visitors can be found on the shopping center website: www.scs.at/
There are much fewer outlets here – about a hundred, including grocery stores, there are several good restaurants, the parking is also small, and, like everywhere else, the first 3 hours are free (1200 places). Parents can leave their children in the children’s room, otherwise the official website will help visitors navigate in this shopping center: scn.at/
Naschmarkt Market
And finally, from under the roof – into the open air! Up to a dozen large markets, a myriad of small ones, operate on Vienna streets every day. But Naschmarkt is the oldest (founded in the 18th century), a popular and picturesque market trading center of the Austrian capital.
Once here, you will find yourself in the realm of the freshest vegetables, fruits (including exotic), seasonings and goodies from around the world.
There is everything that was grown in his garden, livestock farms or caught in the reservoirs by local farmers that the housewives prepared in the kitchen: fish and meat, cheese and bread … and much more that is delicious and surprising. And this splendor looks much more attractive than in a supermarket … It’s not for nothing that the Naschmarkt market, located on Wiener Strasse on the site in front of the exit from the Kettenbryukengasse and Karlsplatz metro stations, is called the “belly” of the city.
Interesting! Not everyone knows that the river Vienna, tamed and enclosed in pipes and concrete, flows more than a hundred years ago below the market … and parallel to it stretches the modern underground kingdom – the metro line of the U4 line.
The official website of the market will help you navigate the realm of market delicacies: www.naschmarkt-vienna.com/
Naschmarkt is open daily from the earliest morning – from 6:00 to nine in the evening, and closes early on Saturday at 18:00. And it is every Saturday that the largest Vienna flea market opens nearby. It is always fun here, as in the search for wonders and funny little things from morning until late in the evening there are a lot of tourists and party youth in the market.
So the shopping tour in the Austrian capital has come to an end, which gives its participants pleasure no less than a visit to the historical sights of this wonderful city. We hope your shopping in Vienna with our tips will be successful and memorable!
Video: Pandorf Outlet Shopping
