Haus der Musik music museum - 1 block
State Opera - 2 blocks
Kärtner Strasse shopping - 2 blocks
Stadtpark - 2 blocks
Albertina art museum - 4 blocks
Hofburg Imperial Palace – 1 kilometers (0.5 miles)
St Stephen's Cathedral - 1 kilometers (0.5 miles)
Museums Quarter - 1 kilometer (0.5 miles)
KunstHausWien art museum - 2 kilometers (1.5 miles)
Prater fairgrounds (as seen in the movie, The Third Man) - 2 kilometers (1.5 miles)
Schönbrunn summer palace - 4 kilometers (2.5 miles)

The airport bus connects with the city's underground system at Westbanhof train station. The bus ride is approximately 30 minutes. Taxis run from the airport to the city centre.

The U-Bahn underground system is augmented by buses and trams and connects the hotel with the rest of Vienna within 20 minutes. The Underground station closest to the hotel is Karlsplatz. The hotel can order taxi cabs and limousines on request.

This hotel has 138 guestrooms, all of which are furnished with silk wallpaper and filled with antique rococo-style furnishings. The hotel's late-19th-century origins are reflected in each room's decor: period oil paintings hang from the walls and rooms are lit by rococo chandeliers. Bedding and drapes are in rich brocades. All rooms have dial-up Internet access (fee). Marble bathrooms have oversized basins, deep baths and bathroom scales.

Restaurant Imperial - This elegant fine-dining restaurant serves lunch and dinner in a dark-wood-paneled dining room. High-backed armchairs are seated around candle-lit linen-clad tables adorned with seasonal centerpieces and separated from one another by period frosted-glass screens. Signature dishes include a Supreme of Quail on truffeled Black Salsify.

Café Imperial - Serving breakfast, lunch and light dinner, the Café Imperial's coffee-house atmosphere attracts locals as well as hotel guests. Waitresses dressed in starched blue-and-white uniforms serve the hotel's famous Imperial Torte and Viennese coffee on monogrammed china. In the afternoons there is live piano music.

Bar Maria Theresia - The Maria Theresia's smoothly curved bar, rococo-style sofas and armchairs and cunningly-designed private nooks make this a highly atmospheric location for a post-business or pre-dinner drink. In summer, the bar extends into an open-air terrace.

What to expect: The Imperial's grand 1863 façade and two-story wood-paneled lobby, presided over by a green and cream marble balcony and giant chandelier, immediately impress upon guests that they are staying in a former palace. Groups of elegant matrons visiting the city for opera and shopping, couples on vacation and international businesspeople sit on antique sofas beneath the lobby's classical murals.

Amenity highlights: Built in 1863 for an Austrian prince, the palace was converted to a hotel ten years later. Its broad staircases and wide corridors are rich in rococo detail, decorated with marble columns, period grandfather clocks, statuary, chandeliers and gilt mirrors - there are even chandeliers in the changing room of the hotel's compact gym. The rococo theme extends to the elegant wood-paneled Restaurant Imperial and the hotel's secluded Maria Theresia Bar.

Insider tip: About three blocks from the Imperial Hotel, Vienna's Naschmarkt market is a real insight into the daily life of the Viennese. Food vendors from all over the world set up stalls hawking produce, fish, meat, cheese, baked goods and preserves, as well as meals and snacks. Items such as clothes and jewelry are also sold.

Built in 1863, the Hotel Imperial was originally a palace, and its public areas still reflect its past. Chandeliers hang from the ceilings, corridors are decorated with marble columns and period grandfather clocks, and the lobby is scattered with rococo-style chairs. The elegant wood-paneled Restaurant Imperial is hung with oil paintings and the secluded Maria Theresia bar lets guests sip cocktails on turn-of-the-century sofas.

A small gym on the fifth floor features step, running and weight machines, free weights and a dry sauna. A hairdresser prepares guests for a night at the opera. The business center has two computers with flat-screen monitors, printers, phones, a photocopier and ergonomic chairs. Seven function rooms, including a grand festival hall, can be used for meetings or events.