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TOURISM

Seven Vienna bars with breathtaking views

Ever sipped your Zweigelt at eye level with the Volkstheater’s rooftop statuesque beauties? Barbara Cação of Vienna Unwrapped shares her cheat sheet of Vienna’s best high flying bars and hotels with amazing city views.

Published: 6 May 2015 13:25 CEST
Seven Vienna bars with breathtaking views
Café Bar Bloom. Photo: Vienna Unwrapped

Café Bar Bloom

The best place in town to order a view of Stephansdom with your cocktail is Hotel Lamée’s Café Bar Bloom. Head straight for the rooftop bar on the 9th floor of Rotenturmstrasse’s most exciting corner. Nowhere else in town will you see the cathedral’s colourful roof patterns more clearly. The breathtaking views, mixed with the bar’s modern exteriors, top-notch coffee, cakes and drinks make this place a must for girlie afternoons, informal business talks, and lush romantic evenings.

Address: Rotenturmstrasse 15, 1010

Ritz Carlton Rooftop Bar

Photo: Vienna Unwrapped

The sofa strewn landscape of Atmosphere rooftop bar is as vast as the views it invites you to share. Ritz Carlton’s generous L-shaped rooftop terrace allows almost 360 degree views of the city centre, taking in Stephansdom, Karlskirche, the Hofburg’s green copper domed roof and the hills of Ottakring and Kahlenberg. Snacks range from Austrian Rauriser sausages to caviar shots. An out-of-the-ordinary place to impress friends, business partners and yourself.

Address Schubertring 1-3, 1010

Le Loft

Photo: austria.info

You can almost touch the clouds on a rainy day at Le Loft, 75 metres above ground in the Leopoldstadt. The bar and gourmet restaurant, inspired by innovative French/Asian/Austrian cuisine, is part of Hotel Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom. The stunning ceiling painting designed by artist Pipilotti Rist hovers like a canopy over the guests. When it’s dark, its reflection reaches far out into the night sky towards Stephansdom.

Address: Praterstrasse 1, 1020

Dachboden

Photo: Vienna Unwrapped

The lofty café/bar of the trendy 25 Hours Hotel in Lerchenfelder Strasse is the place to toast the rooftop belles of Volkstheater. The chic glass container and terrace overlook the rooftops of the Austrian Parliament, the Natural History Museum and Museum of Fine Arts, and the Volkstheater, to name the most prominent. The relaxed interiors display the hotel’s circus theme. Great for wine, drinks and a few nibbles with friends.

Address: Lerchenfelder Strasse 1-3, 1070

Sky Bar

The rooftop bar of department store Steffl has long been a favourite of local shoppers, tourists in the know, and a chic urban night crowd. A glass lift on Kärntner Strasse takes you up (those with vertigo – look towards the building). During the warm months, make sure you grab space on the terrace viewing Stephansdom. Live lounge music from Monday to Friday.

Address: Kärntner Strasse 19, 1010

Suite Hotel Kahlenberg

If you want to overlook the whole of Vienna from ‘outer space’ head for the terrace café of Suite Hotel Kahlenberg. During the summer months the cool lounge terrace regularly hosts chilled out music events. You can also eat modern Viennese cuisine at the hotel’s restaurant. The best time to be there is when the lights go on over Vienna and the Danube’s bridges during that magical twilight just before sunset.

Address: Am Kahlenberg 2-3, 1190

Coming soon: MQ Libelle

From the autumn of 2016, Museumsquartier is expected to boast a flashy new rooftop space above the Leopold Museum. Dubbed the MQ Libelle, the airy 600m2 glass container and terrace will be open for coffee, available as a space to host events, or simply as a place to hang out and enjoy the views of the Natural History Museum, Museum of Fine Arts and the Ringstrasse.

Address: Museumsquartier, 1060

Native Viennese Barbara Cação is the author of Vienna travel guide Vienna Unwrapped and runs a tourism blog about her home city. 

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CRIME

Are there ‘young gangs’ forming in Vienna?

If you read Austrian tabloid media, Vienna has a 'gang' problem, with several crimes committed by groups of young people in recent months. But is that true?

Published: 18 April 2024 13:17 CEST
Are there 'young gangs' forming in Vienna?

Austrian tabloid media jumps on such stories: a group of teenage girls breaking into cars in Linz or vandalism and robberies committed by young people in Vienna. Particularly in the capital, it seems that there was a rise in crimes committed by groups of young people. But does that mean that Vienna has a gang problem?

According to the newspaper daily Der Standard, the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate (LPD) repeatedly states that the much-cited youth gangs do not exist but that there is “an increase in young people appearing in groups and committing offences”.  

What does that mean, and what is the difference between “young people appearing in groups and committing offences” and gangs?

According to the police: “The term gang is commonly used in everyday language – without a precise definition in this context. In criminal law, however, the term is clearly defined. From a criminal law perspective, a gang is an organised, hierarchically structured group of people intent on committing offences on an ongoing basis.”

READ ALSO: Which crimes are on the rise in Austria?

According to the police, they are dealing with “groups that come together spontaneously” and are not “hierarchically organised.” These groups mostly commit “thefts or minor robberies” but are not criminal organisations. 

So, technically, Vienna does not have a “youth gang” problem, but it does have an increase in young people in groups committing crimes – though the police didn’t share official numbers.

A recent Kurier report stated that the number of crimes committed by young people and children under the age of 14 has doubled in the last ten years.

At the same time, there has only been a slight increase among young people over the age of 14 and even a decrease among young adults. The main crimes committed by young people and adolescents are theft, damage to property, assault, burglary and dangerous threats.

Christian Holzhacker, Head of Education at the Association of Viennese Youth Centers, told Der Standard that it is important not to “stigmatise” an age group and that the word gang is often used in an “inflationary way”. He points out that in relation to the size of the Viennese population, the number of minors committing crimes is small, even if it is increasing.

He also highlighted that stigmatising regions or groups of young people who get together in public spaces is not the answer. “If you want to fight crime, you have to look at the realities of the lives of the people who have committed crimes,” he said.

READ ALSO: Is Vienna a safe city to visit?

What are the police doing about the crime?

Austria’s federal criminal police office has gathered a new special task force to combat youth crime (EJK). According to the Ministry of the Interior, the idea is to recognise the new phenomenon and combat youth gangs in Austria. 

The task force is set to carry out checks in public spaces, particularly in urban areas and “potential hotspots”, Kurier reported.

The task force also set up a “panel of experts” to suggest how parents can be more responsible, how children’s use of social media and cell phones can be improved, and how the asylum system can better accommodate young migrants.

However, Dieter Csefan, head of the task force, told Die Presse that most young offenders were born in Austria.

“There are unaccompanied minors, but the young people we meet in the groups and gangs usually have parents. And the prolific offenders often come from a normal home. They can also be native Austrians. So it’s not always just Afghans or Syrians”, he said.

He also mentioned that “lowering the age of criminal responsibility is one suggestion” to fight crime. Currently, the age is set at 18, but there are discussions and proposals to lower it to twelve. However, “that alone is not necessarily enough”, he added.

READ NEXT: Which parts of Austria have the highest crime rates?

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