Hotels in Vienna

Leo and I are now in Vienna, having been flown over for the opening of a brand new five star called The Ring, owned by Sheik Muhamed bin something al Jaber, who is busy buying up hotels all over the place, including The Scotsman in Edinburgh and 42 The Calls and Quebecs in Leeds, the Berners, Threadneedles and the Colonnade in London amongst many others. Just a business operation, of course, and the hotels in general lack heart, including The Ring, I’m afraid. Still, the special forces policemen who agreed to absail down the building with the front door key (on Vienna’s famous Ringstrasse, opposite the Grand, also owned by the Sheik) made the opening party memorable, if briefly. We stayed the very first night of the hotel’s (a former bank) life… extremely comfortable, but standard issue if truth be told.Now we are trawling Vienna to find the nicest hotels for you. As usual, the ones that have had most exposure are in many cases the least interesting, and as usual we have found some little known gems. My favourite luxury hotel here is most definitely the Sacher, with a splendid history, still privately owned and sensitively renovated by the owner along with the  interior designer Pierre Yves Rochon, who so brilliantly brought the George V in Paris back to prominence. We’ll have our complete list of Vienna hotels for you soon. Vienna is lovely, though we’ve not seen many sites…too busy looking at hotels! The National Library, next to the Spanish Riding School, though is not to be missed….an awe-inspiring Baroque interior of absolute perfection.