Best Dog-Friendly Hotels in Vienna

Before you go

What happens when you get there

Lead or muzzle, everywhere

Vienna's dog law requires a lead or a muzzle on every dog in every public place, streets, squares, fields and woods included. In parks it is the lead specifically, and anywhere crowded it is the muzzle, which covers the Christmas markets, the Naschmarkt and a busy Graben on a Saturday. Only inside a Hundezone can the dog be off both. Vienna also keeps a breed list of twelve, including Rottweilers, Bull Terriers, Staffordshire and American Staffordshire Terriers, Mastiffs, Bullmastiffs, Dogo Argentinos and Pit Bulls, and a listed dog wears muzzle and lead together everywhere in public. The rules do not say how visiting dogs are treated, so assume they apply to yours.

Public transport

On the Wiener Linien U-Bahn, trams and buses a dog outside a closed carrier needs a muzzle, a lead and a valid ticket of its own, and you cannot bring a dog and a bicycle together. A small dog in a closed carrier travels free. Buy the dog's ticket before you board, because a dog without one is fined on inspection like a passenger. From experience, trams and buses were easy with Daisy in her bag, and a 24-hour pass covered two of us and the dog for around EUR 24. The Big Bus hop-on hop-off takes dogs with no carrier and no fee, and Uber has a Pet option for about EUR 5 extra, though fewer drivers take it.

The gardens that refuse dogs

Schönbrunn park, the Belvedere garden, the Burggarten and the university Botanic Garden all bar dogs from the grounds, and the palaces, the Sisi Museum, the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Belvedere galleries bar them from the buildings. The Prater is the opposite, dogs on a lead through the Wurstelprater and welcome on the Giant Ferris Wheel with a lead and a muzzle.

Parks and Hundezonen

More than 200 Hundezonen and dog runs cover over a million square metres across the city, and inside them the dog can be off lead and unmuzzled. Near the Imperial Riding School the Schweizergarten has two zones, Arenbergpark a fenced one and the Stadtpark two. The Prater's Rustenschacher and Pelzmais zones are the big ones, 187,000 and 120,000 square metres. On the Ring, Stadtpark is directly across the road from the Ritz-Carlton and the Almanac Palais and about five minutes from the Imperial, and the Danube Canal promenade is two minutes from Anantara and right outside SO/ Vienna.

Swimming

Vienna has five official dog bathing places. The two closest to a city stay are the Hundebadestrand Nord on the Donauinsel between Floridsdorfer Brücke and Nordbrücke, and the Alte Donau beach at Ferdinand-Kaufmann-Platz beside the Angelibad. On the Donauinsel the lead-or-muzzle rule applies across the whole island, with a fenced zone north of the Kaisermühlenbrücke.

Breakfast, fees and weight

Rosewood is the only Vienna hotel on the list with dogs published as welcome at breakfast and in every restaurant and bar. The Imperial Riding School is a no at breakfast, with breakfast in the room as the answer and the same space open to the dog for the evening bar, and Anantara, the Austria Classic and the Kaiserin Elisabeth are a no too. Fees run from free at The Guesthouse and Hotel Wandl to EUR 50 a night at Rosewood, the Park Hyatt and Anantara and EUR 55 a day at Sacher, with EUR 25 per stay plus EUR 10 a night at the Imperial Riding School. Weight caps are 10 kg at the Imperial Riding School, 15 kg at the Ritz-Carlton, 20 kg at Le Méridien, 25 kg at Anantara and 36 kg at the Imperial, and the Astoria takes large dogs but gives no kilo figure.

Getting there

Vienna International Airport is the entry point, and its cabin rule is a dog and carrier together under 8 kg. From the UK and Ireland that means the cabin route is with the carriers that allow it, principally Austrian Airlines from London, since the Irish and British low-cost airlines do not take pets in the cabin. Check the flights app for the current airline list. By rail, a dog on ÖBB pays 10 per cent of the full adult fare with a EUR 2 minimum, wears a muzzle and a lead and sits on the floor, and small animals in a carrier go free. Railjets from Munich, Zurich, Budapest and Prague make the train a real option for a dog too big for a cabin.

Vets

The University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna runs the city's small animal emergency service at Veterinärplatz 1 in the 21st district, out on the Floridsdorf side. The small animal emergency line is +43 1 25077 5555 for anything outside normal clinic hours.

Book ahead at Christmas

Dogs are welcome in most Vienna restaurants, but over Christmas every popular one has a queue and Sundays and holidays are close to impossible for walk-ins. Book every meal you care about. Do the Christmas markets in daylight too. At night the big ones are shoulder to shoulder with no room for a dog to walk. The Museum Quarter market is the best with a dog, calm and local. Rathausplatz is spectacular and too packed.

A bag helps

We walked more in Vienna than anywhere, and a light collapsible carrier bag for Daisy made everything easier, from trams to busy markets to the odd door where a dog on a lead might get a second look.

Best walks

The Schweizergarten beside the Belvedere for the nearest Hundezonen to the Imperial Riding School, Arenbergpark and the Stadtpark for fenced runs a short walk apart, the Ringstrasse itself for the Opera, the Hofburg gates and the Rathaus on a lead, the Danube Canal promenade for a long flat path from Schottenring and Schwedenplatz, and the Prater for real distance, from the Hauptallee out through the Rustenschacher meadows with the Giant Ferris Wheel at the end.

When to go

April to June and September to October are the Vienna months, with the Prater and the Donauinsel at their best and the Belvedere quarter walkable at any hour. July and August bring proper continental heat and the imperial gardens are closed to the dog anyway, so keep summer walks to the Danube and the shade of the Prater. December is Daisy's Vienna, the Christmas markets and the bar at the Imperial Riding School after a cold walk, but it is crowded, and the law says muzzle in a crowd, so a dog that will not wear one should come another month.