Josefstadt

About this district

Josefstadt is Vienna's smallest district and perhaps its best-kept secret: bourgeois old buildings, cobbled lanes like Lange Gasse, the Baroque Piarist Church, and in the Theater in der Josefstadt one of the most tradition-rich stages in the German-speaking world. Tourist crowds are practically non-existent here - instead you get bookshops, long-established cafés and an audience more subscription-seats than pub crawl.

The hotel offering is as small as the district itself, but personal: places like Hotel Pension Wild embody the classic Viennese pension - simple, clean rooms in an old building, breakfast in a small room, hosts who know their regulars by name. Hotel Alpha adds solid three-star rooms in a quiet side street a few minutes' walk from the Rathaus. If that is the Vienna you are after, you will hardly find it anywhere more honest. Prices are among the fairest this close to the center.

The eighth connects via the U2 station Rathaus on its eastern edge and the U6 along the Gürtel on the other side; in between, trams link the district to the Ring. On foot you reach the Rathaus in a few minutes and the old town in about twenty - and the walk takes you through some of Vienna's prettiest residential streets.

Josefstadt suits peace-seekers, theater-goers and Vienna connoisseurs who have ticked off the clichés and this time want to live like the locals. For longer stays the quality of life here is hard to beat. However, if it is your first time in the city and you want the big sights right outside the door, you will need to allow a few minutes' walk to everything - and if you are looking for nightlife, the eighth mainly offers one thing: sleep.

Small & charming. You'll find 2 hotels and 0 sights here.