Everyday practical information for Austria

Sunday is closed

This is the thing to internalise. Austria takes Sunday closing seriously in a way that surprises visitors from almost anywhere else.

• Supermarkets, clothes shops, electronics stores and shopping centres are all shut on Sundays and on public holidays.
• Buy Saturday's groceries on Saturday. Shops close at 18:00 on Saturday in most places.
• Railway station supermarkets are the exception. Vienna Hauptbahnhof, Westbahnhof and Praterstern have shops open every day, and they are your Sunday fallback.
• Petrol stations and Trafiks sell basics at a markup.
• Restaurants, cafes, museums and public transport all run normally on Sundays. It is retail that stops.
• Many restaurants take a Ruhetag, a fixed closing day, often Sunday or Monday. Check before you walk across town.

Language and manners

• German, and English is widely spoken in cities, hotels and by anyone under 40.
• "Grüß Gott" is the standard greeting, not "Guten Tag", and it is used everywhere outside Vienna.
• Greet the room when you enter a small shop or a waiting room. Not doing so reads as rude.
• Titles matter more than you would think in formal settings, and "Herr Doktor" is not a joke.
• Austrians are direct but formal. Use "Sie" with anyone you do not know.

Eating and drinking

• You seat yourself in a Viennese cafe and stay as long as you like on one coffee.
• Order coffee by name. A "Melange" is the everyday milky one, a "Kleiner Brauner" is an espresso with a little cream, and asking for "a coffee" gets you a raised eyebrow.
• Lunch is early, roughly 12:00 to 14:00, and kitchens in smaller towns close between lunch and dinner.
• Tap water with coffee is a Vienna tradition but not a right elsewhere.
• Smoking has been banned indoors in bars and restaurants since November 2019. Terraces are fair game.

Practicalities

• Plugs are type C and F, 230 V, the standard continental European two round pins.
• Recycling is taken seriously and bins are separated. Bottle deposit ("Pfand") of EUR 0.25 applies to single-use plastic bottles and cans since 2025, refunded at supermarket machines.
• Public toilets often cost EUR 0.50 to EUR 1. Carry coins.
• Jaywalking is fined and Austrians wait for the green man even on an empty street at midnight.
• Public holidays are numerous and Catholic. 1 and 6 January, Easter Monday, 1 May, Ascension, Whit Monday, Corpus Christi, 15 August, 26 October, 1 November, 8, 25 and 26 December. Everything closes.
• Hallstatt has no entry fee or visitor cap, despite the rumours. Coach arrivals are slot-controlled and groups over 10 must register in advance. Come early or late in the day and it is a different village.