We’ll (my wife and I) be joining our daughter in Vienna on December 30. This our (my wife and I) first time in Europe. We’re staying on the western side when in Vienna.
December 31st is our anniversary and we’re hoping someone can recommend an appropriate venue for celebrating.
For context, our daughter is 22, has traveled extensively in northern and Western Europe and currently is on an extended (5 month and largely solo) tour of Europe and Asia.
The big event on New Year’s Eve in Vienna is the Silvesterpfad. Silvester is the German word for New Year’s and pfad means path. The entire center of Vienna becomes a huge street party with stages and food. The path winds all around the historic center. That’s where the action will be, but be warned that it can get crazy at midnight. The city of Vienna doesn’t put on a fireworks show. Instead, thousands shoot off bottle rockets and small firecrackers. It can get hairy, but can also be fun. Another idea is to find a spot on Kahlenberg which is a small mountain overlooking Vienna where you can see the fireworks from above. Everyone waltzes at midnight, which is the tradition.
Here’s a link from the Vienna tourist office - https://www.wien.info/en/music-stage-shows/new-years-eve
If you want to celebrate at a posh place, here you can find a lot of suggestions for a gala evening and dinner:
https://www.wien.info/media/files/silvestervorschau-englisch-2019.pdf/download
Make a reservation as soon as possible.
I would highly recommend one of the suggested indoor venues. We spent NYE in Vienna a few years ago. We travel a fair amount, but nothing prepared us for the unsupervised “enthusiasm”. After dodging several M80s being thrown directly at us and bottles being thrown and smashed at our feet, we beat a hasty retreat to our hotel. There we had a bottle ( or two) of sparkling wine chilling in the snow outside our window and toasted in the NY high above the crowds. Despite the chaos of the night before, by dawn the streets were clean and completely cleared of all debris.
We are planning our second New Years Eve in Vienna -- found the ambiance (music, foods, waltzing in the street) around St Stephens delightful and family-friendly. Of course, at 70+ we retired to our apartment well before midnight ;- ) as did, I imagine, the families with small kids.
New Years Day has big-screen symphony telecasts outside City Hall, and the Silvester markets are still open for one last piggy-mug of glühwein.
Enjoy your visit !!
