The most beautiful cities in Austria

Welcome to one of Europe’s most beautiful countries. Austria’s landscapes, regions and townscapes provide almost the full range of European variety in the centre of the continent. Austria is often associated, rightly, with winter sports, but there is so much more on offer. Its alpine areas are rugged and picturesque, but that’s far from being the whole story.

Communications

Wi-fi access

WLAN is the usual term in German-speaking countries. Free public wi-fi access is a common feature in the largest cities, is widely available on mainline express rail services and large stations, and is popular in large shopping centres, museums and cafes and restaurants. Access is now common at accommodation houses.

The Wien.at public wi-fi access network has 400 hotspots. The Freewave network includes hotspots at cafes, restaurants, bars and hotels in Austrian cities.

Mobile phone networks

The main mobile networks are A1, 3 (Drei), and Magenta (formerly T-Mobile). Each has almost complete coverage of the country, although 5G and 4G coverage is sparser in the mountainous central and western regions. 

Prepaid SIM cards offer inexpensive data, call and text solutions but data coverage is unlikely to cross borders. Coverage is typically for 30 days. 

The use of mobile virtual networks operating by internet access is growing.

Public telephones

Phone boxes are becoming rare but can be found at post offices. They usually operate by prepaid cards available from postal offices and Trafik kiosks. Phone cards are sold at post offices, newsstands and Trafik kiosks.

Telephone numbers

Local numbers vary a great deal, from as few as three digits to nine or 10.

Emergency numbers

Police - 133
Ambulance - 144
Fire brigade - 122
Europe-wide general emergency number - 112
Vienna’s women's emergency helpline - (01) 71719

Area codes

Austria’s national dialling code is 43. The area dialling codes are preceded by a zero, which is excluded when dialling inward from abroad. 

Vienna 01, Graz 0316, Linz 070, Salzburg 0662, Innsbruck 0512, Klagenfurt 0463, Wels 07242, Villach 04242, St Pölten 02742, Eisenstadt 02682, Steyr 07252, Feldkirch 05522, Krems 02732, Melk 02752, Bregenz 05572, Kufstein 05372, Bad Ischl 06132, Gmunden 07612, Hallstatt 06134.

Toll and toll-free numbers

The 0800 numbers are toll-free numbers but 0810 numbers are service lines that have local call charges. Numbers starting with 0900 (charge per minute), 0901 (per call), 0930 or 0931 are service lines that charge premium rates.