The Kaiserin Elisabeth by Jamie Dunford Wood

A delightful hotel done up in 50s style - cream walls, brass fittings, parquet flooring in the rooms, pale wallpapers and eccentric-looking staff. Previous guests have included Mozart, Wagner, Liszt and Grieg. The rooms are high ceilinged with those marvelous Austrian double doors, behind which you imagine all sorts of ballgowns falling about the ankles. The hotel has just 62 rooms and is perfectly positioned in a quiet street off the pedestrianised Karntnerstrasse in the center of town, and opposite the Drei Hussaren, one of the finest restaurants in Vienna, which is just as well as the Kaiserin Elisabeth is breakfast only. Vienna is hopping right now, so if you don't want to afford the Sacher, stay here, and pay that little bit extra for a junior suite.