- The tourist board of Vienna, which is continually ranked the most “liveable city” in the world, is promoting a 2019 campaign called “Unrating Vienna.”
- The idea is to highlight how ridiculous some online reviews are, and discourage people from planning their holidays around them.
- I decided to visit some of the Austrian capital’s most popular tourist attractions – from its cathedral to an iconic cafe – to compare the worst reviews to the reality.
- The experience was a good lesson in why you shouldn’t plan a holiday around the opinions of random people online.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The city of Vienna, Austria is continually ranked the most “liveable city” in the world, and it has certainly come up with some creative advertising campaigns to maintain its image over the years.
After 2018’s “Unhashtag Vienna,” which encouraged tourists not to post photos from their time in the Austrian capital on social media, the city’s 2019 campaign, “Unrating Vienna,” is in full swing.
The initiative urges tourists to stop planning their trips based on online reviews, and the humorous ads highlight how ridiculous many ratings and opinions on review websites such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Google Reviews really are.
A romantic boat ride on the Old Danube river, for example, was decried as “extremely boring” on Get Your Guide, and the imposing cathedral was called “small” on Google Reviews.
I decided to go to Vienna to compare the negative online reviews to the reality.
St Stephen's Cathedral, which sits in the heart of the city, was described as "small" by one reviewer on Google Reviews, and awarded just one star.
Another wrote that there were "not enough towers."
Standing 136 meters tall at the highest point, I found that the cathedral is anything but small.
In fact, it was incredibly difficult to fit the whole building into one picture.
The cathedral really isn't lacking in towers either, and if there were any more they'd just hide the jazzy tiled roof, which is the coolest thing about the whole building.
Perhaps the strangest review came from someone who said the cathedral was "really pretty," but only gave it one star on Google Reviews.
How beautiful does a cathedral have to be to score a four or five?
Hofburg Imperial Palace, a complex that was home to the Habsburg emperors until 1918, was awarded one star by Marek K on Google Reviews because there's "no photography allowed."
Visitors to Vienna can look around the imperial apartments, a museum, a silver collection and more, but apparently some people took issue with not being allowed to take photos.
This is the outside of the building, which is very photogenic.
Considering we tend to photograph everything we do these days, it wasn't really a problem for me not being able to take pictures inside. It was quite a nice break, actually.
The exterior of the Hofburg is more Instagrammable than what's inside anyway.
How cute is this building complete with horse and carriage? Utterly charming. And no one could stop me photographing it.
Founded in 1880, Cafe Sperl is one of Vienna's oldest, most famous, and most traditional coffee houses, but it was given one star and criticized for its "arrogant service" on TripAdvisor.
Vienna is known for its coffee scene, but it's true that the city's waiters don't have the friendliest reputation.
Viennese coffee culture is all about sitting in cafes for hours, whiling the day away in a charming and old-fashioned setting. And Cafe Sperl has this in buckets.
It's found in a traditional Viennese building not far from the Museums Quarter.
Coffee is taken very seriously in Cafe Sperl, as you can probably glean from the length of the coffee menu.
Forget flat whites or pumpkin spice lattes, here you'll find an Obermayer (a double mocha with whipped cream on an inverted spoon) and an Überstürzter Neumann (whipped cream covered with a double mocha), alongside more simple coffees.
The prices are a lot more reasonable than some of Vienna's other famous old-fashioned cafes, starting from €2.90 ($3.20) for a small mocha.
The interior of the cafe is simultaneously grand, unfancy, and somewhat eclectic.
It's very old-fashioned and classic Viennese in style, which I found utterly charming. You almost feel like you've been taken back in time to the 19th century.
There's lots of deep mahogany and chandeliers, magazines and newspapers laid out for guests to flick through, and the waiting staff were very friendly.
It's unpretentious, has a lot of character, and guests are encouraged to enjoy the ambience.
I ordered a pot of coffee (€5.30/$5.90) which came in branded chinaware.
As for the waiting staff, I didn't find them even remotely arrogant. In fact, the waiter who served me was delightful. He attended to me immediately and even humored me by speaking to me in German even though I am clearly British (I was once told by Germans that my accent is "endearing").
The most visited museum in Vienna, the Leopold Museum, is chock-full of Austrian modern art. Five floors worth of art, in fact. But some people reviewed it on Google Reviews as being too expensive and boring.
An adult ticket costs €14 ($15.50), and I had to pay a further euro to check my backpack in as I was told it was too big to take around the exhibitions.
Disclaimer: I am not an "art person." Going to galleries and museums is never really a priority for me when travelling, but I decided to pay a visit to the Leopold Museum to see whether the harsh reviews could really be accurate.
I was surprised to find I actually rather enjoyed it.
"There's some pretty nice stuff in here tbh," I wrote in my notes. High praise indeed coming from not an art person.
There was something lovely and peaceful about the museum, and I particularly liked the Olga Wisinger-Florian collection (below).
I didn't look around the whole museum (five floors of art is too much art for me), so arguably I could have got more out of the money I spent on my ticket, but I don't think the price is outrageous by any means.
And actually, you don't have to "like museums" - as a general rule, I don't. But I did like the Leopold Museum.
Vienna's Museums Quarter is — you guessed it — home to the city's main museums. One reviewer described it on Google Review as "an uncomfortable concrete jungle with no feel-good factor."
It centers around a big, open pedestrianized square, which is lined by a mixture of modern and classic architecture.
It's true, there are some concrete buildings in the Museums Quarter, such as the Viennese modern art museum (below).
But I found the modern buildings a welcome contrast to the grand architecture found, well, everywhere else in Vienna.
It's not all modern, either. As well as all the main museums, there are cafes, shops, and creative installations.
It's a pretty trendy area, and on a sunny afternoon in October it was full of people sitting outside.
Quite what the reviewer meant by "uncomfortable" was unclear to me.
There are these colorful lounger-esque seats which people would presumably lie on in fair weather, but when I was there they were wet so I gave them a miss.
I did, however, sit on a perfectly fine wooden bench one evening. It wasn't particularly uncomfortable or comfortable really. Because it was just a wooden bench.
The atmosphere in the Museums Quarter wasn't even slightly uncomfortable either - I actually found it to be quite a calm area of the city.
Vienna's iconic ferris wheel is found in Prater Park, in the middle of what can only be surprised as the city's answer to Disneyland. However, one person described the Riesenrad as being "totally boring" on Google Reviews.
Another reviewer on the same platform wrote that it "only goes round once and is super slow," adding that "there's too much light," you "can't get a good view," and it's a "rip-off."
As I made my way to the ferris wheel, I couldn't help but think that anyone who thought it would be quick clearly hadn't even looked at it beforehand.
You can see the wheel moving slowly, so you really do know what you're getting yourself into.
The cabins on the ferris wheel are in fact cute little huts, and a ticket costs €12 ($13), which to be fair is a little on the steep side.
I barely had to wait before it was my turn to take the trip, which lasted around 15 minutes.
Yes, it moves slowly. But the ferris wheel isn't meant to be a theme park ride. It would be horrid if it was fast. I was a big fan of the snail's pace as it gave me plenty of time to savor the view. Speaking of which...
...There are lots of reviews on TripAdvisor which say the views from the ferris wheel are "disappointing."
Various people have written that you don't get any view of Vienna from the wheel.
This is just straight-up fake news.
The views you get from Prater Park - whether from the ferris wheel or another of the amusements - are incredible, and you see across pretty much the whole city.
The views were in fact breathtaking, particularly with the trees being in all their early autumn glory.
I have to hand it to the Vienna tourist board, they're onto something with this campaign.
I was mindblown by the things people criticize on online review sites, and the minor "issues" with which people take umbrage.
Considering so many people take ratings on review websites as gospel, the campaign serves as a good reminder that, actually, what's "rubbish" to one person is breathtaking to another.
The experience may not stop me from using sites like TripAdvisor completely - they're a good way of finding out what attractions are in a city.
However, I learned that you should never plan a trip based on online reviews, because we all like to do different things when we travel.
I might even go to another art museum on my next city break - who knows?
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