Favoriten & Oberlaa — Travel Tips and Apartments

Who this location suits

• Guests who explore the city by day and want quiet and greenery in the evening
• Spa visitors — Therme Wien is around 390 metres away as the crow flies
• Families: the Kurpark has playgrounds, a climbing wall, a skate park and an animal enclosure
• Longer stays where a direct metro line matters more than a central address

Location and character: the green south of Favoriten

With around 220,000 residents, Favoriten is the most populous district in Vienna — roughly eleven per cent of the whole city lives here (Vienna regional statistics, as of 1 January 2024). You notice little of that size in Oberlaa. This part of the district sits at its southern end, where the dense blocks stop and the landscape turns flat, open and quiet. About 35 per cent of the district is green space and water, and a good share of it lies right here. Favoriten counts 85 parks in total. The trip into town stays short all the same, because the metro does not merely pass by — it begins here.

Therme Wien and Kurpark Oberlaa

Therme Wien is on Kurbadstraße, around 390 metres from our apartments as the crow flies. The operator itself gives the U1 station Oberlaa as the way to get there, so the spa is reachable from anywhere in the city without changing trains. Next to it lies Kurpark Oberlaa, at roughly 608,600 square metres one of Vienna’s major green spaces. It was created in 1974 for the Vienna International Garden Show, and it still shows: eight bodies of water, a rose hill with some 2,400 roses, plus a Japanese garden, a grass garden and a heath garden. Several of these gardens sit closer to the apartments than the park’s calculated centre — the nearest are a good 300 metres away as the crow flies.

Shopping and everyday life — worth knowing in advance

Here is the inconvenient part, and we would rather tell you now: there is not a single supermarket within 800 metres. We checked this specifically, because it makes a real difference on a stay where you cook for yourself. What there is: a small corner shop on Oberlaaer Platz, around 530 metres away as the crow flies, though with limited opening hours. The pharmacy on Kurbadstraße is around 270 metres away. So for a proper weekly shop, plan in one metro stop, or do it on the way from the station to the apartment.

Out and about with children

For families the Kurpark is the actual reason to stay here. The City of Vienna lists playgrounds, a climbing wall, a skate park and a beach volleyball court for it. There is also an animal enclosure with alpacas and goats, around 800 metres away as the crow flies. The advantage over most city-centre attractions: none of it costs anything, none of it needs booking, and all of it still works when the schedule has already fallen apart.

Getting there & around

The U1 is the reason Oberlaa works as a base. The station is around 430 metres away as the crow flies and it is the terminus, so you board an empty train. Stephansplatz is ten stops away with no change; when the U1 extension opened in 2017, the City of Vienna gave the journey as 15 minutes. Wien Hauptbahnhof is seven stops away, also direct. There is no through connection from Oberlaa to Vienna Airport. The simplest route is the U1 to Hauptbahnhof and the Railjet from there — ÖBB state two connections per hour and a 15-minute journey. One thing to watch: regional bus 266 does go to Schwechat, but to the town’s railway station, not the airport. Locally, bus lines 17A, 68B and 70A fill in the network, with N17 and N68 at night; regional buses 226, 227 and 266 head out of town. There is no tram in Oberlaa.

Parking

A short-stay parking zone covers the whole of Vienna, Favoriten included. It applies on working days from Monday to Friday between 9:00 and 22:00, and with a parking voucher or the HANDYPARKEN app you may stay two hours at most. The City of Vienna lists different hours only for outlying areas in the 14th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd districts — Favoriten is not among them. Whether a special rule applies to your particular street is set out in the city’s short-stay parking map. That map is the binding source, not this page. Our suggestion stands regardless: with the U1 on the doorstep, you do not need a car for Vienna.