By Plane -- Austrian Airlines offers daily flights from Vienna to Thalerhof International Airport (www.flughafen-graz.at), 18km (11 miles) south of Graz. Tyrolean Air and Lufthansa also serve the airport. There's a white-sided, 15-passenger minivan that makes six trips a day between Graz's airport and the city center. A one-way trip costs 2€ per person. Departures coincide with the arrival of incoming flights, but the trips aren't frequent enough. The much more convenient cab ride from the airport to the city center (for up to four passengers) costs around 20€.
By Train -- Graz is Austria's southern center for rail lines between Vienna and Slovenia. It's also the junction for secondary rail lines that extend to Budapest and a series of valleys in western Styria. At least 10 trains depart every day from Vienna's Südbahnhof for Graz (trip time: 2 1/2 hr.). Through connections, it's easy to get here from other Austrian cities such as Innsbruck, Salzburg, and Klagenfurt.
In addition, about one local train per hour arrives in Graz from minor rail lines in western Styria's isolated valleys and from the more populated areas of eastern Styria and the Hungarian border.
By Bus -- Graz is also the departure point for about 100 different bus lines, most of which head toward hamlets and small villages. Because of its excellent train connections, however, most travelers arrive by rail.
By Car -- If you're driving from Vienna, take Autobahn A2 south. The Autobahn doesn't stretch all the way to Graz; part of it is Route 54, which becomes Autobahn A2 again northeast of Graz.
THINGS TO SEE AND DO
Graz is a great place to stay for a number of reasons. It's easy to make day trips into the countryside from here, and there's plenty to see and do. Visit the Schlossberg (castle), go hiking or hot-air ballooning, or stop in at one of the museums. If you're visiting in the fall, you might want to attend the Steierischer Herbst (Styrian Autumn) festival, which features contemporary art, music, and literature. The arts festival has a reputation for being avant-garde, presenting everything from jazz to mime.
Much of Graz's Old Town has been well preserved (more so than the old districts of Austria's other similar-size cities), and many visitors take tours through this section of town. Major sights include Hauptplatz (Main Square), in the heart of the city, surrounded by ancient houses with characteristic brown-tile roofs and narrow gables. The most notable house is the House of Luegg at the corner of Sporgasse, known for its arcades and facade dating from the 17th century.
A few steps down Herrengasse, the wide shopping and business street, is the Landhaus, seat of the provincial government, a 1565 Renaissance masterpiece. An especially prominent window above the main gate intensifies the gate's effect. The south side of the courtyard ends in an arcade that runs the length of the court. The arched Renaissance fountainhead was poured in bronze near the end of the 16th century.
Paulustor (Paul's Gate), set between the remnants of Graz's rampart, dates from the time Italian architects fortified the city. The side of the gate facing the city is plain, but the other side is decorated with the large coats-of-arms of Archduke Ferdinand and his first wife, Anne of Bavaria.
For a diverting 2 hours, and to escape from the monumental historic core of Graz, visit the little known neighborhood of Gries lying across the River Mur from the old town. This is where a vast army of immigrants have settled, forming Graz's multi-ethnic sector. The center of Gries is the aptly named Griesplatz, where vendors sell mainly handicrafts from such countries as South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and China. There is also a large settlement of Turks and Lebanese who live here, as you'll quickly note by all the signs advertising kabobs -- the aroma will lead you there. You can sit in a cafe that evokes Beirut, listening to Middle Eastern music pour out. If you should be in this area for lunch, try Celery's, Dreihackengasse 42 (tel. 0316/721704), a lunch-only all-vegetarian restaurant. Their homemade pastas are the way to go here, especially noodles cooked with walnut sauce. To wash it down, you can order a "Turbo Booster," which is fresh grapefruit, carrot, and parsley juice.
An Open-Air Museum--Österreichisches Freilichtmuseum (tel. 03124/53700), about 15km (10 miles) north of Graz in Stübing, is set in a wooded valley branching off the Mur Valley. Here you'll find buildings, some of which are 400 years old, from all the Austrian provinces. The 85 authentic structures include a Rauchstubenhaus (smokeroom house) from East Styria, a Rauchhaus (smokehouse) from Land Salzburg, and circular, triangular, and rectangular houses. All the houses are maintained by the Styrian provincial and Austrian national governments.
Architectural enthusiasts will find that this museum has an intriguing display of the regional variations of building traditions. Because of the park's sprawling size, just over 40 hectares (100 acres), the buildings -- mostly farmhouses, barns, and farm-related storage or food-processing sheds -- are set within the rural habitats that originally produced them. Despite its location in the verdant heart of Styria, the curators have tried to showcase buildings that derived throughout the country -- from Vorarlberg, Austria's most westerly province, to Burgenland, a marshy low-lying province similar to the plains of neighboring Hungary.
The museum is open from early April to late October Tuesday to Sunday 9am to 5pm. Admission is 7€ ($8.40) for adults and 3.50€ ($4.20) for children. You can take a train from Graz toward Bruck an der Mur and get off at the station marked STÜBING, a local (not express) stop. After that, it's a 40-minute walk, or you can take a taxi. About 10 buses head to Stübing each day from Graz's Lendplatz (on the western bank of the Mur River, a 5-min. walk west of Old Town); the trip takes 35 minutes.
