Our son told us about Sopron. He visited it as a day trip from Vienna. He says it didn’t appear to be a tourist destination.

Impressions…

• We got to Sopron with no problems, circled the hotel a few times before finding the small alleyway to their parking garage, then gave our name to the guard who let us in.
• The parking garage was small and was not full. But, there was a guard watching video screens 24 hours. It felt very secure.
• When I checked in, only one of the three people at the desk could speak any English at all. She tried to give me instructions in German until my blank look.
• Breakfast at the hotel was in a ballroom. I would guess there were never more than 20 people there when we were having breakfast.
• If there were tourists in Sopron, they were well-hidden. Those in the hotel appeared to be speaking either German or Hungarian – regional tourists – but we heard no English spoken. Except for the Krishna monk who wanted to talk about politics – Trump and the “governator”. We gave him a small donation and he gave us a book in return – something like “chant your way to happiness.”
• The church was absolutely amazing – probably the most beautiful church I’ve seen. We need to return just to hear the organ.
• I’m sure they must have their problems, but Sopron seemed like a very good place to live.

Don’t miss…

• The church
• The excavations inside the tower entrance
• Climbing the tower for the view from the top (challenging but worth it)

If you drive…

• We didn’t have a lot of problems once we found the entrance to the hotel garage.
• But, the first hotel reservation we had was in a pedestrian zone and would have required us to put a code into a post to make it recede. That’s why we changed.

Beaten path index: 4 (See the key here)

• Cameras: 4
• Language: 5
• Path: 3
• Tourists: 4

The only part that was really off the beaten path was the market in Old Buda.

Priority for a repeat visit (1-5): 5

• Hear the church organ
• Explore more of the ancient city wall
• Just explore some of the streets of the inner city

Links
Tourist information
Sopron Facebook page
Pannonia Hotel

Hotel Pannonia

I didn’t know it when we made the reservation, but it is in the Best Western family. In general, they have a better name in Europe than in the US. I can’t think of anything negative about the hotel.

Some of our favorite photos

Other photos