Every year the different shopping areas of the city try to exceed themselves when it comes to the Christmas lighting and decoration. Festive and modern breathtaking lighting concepts are seen throughout the city …

But not only shopping streets and malls try to ‘show-off’ with their lighting, also hotels do … like The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel with its beautiful ‘Christmas curtain’.

There is definitely too much lighting to be viewed, we would like to share the most spectacular and special lightings we found & saw with you …

Enjoy and feel the spirit of Christmas!

1. Who are you?

2. What do you like about what you do?
Every day brings new challenges and problems. Solving these on my own would be impossible. But working with such a great team as we have it makes all this possible and enjoyable. It is always amazing to see what you can achieve when everybody is working together to reach the goals we set for ourselves.

3. What don’t you like about what you do?
I had no time for traveling since we started pocketvillage. You read about all these extraordinary experiences every day and think back to your own awesome trips … that really gives me itchy feet.

4. Please tell us about ‘Pocketvillage’ and your aims?
While traveling through Africa with my friend Florian Harkort in 2009, we got quite frustrated by the fact that our guide books had for the hundredth time taken us to places swamped by tourists and to non-existing hostels. We ended up giving those books away and continued our trip without much further planning. We made unforgettable experiences traveling “off-the-beaten track” like this and want to share the possibility to do so with everyone. We found out that there are in fact brilliant off-the-beaten track tours, that give you this possibility, but that it is very difficult to find them and if you find them, you’ll have troubles comparing them. We therefore came up with the idea to develop pocketvillage, a search engine that aggregates the widest choice of exceptional niche travel offers – adventurous, cultural, local, responsible, or off-the-beaten-track activities, tours, and places to stay. We also wanted to make the planning process of voyages as joyful and as easy as possible and therefore invented a so called “Inspire Me-process”. This tool lets you intuitively browse through the offers and makes it easy to find the ones that best fit your individual interests.

5. Are you working with blogs and if yes, what is your favourite blog?
Yes, I’m working with blogs. We actually have our own (blog.pocketvillage.com), where we feature weekly a personal travel story, a travel photo of an amazing place and Top 5 Travel Tips. I don’t really have one favourite blog, as they all have their personality and background-story behind them and are thus very fascinating.

6. Tell us about your current experiences with regards to the travel industry?
Well none of us at pocketvillage really did have a travel industry related background before we all started. But what keeps us together is the joy and the interest in traveling. We are therefore even more thankful and deeply impressed by the way the travel industry welcomes us as travel-newcomers on the market. We are only online since March 2011 and already won 1^st prize for our travel iPhone App (which isn’t even on the market yet) at Tnooz Hack in Las Vegas in April and have just been voted “best startup 2011” at the VIR Online Innovation-Days by Germany’s leading online travel platforms.

7. Are there any travel trends you want to share with us?
Scientific studies, our own experience and the market show us that many people look for extraordinary travel experiences and we think that this trend will still increase. People individualize their lives, they do want to individualize their holidays as well. But above all, they want to get the most out of it. In my opinion, booking one week all-inclusive resorts not seeing anything of the culture and the background of the country your traveling to is out, traveling like you are living with locals is in.

8. Any comments you want to share with us?
Well thank you very much for the interview. I wish you wonderful future travel journeys, wherever you are heading off to!
Hakuna Matata, Martin

Actually it is a simple idea but the reality is different, taking some water tanks is an easy one but finding a consolidation of architecture, lighting and music with the support of these lightning water tanks is a more difficult one … how does this look like was our question, well all water tanks are filled with different illuminants and connected with each other. That how VJ´s are able to light and pilot every single tank. The result is a spectacular interaction of music and visual lightings.

Kubik is definitely not a simple piece of art, kubik will bring the modern Vienna alive and with its location, the Sigmund Freud Park, which has a high number of visitors, in front of the beautiful Votivkirche, a new modern entity is integrated in a park.

New highlights on a daily basis from the electronic music scene in Vienna as well as culinary highlights by ‘Neni Street Food’ will form the basis to change a ‘Punschstand’ into a ‘modern Christmas hot spot’, the fully integrated shop will offer cool & designed gifts for every single budget.

Kubik or ‘Würfel’? Call it what you like, we love the idea!!

It all started in 1294 with the “December market” in Vienna, which is regarded by many as the forerunner to the present Christmas markets. Over the years, the city of Vienna and its authorities have worked on the historical and authentic image of a Christmas market, away from plagiarism. Now Vienna hosts around 25 markets, ranging from smaller to larger ones, offering a collection of wooden stalls on a square, open space or a defined number of smaller streets. At almost all markets one finds a unique selection of stands selling traditional and typical Austrian Christmas food and drinks, handmade clothing, art and handcrafted items, handmade toys, candy and so on.

What is so special about a Christmas market in Vienna? Is it the combination of snow, crispy winter air, the lighting, the aromas flying through the air, the products one can buy, the crowd or just the complete atmosphere? Yes, and you should definitely go there when it is dark to get the best experience.

The Christmas Market season 2009 starts on Saturday, November 14^th as the Advent season descends upon Vienna once more, whereas a few markets start one week later. Most of them until December 21^st, 24^th or even 26^th, 2009. During the time of Advent Vienna is a lighting city full of nostalgia, elegance and romance, numerous concerts, beautiful decorated shop displays, x-ordinary lightings and not to forget, the traditional Christmas markets. Classical ones include the Christmas market at Schönbrunn Palace, the Christmas market in front of the City Hall, the traditional Viennese Christmas market on Freyung, the markets in the various streets at Spittelberg, Am Hof and in front of the church of St. Charles Borromeo (Karlskirche). A special one is the Christmas market at the museum Belvedere.

The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel, is of course following the festive season, especially with its lighting curtain out of 50.000 LED lights that highlights the complete front of the hotel, the numerous special rates for all festive weekends, Christmas and New Years Eve but also the package “Christmas in Vienna @ The Ring” and the large selection of menus at the hotel restaurant At Eight.

The X-Mas season in Vienna is not only romantic and elegant; with roaring log fires and charming Christmas markets … it is also trendy and “hot” with winter DJ sounds, winter sport opportunities like ice skating and curling and perfect shopping locations. But no matter what you prefer, Christmas in Vienna above all can be one thing: an unforgettable experience @ The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel.

Curious and thinking of visiting? Check out the following websites:

www.theringhotel.com
www.christmasmarkets.com
www.christmas-markets.at
www.vienna4u.at/christmasmarket.html