In the past few years I have recently taken to actively looking for a way to run on holiday, bearing in mind that you are in a different country and an unfamiliar city. A few years ago I discovered that you can do tourists runs with a running guide. I have done this in Amsterdam, Barcelona and I have just returned from Vienna where I once again participated in this.
I tend to book this guided run on the first full day I am on holiday, usually in the morning. The advantage of this is that you get some orientation of the place you are in and you get some local information from a knowledgeable guide.
When I was looking at booking my run in Vienna I came across 2 websites offering this service.
The first was Vienna Sightrunning, this had a very good website, with good information and prices of all the different runs you can do, it also has the facility to fill in a booking form online to book your trip, you don’t pay until the day, the price is cheaper if there is a group running compared to running on your own. Unfortunately with this website I got no response from my initial e-mail, I then filled in the online booking form and still got no response, when I tried their telephone number it had an automated message saying the number was not in use. Eventually after 3 weeks I did get an e-mail about the run but by then I had booked with another company. It may be they had been experiencing some problems and it might be worth trying them despite my experience. The website is www.vienna-sightrunning.at/pages/en/start.php
The company I did book with was Run and See. There website is not as good as the sight running one but I got a fairly instant response and made the booking very quickly. They offer pretty much the same things with a tourist guide taking you along the run you booked. My guide, Nina, was waiting for me at my Hotel, we did a warm up then set off around Vienna, on the way she told me of the History, pointed out various places of interest and answered any questions I had about various places to see in Vienna. I had booked just an hour run around the centre of Vienna, after the return we returned to my Hotel, did a warm down and then I proceeded with my holiday and I shared the information I had learned with my wife as we wandered around Vienna. The website for this is http://ruthriehle.at/?lang=en
Overall I would recommend booking a tourist run in whatever city you are in, it orientates you with the city, it gives you some information and you get to satisfy your running addiction.
