District 01 · West bank of the Mur · 10 hotels
Creative, street art, nightlife — the west bank of the Mur.
Lend and Gries are Kunsthaus territory: street art, independent cafés, the 'friendly alien' silhouette of the Kunsthaus and the farmers' market on the Lendplatz. If you want to be out in the evening and looking for the art scene by day, this is the place — and mostly ten to fifteen minutes from the Hauptplatz on foot or by tram.
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What these numbers cannot know: Experience Nobody from this project has stayed at these hotels. Quiet Estimated from location, not measured. Walking time Crow-fly × 1.3 ÷ 4.5 km/h — not routed. Coordinates Geocoded to the street address. Source data OpenStreetMap is incomplete.
Up to three — same scale, same baseline
Everything west of the Mur. That is the simplest description of this area and at the same time the most misleading, because between the Lendplatz in the north and the Griesplatz in the south lie two very different cities — and between them a station quarter that works differently again.
Ten of our 25 houses stand here. It is the largest of our three hotel districts and the only one where the district name alone is not enough to make a booking decision.
Around the Lendplatz and the Mariahilferstraße. This is where the Kunsthaus Graz stands, at Lendkai 1: the bubble-shaped building facing the old town, attached to the historic Eisernes Haus. A few steps further on, the Murinsel sits in the river. If you are looking for the design side of Graz — the city that has been a UNESCO City of Design since 2011 — you will find half of it here rather than over in the World Heritage quarter.
On the Lendplatz itself there is a farmers’ market with its own food stalls, and around it the densest and most international choice of places to eat in the city: Lendplatzl (Lendplatz 11), Hommage (no. 7), Zur Steirerstub’n (no. 8), Bakaλiko (no. 1), Chivito and La Meskla (no. 40). One street further, on the Mariahilferstraße, that turns into going out: Brot & Spiele (no. 17), Miles Jazzbar (no. 24), Ginger Bar (no. 26). In the Stockergasse stands Die Scherbe, which is an institution.
In Advent, Lend has a market of its own: Wonderlend on the Mariahilferplatz.
The catch: it is loud. If you go to bed early, ask for a room on the courtyard side.
Around the Hauptbahnhof, the Annenstraße and the Eggenberger Gürtel. This holds the densest cluster of inexpensive houses in the city, and arriving by train or by car is straightforward.
The difference from the Lendplatz is drastic in our place data. Within a ten-minute walking radius there are roughly twenty to twenty-five restaurants, cafés and bars combined here — around the Lendplatz it is close to a hundred, on the Grieskai around two hundred. That is the real price of the cheap station location, not the quarter of an hour on foot.
In the north-west of the quarter, the Helmut-List-Halle sits at a tram stop of its own — it has nothing to do with the exhibition grounds in the south and is regularly confused with them.
South of that, around the Griesplatz and the Griesgasse. The densest residential district in the city, with strongly Turkish, Balkan and East African cooking: Lezzet Sofrası (Griesplatz 24), Grill am Gries (Nikolaiplatz 4a), Meet me there (Griesgasse 50). Alongside them, galleries in ground-floor units — off_gallery (Griesgasse 31), raum (Griesgasse 26) — and the Postgarage in the Dreihackengasse.
Green space: the Rösselmühlpark, the Oeverseepark, and to the north the Volksgarten and the Metahofpark.
On the river and within walking distance of the old town — the strongest settings in the district:
Grieskai 12-16, 8020 Graz
Grieskai 12–16. A few minutes over the bridge to the Hauptplatz, and with around two hundred places to eat and drink within ten minutes one of the best surroundings in the whole selection. Prices spread widely.
Mariahilferstraße 9, 8020 Graz
Mariahilferstraße 9. Practically at the Kunsthaus, in the middle of the going-out strip, in the middle price band.
Grieskai 4-8, Gries, 8020 Graz
Grieskai 4–8. The traditional house on the Kai, clearly above our niche band.
On the Lendplatz:
Lendplatz 11, 8020 Graz
Lendplatz 11. On the square itself, with the market and the restaurants outside the door. At the upper edge of our price band.
Grüne Gasse 2, Lend, 8020 Graz
Grüne Gasse 2, near the Lendplatz, independent in its design, in the upper part of the band.
Between the station and the river:
Annenstraße 43, 8020 Graz
Annenstraße 43. Halfway along, and therefore closer to the city than the rest of the station group.
At the station:
Europaplatz 1, 8020 Graz
Europaplatz 1, right on the forecourt, and the most consistently designed house of the group. A warning for drivers: on the Europaplatz the short-stay zone allows one hour only.
Bahnhofgürtel 89, 8020 Graz
Bahnhofgürtel 89, likewise on the forecourt.
Annenstraße 58-60, 8020 Graz
Annenstraße 58–60. The lowest entry price in our entire selection.
Eggenberger Gürtel 11, 8020 Graz
Eggenberger Gürtel 11. Recently renamed; details about the house can therefore go out of date faster than elsewhere.
Yes, if you want to go out in the evening (then: Lendplatz or Grieskai), if you arrive by train (then: the station quarter), if you want to stay cheaply, or if you come by car — the approaches are easier here than in the old town.
Rather not, if you need quiet, or if you firmly expect to do everything on foot and end up at the station.
| Hotel | Price | Hauptplatz | Tram | Score | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel Das Weitzer | € 70–160 | 6 min | 2 min | 88#4 | Check availability |
| Hotel Mariahilf | € 75–140 | 7 min | 2 min | 81#6 | Check availability |
| Grand Hôtel Wiesler | € 110–180 | 5 min | 1 min | 78#7 | Check availability |
| EKONO by Leva Hotel Strasser | € 63–95 | 24 min | 4 min | 76#9 | Check availability |
| Hotel Daniel Graz | € 65–110 | 27 min | 1 min | 73#11 | Check availability |
| Hotel Drei Raben | € 70–100 | 18 min | 1 min | 63#15 | Check availability |
| B&B Hotel Graz-Hbf | € 55–95 | 23 min | 3 min | 58#18 | Check availability |
| Austria Trend Hotel Europa Graz Hauptbahnhof | € 79–131 | 25 min | 1 min | 55#20 | Check availability |
| Gasthof Lend-Platzl | € 120–140 | 13 min | 7 min | 53#21 | Check availability |
| Lendhotel | € 80–130 | 20 min | 8 min | 46#24 | Check availability |
Score and # rank apply to the default weighting (price 40%, walkability 40%, character 20%) across all 25 hotels, also in a filtered table. Walking times are crow-fly × 1.3 ÷ 4.5 km/h — estimated, not routed.
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Sorted by score at the default weighting of 40 / 40 / 20. Click through for the hotel page; prices are researched guide figures, not live rates.