Austria: Parndorf – Shopping Town

Fisrt of all we should make one thing clear – there is Pandorf and there is Parndorf. The latter is the name for a shopping center. However, not that many people realize that there is the village of the same name (4,5 thousand people live there). Until 1920, it belonged to the Mosonska Zupa.

In case you choose train as your means of transport and depart, say, from Bratislava or Wien than you should get off at Pandorf Ort stop. Trains ride there every half an hour. It takes about 25 minutes from Bratislava and then there are two options for you. Either you take pretty affordable taxi called Abraham Pandorf or you can rent a bike at Next Bike station (you have to get registered first). Certainly, you can walk but we do not recommend this option.

The best way to get to Parndorf is by car. You take A6 freeway when travelling from Slovakia. Then take exit to B50 road (Gattendorf) and then turn right to road umber 10 to Lake Neusiedl. If going from Wien take A4 and take the exit to Neusiedl - Gewerbepark. It will take you around 30 minutes.

Before we visit the shopping center there are couple of interesting facts we want to tell you. The shopping center offers reservations for 20 persons. Should you make a reservation you receive a 10% sale card to most of shops there. There is one huge sale one time a year. It causes massive madness . The date is known before it takes place. At McArthurGlen Outlet visitor center you can learn information how to joint tourism and shopping. At the visitors’ center you can get leaflets and tips for trips around. You can buy tickets there for events, discount cards and even accommodation or food packages. We certainly do recommend you to visit the center. Burgenland is wonderful land with wonderful nature, atmosphere and 300 days of sun a year.

Easy ride to the shopping time is followed by one of the most difficult and most tiresome walks ever. Not just for your legs but wallet es wall. As Parndorf center (Designer Outlet Parndorf as its official name sounds) covers an area of 37 000 m². It is still expanding. 170 stores selling stuff from 600 world known brands is truly tiresome. There are clothes stores, shoes, porcelain, electronics, accessories, toys, jewelry – simply everything you can think of. Products are about 30% cheaper than in normal stores. In case you are lucky, sales could be even larger. However, the products are usually from previous season. There are, however, certain limitations of clothes’ sizes, colors, types etc. Also there are many free parking spaces. Over 3000. You can pay with a credit card here. ATMs are also around. There is a children playground and other attractions. A supermarket is nearby. The center is open from Monday to Saturday. Sundays and on holidays it is closed.

This town has its interesting architecture, apart from shopping. Houses’ facades are colorful and usually seasonal decorations hang on them (for instance flowers). These interesting architectural features make shopping more pleasant. This shopping center is sort of an attraction and our impressions are great. We did shopping for great prices. Architecture is beautiful and we added one more impression to our collection.

Of course, another option was to do the shopping in a Slovakina shopping center – in Voderady, Trnava. But it is about three thirds smaller than the one in Austria. Prices are more or less the same (according to our sources).
GPS: 47°58'40.5"N 16°50'50.3"E

Text and photos: Oskár Mažgút