Vienna, Austria
Coffeehouses, opera, and the most beautiful Christmas markets in Europe.
Best time to visit
Weather by month
| Month | High | Low | Rain | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 3° | -3° | 38 mm | |
| Feb | 6° | -1° | 34 mm | |
| Mar | 10° | 1° | 43 mm | |
| Apr | 16° | 6° | 48 mm | prime |
| May | 20° | 10° | 74 mm | prime |
| Jun | 24° | 14° | 78 mm | prime |
| Jul | 26° | 16° | 77 mm | |
| Aug | 26° | 16° | 71 mm | |
| Sep | 20° | 12° | 80 mm | prime |
| Oct | 15° | 7° | 47 mm | prime |
| Nov | 9° | 3° | 43 mm | |
| Dec | 4° | -1° | 40 mm | prime |
30-year averages (1995–2024) from ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo. Rain is the monthly total.
Cost
Serves travellers at Backpacker→Ultra-luxury level. Typically around $170 a day on the ground.
Ranges are typical costs, not quotes. Check the real price before you book.
What's on
Ball season February
Opera Ball and 450 others
Christmas markets December
Rathausplatz and Schönbrunn
Worth knowing
Cards are accepted widely but Austria stayed fond of cash longer than its neighbours, and small bars, bakeries and older coffeehouses still prefer it. Tips are rounded up and handed to the waiter with the payment, not left on the table.
money · editorial
A coffeehouse table is yours for as long as you want it, and nobody will hurry you or bring the bill until you ask. Ordering simply a coffee marks you out; the names are specific and the waiter will wait. Many museums take a closing day each week, so check before crossing the city for one.
know before · editorial
The opera and most of the concert calendar go dark for the summer, so July and August give you the buildings without what happens inside them. The city is also hot and humid then, and it was not designed for that.
when not to go · editorial
The Innere Stadt is grand, central and oddly empty in the evening. The seventh and eighth districts, Neubau and Josefstadt, have the shops, bars and coffeehouses and are still walkable to everything. Leopoldstadt, across the canal, is cheaper and next to the Prater. The fourth, around the Naschmarkt, is food and markets.
where to stay · editorial
U-Bahn, trams and your feet. The inner city is largely pedestrianised and the tram ring around it is a sightseeing tour that happens to be public transport. A car is pure liability.
getting around · editorial
Vienna airport, then twenty to thirty minutes by train into the centre. The city is also a rail hub: Munich, Prague, Budapest and Salzburg are all direct and the night trains actually work.
getting there · editorial
Quests
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Schönbrunn Palace
1,441 rooms. The garden and the Gloriette up top are free.
Stephansdom
The coloured tile roof and the 136-metre south tower. Climb the 343 steps.
Belvedere
Two palaces and a garden between them. The Klimt is in the upper one.
Hofburg
Six hundred years of additions, one on top of another, with no plan at all.
The Prater Riesenrad
The 1897 ferris wheel, with wooden cabins the size of a tram.
Naschmarkt
A kilometre and a half of stalls. On Saturday the flea market runs off the far end.
See
Go into the Kunsthistorisches and stay with the Bruegels
Eat
Eat a Sachertorte and argue about which one is the real one
Sachertorte with unsweetened cream
The unsweetened cream is not optional. It is what makes it work.
Veal Wiener Schnitzel
If it is pork, the menu is required to say so. Read it.
Melange with a glass of water
The water always comes with it. Changing it is the waiter's job.
Moment
Spend a whole afternoon in a café reading the paper; it is allowed
Two hours in a café with a single newspaper
Nobody will hurry you. That is the contract, and has been since 1900.
Live music in any concert hall at all
It does not have to be the Philharmonic. The city plays every day.
Trail
The Danube on foot out to the Donauinsel
An artificial island 21 kilometres long in the middle of the river, built against floods.