The short answer
April to June and September to October are the easiest months for walking between sights, with average daytime highs of about 15 to 26 degrees Celsius in the Wikipedia climate table. The Hofburg’s main visitor attractions run all year, so you will not miss them in winter. The question is what else you want around them: Christmas markets, a ball season trip, or a Lipizzaner performance.
Plan your tickets before you fix dates. The Sisi Museum’s FAQ says it can only guarantee admission with an online ticket for a booked time slot. See tickets and tours for options.
Sisi Museum redesign
In October 2026 the Sisi Museum’s official page said the museum area was temporarily closed until the redesigned Sisi Museum opens on 19 November, with reduced admission prices and revised hours until 18 November. Check the official opening-times page before booking.
Month by month
These are 1991 to 2020 averages for Vienna’s Innere Stadt (old town) station, as shown in the Wikipedia climate table, which cites the national weather service. Rain days count days with 1 mm or more.
| Month | Avg high / low (°C) | Rain days | Sunshine (hours) | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 4.2 / -0.1 | 7.5 | 70 | Ball season peaks |
| Feb | 7.0 / 1.1 | 6.3 | 104 | Ball season peaks |
| Mar | 11.0 / 4.0 | 7.7 | 155 | Still cool |
| Apr | 17.4 / 8.6 | 6.4 | 217 | Mild for walking |
| May | 21.1 / 12.3 | 9.3 | 249 | Mild, rain days rise |
| Jun | 25.7 / 16.4 | 9.0 | 259 | Warm |
| Jul | 26.9 / 17.7 | 8.9 | 273 | Warmest month |
| Aug | 26.6 / 17.5 | 8.0 | 266 | Warm |
| Sep | 21.6 / 13.8 | 7.2 | 194 | Mild for walking |
| Oct | 15.0 / 8.9 | 7.0 | 133 | Cooler, shorter days |
| Nov | 9.5 / 5.0 | 6.9 | 71 | Christmas markets begin |
| Dec | 4.7 / 0.7 | 7.7 | 57 | Markets until 23 to 26 December |
The Vienna Tourist Board adds that Vienna has no rainy season, though thunderstorms push summer rainfall slightly higher, and that summer temperatures sit around 30 degrees, with the hottest days able to exceed 35. Spring and autumn can feel chilly in the wind, and snow is lighter than elsewhere in Austria.
What each season is like
- Winter (December to February): daytime highs between about 4 and 7 degrees, with lows around freezing, and the least sunshine of the year (57 hours in December). The Vienna Tourist Board points to the New Year’s concert, Christmas markets and ice rinks, and the city’s ball season. Indoor sights such as the Imperial Apartments suit these months.
- Spring (March to May): highs climb from 11 to 21 degrees. The Tourist Board mentions flowers and pavement cafés, with wind that can make spring feel chilly. It is a comfortable window for the walk between the Hofburg, the Graben and the Ringstrasse.
- Summer (June to August): highs of 26 to 27 degrees on average, with 8 to 9 rain days a month, often from thunderstorms. The hottest days can exceed 35 degrees, so plan the Hofburg indoors for the middle of the day and outdoor strolls for the evening.
- Autumn (September to November): from 21.6 degrees in September to 9.5 in November. The Tourist Board describes autumn parks and vineyards in red, orange and yellow, and plenty of art exhibitions. Daylight shortens quickly, with 133 hours of sunshine in October against 194 in September.
Crowds: seasons, days and times
We found no published month-by-month visitor figures for Vienna, so this page does not claim a “quiet month”. What the sources do show is scale: the Vienna Tourist Board counted 20,065,000 visitor overnight stays in 2025, a record, and says November alone brought 131 million euros in accommodation revenue, up 10 percent on the year before. Expect busy periods to match the event calendar below.
What you can control is the booking and the day:
- Book a timed slot. Sisi Museum admission is guaranteed only with an online ticket for a booked slot.
- Use the opening and closing edges. Check the Sisi Museum’s opening times for your date, because interim hours apply only until 18 November 2026. The Imperial Treasury is open 9am to 5:30pm, with admission up to 30 minutes before closing (official FAQ, checked October 2026). The first slot of the day or a late-afternoon one is a sensible default, though no official source says which slots are quietest.
- Mind the weekdays. The Imperial Treasury is closed on Tuesdays. The Kunsthistorisches Museum lists late opening on Thursday until 9pm for October to December 2026, and the Albertina is open until 9pm on Wednesday and Friday (both checked October 2026).
- Sundays. The Naschmarkt stalls are closed on Sundays, so do the market on another day.
Christmas markets
The Vienna Tourist Board’s 2026 listings include three markets in or beside the old town:
- Maria-Theresien-Platz Christmas Village: 20 November to 26 December. Monday to Friday 11am to 9pm, weekends 10am to 9pm.
- Am Hof: 13 November to 23 December. Monday to Thursday 11am to 9pm, Friday to Sunday and public holidays 10am to 9pm.
- Stephansplatz Christmas Village: 6 November to 26 December, daily 11am to 9pm, with shorter hours on 24 to 26 December.
The big Rathausplatz market runs from 13 November to 26 December, daily 10am to 10pm, and closes at 6:30pm on Christmas Eve. Dates and hours are set each year, so check the Vienna Tourist Board list and the Rathausplatz site before you go.
Ball season
The Vienna Tourist Board says the ball season opens on 11 November at 11:11am with a public waltz on the Graben, and peaks in January and February. An unusually large number of balls are held at the Hofburg, including the Doctors’ Ball, the Lawyers’ Ball and the Hunters’ Ball, and the Ukrainian Charity Ball closes the Hofburg season. For 2027 the same page lists the Hunters’ Ball on 25 January, the Doctors’ Ball on 30 January, the Lawyers’ Ball on 6 February and the Ukrainian Charity Ball on 11 February. The Opera Ball is on 4 February, at the State Opera rather than the Hofburg. Confirm dates and tickets with each organiser, because the lists change.
Spanish Riding School
The Spanish Riding School performs in the Hofburg’s Winter Riding School. In the booking window listed in October 2026 (14 October to 11 November), the first performances shown were Saturdays and Sundays at 11am, plus a Friday evening show at 7pm on 30 October. Morning exercise sessions ran on Tuesdays to Fridays, starting at 10am. The school lets you book up to 12 months ahead, and says the programme can change.
Wikipedia reports that the stallions are taken to their summer base in Heldenberg, Lower Austria, for seven weeks in July and August. We could not find an official statement of the break dates, so check the performance calendar before you plan a summer trip. Our Hofburg guide covers the school and the palace rooms.
Public holidays
The Vienna Tourist Board lists these public holidays for 2026: 1 January, 6 January, 6 April (Easter Monday), 1 May, 14 May (Ascension), 25 May (Whit Monday), 4 June (Corpus Christi), 15 August, 26 October, 1 November, 8 December, 25 December and 26 December. Easter, Ascension, Whit Monday and Corpus Christi move each year, so use the holiday list for other years. On 8 December it notes that shops are open.
The Hofburg’s main sights mostly stay open. The Sisi Museum is open daily and on public holidays, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum publishes 2026 holiday hours of 10am to 6pm, with a short day on 24 December (10am to 3pm) and a late finish on 31 December (until 9pm), as checked in October 2026. Always confirm on the venue’s own site for the date you plan.
Putting it together
For a first visit, pick a weekday outside the Tuesday closure, book a morning slot and plan a Vienna itinerary that adds a nearby sight such as the Albertina. See visiting the Hofburg for entrances and practical advice.
