Spring, April to June
The best months. Mild, long light, the Schönbrunn and Belvedere gardens at their best, café terraces open, and the cultural season still running. May and June are close to ideal and priced accordingly.
Summer, July and August
Warm, sometimes genuinely hot, and quieter than you would expect. The Viennese leave, the State Opera goes dark for the summer, and some restaurants close for weeks.
What replaces them is outdoors: the Film Festival on Rathausplatz, a free open-air screen with food stalls running all July and August; the Donauinsel for swimming; the free Philharmonic Summer Night Concert in the Schönbrunn gardens in late May or June; and the Prater.
Autumn, September and October
The other good stretch. September has summer weather without the closures and the season restarts. October brings the wine harvest and the Heurigen at their best, and the light through the vineyards on the city’s edge is the reason to be here.
Winter, November to March
Cold, often grey, and Vienna’s real season.
The Christmas markets run from mid-November to Christmas — Rathausplatz is the largest and busiest, Spittelberg and Karlsplatz are the ones worth going to, Schönbrunn and the Freyung are good. They are crowded and they are not a tourist invention; the whole city uses them.
Ball season runs through Carnival, from New Year to Ash Wednesday: several hundred balls, from the Opera Ball down to the coffee-roasters’ ball and the confectioners’ ball, most of them genuinely attended by the people whose trade they belong to.
The concert season is at full strength from September to June, which means January and February — the cheapest months for flights and hotels — are among the best for what Vienna actually does.
Museums are indoor, coffee houses are indoor, and the palaces are heated. This is a good winter city.
Dates worth knowing
1 January — the New Year’s Concert, balloted the previous February. 1 May — Labour Day, a major event in a social-democratic city; much closed. 26 October — national day, museums free or reduced. 8 December — Immaculate Conception, a public holiday but shops open, and the busiest shopping day of the year.
Museums close on public holidays variably, and most close one day a week — but not the same day, so check the two or three you care about.