Vienna in December

When to go

December is Christmas-market season in Vienna: the Vienna Tourist Board lists the Rathausplatz market and the Schönbrunn Palace market with their own dates and hours, including shorter hours on Christmas Eve. The City of Vienna's holiday list shows the Immaculate Conception holiday and both Christmas holidays in the month, so check opening hours around those dates. GeoSphere Austria's most recent normals put the average daily minimum below freezing and list some snow days, so pack warm layers.

Trip facts

• GeoSphere Austria's 1991–2020 climate normals for the Wien Hohe Warte station list, for December, a mean of all daily maximum temperatures of 4 °C and a mean of all daily minimum temperatures of -0.4 °C. (klimaportal.geosphere.at, checked 2026-10-15)
• GeoSphere Austria's 1991–2020 climate normals for the Wien Hohe Warte station list a December precipitation sum of 46.8 mm, 8.6 days with precipitation of at least 1 mm and 6.2 days with a snow depth of at least 1 cm. (klimaportal.geosphere.at, checked 2026-10-15)
• The City of Vienna's list of statutory public holidays in Austria gives Mariä Empfängnis (Immaculate Conception) as Tuesday, 8 December 2026, Christtag (Christmas Day) as Friday, 25 December 2026 and Stefanitag (St. Stephen's Day) as Saturday, 26 December 2026. (www.wien.gv.at, checked 2026-10-15)
• The Vienna Tourist Board lists the Viennese Christmas Market at Rathausplatz for Nov 13 – Dec 26, 2026, daily from 10am to 10pm, with Dec 24 from 10 am to 6.30 pm. (www.wien.info, checked 2026-10-15)
• The Vienna Tourist Board lists the Christmas Market at Schönbrunn Palace for Nov 6, 2026 – Jan 6, 2027, daily from 10 am to 9 pm, with Dec 24 from 10 am to 4 pm and Dec 25 – Jan 6 from 10 am to 7 pm. (www.wien.info, checked 2026-10-15)
• The EU's official travel site says that the Entry/Exit System's progressive implementation lasted until 9 April 2026 and that from 10 April 2026 the EES is fully operational at all external border crossing points of the European countries using the system. (travel-europe.europa.eu, checked 2026-10-15)
• The EU's official ETIAS page says that ETIAS is currently not in operation and no applications for travel authorisations are collected at this point. (travel-europe.europa.eu, checked 2026-10-15)
• The Vienna Tourist Board says that from September 7, 2026 until the end of October 2027 a central section of the inner-city S-Bahn route between Wien Praterstern and Wien Hauptbahnhof will be closed to all rail traffic due to extensive modernization works, and that the REX 7 Regional Express runs from Vienna Airport to Wien Hauptbahnhof in around 20 minutes. (www.wien.info, checked 2026-10-15)
• The Vienna Tourist Board says the underground trains (U-Bahn) run from about 5:00 a.m. to about midnight, subway lines operate 24 hours a day on Friday night, Saturday night and on the nights before holidays, and night buses operate daily from 12:30 a.m. to 5 a.m. (www.wien.info, checked 2026-10-15)
• The City of Vienna's local tax page lists the local tax as 5 percent of the payment made for staying at the accommodation (VAT and breakfast not included) from 1 July 2026 until 30 June 2027. (www.wien.gv.at, checked 2026-10-15)