Travel to Vienna for some of Europe’s best Christmas markets

A two hour Easyjet flight from Bristol Airport takes you to Vienna – capital of Austria, UNESCO World Heritage Site, home of Strauss, Schubert, Klimt and Freud, and where you’ll find some of Europe’s best Christmas markets.

To get into the city from Vienna International Airport, follow signs for the City Airport Train (CAT) but don’t catch it. At the red counter, pick up a single for less than a quarter of the price of the CAT (€3.90). Both trains leave from the same platform and take you to Wien Mitte – the central railway station.

From there, jump onto the speedy underground rail system, the historic tram or public bus. All forms of Vienna’s excellent public transport network take the same tickets. If you’ll be using it a lot, avoid buying single journeys (€2.20) and instead opt for a Vienna City Card, allowing you to make unlimited journeys for up to 72 hours (€24.90) and also offering discounts in over 200 attractions and restaurants. Download the useful app to find options close to your location.

Vienna’s historic trams are a cheap and easy way to see the city

The old city is located within Ringstrasse – Ring Street – a roughly circular road that follows the line of the old city walls. A hotel near the Ring is ideal – and those just outside it are very reasonably priced. At the fun-loving Twenty Five Hours Hotel, with supremely comfortable, fashionable rooms and a lively roof terrance bar popular with locals, double rooms start from €81 (excluding breakfast).

Daytime temperatures in December average just 3°C, but there are plenty of indoor activities to help you stay warm. Within five minutes walk of Twenty Five Hours Hotel is the MuseumsQuartier, one of the largest art and culture complexes in the world. It’s home to ten cultural institutions, including mumok (entry €11), which houses a range of modern art from modernism, pop art and beyond.

A double room at the comfortable Twenty Five Hours Hotel

Vienna has over 120 museums and galleries to be explored. Other highlights include the twin natural history (entry €10) and art history (entry €15) museums, set in the beautiful Maria-Theresien Platz, and the Belvedere Museum (entry from €15), which holds many of Klimt’s work including The Kiss. The two dramatic former palaces and formal gardens occupy a hill offering views over the old city, and also host a Christmas Village (to December 23).

Vienna’s old city is easily navigable with a decent map, but a guide helps both with orientation and unpicking some of the rich history all around. A half-day walking tour with fantastically knowledgeable Red Umbrella guide Ilse Heigerth costs around €150 and includes a stop at one of the city’s traditional coffee houses.

The architecture of Vienna is decadent and impressive

Café Pruckel, which opened in 1904, is one such kaffeehaus to indulge your sweet tooth. Try the delicious apple strudel packed with cinamon (€3.50) and drink Wiener Melange – traditional Viennese coffee that is half espresso, half hot frothy milk, all topped with whipped cream (€4.30).

Despite heavy bombing during WWII, the classical architecture of Vienna’s old city has largely survived. At Christmas, lights and chandeliers illuminate the wide pedestrianised streets that lead between the Vienna State Opera and the imperial palace. Stop in Demel, formerly the bakers to the imperial court, for sweets and Sachertorte cake (invented at the nearby Sacher Hotel), and continue past the luxury shops and tiny roasted chestnut stands to St Stephen’s cathedral, with its traditional Christmas market in the adjoining square.

Stefansdom, or St Stephen’s Cathedral, in central Vienna

Completed in 1160, Stephansdom is battle-scarred and often clad in scaffolding as the soft sandstone is cleaned and repaired, but stands proud nonetheless. As you pass through the main door, note the two iron bars in the stonework, used in the Middle Ages to measure bolts of cloth. On New Year’s Eve, the bell in the incomplete North tower tolls the new year in, and couples waltz to Strauss’ The Blue Danube.

You can’t help but be awed by the sheer scale of Hofburg, the former imperial palace and modern seat of Vienna’s president. From the apartments that were home to the Hapsburg clan during their 600-year reign over much of Europe (entry €25.50), to the balcony where Hitler declared Austria to be under German control in 1938, the complex drips with fascinating history. It also houses the Austrian national library (entry €7) and Spanish Riding School, where white Lipizanner ponies prance to delighted crowds on Saturdays and Sundays (from €25).

Vienna’s famous Lipizzaner ponies passing through the imperial palace to their stables

A little further around the Ring, you’ll find the dramatically-spired city hall (Rathaus), which hosts Vienna’s biggest Christmas market (to December 26) with stalls selling gifts, pretzels, pancakes and all sorts of other snacks, plus gluhwein to keep the cold at bay. Once the market packs up, the square is transformed into an ice-skating rink.

If the food at the market hasn’t hit the spot, eat some of the city’s finest Wiener Schnitzel – a breaded, pan-fried veal cutlet – at Lugeck, an upmarket take on the traditional tavern. The schnitzel (€20.80) comes piping hot with crisp batter and a generous squeeze of lemon, and is served with a potato and lamb’s leaf salad, all the better when washed down with a local craft beer (from €3.80).

Wiener Schnitzel at Lugeck restaurant

Outside the Ring, the Christmas market at Karlplatz with its carnival stalls and fairground rides is the city’s best for families. And if it’s thrills you’re seeking, the Wiener Riesenrad, a giant Ferris wheel at Prater amusement park (€9.50), was built in 1897 and offers a spectacular view over the city. Schönbrunn, the former imperial summer palace with its beautiful gardens is also well worth a visit (tours from €14.20).

Make sure you pack your comfortable walking shoes, a camera and leave plenty of room in your suitcase for souvenirs: Vienna is a citybreak destination up there with the best of them, and there’s no better time to visit than at Christmas.

Plan your visit to Vienna, book tickets and find out more at www.vienna.info.