The most beautiful cities in Austria

Welcome to one of Europe’s most beautiful countries. Austria’s landscapes, regions and townscapes provide almost the full range of European variety in the centre of the continent. Austria is often associated, rightly, with winter sports, but there is so much more on offer. Its alpine areas are rugged and picturesque, but that’s far from being the whole story.

Weather

Austria's weather is as diverse as its landscapes, although the climate is moderate in European terms. Austria has some of the world's oldest regular weather records. In the east summers can be warm, with maximum temperatures of 35 deg C or higher.

In the winter, temperatures can drop below -15 deg with heavy snowfalls, especially in the western, Alpine regions. There, rainfall can be high, with short summers and long winters.

The Föhn, a characteristic southerly wind from the Mediterranean striking the Alpine slopes, dries and warms as it descends, influencing the climate in lower regions. The same word is used for a hair dryer.

In recent years, however, the trend has been to relatively dry seasons, especially during the 2022-23 winter. Forest fires broke out in March. In the 2023 summer wildfires struck many parts of Europe and Austria was not spared. July was one of the warmest on record. In the second half of September, Vienna's maximum temperatures touched 30 degrees.

Rainfall has been relatively low in March and April for the past 20 years, but the keynote has been a high level of variation. After a warm 2023 summer, the November rainfall was in the top five volumes on record. Heavy snows struck the west of the country in the first week of December, making flights into or out of Innsbruck almost impossible.

The recommended months for non-skiing travellers are May to October.