In January, most of us usually hide out in a coffee house until it warms up. Seriously…you can while away the hours in the former haunts of folk like Klimt, Mahler and, um, Trotsky. They feed you cake, too.
But you probably want other suggestions for the month. Well, read on, dear visitor…
NB: Be sure to check with official sites for any changes that may impact the below, particularly prevailing COVID regulations and status requirements for visiting locations, events, etc.
Top activities in January 2022
There’s always the world-famous New Year’s Concert in the Musikverein. Though you normally need to enter the lottery early in the previous year to get a ticket. Still, plenty of other seasonal activities exist for your consideration. For example…
The New Year markets
The New Year markets did not open in 2020/2021 and it looks like only a few will open in 2021/2022.
In normal years, I’d recommend particularly t
Exhibitions and culture in January 2022
(Catch the last days of the fabulous Titian exhibition at the KHM)
Many museums time their top exhibitions for the summer or Christmas visitor peaks. And the exhibitions at Christmas may extend into the early part of January to catch tourists staying in the city for the New Year. So be sure to check what’s on, particularly at the (art) museums.
Some example exhibition highlights for January 2022:
- The final days of the Modigliani exhibition at the Albertina (until Jan 9th), with its focus on the Italian’s pioneering role in driving modern primitivism
- The comprehensive Titian exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum (until January 30th)
- An exploration of Schiele and self-portraiture at the Albertina Modern (until January 23rd). The same location also takes us back to the joys of art in The 80s
- The Rebecca Horn retrospective at the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien (until January 23rd)
- The Josef Hoffmann retrospective at the MAK museum, celebrating his 150th birthday
- The MAK also has a lovely little Teaching Klimt exhibition examining the influence of his teachers on Klimt’s evolution as an artist and showcasing some of his earlier work
- Catch Dürer and colleagues at Upper Belvedere (until January 30th) to see the artistic philosophy of the Renaissance begin to weave its magic. The end of the month also sees Lower Belvedere exploring the connection between Salvador Dalí and Sigmund Freud (from January 28th)
- A delve into the darker side of the arts with the Vienna Falls in Line exhibition at the Wien Museum MUSA exploring Nazi art policy
- Enjoy a wonderful retrospective of Susan Meiselas’s photographic projects at the Kunst Haus Wien
- Travel through the history of both The Viennese Rothschilds and discover the Kindertransporte pre-WWII child refugee programme at the Jewish Museum
- Explore key moments in the recent history of interior design at the Vienna Furniture Museum’s Home Stories exhibition
- Learn how food technology and your grocery decisions both impact defining issues of the day at the Technical Museum’s interactive Foodprints exhibition
- And for something different, the Kinosaurier exhibition at the Natural History Museum looks at dinosaurs in movies and their relation to scientific reality. Will we finally get an answer to whether velociraptors really could use door handles?
- For more suggestions, check out the current exhibition listings
January also brings the Blue Danube Film Festival, held jointly in Budapest and Vienna (showings in Vienna provisionally from the 16th to the 21st).
Get your skates on
Be prepared for a pleasant surprise if you equate ice skating with indoor rinks. January brings two golden open-air skating opportunities:
- Wiener Eistraum: a beautifully-lit set of rinks and trails across the square in front of the Rathaus and through the surrounding park. This opens from January 19th
- Eislauf-Verein: a traditional open-air rink next to the Konzerthaus that’s well over a hundred years old. Usually open daily through January
Both have skates for hire, of course.
A warming coffee
If you’re looking to escape the cold in one of the more traditional coffee houses, then try this list and follow in the footsteps of some of the great intellectuals, artists, and writers of the past.
The city also has the Vienna Coffee Festival (2022 dates TBA): not a staid industry event, but a three-day caffeine-fueled celebration of the bean, with music, competitions, tastings, demonstrations, and more.
The event shifted to October in 2021, so I’m not sure if it will return to the traditional January slot in 2022 (looks unlikely, frankly).
The venue is the home of Vienna’s big brewery (Ottakringer). So it takes you away from the picturesque centre to see another side of the city.
Slap on the skis
You won’t see too many people in Vienna waving ski sticks and buying chair lift tickets (for obvious reasons). However, the city’s not actually that far from the Alps. So if you do want to take a day trip into snowy mountains, January is a good time.
The Semmering ski resort, for example, is a short bus or train ride away.
Vienna spa
An alternative to the coffee house for spending a long, lazy day in the warm is Therme Wien: the hot water baths and spa.
The Therme has numerous thermal pools, both indoors and out, spa treatments, and much more. Although on the edge of town, the recently-opened extension to the U1 subway line means a train from the city centre takes you to the front door in about 16 minutes.
And for a little bonus…the spa entrance looks across to one of the finest patisseries and confectioners in Vienna: Konditorei Oberlaa.
Bonus tips for January
Watch the weather
It’s midwinter in Austria. You might be lucky and still enjoy
Think about the zoo
(The lower entrance to the rainforest house)
It might seem strange to suggest Vienna zoo in January, when many animals do their best to avoid the seasonal chill. But there are two reasons you might visit anyway:
- Fewer people go at this time of year, which makes for an easier and m
ore pleasant viewing experience
- The zoo has several large (and warm) indoor areas, particularly the Rainforest House, Aquarium, and Bird House
Be warned
Museums, venues, and similar normally stay open all year in Vienna, but January does put paid to some outdoor places and activities. And I’m not talking about just the obvious ones, like open-air swimming pools. For example, Schönbrunn Palace’s maze and other ticketed outdoor features close for winter.