Things to Do in Austria in April
April weather, activities, events & insider tips
April Weather in Austria
Temperature, rainfall and humidity at a glance
Is April Right for You?
Weigh the advantages and considerations before booking
- + April closes Austria's ski season on a high note. Morning corduroy firms up under cold nights, then softens into sweet corn by lunchtime, and lift lines at St. Anton shrink by 70% on weekdays.
- + City weather turns agreeable, sidewalk cafés along Kärntner Straße roll out their terraces the moment Vienna hits 15°C (59°F), and the chestnut trees edging the Ringstrasse push out their first buds.
- + After Easter, Salzburg and Innsbruck hotel rates drop 30-40% as skiers head home. The same deluxe room that cost €400 in February drops to €160 once the Christmas-market surcharge disappears.
- + Lower-Alpine hiking comes back to life in spring: Hallstatt trails buried under snow in March open up, and the well-known Five Fingers lookout above Krippenstein usually sheds its white coat by mid-April.
- − April is Austria's shoulder-season weather gamble, Monday may bring a blizzard on the slopes, Thursday could see you licking gelato in a t-shirt. Bring both thermal layers and sunblock or pay resort prices for emergency gear.
- − Mountain cable cars trim their timetables, Kitzbühel's Hahnenkamm gondola shifts from every 10 minutes in peak season to every 20-30, which can steal an hour from your hiking plans if you don't plan around it.
- − Vienna's palace gardens (Schönbrunn, Belvedere) stay brown and muddy until late April. The baroque fountains look grand. But the manicured hedges that frame them in summer photos are still bare.
Best Activities in April
Top things to do during your visit
April skiing in Austria delivers the goods, glacier resorts Hintertux and Stubai spin their lifts through May with 100% snow cover yet half the Christmas crowds. By 11 AM the surface turns from ice to velvety corn, and views stretch for miles across the Zillertal Alps. Après-ski spills onto sunny terraces where locals swap ski boots for deck shoes.
Mild 15°C (59°F) afternoons make cycling Vienna's 5.3 km (3.3-mile) Ringstrasse loop pleasant, no summer sweat, no winter chill. In 25 minutes of easy pedaling you roll past 12 UNESCO sites, from Gothic St. Stephen's to the neo-Renaissance opera house, the Danube Canal breeze keeping you cool.
The Berchtesgaden salt mines operate year-round just across the German border. But April means you won't shiver during the underground boat glide across the salt lake. The 50-minute tour includes wooden miners' slides and a sip of 30% saline brine, an ideal rainy-day fallback when Alpine trails turn to sludge.
Between Krems and Melk, the Danube Valley greens up in late April, apricot blossoms perfuming the air as you pedal past 700-year-old terraced vineyards. The 35 km (22-mile) riverside path is flat, paved, and lined with heuriger taverns pouring the season's first young wines, crisp Grüner Veltliner that matches fresh asparagus dishes.
Graz's farmers' markets burst with spring bounty in April, white asparagus, wild garlic, and the first strawberries hit Kaiser-Josef-Markt. A walking tour links six family-run spots inside the UNESCO-listed old town, from a 150-year-old coffeehouse dishing Sacher torte to a modern Styrian kitchen drizzling pumpkin-seed oil over everything.
Hallstatt dawns are pure magic in April, mist lifts off Lake Hallstatt while pastel houses mirror themselves in glass-smooth water, and you have the scene almost to yourself before tour buses roll in after 10 AM. The 2-hour shoreline stroll from the market square to the Catholic church covers 1.5 km (0.9 miles) yet yields 20+ postcard frames.
April Events & Festivals
What's happening during your visit
Schönbrunn Palace's OsterMarkt turns the baroque gardens into a spring craft fair stocked with hand-painted eggs, local honey, and the year's first outdoor wine tastings. The adjacent Palm House stays balmy for tropical plants while the gardens begin to bloom.
This classical-music festival packs the Grosses Festspielhaus with top orchestras, think Berlin Philharmonic thundering through Beethoven in the same hall where Mozart once premiered. The week-long run ends on Easter Sunday, and tickets vanish in January.
Packing Checklist
Bookmark this page — your progress is saved between visits
Essential Tips
Insider knowledge and common pitfalls to avoid
Book Experiences in Austria
Top-rated things to do in Austria this April
Didn't see anything interesting yet?
Browse Viator's full catalog of tours, day trips, food experiences, and private guides in Austria.
See All Austria Tours on Viator