Christmas in Vienna, between the markets and the Musikverein

Vienna was the capital of an empire for centuries, and it still has the buildings, the institutions and the self-assurance to prove it. At Christmas all of that is turned towards the season. The Ringstrasse, the great boulevard built in the nineteenth century on the line of the old city walls, is lit up. Its grand public buildings make a stage set for markets, and its concert halls and opera house have their busiest weeks of the year.

The city is also, it should be said, cold in December. Temperatures hover around freezing, and the wind off the Danube plain can be sharp. Dress for it, and the city rewards you.

The markets

Vienna's markets are many and varied, and each has its own character. The largest fills the square in front of the neo-Gothic Rathaus, the city hall, with rows of stalls, lights strung through the trees of the park, and a great deal of Punsch, the hot spiced drink that is the Viennese rival to mulled wine. In front of Schönbrunn, the Habsburgs' summer palace, a market of crafts and food sits below the yellow façade. In the narrow Biedermeier lanes of the Spittelberg quarter, a smaller market feels more like a village fair, with handmade crafts rather than mass-produced decorations.

The pleasure is in moving between them, taking the tram along the Ring, and stopping for a hot drink or a sausage when the cold gets into your hands.

The music

Vienna's musical reputation is not a tourist-board invention. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and the Strauss family all lived and worked here, and the city still treats music as a serious part of everyday life. The Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic, has one of the most admired concert halls in the world, the Golden Hall, all gilt and caryatids, with an acoustic famous for its warmth. On New Year's Day it hosts the Philharmonic's New Year's Concert of Strauss waltzes and polkas, broadcast around the world. Tickets for that one are allocated by a lottery, and the chances are slim.

But December is full of concerts, at the Musikverein, the Konzerthaus and in the city's churches, and the State Opera has a full winter season. Even one evening of music makes a Vienna Christmas complete. It is worth looking at what is on before you go.

Some of the best music of the season is free, or nearly so. St Stephen's Cathedral, in the centre of the old city, with its steep roof of glazed patterned tiles and its single great Gothic spire, holds services with music through Advent and Christmas. The Vienna Boys' Choir, founded in the fifteenth century, sings at Sunday Mass in the Hofburg chapel during the season. A Christmas Eve service in one of the city's churches is a quieter alternative to a concert, and very Viennese.

The coffee houses, and a day on the Danube

Between the markets and the music, there are the coffee houses. Viennese coffee house culture is recognised by UNESCO as part of Austria's intangible heritage, and it is easy to see why: marble tables, bentwood chairs, newspapers on wooden holders, and waiters who let you sit for hours over a single cup. In winter they are a refuge, and the cakes are as much a part of the tradition as the coffee.

Just You's Christmas in Vienna, five nights, is for solo travellers. Its places include a visit to the Naschmarkt, the city's long open-air food market, and an excursion out of town to Melk. There, a great Baroque Benedictine abbey stands on a rock above the Danube at the start of the Wachau valley, one of the finest Baroque buildings in central Europe.

Vienna as part of a longer trip

For those who would rather see Vienna at another time of year, Just You's Prague, Vienna and Budapest, seven nights, links three of central Europe's great old capitals. It runs from Prague and the medieval town of Český Krumlov to Vienna, then to the artists' town of Szentendre on the Danube, Budapest and Lake Balaton.

At Christmas, though, Vienna is worth a trip on its own. Few cities wear the season so well, and fewer still have a concert hall of that quality in which to hear it.