From pirouettes to water somersaults

Celebrating the New Year is often accompanied by good resolutions. Many people resolve to do more sport in the New Year. The excuse that winter limits one’s sporting activities is, in any case, not valid at all. In Vienna alone, there are countless possibilities for enjoying sport in winter, both indoors and outdoors.

Out on the ice

The ice skating season has long been under way and on the ice rinks in the Albert Schultz Eishalle, the Wiener Stadthalle and at the Eisring Süd, pirouettes are already being turned. The ultimate ice skating fun is also on offer in the open air. Beginners and professionals alike can feel the wind in their faces on both the open-air ice rink of the Vienna Ice Skating Association, at 6,000 square metres the biggest in the city, and the highest one in front of Schloss Wilhelminenberg. At only 300 square metres, this rink cannot compete in terms of size, but the view from the palace’s terrace over the whole of Vienna makes organisers of other rinks green with envy. What was the world’s first open-air artificial ice rink is also to be found at a lofty height – the Engelmann rink above the roofs of the 17th district.

The opening of the Vienna Ice Dream (Wiener Eistraum) is eagerly awaited. On 23 January, the Rathausplatz is once again transformed into a winter wonderland.
Naturally, most of the ice rinks also offer the possibility of doing alpine-style curling (Eisstockschießen).

Through the city on your skis

If the weather is favourable, there is nothing to stop you from tobogganing, cross-country skiing or even alpine skiing and snowboarding in Vienna. When there is enough snow, cross-country trails for beginners and the advanced lead through Vienna. Those who prefer long, straight tracks for training can do so to their hearts’ content on the 12 km long trail on the Danube Island. The trail in the Steinhofgründe park is shorter, but has tiring slopes. You can have guaranteed winter fun when tobogganing. As soon as enough snow has settled in the city, numerous meadows in Vienna’s parks, or the city’s steep streets, are quickly turned into tobogganing slopes. The chances usually look even better for enthusiastic tobogganing fans on the hill of the Jesuitenwiese in the Prater park. Here, when temperatures drop to minus two degrees, artificial snow is made, even when there is no real snow to be seen anywhere. The same is true of the Hohe-Wand-Wiese, which, as a former Alpine Ski World Cup venue, has become Vienna’s ‘local mountain’. When there is enough natural snow, people can also switch to the Dollwiese.

Trekking through the snow

Snowshoe trekking is a new trend somewhere between a winter walk and ski touring. You climb up snow-covered mountains on oversized soles that prevent you from sinking in and then elegantly glide down the slopes on powder snow. The mountains near Vienna are a veritable paradise for these winter sports.

For lovers of water and warmth

Those for whom it is too frosty outside can escape to Vienna’s sports halls and fitness centres. Tennis, badminton and squash will warm you up properly, even if temperatures outside are on the way down. On cold days, a visit to an indoor swimming pool or a thermal spa is particularly popular with children. The Oberlaa thermal spa offers plenty of variety for old and young alike, with its four separate indoor and outdoor pools, sauna complex, Jacuzzis and a water fun park. The 80 m long slide with a special projection system will turn your visit into a real adventure. The Diana fun pool is more centrally located and, with a 125 m long slide with an uphill section and a tunnel, is lacking nothing in facilities. While children will definitely be kept busy on the pirate ship and in the water palace, adults can enjoy a constant temperature of 29 degrees under palm trees, forgetting the greyness of winter and dreaming of the south.