Hi, I'm planning a to go to Austria in early May this year. I'll be travelling with my wife and we are not sure if early May will be a good time. We are not into hiking/camping or outdoor sports (skiing for example). We intend to spend most of the time sightseeing and enjoying the alpine beauty.
We are planning to go to Europe for 14 days. Will you please advice if early May will be a good time to visit Austria/Switzerland?
If you are not into hiking then May is OK. Smaller crowds than in summer.
May is only ok , not great . Mountain views csn be obscured by clouds and rain, but you might be lucky . I would still aim for late May at least .
Due to the climate change weather has become more unpredictable on the long run although forecasts up to two weeks are surpringly precise now thanks to the supercomputers.
Normally May is better than April, and June is better than May.
But there is no guarantee, e.g. last year June was one of the rainiest ever recorded.
There is no bad time to visit Europe, but if you're goal in Austria and Switzerland is to see the Alps, this is one of the worst times of the year. It's mostly melting snow, fog and rain season. And much of the mountain tourist infrastructure closes temporarily.
I have had good luck in Austria,Switzerland and German Alpine areas from mid April thru October.
Mike
I would add one note from my trip to just Switzerland in May 11 years ago. I was only interested in mountain scenery as a walker and a train freak, not even a "hiker", and I enjoyed my time in May very much. BUT in the SMALL towns I used as my base (eg Lauterbrunnen), I found about half the tourist businesses--esp restaurants--closed. May is the tourist business owners' time off. Not crowded at all, clearly, but not that easy in little towns to find lots of places to eat either. Just saying...
Weather is so unpredictable. I was in Switzerland a few years back in September, which is usually perfect weather. And it was for the first 2 weeks, but then an abnormally cold, rainy front came in for the next few weeks. After a while we took an unexected trip to the south of France to warm up :-) It helps to be flexible.
Personally I think mountains can be cold even in summer so May is probably too cold for me. But I'm going to spend some time in Salzburg in mid-June so we'll see...
