Christmas Markets in Europe

If you are comfortable renting a car, do so. The roads are kept in excellent condition in your area of travel. You might want to include the Mannheim market as well as those listed. Have a great trip !

H Adrienne, A few years ago three sisters, my mother and I spent 10 days in Germany for the Christmas markets. We used Munich as our home base and took day trips to the other cities for their markets. We traveled by train and we just didn't want the hassle of parking at the busy markets. Every place we visited had easy walking from the train station to the town square for the markets. We visited Nurenburg, Wurztburgs, Saltzburg and ROthenburg. We loved them all and especially that we could take the train back to Munich and our hotel where we were very comfortable. I thought it was a great way to do what we did. SInce you are staying a bit longer than we did, you'll have time to move on to France and establish yourself there to enjoy some of their markets. I personally would not bother with a car for this type of trip. Have fun whatever you decide to do. They are magical,espceally with a dusting of snow.

H Adrienne, A few years ago three sisters, my mother and I spent 10 days in Germany for the Christmas markets. We used Munich as our home base and took day trips to the other cities for their markets. We traveled by train and we just didn't want the hassle of parking at the busy markets. Every place we visited had easy walking from the train station to the town square for the markets. We visited Nurenburg, Wurztburgs, Saltzburg and ROthenburg. We loved them all and especially that we could take the train back to Munich and our hotel where we were very comfortable. I thought it was a great way to do what we did. SInce you are staying a bit longer than we did, you'll have time to move on to France and establish yourself there to enjoy some of their markets. I personally would not bother with a car for this type of trip. Have fun whatever you decide to do. They are magical,espceally with a dusting of snow.

On your way through Germany after leaving Colmar and Strasbourg, I would make a stop in Esslingen. They have a unique medieval market. It is quite large and the atmosphere is totally different from any other Christmas market you might visit. Plenty of half-timbered buildings, torches, lanterns, candle light and all hand-made crafts done by the people at the stands. Esslingen is a short trip from Stuttgart. I think it was about 15 min. on the train. I really liked the market in Stuttgart too. Trains are easy to use for these destinations.

We did the Christmas markets over Christmas/New Years to years ago. It snowed lightly nearly every day. Roads are in excellent conditions provided, of course, it is not snowing, raining, freezing, sleeting, etc., then roads become just like any other winter roads. One day was bad with a lot of ice later in the PM which made the return trip to our apartment long and slow. At that time year I would avoid using a car since all of your locations are easily accessed via train.

Definitely one of the oldest Christmas markets of all: Frankfurt! It's absolutely lovely, romantic...

Thank you all so much for your responses and suggestions. I'm leaning toward the train, I think. In doing so, does anyone have a suggestion as far as which line to go with? We've only traveled by train one time and that was with EURAIL. We were very happy with it, but we just had round trip tickets from Munich to Prague. Any suggestions for a rail that we can use our tickets for x amount of times within x amount of days?

Eurail and Rail Europe do not run trains. They sell passes and tickets. The tickets for individual trains that are sold by Rail Europe are marked up (sometimes substantially) because they are a reseller. Passes these days are usually not a good deal. In order to figure out if they are, you need to compare pass prices with the best prices for individual tickets. As I said, you won't find the best prices on Rail Europe (they don't even show all trains). You want to buy your tickets from the entity that actually runs the train you are taking. For trains in Germany, it's the Bahn: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. This is also a great website to research schedules for all of Europe; they only show prices for trains that start or end in Germany. Trains in France are run by SNCF. You can check prices and buy from their site: http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/ (choose France as your ticket collection country). Some have had trouble using this, and report greater ease in using Capitaine Train (I have no experience with this site, as I've been able to use SNCF): http://www.capitainetrain.com/en. continued..

continued.. Before buying any tickets, look at the price for travel tomorrow vs travel for your actual dates. If there's a big difference, the advance purchase tickets are worth it, as long as you can commit to non-exchangeable, non-refundable tickets. But if the price is the same or close, you may prefer to wait until you get there. Regional trains (such as Strasbourg to Colmar) will not have advance discounts; just buy these as needed. But high speed trains (such as Paris to Strasbourg) will have SUBSTANTIAL discounts if you can snag them early enough, and can work with the restrictions. For both Germany and France, you can usually print out advance tickets at home (the sites say to use A4 paper only, but 8.5 x 11 works fine). Sometimes for France, you need to pick up the ticket at a station or SNCF Boutique (a freestanding "ticket store" in town, which can be closer and easier than the station). If you are doing this, you MUST bring the credit card you used to purchase the ticket.

Gengenbach, just across the Rhine from Strasburg, has the world's largest Advent Calendar (normally the town Rathaus)

We were in Prague for the Christmas season several years ago, the fairs in Old Town Square & others were wonderful, and we often ran into wandering carolers on the streets.

Last year I did a 12-day trip to see the markets, all by train. Strasbourg was charming, Colmar was my favorite - really magical, Esslingen is a must-see and Stuttgart worth a visit also. I used Frankfurt as a base for day trips to [1] Mainz & Wiesbaden (recommended), [2] Bad Homburg (nice, long walk from train station), and [3] Buedingen (lovely town but the Xmas market was nothing compared to the others). After 2 days in Munich (several huge markets), I ended in Salzburg which was also special. I found Frankfurt's markets to be the most commercial and least interesting, but only in comparison to others.

You can get train tickets at considerable discounts if you purchase on-line 2-3 months in advance using the bahn.de official website. All the trains were comfortable and on time. Driving would be more difficult, since the city centers are all closed to traffic because of the markets. Hotels in or near the markets will be short taxi rides from the train stations.