Dreaming of a trip in late Nov/early Dec thru mid Dec - best places in Europe to go? "Short" list = Finland, Denmark, Prague, Austria, Norway, Estonia, Scotland, Germany. I'd love to see the Christmas markets but will these occur this year? Prefer a country with lower cases as we'd be indoors more due to temps. I know this is a huge open-ended question and I'll do my research for sure but looking for suggestions and any thoughts on the covid restrictions impacting travel.
TIA
I can't help you with Covid research, and obviously things could change anywhere in the next two months. Your short-list countries are so far north you're guaranteed cold, and probably also wet, weather. My best advice would be to look at countries with big cities where you can do a lot inside, plus excellent rail networks so you can get around in bad weather. That seems to point to Germany, with the option to add Prague and/or Vienna if time allows. Daylight will be in short supply.
Finland, Norway, Denmark, Scotland, are very dark and can get cold at that time of the year. And they are not famous for Christmas markets either, to the best of my knowledge, so I would remove them from the shortlist.
The larger German Christmas markets have not been cancelled as far as I know. For instance the one in Nürnberg is set to happen, and as cases have been following a downward trend in most of Western Europe for several weeks in a row now, authorities seem confident.
I'd put Estonia in the same category as Scandinavia--not a great destination in November/December. Per the climate-summary chart in Tallinn's Wikipedia entry, the average high temperature for that time period is down in the 30s F and you might have rain nearly one day out of two. Plus the limited hours of daylight so far north.
That said, I know some travelers enjoy the lights illuminating European cities during the dark days of winter, so it's worth considering whether you fall in that category. (I most certainly do not.)
Edit to add - I'm fine with (and realize) the shorter days. We've done several trips to Europe including Sweden/Norway (above the Artic Circle) in late Dec/mid Jan as well as southern Argentina in mid June. I love the cozy winter feeling. I get enough sun normally and I enjoy the change. Frankly, it works well for us because it moderates the amount of stuff we do. I'll just keep going and going during the long summer days and my husband gets too tired.
I've seen some reports of cancelled markets in Germany already which is troubling. I'm not set on markets but that is really the only reason I'd return to Germany in Dec.
I'm a fan of city holidays in winter.
I've been to Edinburgh, London, Iceland, Copenhagen and Paris; from early December to around early March, depending on which place I was in.
As long as you have a warm place to stay, and the right clothing, cities in winter are great.
Less crowds, more time looking at things in museums, Christmas preparations in December, etc.
I would choose London or Paris.
There will be lots of Christmas prep going on: lighting ceremonies, shops full of seasonal things , and music.
if you are looking at countries with low covid rates you should check the UK carefully before considering here. 2 months from now will possibly be different, but if you base your decision on our current state it isn't good.
We have virtually no controls on anything covid, and we have for weeks now had around 32,000 new cases confirmed every day, virtually all delta variant. Although we led the initial vaccine rollout in Europe our vaccination rates have dwindled to only a very few a day, fewer than get sick.
The rates of infection are in many places over 400 per 100,000 and in several over 1,000 per 100,000.
We also have problems with the supply chain of food and fuel, both for vehicles and for buildings, blamed by government on covid but seen more and more by non-politicians as related to Brexit exacerbated by covid.
I hope it improves, and very soon, but it worth keeping an eye out.
