2023 Christmas Markiets

Each city and town is different, the large cities may open earlier. They usually have this on the city website by now, so you can check.

26 Nov. is Toten Sontag in 2023, so markets are not usually open that day. Some markets may wait until the 27th to open.

3 Dec is 1st Advent this year, and most bigger markets open during the week prior to that weekend. Dresden e.g. on 29 Nov, Freiberg 28 Nov.

A good adress all year round for Christmas ambience is Seiffen, wheere you find lots of manufactures that make the famous items.

Hi Sean,

The Markets in Austria generally open mid November. I know you posted in the Germany Forum, but I hope this helps.

We have flown into Munich this same week twice before. Actually, we left the Tuesday, two days before Thanksgiving. We based near Berchtesgaden (we had a rental car) and visited the Markets in Berchtesgaden, Salzburg, Hallein and the towns along the Wolfgangsee (we drove to St. Gilgen, got on the lake ship and also visited Strobl and St. Wolfgang). Maybe the best day of our Christmas Market trip.

We then based in Hall in Tirol near Innsbruck. Now, Innsbruck is spectacular during the markets. Hall in Tirol has a more “subdued” local feeling market. We attended nearby Rattenberg’s opening night of their Christmas Market. Simply Spectacular. We drove into Italy, the border is so close to Innsbruck and went to the Markets in Sterzing/Vipiteno and Brixen/Bressanone as a day out.

Besides the markets these towns are all lovely and plenty to do besides the markets.

Hope this helps.

Paul

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/christmas-markets-switzerland-france-germany-2019

Perhaps our Trip Report from 2019 Xmas markets adventure will have some helpful info.

Have a wonderful trip, and book hotels asap, especially for the weekends. Leaving a few days later would probably be better, and we found that the international terminals at US airports are usually empty around Thanksgiving.

Safe travels.

I just looked up a few Christmas market start dates for 2023:

Munich: Nov 27
Leipzig: Nov 28
Salzburg: Nov 17
Nuremburg: Nov 25
Rothenburg: Dec 1
Dusseldorf : Nov 17
Cologne: Nov 21

Hope that helps.
-Mark

Thank you. We will get to a few markets. We will be in Munich Dec 1st and Nuremberg on Nov 25th. Hoping to go to Rothenburg but that won’t be happening.

The Rothenburg markets are rather small. I love being in that town any time of the year, so you can feel the magic whenever you get to visit. Have a great trip.

Good to know. We are really looking forward to getting back to Germany. We had planned for the markets in 2021, but COVID ramped up. We will be in the Nuremberg area Nov 24-28, Freiburg im Breisgsu area Nov 28-Dec 1, and a Munich Dec 1-6. Can’t wait.

Maybe you want to watch this video from 'Near From Home' - this couple is crazy about Munich's Christmas Markets :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH1hz2kU5Mc^

As well worth paying a visit is: Münchner Freiheit in Schwabing. The market is full of artisan stands and kind of different.

Watched a video of theirs and can’t wait to watch more.

I would double check those Christmas market dates. Many of them seem to be from 2022 or from websites not associated with the cities themselves. I went to several websites for the cities mentioned and they do not have their dates for 2023 posted at all. Only trust the websites from the cities. For example - Berlin.de or Cologne.de and then do a search.

Also check each markets website. The Chinese Tower was closed this year, which we knew, but was still listed on various websites.