Christmas markets December 22 to December 28 travel

Posted by Ms. Jo

Frankfurt, Germany

9221 posts

The Frankfurt market closes on the 22nd. The Mainz market closes on the 23rd. Not sure about the ships as they either won't be running at all or may only have one ship per day. You need to call them a day or two ahead of time to find out. Everything will kind of close down by 1400 on the 24th or not be open at all. If you want a restaurant dinner, book at a nice hotel offering this. The 25th and 26th are official holidays and stores are all closed. Restaurants and museums may or may not be open. Check their websites.
The only markets I know that are open after the 23rd are Limburg and Speyer.
Stuttgarts is rather far for a day trip, but if that is all the time you have, go for it.

On the 24th, they have the Pealing of the Bells in Frankfurt at 1700 and this is very popular with the Frankfurters. Head to the inner city. 50 bells for 30 min. is an amazing experience.

Posted by KGC

Alsenborn, Germany

08/05/24 07:46 AM

1488 posts

As Ms. Jo points out most of the markets close 22-23 DEC this year because of the mid-week holidays. 24 DEC is when most families celebrate Christmas, and everything will be closed from noon on. The 25th and 26th are State holidays, and no stores or public services will be open. Note, this will impact the ferries on the Rhine also. Minimal restaurants will be open, and they will all be reserved service. That leaves you the 27th to visit the Black Forest, which is a 3 hour drive each way (at best) that time of year.

You can take the trains along the Rhine, but realize even they will have limited service. And I can tell you from experience that most of the small towns will be shut down after the 23rd.

The MBZ museum is closed 24-25 DEC.

Here's a link showing the dates for the markets: https://www.brunnvalla.ch/christmasmarkets/germany.html

You might look at the Michelin website and see if you can make a reservation for meals anywhere.