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Christmas to New Years in Germany

We'll in Germany arriving in Frankfurt on 12/22 and leaving on 12/31. It'll be my wife and I and our 10 year old son. We'll be at the end of the Christmas Markets and will be able to get one day in of them and then there's the 12/25-12/26 downtime. We're considering a few options to make the most of our time.

Option 1 - Go to Strasbourg for the Christmas Markets and then leaves 12/25 or 12/26 by rail to go to Berlin or Munich. Alternatively, we could do smaller trips around Germany and see things as we go along either by rail or car.

Option 2 - Go to Nuremberg for the Christmas Markets and spend the entire time in Bavaria and explore either from Nuremberg or Munich or a combo of both. This includes not just the two cities but daytrips.

Option 3 - Go to Nuremberg for Christmas Markets and then Berlin and use that as our base.

Option 4 - Go someplace unique that we can do lots of exploration from or have an incredible unique experience! Stay in a castle, do a river cruise, etc. If cruise, needs to be family friendly (ie, no Viking).

Option 5 - Go to Nuremberg and then Prague for Christmas and beyond as they don't seem to shut down. Explore the Czech Republic!

Option 6 - Go to Nuremberg and then Austria (Vienna / Salzberg / etc). That's our base.

Option 7 - Do something I'm not aware of and someone here can suggest! We're open to anything and everything!

Thank you!

Posted by
3738 posts

What are your criteria (e. g. interests) to rate these options against?
"to make the most of our time" is a little bit too abstract for me to post an option for you.

The downtime will start on Dec 24 this year because it is a Sunday.
Nearly all Christmas markets in Germany will close Dec, 23 finally. In Berlin a few will re-open until eoy; maybe also in other regions.

Posted by
8 posts

Our criteria is that there is enough to do and see while embedding ourselves enough in the place to get a sense of it. We’d more likely rent an Airbnb than stay in a hotel to get a sense of neighborhood and local life.

That said, we’d really like to have enough to do that’s a mix of tourist and maybe a step or two off the beaten path.

Also, as us being Jewish, we wouldn’t mind seeing some WWII / Holocaust stuff and exposing it to our son. I did some many years ago when I was in Berlin and it was extremely impactful.

Posted by
2704 posts

Option 6. Only because that’s what we did and .i know that there are plenty of tourist attractions operating in Salzburg at that time