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Christmas Trip help

Posted by (San Francisco) on

Hello! Looking for advice/opinions on what do with our Christmas trip to Germany (etc...). We will be there Dec. 17-Jan 1, in and out of Frankfurt. I want to see Christmas markets, we are also interested in WWII, plus we have 2 boys (12/13) that we need to keep entertained (which will be harder in winter.... we usually travel in summer and they do best with biking, etc...). Prefer to travel via train....

Was thinking:
Dec 17 -19 (2 nights) Frankfurt (arriving dinner time) and maybe day trip to Koln next day

Dec 19-23? This is the iffy part... could go to Munich (though we have been) - day trip to Nuremberg. Or split these 4 nights? Or somewhere else? Bayern Munich plays Dec 20-21 so pretty interested in doing that (though tix are kind of expensive).... Another day trip? Probably would only spend 1 day in Munich proper, since we have been before. So maybe better to go elsewhere? Not sure...

Dec 24-26.... As I hear, most things are pretty shut down these days... so was thinking Salzburg (since their Market is open these days), or we like skiing/sledding, so maybe a ski town (will skiing be open on 12/25?) maybe Garmisch if we can find a place to stay... also the boys will like sledding or skiing, so we should try to fit this somewhere.....

Dec 26-31 - Strasbourg? My husband had been and loves it, looks like their market (as well as Colmar) is open after Xmas. Could day trip also to Basel? Or give that day to somewhere else..... Thinking a day at Europa Park would keep the boys from whining too much at "my" days...

Dec 31- back to Frankfurt as we fly out the morning of Jan 1.

I think besides the Frankfurt nights on arrival and departure, we could do a max of 4 other places in 13 nights... but where to go? Prefer most stays to be 3 nights or more, but could do some 2's.... even a one once if needed. So many choices. I'm not really married to any of it - the only place we have been as a family there is Munich. Prefer to travel only by train, but not opposed to flying back to Frankfurt on 12/31 if needed and not too expensive.

I would really like to fit in the skiing/sledding (assuming there is snow... always a crap shoot there).

Any suggestions? Ideas? What would you choose?

Thanks!!
Kim

Posted by
23281 posts

Have you consider an open jaw ticket? Into Frankfurt and home from Strasbourg or somewhere more convenient, perhaps Munich. We often find open jaw tickets to be cheaper especially when you factor in the expense and time to return to the original point. When we were in Munich for Christmas a couple of years, the day after Christmas the train station was fully of people in ski boots and carrying skis so there must have been an area close to Munich.

Posted by
20143 posts

I think that Strasbourg is close enough to Frankfurt airport (there are direct buses from there) to go with a round trip, especially if you are getting a nonstop from SFO.
Re skiing, yes things are liable to be booked pretty full, but there still may be some openings. I suggest St Anton, Austria. There is a mainline train station in town, so it is easy to get to by train from Munich. It is a high resort, so best chance for good snow at Christmas. It will be sufficiently full of people to insure plenty will be going on over Christmas. When you leave for Strasbourg, easy rail connection via Zurich and Basel.
You can shop for accommodations at the St Anton Tourist website: http://booking.stantonamarlberg.com/stanton/en/accommodation/search?customHeader=true&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Posted by
12040 posts

There's almost always snow in the Alps by Christmas, although if the late fall and early winter temperatures are above average, snow may be restricted to some of the higher elevation pistes. You can almost guarantee the upper slope of the Zugspitze will be open for skiing, although some of the pistes at lower altitude in Garmisch-Partenkirchen could be marginal. The pistes in Oberstdorf are almost always open by Christmas. All of the slopes in the Berner Oberland are at high altitude, so this should be another near-guarantee.

One note, though. Many hotels around ski resorts require a minimum of several days reservation around Christmas. At this point, you should have no problems finding vacancies at some ski resort, but obviously the longer you wait, the less chance you'll get your top picks.

Posted by
5836 posts

...almost always snow in the Alps by Christmas....

Last winter started of poorly with respect to snow in the Alps.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ski/news/Warm-slow-start-to-snow-in-the-Alps-causes-concern/

Lack of snow causes concern in the Alps Hugh Morris 17 DECEMBER 2015

You can set your watch by it. Come mid-December, come concerns about a
lack of snow in the Alps.

Many Alpine resorts, across France, Switzerland and Austria, have
suffered a less than ideal start to the season – after weeks of mild
weather melted snow that fell back in November – but most resorts are
open as planned.

The warm, sunny conditions, which look set to continue, have also
hampered snowmaking operations in some resorts....
• Best ski resorts for guaranteed snow:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ski/articles/Best-ski-resorts-for-guaranteed-snow/

Last year saw one of the worst starts to the season in years, with
some of the Alps' biggest resorts delaying their openings and feeling
the ill-effect well into the New Year.

Posted by
993 posts

I think we may just stay in Munich or Salzburg and then do a day trip out just to try and go sledding... skiing will be harder since we will need all our skiing stuff, if snow is not good we will waste a couple days, and this way we can opt to stay in the city if we want....

Kim

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