Need advice planning a trip to see Christmas Markets

Hi, you might want to sign up for this Zoom meeting since the topic is Christmas Markets.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/travel-meetings/travel-talk-july-11-christmas-markets-planning-in-july-online-everyone-welcome

I took my adult daughter last year, and we had a fantastic time! We flew into Vienna and stayed in Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Stuttgart (w/ afternoon at Esslingen’s medieval market), Strasbourg and flew home from Paris over a 2-week period. We traveled by train - all were around two hours or less. The nearby hotels go quickly, so check on Booking.com as soon as you have dates selected.

Prague is your outlier, so maybe you fly into Vienna and head west to Salzburg and eventually fly home from Munich.

This may help:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/mother-daughter-christmas-markets-trip-austria-germany-france

If you are going to Vienna, noway i could compete with Emily's work of art for Vienna, https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/austria/vienna-christmas-markets-2025-a-local-s-take)

And here is a source on some of the other better markets. BEST CHRISTMAS MARKET OF ALL TIME https://www.europeanbestdestinations.com/best-of-europe/best-christmas-markets-of-all-the-time-in-europe-all-stars-edition/

Budapest isn't on your list, but if that changes:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/hungary/budapest-christmas-markets-d26f8ab1-2048-4160-bfb3-bf13b096683e

I recommend doing a search under Trip Reports for Christmas Markets. We all have our favorites, for varied reasons. Joining our Zoom meeting about Christmas Markets is a good idea too.

I do think you have too many cities for an 8-10 day trip.

I think you can do 3 in 10 dqys with good planning. Start with 3 that are easily accessible to each other with the first and the last being good arrival and departure airports.

Vienna 》Salzburg 》Munich
Prague 》Vienna 》Munich
Prague 》Vienna 》Budapest

Or if you narrow it down to 2, you can combine it into a more traditional trip where you get deeper, beyond just the markets, in each city. Then Vienna and Prague with a over night in Cesky Kromlov to connect them. Or, Vienna and Budapest with a half day stop in Gyor/Pannonhalma between the two and with a day trip to Melk out of Vienna and a daytrip to Szentendre out of Budapest. Or, Vienna and Munich with Salzburg just being a half day stop.

Is it too late to plan? Probably not. I checked a few hotels here in the right part of town, still 4 star hotels under $150 available. I imagine there is availability in all of your list.

Here is another list

https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/best-christmas-markets-europe

considering are Salzburg, Prague, Vienna, Munich and Nuremburg

Since you want to do things other than just the Christmas Markets, I am of the opinion that Munich, Nuremberg, Salzburg, and Vienna will tic the most boxes. Start/end in either Munich or Vienna and visit Nuremberg and Salzburg between them.

Thanks so much for the replies. I haven't read through everything yet but I just wanted to know I appreciate it. I might come back with more questions after I do a bit more research based on the suggestions.

Near Salzburg I’d recommend a day on the Wolfgansee. Start in St. Gilgen, which is beautiful during this time of year with its Advent Markets. The atmosphere is very festive, but not over run like some places. Take the lake ship to Strobl and St. Wolfgang and back to St. Gilgen. Perfect day out.

https://www.wolfgangseer-advent.at/en

I took the RS Munich, Salzburg and Vienna tour in late November/early December 2017. I added a day on each end. The Munich Advent Market opened while we were there and the rest of the markets were well underway by the time we arrived. There was even a market at the Munich airport. Although the markets were not the focus of the tour, I felt like I had plenty of time to enjoy them. It even snowed a couple of days during the tour which made the scenery even more magical. Glühwein is a wonderful restorative and the mugs are fun, inexpensive souvenirs.

Of the cities on your list, Salzburg is the one I haven't visited for Christmas markets-but I hear it is beautiful and there is a lot to see and do besides visiting the Market. The Prague main market is my least favorite (and I love Prague!). The setting is stunning, but it seemed very commercial and crowded; food/drink were just okay. We did find other markets outside of Prague's Old Town that were very enjoyable, with more locally-made goods (these were well attended by local residents).

Given that all your choices are large cities I would choose no more than three. Fly in to the first, out from the last. Or choose just two and take a day trip by train to a smaller town within an hour's ride.

The flights are booked! We land in Prague and fly home from Munich. So the beginning and end points are decided. Now I'm trying the decide if the city in between should be Salzburg or Vienna. I'm making progress!

Salzburg or Vienna

How much time are you considering? I think Salzburg is great for 2 or 3 days at most. Longer than that and you may run out of things to do (OK if that is what you want). Conversely, Vienna is good for at least a week or even two. Given that the Salzburg is between Vienna and Munich, you could do one night in Salzburg, giving you two half-days and and evening to enjoy the highlights.

I plan on visiting both this year during my Christmas Market (and Beer!) travels.

If it were me, I would first of all read Jean's trip report from last Christmas. She and her daughter were gone for about 11-12 days and went to these places: Vienna - 3, Salzburg- 2, Munich - 1, Stuttgart/Esslingen - 2, Strasbourg- 1, Paris - 2.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/mother-daughter-christmas-markets-trip-austria-germany-france

If you leave out France, that removes 3 days, giving you an itinerary for 8-9 days, which is what you have. So basically you could visit Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Stuttgart/Esslingen for the Christmas markets.

OR if you wanted more time in Munich, omit Stuttgart/Esslingen and add those 2 days to Munich. That would give you 3 days in Munich, 3 days in Vienna, and 2 days in Salzburg for a total of 8 days plus travel time. But read the report as Jean does a wonderful job of describing the various towns, cities and Christmas markets she went to.

EDIT: oops, just realized Jean posted it at the top. Well, regardless, I would highly recommend reading it.

I think we've finalized the itinerary. 3 nights Prague, 3 nights Vienna, 2 nights Salzburg, 1 night Munich. I've booked a hotel (Hotel Metamorphis) in Prague, now I'm working on Vienna hotels. I'm trying to balance location vs price.

I found a great map of the Vienna markets (which I can't figure out how to link but I'll try again). I'm not sure where I got it from at this point but I found it helpful. A lot of articles talk about which markets to visit but seeing them on a map is helpful to determine where we might want to stay.

Dresden to Prague to Vienna to Budapest enough said. Motel One for each city but Budapest. None there.

Just information. Loved Prague’s market but it really isn’t big enough for 3 nights. Markets not that big and of all the markets it is one of the most expensive. Just my opinion.

I found a great map of the Vienna markets (which I can't figure out how to link but I'll try again).

Ihayeska, the easiest way to link to something is just copy the URL and then paste it in the reply box someplace. For example, the link to this thread is here: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany/need-advice-planning-a-trip-to-see-christmas-markets/

Or if you want to put the link in a word or phrase, just type the word or phrase; for example, Vienna Market Maps, then highlight those words. Once they are highlighted, click on the Globe+arrow icon right above the reply box, and a box will pop up that will ask you to insert the URL in it. So copy and paste that in the box, click OK, and you will have a link. Note: I just put a random URL in the phrase above to show you.

We took the RS tour last year- Munich, Salsburg, Vienna. We left right after Thanksgiving. The Salsburg markets were my favorite, but Vienna was magical. If you have a splurge hotel, make it Vienna. It was wonderful walking around downtown in the evening.