My husband and I are taking a Christmas market /music trip by car this December, concentrating on Regensburg, Dresden, Berlin, and Leipzig. However, at the end of the trip we have 4 undefined days. Our last planned visit is in Leipzig and we must end up in Munich for a return flight. We are considering either Dinkelsbuhl (family ancestral home) - Fussen/Mittenwald - Munich or Altotting - Bad Reichenhall/Salzburg - Munich. We have traveled extensively by car throughout Germany, made summer visits to each of these places except Fussen and Altotting and we are aware that the Christmas markets in some of these towns will not be open, as the days are a Sunday - Thursday. All this to ask some seasoned travelers for opinion on which scenerio will provide the most likely snow-capped mountain views combined with seasonal ambiance. Thank you.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23269 posts
Unless it is critical I might rethink the car. During our last trip (and we had a car for most of it) over Christmas/New Years in much the same area we encountered a lot of snow and ice, especially ice. That really snarled the traffic and put us into a couple of huge traffic jam around Munich. In hindsight we wished that we had not rented a car for that trip. Everything we did was accessible via train.
Posted by
not here anymore
631 posts
ditto train v car
logically the Mittenwald route should have the best chance of seeing snow because it is close to Germany's highest mountain. And Mittenwald is very pretty. But Bad Reichenhall is one of my favourite places as a base because it has a good range of hotels etc and there can be bargains during quiet times (which yours could be since they don't involve Fri/Saturdaynights)
as for finding markets try this http://www.weihnachtsmaerkte-in-deutschland.de/
if you stay in Mittenwald the Innsbruck markets are very easy to visit by train https://www.innsbruck.info/innsbruck-city/veranstaltungen/advent-und-weihnachten-in-innsbruck/christkindlmaerkte.html