Hello - My wife and I are looking at making a two week trip to Germany and/or Austria in July (you can see another post about possible locations) in addition to a Christmas Market trip during the week of Thanksgiving and trying to determine which area is best for that time of year.
We will be traveling with our 5 year old, so I know that changes things (less moving bases, need to have some things to keep her busy, etc).
We want to spend two weeks at two bases in July (would only really do a third base if it is to spend the last night or two right at our airport home to make things easier. For the Christmas markets we would prefer one location, but could squeeze in two if it was a simple transfer and didn't cause a long day of travel to get to airport on the flight home.
We have looked at Bavaria (I know it is a huge area) or other parts of southern Germany for two weeks. In Austria we are open to idea, either Vienna or Salzburg or Innsbruck. From what I have read Salzburg > Innsbruck from a tourist perspective.
We are looking for the smaller/more laid back towns vs the large cosmopolitan towns (I mentioned how we lobed Bruges and Sienna in previous post). We do enjoy the natural beauty, but get with a little one, hiking is not the most convenient, and don't want to spend a lot of time driving from location to location.
So I am kinda torn, do we do two weeks in Germany earlier and then Christmas Markets in Austria? Or switch it around- two weeks in Austria (and add in Switerland or Germany as a second base if two weeks is to much? and then do Germany for the Christmas markets? I know it won't be warm and sunny (of course since it is winter) so if it is too cold with the little one, it may make things less than desirable in Austria (is Austria colder than Germany since it is higher elevation, or where we are looking pretty much a wash?).
Is one area have "better" Chrismtas Markets - I know that is very subjective, and would want ease of access to other towns/markets (if we stayed in Vienna, we would want to be able to visit some smaller towns possibly. I know we would be at the very beginning of the start of some of the markets since Advent doesn't start until Dec 1 - so that being said I am guessing the bigger cities are ore likely to be open (I found a list of the dates in the past of some of the markets)
anyway- I know that is rambling, but any and all advice appreciated.
cheers