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Dec/Jan Travels Northern Italy and above...

Daughter is studying abroad in Noethern Italy until Dec. I will be heading over at that time to spend 2 weeks traveling with her over winter break before we head home to California first week of Jan.
Our plan is to head North of Milan.
Heading from cold to freezing...Prague first and working our way back down, Austria, Switzerland and back to Milan.
Wanting to travel by train and enjoy our time together making it a trip of a lifetime.
I realize traveling at this time of the year that in and of itself will be a chilling experience! Brrrr...
But if we're going to be there at that time we really want to take in the beautiful Christmas Markets etc...
Any suggestions on where to stay? (Remember it's an adventure but we need to be able to walk from train to our accomodations)
Any suggestions on how long to plan to stay in each place? (We will have about 12 to 14 days total)
Thinking possible stops, From Prague: Salzburg, Liechtenstein, Zurich, Berne, Lucerne, Milan
Thanks in advance for your input.

Posted by
2898 posts

Hi,

I'd skip Liechtenstein. Salzburg and especially Innsbruck during the Christmas Markets are outstanding. We visited at this time of year in 2010 and 2013. Loved both and would go back at this time of year yet again. Brixen/Bressanone and Sterzing/Vipiteno are also worth stopping at between Milan and Innsbruck.

We have some photo's at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pjbassplyr/sets/

Paul

Posted by
9 posts

Thanks so much Paul!! We are so excited and thrilled with positive feedback for traveling at that time of year.
Any suggestions on places you stayed during your journey?
We are making it an adventure so no 5 star hotels :-)
Did you travel by Rail?
Thanks again,

Posted by
19637 posts

You do know that the Christmas Markets are done by Christmas. It sounds like that will be just the first few days of your trip, so better hit 'em early. Liechtenstein is just a 10 minute blur out the train window.
Falkensteiner Maria is a good moderate price hotel walking distance of Prague train station.

Posted by
11613 posts

About seven stops in 12 days is a lot of moving around, especially with shorter daylight hours. Even on a blitz tour, I would do only two-night stops.

I have been to Belgium, Switzerland and Austria in December/January, it's very comfortable with the right clothing.

Posted by
9 posts

Agreed on the mulitple stops., those are just the places we are considering but will make final decisions on just a few. Pleased to hear the weather may be more agreeable than many people have eluded to. :-)
And...
Thank you for the recommendation on hotel in Prague, looks like a winner.