Christmas markets in Germany

Rothenburg is a favorite of ours in Advent season. The market is small but many shops give over to selling Christmas wares, so your shopping experience will not suffer. That said, I would only go to Rothenburg if it is convenient to your travel schedule. It is at the end of a branch line and sometimes requires a bit of travel time to get there. If you were traveling from Munich, I would prefer Regensburg, a beautiful old city, with one of its markets at the Thurn and Taxis palace located near the train station. Regensburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its medieval buildings. There are many wonderful markets; I would choose a couple that would allow you to minimize the time spent traveling. BTW, we have traveled by train to the markets 3 times in recent years. For us it is best, usually arriving near the city center and the market.

A lot depends on where you are traveling from and to where. Christmas markets abound, but many smaller towns and villages just have them on one weekend during Advent. Only the medium to large cities will have them the entire 4 weeks. My favorite small Christmas markets have been in Idstein, Büdingen, Seligenstadt, and Bad Homburg. For larger markets, I really like the ones in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. Mainz was ok, but it didn't do a lot for me. Aschaffenburg was also sort of ok, but I wouldn't spend time going back there. This year, am planning on going to Esslingen, Stuttgart, Colmar and Strasbourg Christmas markets. What are your dates of travel? This is the most comprehensive list of markets I have found, for Germany, all listed in alphabetical order. From the tiniest village to the biggest cities:
http://www.weihnachtsmarkt-deutschland.de/

Most Christmas markets sell essentially the same stuff and serve very similar food, so for me, the atmosphere and surrounding scenery are what can make one market shine above the rest. The atmosphere of the Mannheim market is one of the few reasons I would give to go out of your way to visit that city. I liked the atmosphere of the Frankfurt Weihnachtsmarkt, but it was a little too crowded for our dog when we visited. For best setting... I would pick Lindau. You can't do better than a beautiful old town on a lake with the Alps in view. Their's also serves some interesting foods from the Allgäu region. It may be one of those markets only open for a weekend or two, however. The best Christmas market I have seen anywhere in Europe, however, is hand's down Winterland in Hasselt, Belgium.

EVERY Christmas market gets crowded, especially in the late afternoon / early evening hours when all the little white lights come on. Walking thru a market with a bunch of other happy, bundled up people is part of the fun! Drink some Glühwein, eat a crepe !!
That being said, I think Rothenburg's market is no better than any other one. I must say that I don't think there is any such thing as a bad Christmas market, no matter what town you are visiting. But you will find many of the same type of things for sale, and the food offerings tend to be similar in all the markets, but its ALL good !! The atmosphere is as just as important as the actual things for sale. If Rothenburg gets any "edge," its maybe because of the proximity of the famous Christmas-themed store, Käthe Wohlfahrt, which is right off the town square where the market takes place. Just be aware that, though markets seem to be everywhere, they are NOT all open for weeks and weeks. In small towns, they may only be open for one weekend. Each town's websites will tell you their dates. Enjoy !

Speaking of Käthe Wohlfahrt, the company runs a little shop at many of the larger markets.

"Rothenburg's market is no better than any other one." True but when combined with the setting it doesn't get a whole lot better. Rothenburg is the perfect place to transport back to 15th, 16th century. I am sure there are some other small towns in Germany that are a match but it is more than worth the visit especially on the two days that it snowed lightly. We were there over Christmas two years ago and did not find it overly crowded. It was busy but not unusually so. However, the markets in Germany do start breaking down mid afternoon on Christmas eve and are gone by Christmas day.

Our experience is that we did not see bus loads of tourists in the week prior to Christmas. Rothenburg is known to run over in the summer time with bus loads of tourists but we didn't see that. I am sure there some buses but the streets were not crowded. Breckenridge is more crowded at that time of year than Rothenburg. We had no trouble with access to restaurants, coffee shops, etc.

I visited a few last year and will try and take in a few early ones this year. Each one I visited had its own unique feeling but they were all wonderful. We stayed in Dinkelsbuhl where we went to the quaint, small town local market and loved it, then went on to Rothenberg where it was definitely more crowded, but the food was fabulous as well as the ambience. Also went to Salzburg (my favorite) and Frankfurt. I did have a car as that is how I prefer to travel but am sure as others have noted you can do this by train. Another market that we greatly enjoyed was Heidelberg. I am not a big shopper so I can't comment too much on that, but did see a few handmade items that I wish I had bought later, but the street food was the best.

I can't thank you all enough! What helpful comments. We're definitely going to go and enjoy the journey; crowds, white lights, warm wine and good food. Happy travels.

We went to Rothenburg last Christmas. It is a small market and while we were in R'burg for 3 days, there was never a crowd. It closes early - by 7:00 PM on the nights we were there. Where else are you going? We took a day trip to Nuremburg to see their large market. Even with R'burg being at the end of a spur line, there are frequent trains and was not a problem for us. We had a 1-2 inch snow one night - t really made the town even more magical.

Just as an FYI, check the dates for Christmas market closings. Most will have their last day on the 22nd, or the 23rd, and be completely gone by the 24th. Only a very, very few will be open at all on the 24th, and these would be the larger cities. There are also a very few who will be open on the 25th and later.

Nueremburg, Esslingen, and Tuebingen are better than Rothenburg odTauber, personal experience. The last two old towns are also cuter then RodT. There's one in the town of Bad Wimpfen that is supposed to be very good, but I have not personally been.

@Tom - I just googled Winterland! Am sorry I missed that one - seems especially wonderful for a family... maybe on my 3rd Market Trip!

Many towns in Germany have a setting similar to Rothenburgs - Esslingen has been mentioned but it is my favorite Christmas Market. But I haven't been to one I disliked. I would guess that Rothenburg's will be more crowded than other ones that are just as good, because it's so famous, but as others have said, most Christmas markets become crowded in the evenings no matter what. Given how dreary German winters are, it makes sense that everyone wants to get outside and socialize and enjoy the lights, and the gluhwein. I would go to Rothenburg if you want to see Rothenburg specifically. Otherwise, the recommendations others have given you I can either personally vouch for as great, or have heard to be good. One place people haven't mentioned is Berlin. Sure, it's not a charming little village, but it has 50 markets and many of them are very different in theme and style from each other, so I liked this, because it broke up the monotony of the typical Christmas market I was getting used to. And because there's so many you start to feel like you can't walk 500 meters without hitting another one. "I'm getting cold...oh hey, another market! Gluhwein time!"