Itinerary help, 9 days in December, Christmas markets in Germany

Hey Mike, This looks an awesome website.
http://www.germany-christmas-market.org.uk/

Where are you flying into? That makes a big difference. Although I enjoy the Christmas markets, be aware that there's a lot of "more of the same" to them, particularly in the larger cities. You may find after visiting a different market two or three days in a row that you're ready for something else. Rated on atmosphere and size, the best big city markets I have visited were in Frankfurt, Darmstadt and Mannheim. The bes smaller town market was Lindau on the Bodensee, both because it offered some unique foods, and because of the stunning setting.

I will second what Tom said. As there are good markets all over the country, it makes the most sense to give recommendations relative to where you will fly in and out of Germany. We have visited markets 4 times in the last 5 years and are going again in December. It is nice to combine sightseeing during the day with the markets in the evening. Towns are active and alive, and yet mostly not overrun with tourists. You mentioned Salzburg. If that means you are going to Munich, it has several good markets of a wide variety. A good choice in my opinion. I also especially liked Regensburg's Romantic Market to the north. Nürnberg and Stuttgart are two of the largest and we enjoyed them both. Salzburg was a little overwhelmed in Advent to our tastes, a beautiful city never less. I will also mention that we traveled by train. Christmas Markets are in cities where cars can be a liability. Plus two of those Christmas trips were in unusual cold, with snow. We were thankful not to be driving. Good luck with your planning.

Nurnberg is a great one (bigger) and Rothenberg is too (smaller). Salzburg is great, and is open after Christmas when many of the markets close down, which is nice.

Hi Mike, Last December I did just that, but 11 days, December 6-16. No car. Trains were easy. I started by landing at 9 a.m. in Frankfurt for 4 days, but 2 would be enough. See Bad Hamburg and Frankfurt markets in one day, then Mainz and Wiesbaden on the next. Day 3 - early train to Esslingen (wonderful medieval market) via Stuttgart and return to Stuttgart markets Day 4+5 - early train to Strasbourg, leave bags at train station for the day, then evening train to Colmar (2 nights) Day 6+7 - early train to Munich (2 nights) via Strasbourg and Frankfurt. Day 8+9 - morning train to Salzburg (1 night) and flew home on a late evening flight. In many places, the markets aren't fully opened until around noon. I had plenty of time to catch some of the sights. I found the French markets to be significantly different from the German ones. Frankfurt was about my least favorite, more mass-produced stuff, mostly hordes of locals out eating and drinking. I'm glad I went as far west as Alsace and as far east as Salzburg. It sounds very fast-paced but it didn't feel that way. It was nice to relax on the train every day or two, make entries in my travel diary and review my photos. I did almost no shopping - no need for winter wear at home or Christmas presents and decorations either. If you are going to shop, that could slow you down somewhat. I uploaded some of my photos, if you want to have a look
https://picasaweb.google.com/pitzikat/XmasMarketHats https://picasaweb.google.com/pitzikat/XmasMarketFood You're welcome to PM me if you want any more information or websites I used in planning. One caveat - I didn't have a long-haul flight and only a 1-hour time change.

Select places you would want to visit if they didn't have a Christmas market. We discovered that the markets are interesting but occupied only a couple of hours at the most (unless you are really planning on buying a lot)

If you haven't settled on anything yet, I'd make room for Rothenburg! Beautiful little town, very safe. I stayed with Frau Liebler (as recommended in RS Germany) and it was a wonderful little apartment. Sarah

I have gone two years now and agree that unless you just want to wandering around a lot of markets you should add some places that you would visit if it were not for the markets. We did Paris as well as Normandy and it was a great time of year to do that as we basically had Normandy to ourselves. From there on to Germany for a few of the favorite markets and loved Rothenberg, Dinkelsbuhl and Salzburg markets as well as Heidelberg, but all the towns have more to offer. We also visited a few other wonderful towns and hung out with Jo from Frankfurt and had a great time seeing her town! We like to drive and have road trips and did see some incredible scenery with trees covered in sparkling ice on the RR, but we did hit a bit of snow on one of the trips that slowed us down, but since I travel rather flexibly it was not a problem. Sure you could do a great trip by train as well.

Thank you everyone for your replies. I finally purchased plane tickets using frequent flier miles. We arrive into Frankfurt the morning of 12-5 and leave Salzburg on 12-14-13. Thanks again!

Thanks for coming back with an update, Mike. I didn't mention it, but I was able to save a lot on train tickets by buying them early on the bahn.de website.

What are your travel dates? Be prepared for many market to be done by mid december. We were in rothenberg and munich where the whole of bavaria shuts down for christmas-esp. Christmas eve which is their christmas