Traveling to Dusseldorf

I'd spend the time exploring the Christmas markets. Just a nice stroll through the historic town centre in a special atmosphere.

Thanks very much for a quick reply. Will certainly take a look. Any idea which part of Dusseldorf one has to go to, to visit the Christmas markets ?

The city of Düsseldorf has more details on the locations and events of the Christmas markets here: http://www.duesseldorf-tourismus.de/en/our-top-events/duesseldorf-christmas-market/

I visited the Christmas markets in Düsseldorf last year... good enough, and certainly worth a look if you're there anyway, but not the best I've seen in a large German city. It's actually several small markets scattered over the downtown area. The historic center of the city is rather small and a bit run-down, and I only recall one small little markte in that particular area of the city. The district of Oberkassel across the Rhine is worth a visit, if only to have a good stroll. Overall, Düsseldorf is far from my favorite city in Germany, but you could easily do far worse. PS- This is more of a question for the group in general. The word "Düsseldord" was all but absent from this website for years, and now we suddenly have several different posters including it on their intinerary. Did Mr. Steves add it to the Blue Book?

Thanks Tom, Beatrix for the useful information. I hope I am able to cover whatever is there to see in about half a day that I have.

I agree with Tom that there are probably better Christmas markets around. However, with only half a day available and the sun setting around 4.30 pm at that time of year I wouldn't venture too far from Düsseldorf. As to Tom's question, I'm thinking that a lot of this travel to Düsseldorf is associated with business. This is not a big surprise as the city is quite an important business and convention centre in Germany.

I agree that Düsseldorf sees a lot of business travel (always has), particularly in the fashion industry. But I'm wondering specifically why it never popped up before on this website and now there's several independent threads at once asking about it. Is this just a coincidence within the limited sample size of this website, or is the city being promoted more heavily as a travel destination? Stuttgart, Mannheim, Ingolstadt, Wolfsburg, Karlsruhe, Dortmund and Hannover also see a lot of business travel, and yet these cities rarely receive any mention in this forum (well, maybe Stuttgart a little more than the others). Similarly, I wondered a few years ago why Blue Book travelers were suddenly discussing Gent, Antwerp and Hamburg whereas they were barely on people's radar previously. Turned out, Mr. Steves added these cities to the Book...

Lufthansa (code-share with United) has direct flights from Newark to Dusseldorf.

OK, that would seem like a good explanation. Thanks.

Koln (Cologne) would be a good half-day trip from Dusseldorf. I don't normally travel after October but I like the idea of Christmas markets. You could ask any TI for regional Christmas markets to visit.

As a travel destination, much better Düsseldorf than Dortmund or Hannover, let alone Duisburg. But they have their specialties too.