Would like to plan for trip to visit a Christmas Market in Europe. Which do you feel is the best? And which moderate (100-150 Euros) hotel, bed & breakfast in the town would you recommend? Thanks.

Princess;

What country? My favorite of all is the one in Nuernburg Germany it is also one of the largest with everything you can imagine to buy. I also love the small one I visit every year in Michelstadt (small town south of Heidleberg). It actually started snowing lightly as soon as we arrived on my first visit! The hot chocolate really hits the spot on cold days. I collect the mugs you get from each market I go to. Enjoy!
Clea

It would be helpful to know what sort of town/city you are interested in.

Personally, I liked the Christmas market in Berlin and one reason was its size but also the fact that after I got done seeing all that stuff that I ALSO saw in several other Christmas markets in Germany there was something ELSE to do besides just that.

Hi Princess,

There are good number of posts re: German Christmas Markets. You might want to search by "christmas market" and choose Germany.
My personal favourite still remains Munich with manageable size of the old city and authentic handicrafts, clearly lacking more cutting-edge cultures of Berlin. Frankfurt is also very nice, many other things you can do.

I'd fly to Frankfurt and then make a loop catching the markets in Michelstadt, Bamberg, Nuremburg, Rothenburg, and Bad Wimpfen. That gives you a mix of the large town and small town markets. Note Bad Wimpfen is a weekend only market but together with Michelstadt is my favorite. Note Michelstadt is south of Wurzburg not Heidleberg.

How much time do you have? If you're talking about a short break, then I would recommend staying in Bamberg and doing the markets at Nuremberg and of course in Bamberg itself. Bamberg has a few modestly priced hotels, is a very pretty town. Nuremberg has the biggest market, of course, but it's very crowded, hotel prices are fairly high that time of year and in fact most of the hotels may already be booked with package tours.
Our favorite Christmas market is in Muenster, it's a beautiful market with few tourists, so the quality of the merchandise is quite good and the atmosphere is great.
The markets in Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, and Strasbourg, France, are all good. Strasbourg might be a nice base. Or you could even base yourself in the resort town of Baden-Baden, which gives you easy access to both Karlsruhe and Strasbourg by short train rides. BB has a Christmas market and it's a beautiful resort town, but their market wasn't all that impressive. There are some less expensive hotels...I found on www.hotel.de even 5 star hotels in your price range (breakfast and tax included) for mid-December--the Steigenberger Europäischer Hof has a deluxe double for 148 euros per night.

If you'll have a car, perhaps base yourself in a city like Freibourg and visit the markets in the smaller Black Forest towns/villages like Glottertal, Gengenbach, etc. A very pretty region, definitely has that holiday feel.

Or perhaps Salzburg, another great Christmas town and you could easily catch trains or buses to the many charming towns and villages in the region.

We're doing a road trip in December and plan to be in these Christmas market towns: Baden-Baden, Glottertal, Salzburg (and surrounding small towns), Vienna, and Regensburg or Passau (haven't decided which yet).

A pleasant, old hotel in the middle of Bamberg's Altstadt: Hotel Brudermuhle. The St. Nepomuk is also fine.

Regensburg is a beautiful medieval town with several Christmas markets. We went in 2002 and 2005. The Romantisches market features hand made items, and the artists are working in the booths.

We really enjoyed our 2 nights in Munich and the markets there. One market is just for Christmas creches and figures. My husband, both daughters and I all wished we had more time in Munich. There are fun things to do and see in addition to the markets.

Salzburg Austria has a very nice market and there is a great Best western within a 10 minute walk away. 75 euros a night.

Although the Salzburg market is nice, it isn't very large--and it's VERY crowded, as is the rest of the city in December.

Go to www.germany-christmas-market.org.uk for a listing of the markets in Germany. Look for "traditional markets" as these will have the crafts and wooden items.

BTilke, I would not actually recommend Karlsruhe. The Christmas market has no atmosphere, and they sell more or less the same stuff you get everywhere. (I live in Karlsruhe, so I've seen it for several years in a row.) There are better ones.

I wonder why no one has mentioned the Striezelmarkt at Dresden so far?

A less known place: Erfurt is said to have a nice one, and the city is worth a look as well.

Haven't yet seen the one at Nürnberg but hope to go there this year. München is said to be great, too.

In general, avoid weekends if you can, especially the last Saturday before Christmas.

Just a little hint, to avoid a frequent misunderstanding, as Princess mentions the "Christmas break" in her headline: Practically all German Christmas markets terminate on Dec 23 or 24 around noon. There are NO Christmas markets during the holidays or after Christmas. The only one I ever heard about that's open afterwards is the one in my hometown Braunschweig, which reopens from Dec 26-28. BTW, the Braunschweig one has a very nice setting around the castle and cathedral.

Quokka,

You know, I just looked at my calendar and realized that my break will begin on Dec. 22, and so I will probably miss these wonderful markets, then.

I work in a grade school and really can't take the time off earlier in the month since I will be looking forward to the two weeks off. I guess I dream about going to Europe around that time to experience the lights of Christmas and perhaps a light snowfall.

We just spent five days in Salzburg and stayed at the Elefant Hotel. It was so much fun. I would imagine that the Christmas Markets there are so very beautiful.

Thanks all for your suggestions, - - I'll save them in a file.

There are a few Christmas markets in that would still be open--Innsbruck's, for example, is open through the 28th. Stasbourg's Christmas market will go until 5 pm Dec. 24, so if you left on the 22nd, you'd just make it. And I think Colmar's runs til December 31. So perhaps you should consider basing yourself in Colmar or Strasbourg.

Quokka, our cousins live in Karlsruhe and we happened to find some nice handcrafted things in their market. So I suppose we have better memories of it. But it's just one of the markets in the general BB area that could be visited. I wasn't suggesting it was the best market by any means.

My friends and I were in Europe around last Christmas and virtually everywhere we went had a good market, but two that stood out were probably Zurich and Munich. They do not have that small town charm or atmosphere, but for size and quantity, they had it. I'm guessing you could visit a lot of places in Switzerland, Bavaria, and Austria and do no harm. I bought a great crystal set for my Mom at a market in Innsbruck, so it varies I guess.

This is a shot in the dark, but do any of the Christmas markets open in mid-November?? I will be in Bamberg November 12-19 and am pretty sure that's too early for the Christmas markets but I thought I'd ask.

O-T,

It looks like the markets start on Dec. 1st this year.

Another web site to check out is:

http://www.germany-tourism.de/ENG/cu...as_markets.htm

BTW - My favorite is Munich.

Guess what, everyone, I have a Christmas Market in my very own backyard, - - Chicago! Actually I just got to pass Daley Plaza last night and saw all the booths set up and looking just like the typical markets in Germany. I have especially been viewing on a Webcam the Vienna Christmas Market. Now I can't wait until I get to go and visit this Market in Daley Plaza very soon!

"The Christkindl is a holiday icon of the Christkindlesmarkt Nuremberg, Germany, Chicago’s sister market.

Popular from the very beginning, the two-week long Christmas extravaganza attracted more than 300,000 visitors in the first year. In 1997, Christkindlmarket Chicago became a four-week long event and the number of visitors quickly rose to 750,000.

Today, Christkindlmarket Chicago is the largest and most renowned Christmas/holiday market in the US attracting more than 1 million visitors from around the Chicagoland area, both coasts and around the world."

there were several thread of discussion on this topic whereby, after we read most of them and google some infor, we decided to go to Europe to visit some of these markets! Will be there next week (yuppy!) and plan to visit markets in Munich, Salzburg and Rothenburg OB Tauber

There's only one country to go to for Christmas markets, Princess, and that's Germany-no one does Christmas, and Christmas markets, like the Germans-everyone else's Christmas markets are but an imitation of same, mostly paling in comparison.

Nuremberg is an excellent and very famous market, it is huge, (as far as I'm concerned, the bigger the better-I love 'em!) You can't really go wrong in ANY of the major towns/cities of Germany, and their markets.

The oldest Christmas market, (over 500 years old) as well as the biggest, is in the beautiful city of Dresden, where the famous "Dresdener Christstollen" -a really good type of Christmas cake, with nuts and fruits (but NOT like American fruitcake!) dusted with confectioner's sugar, is sold around the world at Christmas (for Americans, there's a pretty good Stollen to be had at World Market, made by "Oebel's" an old German company for stollen and other baked goods, for those wishing to try it).

I've not been, but the Dresdener "Striezelmarkt" as it's called there, is huge, and I intend in the next few years to make a special pilgrimage there at Christmastime to visit it. I have been to Nuremberg, as well as Cologne, and of course Frankfurt, among the bigger ones-and they are ALL good.

You might want to have a look at this wikipedia entry entitled "Christmas markets" -it gives a bit of history/info. on this most wonderful German tradition.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Market