Christmas Markets 2023, including train/bus advice
 

Hello Fodorites, am posting for my sister who has just bought her ticket to Germany to see the Christmas markets. She flies into Frankfurt on December 13 early morning and out of Munich on the afternoon of the 20th. This is a spur of the moment trip and she hasn't figured out her itinerary, nor does she have any hotel reservations, she wants to visit Cologne and perhaps Siegburg and Trier, or maybe Kobblenz and Mainz. Then move to the Munich area for the Bavarian markets, She has 7 nights on the ground, flying out the afternoon of Day 8. IMO she should have stayed with Bavaria, which I believe has the best markets, but she absolutely wanted to see Cologne, which is why she flies into Frankfurt.

What kind of train ticket do you suggest, is it worth getting the €49 Deutschland pass? This works only on regional trains, not the high speed ones, so am not sure it makes sense? How do you suggest she goes about it? Understand you can book upto 6 months ahead on the ICE trains, my sis has left it rather late!

Germany hasn't really been on my beat and I know little or nothing about it. Would greatly appreciate your tips and suggestions, thanks in advance on behalf of both of us!

I think your sister is going to have a wonderful time. I’ve only been to Frankfurt once for the Christmas markets but went to Paris from there. So I can’t help with getting to Munich but going to seat61.com should help with the trains.

I did take regional trains to visit the more local markets like Mainz and a few others but booked a bit ahead the train to Cologne. It did make for a long day and was crowded when I went but it was fun. We used a Christmas train to get around which probably wasn’t ideal.

I used to use a website dedicated to German Christmas markets that helped with planning but the pandemic killed it. It was great to get opening times, know long far it was from my base town and which train tickets to get along with what to expect as a visitor. I would post it but it hasn’t been updated since 2019. If anyone knows of something similar, I would be interested.

If she is still looking for lodging in Cologne, we enjoyed our stay at the Cologne Marriott Hotel, which is about a 5-min walk from the Cologne Hbf. The hotel also offered "Lounge access" (for an extra fee or maybe comped), which included breakfast and dinner in the Executive Lounge, a very good deal.

The ICE trains running the route of Munich - Cologne, or Cologne - Utrecht were usually crowded. When she buys her ICE ticket, it is better to pay additional fees for a reserved seat, otherwise, she may wind up standing.

Deutschland ticket
it's possible to do the whole trip
FRA - Siegburg - Cologne - Coblence - Trier - Mannheim - Munich
by regional trains of DB. But it will take much more time.
Check with bahn.de

Hi geetika, my daughter and I had a day and a half in Cologne in January this year on the way to Brussels. We had a fantastic time! It was too short to do everything we wanted to do. I really don't think your sister will be disappointed by Cologne or the markets. I visited Christmas markets there in 2001 and at the time the city had 7 Christmas markets. Most big cities have several. I can also recommend the chocolate museum, and the Farina perfume museum. Of course she will want to see the Cathedral - I have been before but we didn't get there this time, just ran out of time. The nightlife also looks to be good; we stayed in the middle of an area that looks to have had many restaurants and bars. By day it was a little scuzzy but when it was dark the area came alive. It was also fantastically close to the shopping streets and all the museums. The hotel was called CityClass Hotel Residence Alter Markt. Our room was a little too small so make sure you go for something bigger. I can also recommend the hotel breakfasts; my daughter found a lot to tempt her appetite there.

As well as Frankfurt I would recommend Mainz for the Christmas market, on the way to Cologne.

If you are wondering about the Deutschland ticket, there is a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald's Traveller section about someone's good experience with it (look for the tip of the week):

https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/rev...25-p5eeub.html

The big takeway is that it's a subscription ticket. If you don't want to go that way there are Länder tickets (for each state within Germany) which are cheap and last for the day. Good if she wants to go up and down the Rhine by train one day.

Lavandula

Thank you for your suggestions and sharing your experiences. I only now looked at a map of Germany and realized Cologne is to the northwest, near the Netherlands and Munich diagonally opposite, in the southeast corner, definitely ICE to get from Cologne to Munich!

I’m guessing the first base will be Cologne, for 3 nights maybe, with trips to Trier and Mainz. Then ICE to Munich for the rest of the trip, with day trips again.

Lavandula, Cologne cathedral will most certainly be on the agenda, no way my sister would skip it. Sassy, I found some websites which give planning info about the German Christmas markets, a couple specifically for 2023.

https://www.christmasmarketsgermany.com/

https://www.germany-christmas-market...s_germany.html

https://www.europeanbestdestinations...as-in-germany/

Will also check out your hotel recommendations, thanks again for your help!

Koblenz might be the better transport hub than Cologne.
Mainz is very close to Frankfurt airport. It wouldn't make much sense to go to Cologne, to backtrack to Mainz for a day trip and to bypass Mainz for a third time on the way from Cologne to Munich.

Thanks for putting it in perspective neckervd, I noticed Mainz was near Frankfurt but didn’t think it out. That’s where this forum is such a huge help, thanks guys 😊

Geetika your second link was my old go to website for Germany Christmas markets. It helped so much with my planning when based in both Frankfurt and Munich. It was a shame to see it hasn’t been updated since 2019. I guess it’s still helpful in figuring out the ones in the areas being visited.

You will have to let us know how the trip went.

Another question for you. Wouldn’t it be better to buy the €49 Deutschland ticket for local travel and day trips instead of the Landes ticket, which is a day pass? Seems to be a no-brainer to me, but there’s probably something I’m missing, it can’t be as simple as that!

Thanks for elucidating 😊

It's a subscription ticket so if you buy it you also have to be prepared to cancel the subscription in time before you have to get the next one. Also the Länder tickets are much cheaper (around 26 EUR per main holder with 6 EUR per extra person), even if only for one day. So it depends on what your plans are - if you were going to train it only for a couple of days and the rest by car, the Länder tickets might be a better option. I doubt you would use the Deutschland ticket just for local trains, seems like overkill and might not be applicable to local public transport (sorry, I don't know the answer, most local public transport is not Deutsche Bahn. The company for Mainz and surrounds is the VRM, the company for Frankfurt - Darmstadt - Wiesbaden is the RMV and has separate tickets from DB). If you plan to go up and down the Rhine from Mainz to Cologne that's where the Länder tickets are useful (longer stretches).

Lavandula

Thanks for the detailed response Lavandula. My sister won’t have a car and will use only public transportation. This was initially a solo trip, but now a friend will be joining, though she had to get back two days early and will miss some of the markets in the Munich area. They’ve already bought the Cologne-Munich tickets on ICE.

They plan on two bases, 3 nights in Cologne, with day trips to Trier and Dusseldorf. Then 4 nights in Munich, day tripping to Nuremberg and 1-2 other places. I believe she mentioned Regensgerg, though I wasn’t aware it was known for its Christmas market. If she can add an extra day to her trip she’ll stay 3N in Munich and 2N in Nuremberg.

Seat 61 says the Deutschland ticket is valid on
local buses, trams, UBahn and regional trains, but which ones? I think my sister needs to research this some more before deciding which ticket she wants. She’s aware it’s a subscription ticket which needs to be cancelled before the 10th of the month, she’ll take care of it immediately on her return from Germany.

Thanks again for your reply, am
hoping someone else will also post with relevant information about the trains. In the meantime we’ll continue to research too.

Ah, if Seat 61 says it's available to local transport then no worries about the VRM and the RMV, you will be able to use it for everything. I looked it up now and I understand it's just for local and regional traffic, not ICE, IC or EC. Apologies if I was misleading, I honestly thought it was a pass for bigger trains. You should be able to use it for the small local trains up and down the Rhine, or local trains between Mainz and Frankfurt, just not the bigger, more expensive trains. https://sites.rmv.de/en/deutschlandticket

Lavandula

It's a good idea to buy the Cologne - Nuremberg od Cologne - Munich tickets now, for 18 EUR/pax.
They may get more expensive during December.

You weren’t misleading lavandula, you gave a lot of pertinent information and tips. Unfortunately the Cologne hotel you suggested is booked, but they’ve found something else.

I think they’ll go with the Deutschland ticket since it’ll be mostly for short day trips and the bus/tram. They need to check if this can be used on the Frankfurt-Cologne sector, my sister will look into all of this over the weekend.

Neckervd, they’ve already bought the long distance ICE tickets, but it was more than the €18 you said. Cheaper tickets were available, but not for the timing they wanted.

Thanks again and enjoy your weekend!

Of course it's possible to use the Deutschland ticket for a FRA - Cologne journey by using S-Bahn and Regionalbahn trains (1-2 train changes, journey time 3 1/2 - 3 3/4 hrs).

You can actually ask the bahn.com site to use slow trains - there is an option you select for 'Mode of Transport' and you just click on 'Local Transport Only'. That gives the milk runs to Cologne.

Shame about the hotel, but there are a bunch of hotels within a small distance from the Cathedral. joannyc suggested the Marriott, which I didn't take up at the time but that would have been very acceptable to me as well. Glad I could help you!

Lavandula