Germany from Christmas to New Years
 

Planning a trip with my wife, my 19yr old and my 17 yr old...depart Dec-22 and return Jan-4.

Thinking of flying to Frankfurt, train to Cologne...Christmas in Cologne..then work our way down through Rhine region and around to Munich.

Would love any suggestions for that trip...places to go...Rhine cruises..castles...vilages.

Where should we go for New Years?

Can we do it all by train, or should I plan a car rental?

Thank you!

Germany is fairly cold in December. I would stick to visiting cities, IMHO Rhine cruises, castles and villages are best reserved for summer visits.

If Cologne and Frankfurt are both places you want to see, I would spend New Year's Eve in either place. Both cities will be lively and both have big fireworks displays over the river.

Life in Germany gets quiet starting around noon on Christmas Eve through Second Christmas Day, the 26th. Many businesses will be closed. Plan accordingly.

Based on your proposed itinerary, using the train would be most convenient. You will not need a car in Frankfurt, Cologne or Munich. Many of the villages along the Rhine also have good train connections.

All shops except those few inside the main train stations stay closed from the early afternoon of Christmas Eve till the morning of Dec 27 and also on Sundays. The Christmas markets in the cities mentioned all terminate by Christmas Eve.

Mentally prepare for short daylight hours and cold weather, and rather rain than snow. Options for river cruises are limited and probably not too pleasant that time of the year. If you want a white Christmas, pick a destination high up in the Alps

You will find many of the towns along the Rhine to be absolutely dead and empty in the winter time. Christmas Markets will end in many towns on the 22nd or 23rd. Frankfurts ends on the 22nd. Rüdesheim may go til the 23rd. River cruises are few and far between, probably only one ship a day and that is only if they have enough people. The only castles that will be open would be the Marksburg and either Rheinstein or Reichenstein.

On the 24th, you will need reservations at a hotel dining room as every restaurant will be closed by about 1400, if they are even open at all. On the 25th and 26th, if you want to visit museums, it is advised to check their opening hours, as they may or may not be open.

New Years Eve in any big city will offer tons of fireworks, as they are legal to buy the 3 days leading up to the 31st. Count on at least 45-60 min.

It will be dark by 16:30.

For a traditional kind of Christmas with the promise of more snow, I would go down to someplace like Garmisch or one of the other ski resort areas. There you can go sledding, the hotels put on a Christmas program, etc.

NovaCat91:

Yeah - forget the Rhine Cruise. But you can still visit the area. If you stay in Mainz (nice city near FRA) you can take a daytrip by train into the Middle Rhine Valley, where the cruises take you, and see the same scenery from the train window. There are tracks on both sides of the river. From Mainz, ride north along the west bank past all the castles, making a stop in Bacharach for an hour to check out the fine half-timbered buildings. Then continue north to Koblenz, where you can change to a southbound train along the east bank for a different view of the valley. Stop in Braubach for a tour of Marksburg Castle (open all year except 12/24 and 25) and in Rüdesheim before continuing on to Wiesbaden and back to Mainz.

www.marksburg.de

Christmas Markets: Actually NOT ALL of them shut down permanently just before Christmas. South of Mainz - south of Mannheim, actually - you can visit the Speyer Christmas Market, which traditionally is open from 10-1:00 or so on 12/24, closes for 12/25 and 26, and reopens on 12/27 at 11:00; it stays open through the first week in January with some pauses for the New Year holiday. Speyer is a nice town with a very well-regarded Cathedral.

Your family could take full advantage of the Rheinland Pfalz ticket daypass for making outings along the Rhine. It's valid from Bonn in the north to Karlsruhe in the south, so the Middle Rhine Valley, Koblenz, Mainz, and Speyer, as well as other places of interest like Trier, are all accessible with the same pass. It's 34€/day for a group of 4. Details and a map of coverage are here:

http://www.vrminfo.de/en/tickets-and...-pfalz-ticket/

I was in Bacharach at that time in 2011. DEAD. Even the tourist office was closed.