Please help with Christmas market itinerary
 

Last spring, daughter and I booked Nov - Dec trip to Europe. 4 nights in London and 4 nights in Munich. Not counting 2020, this will be our 7th annual trip to London and a Christmas market town.

We are fully vaxed, but due to UK’s wide open Covid policy, think I will feel safer in Germany. Switching our plans to shorter stay in London and 5 or 6 nights in Germany.

We have been researching Christmas market towns, but need to book new London to Germany flight and new hotel nights soon. Considering 3 plans.

1. Fly London to Stuttgart, spend 2-3 days seeing Ludwigsburg, Esslingen, and maybe Tübingen. Train to Munich and a daytrip or 2 from there.

2. Fly London to Munich (easier to book this flight), same day train to Nuremberg area, stay for 2-3 days, back to Munich.

3. Fly London to Munich, spend all nights there and take day trips.

We love Christmas markets for the atmosphere and decor and prefer cute walkable towns. We love to shop and I love churches. My first time to any of these places in Germany and unless weather is really lousy will save museums, castles, and other sightseeing for another trip.

All travel by train but hope to minimize travel time.

Thanks for any help.

However you calculate covid safety, be advised the vaccination rate in the U.K. is higher than in Germany (and also BTW the U.S.), esp. with regard to booster jabs...

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...s-tracker.html

Just wondering: have you given any thought to going to Austria instead? Vienna fits your brief to a T and there are plenty of direct flights from London. OR, if you wish, you could even fly direct to Salzburg from Gatwick. Salzburg also fits your bill. You could even day trip to Munich from Salzburg. And from Vienna you could day trip to Salzburg or Graz (Graz is also good for an overnight visit but you probably won't have enough time).

Jean, my Covid concerns are that in England (unlike Scotland and Wales) there are no vaccine checks and no masks required for restaurants, shops or museums. Discussion on another travel forum leads me to believe that safety precautions are in force in Germany with good compliance. Btw, we are fully vaxed, including boosters. But breakthroughs can happen and I would like to minimize risk of positive test overseas.

WeisserTee, Actually, our 2019 trip included Salzburg. Did the St.Wolfgang ferry around the lake and loved it.
Also, we snagged a great deal on business class flight home from Munich.

Germany is currently experiencing their highest number of cases ever. Austria is also experiencing high numbers. Not going to get any better I fear over the next few weeks, as people spend more and more time indoors.

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-...-free-movement

Maybe switch to France?

WeisserTee i hope Susan4 does not mind me hijacking her thread, I’m going to Vienna on November 23 - I have not been there in 20 years and I want to see the Christmas markets. I’m looking at lodging but most apartments I can afford are outside the center. I would like to be able to walk to some markets (and to the center) rather than take too much public transport. What are your favorite markets and what areas are good to stay in to get to them with a walk? The area around the museums is an option if there is a nice market there. I’ll be following this thread in case I can make it to Germany this trip, or another time..

Hi Rialtogrl, I suggest you start a separate thread on Vienna Christmas markets; you will get more useful information that way. FWIW, I like the Spittelberg market (and the whole Spittelberg area): https://www.visitingvienna.com/sight...s/spittelberg/ plus the big market in front of the Rathaus. This is an overview of the markets https://www.visitingvienna.com/sight...stmas-markets/

Re housing, when you start your own thread, you might want to mention your housing budget and what you'd like to get at that price. You might get some good specific recommendations.

My favorite Christmas markets and just plain Christmas-y cities and towns are, in rough order: Dresden, Baden-Baden, Vienna, Basel, Gstaad, Colmar, Graz, Hattingen, Detmold and Muenster. Others have their own favorites.

Thank you so much WeisserTee. Your neighborhood recommendation was enough for me. Spittelberg looks great and I booked a place just slightly south of there. I might spend one night in an airport hotel the night before my flight - I will research first, but may post something about that.

Continuing bad news on Covid cases and deaths in Germany... Cases in France are also ticking up, while numbers in the U.K. are on a downward trend.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/11/germ...s-warning.html

Many Christmas markets are already cancelled. I am sure others will follow. Please keep an eye on things and be prepared for changes of plans and rules.
Benelux is now on a negative travel advisory from the US, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Germany joining that soon.
Numbers are rising again in parts of France and Spain too.

Hetismij2 and others. Thank you for the warnings. As of now, our plans are, as originally planned, 4 nights in London and 4 nights in Munich, but we are prepared for change. Now the advantage is shifting to London, where we actually have Reservations for all 8 nights. The weather likely to be warmer and outside dining easier. We already have several reservations for outside dining.
Will post an update on our plans.
thanks again, stay safe.

hetismij2
Can you share more specific details about Christmas markets that have been canceled?

I will be in London early December too.. will you go to Winter Wonderland? Some people think it’s cheesy, but I love it. This year you have to reserve in advance and pay £5 to help control the crowd. I have never seen it super crowded inside but the Tube stops around certainly are. I am going to walk this time.

Another fun thing to do is the Ice rink at Canary Wharf.

Some info on the current state of Christmas Markets for those of us planning trips:

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel...-b1955890.html