Planning
How to Plan a European Christmas Market Trip
The magic of a Christmas market trip happens in the evening — the lights, the Glühwein, the smell of roasting chestnuts. So the whole job of planning is to get you standing in a market square at 5pm, warm and unhurried, as often as possible. That comes down to three decisions: the shape of your trip, the route you take, and the pace you keep. Here is a simple framework for all three.
First, choose your trip type
Every good itinerary is one of four shapes. Pick the one that matches your group and your appetite for moving around.
Hub & Spoke
One base, easy day trips
Pick one hub city, stay 4–7 nights, and take day trips to nearby markets by train (occasionally car). You always sleep in the same familiar bed.
Ideal for
- • Your first Christmas-market trip to Europe
- • Families and anyone who hates packing and unpacking
- • Shorter trips of 4–7 days
- • Prioritising markets over "collecting cities"
Core rules
- • One hotel for the whole trip (two at most)
- • Day trips of about an hour to 90 minutes each way
- • Always back to your base for the evening markets
Open Jaw
A one-way city chain
Fly into one airport and out of another, moving in a single direction through 2–4 cities. No backtracking, and a real sense of a journey.
Ideal for
- • Trips of 7–14 days
- • Travellers happy to change hotels a few times
- • Anyone who wants the feeling of crossing Europe
- • Multi-city or reward-flight bookings
Core rules
- • Start and end at major airports
- • 2–3 cities for 7 days, 3–4 for 10, 4–5 for 14 (max)
- • Travel only in the mornings; keep every evening for markets
- • Train hops of roughly 2–4 hours
Round-Trip Loop
A circle from one airport
Fly in and out of the same airport, but travel a loop of cities rather than out-and-back day trips. Simple flights, still a real journey.
Ideal for
- • Round-trip reward flights
- • Renting a car and returning it to the same place
- • Trips of 7–14 days
Core rules
- • One to three hops that form a circle, not out-and-back
- • Same pacing: morning travel, evenings free for markets
River Cruise
Unpack once, wake up somewhere new
Let the boat do the moving. A Danube or Rhine river cruise stops at a string of market towns while you unpack just once — the ultimate low-logistics option.
Ideal for
- • Travellers who never want to change hotels
- • Couples and multi-generational trips
- • Anyone who wants the markets without the planning
Core rules
- • Book early for December sailings — they sell out
- • Great for the Danube (Vienna, Budapest, Regensburg) and Rhine (Cologne, Strasbourg, Basel)
- • Tell us your dates and we will match you with a sailing — no obligation
Hub & spoke: the relaxed default
If you have 5–7 days and are not sure where to start, this is the answer. Base yourself in one city and let these day trips come to you.
Colmar hub
4–7 nightsFrance · Alsace wine route
Day trips: Riquewihr, Ribeauvillé, Eguisheim, Kaysersberg
One-way city chains (open jaw)
Fly into one airport and out of another, moving in one direction. These are our favourite routes — pick by how many days you have.
CGN → BSL — German Rhine → French Alsace → Switzerland
ZRH → FRA — Swiss → tri-border → Germany
Loops from one airport (round trip)
Perfect for a simple round-trip flight or a rental car you return where you started. Travel a circle instead of doubling back.
From Frankfurt (FRA)
Frankfurt → Heidelberg → Strasbourg → Colmar → Basel → Frankfurt
From Vienna (VIE)
Vienna → Bratislava → Budapest → Vienna
From Zurich (ZRH)
Zurich → Basel → Freiburg → Strasbourg → Zurich
Getting around: trains, car or plane
Trains — your default
Use the train for almost every city hop. Markets live in old-town squares, and trains drop you city-centre to city-centre with no parking, tolls or winter-driving stress — just a pretzel and a window seat. Ideal for journeys of two to five hours.
Car — a strategic tool, not the default
Only rent when your trip is mostly villages and countryside — the Colmar wine route (Riquewihr, Eguisheim, Kaysersberg), the Black Forest around Freiburg, or the Romantic Road (Würzburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbühl). Smart move: take the train into a city, rent a car for the village days, and drop it before the next big city.
Flying — a last resort
Only fly within Europe for a big geographic jump or when the train would take seven hours or more. For most German, Austrian, French and Central European routes, the train wins on time-plus-hassle. An open-jaw ticket — into one airport, out of another — pairs beautifully with a one-way city chain.
Or let the boat do the moving
A Danube or Rhine river cruise unpacks you once and wakes you somewhere new each morning — market towns like Vienna, Budapest, Regensburg and Cologne without ever changing hotels. Tell us your dates and we'll match you with a sailing.
Pacing: how not to wreck yourself
This is the part most itineraries skip. Follow these six rules and you will still be smiling on day ten.
Travel in the morning, do markets at night
Breakfast and check out early, take the train mid-morning (three to four hours max), drop your bags and do light sightseeing over lunch, then keep 4–9pm free for the markets. The lights and Glühwein are the whole point — do not spend the evening on a train.
Keep nights-per-base sensible
A 5–7 day trip wants one base (two at most); 10 days, two or three; 14 days, three or four. Five bases in ten days turns a holiday into a train-collecting exercise.
Cap your hotel changes
Aim for one hotel on a 5–7 day hub trip; at most three changes in ten days, four or five in fourteen. Beyond that you are moving more than you are enjoying.
Alternate heavy and light days
A heavy day is travel plus evening markets; a light day is one city, a lie-in, one museum, one market. Every two heavy days, insert a light one.
Limit markets to two or three a day
Big cities have 5–15 markets and you cannot see them all and stay sane. Pick a main one for the afternoon and a smaller or themed one for the evening.
Stay within walking distance of the square
Book a hotel within a 10–15 minute walk of the main square or cathedral. That is what gives you the "step straight out into the magic" feeling instead of a long, cold commute.
Christmas market trip planning FAQ
Ready to pick your cities?
Browse markets by country and city, or check what to pack once you know where you are headed.