Christmas in Europe?

[IAmSashaFierce]

DH has just suggested to me that sometime around the 12th/13th of December, we could go to a Christmas market and pretty town or city in Europe.

(We are looking to go and come back over 2 days, so only spend 1 night).

There are 2 options:

-Eurostar it to Brussels or Bruges/some other Belgian or French town (not Paris)

-Fly to Switzerland/Austria/Italy (Am not interested in Rome, Spain or Scandinavian countries as have either been recently or am going soon).

Any suggestions as to where we should go?

Any reason why you are discounting Germany? That would be my top choice .

Aachen Christmas market is lovely, and also very easily doable by Eurostar as it is right on the German-Belgian border - it takes about an hour from Brussels.

There was a simiar ish thread and people highly recommended copenhagen and tivoli gardens ( the oldest theme park in the world, in the city all lit up at night)

I hadn't discounted Germany, more just I don't really have there or have it on my radar. DH isn't a fan of Germany for another thing, but its a long story!

If there was something really worth going for I'd consider it.

DH and I are dong a road trip round Sweden and Denmark, including Copenhagen so hadn't planned to go there twice in one year. Is it worth doing?

It looks lovely esp at xmas but have not been, however I have read excellent things about tivoli anyway....

Bruges would be lovely but I heard best things about Austria. I would head to there...

Vienna! The Christmas Market is fabulous... the city is fabulous at Christmas time.

Germany is absolutely the King of Christmas, that would be my top choice. We were there at Easter (Bavaria) but knee deep in snow and all the little villages round the magical castles had their Christmas shops open and it was like Christmas Wonderland in April! It surprised me by being the best holiday (bar my honeymoon) I think we have ever done.

Has anyone been to Bordeaux, Carcassonne or Marseille at Christmas? They are on our radar this year as driving distance.

The Xmas market in Brussels is mainly food stalls. The Grand Place has a live nativity and a sound and light show in the run up to Xmas. There's ice skating in the Place de Monnae (or that's where it was last year).

Brugge will have an ice sculpture festival on. That's supposed to be excellent.

The Aachen market is mainly food stalls (but very good ones!) but I prefer Monschau. It's a really beautiful town that's famous for its Xmas market.

The best place I've been was to a little town on the Mosel called Bernkastel-Kues. It's not too far from Trier and Luxemburg (which also have excellent markets).

zorion where about in bavaira it sounds wonderful!

Yes op, another I have been tempted by is vienna....heard rave reviews about it

We hired a car and spent most of the time in the region where the castles are.. Hohenschwangau, Oberammergau etc. We stayed in one very cheap log cabin place just under this castle!

It was wonderful, I really wasn't looking forward to traveling with a toddler, and thought the weather was going to be awful, but then I was completely enchanted by everything, and DS behaved impeccably!

Although, I did look at Vienna this year and it looks amazing, we have friends there and I would love to visit for xmas, but the flight prices from where we live were too much :-(

We built this on Easter Sunday! Totally off topic but I haven't showed anyone else and its making me smile!

Cologne has been on our hit list (not made it yet...) - seven Christmas markets there! CologneMarkets

Germany every time. I would go to Berlin. There are numerous markets - the one in the Gendarmenmarkt is particularly good. Berlin is also surprisingly cheap.

zorion that picture looks like Neuschwanstein Castle >

We did Bruges between Christmas and New Year last year, two days one night. Loved it, the mulled wine and Christmas atmosphere and the whole place was magical

That was neuschwanstein, I wasn't supposed to go up to Marienbrucke to take the photo because the way was snowed under, but I did (naughty) which added to the magic as I was the only one in the snowy wonderland!

Avignon has a nice Christmas market and you can get the Eurostar all the way there.

I went to Budapest last year. It was really lovely. I'd love to go to Vienna but it always seems very expensive. Budapest is quite cheap.

Bruges is nice at Christmas and not too big the ice sculpture festival is worth going to. If you're in the South it could be quicker and cheaper to drive to Bruges than Eurostar, you have to change at Brussels. It's only an easy 1.5 hour drive from Calais, there's a huge underground car park there, we felt safe leaving our car there for a few days.