Christmassy European city break

[NotPennysBoat]

DH & I, and DC 10 and 7 would like to do a weekend European city break in December. Somewhere that will feel Christmassy but not necessarily a Christmas market.

Number 1 requirement is that we must be able to fly directly from Manchester!

Vienna or Tallinn

Tallin is fab but only been in the summer, Cologen is the best Christmas place we have been

Cologne gets absolutely rammed at the weekend when the Xmas market is on. I was actually really frightened the last time I went. It's been cancelled the last couple of years though. Prettiest place, Strasbourg, but not a direct flight. Munich would be good. Or Innsbruck/Salzburg.

Munich.

Colmar less busy than Strasbourg

Berlin, I went a few years back in mid December. Brilliant

We went to Alsace - Riquewihr and Colmar. Soooo beautiful and festive. Fly into Geneva or Strasbourg.

Or there's Lille, which has a Christmas market. Or Bruges/Ghent in Belgium, which are gorgeous places to go in the winter.

Can you get to Riga from Manc? It's so Christmassy!

Nuremberg

If you want cheap flights ryanair to Brussels charleroi. Flights around 25.00 each then flixbus from airport to bruges.
Bus takes you straight there Bruges is lovely

Sorry best bus is flibco straight from outside airport.
If you decide to go book early for a discount

We did Vienna in Dec 19 and it was lovely, loads of Christmas markets but plenty to see apart from them too. We did a day trip to Salzburg on the train as well which was gorgeous.

Vienna is a beautiful city and particularly lovely around Christmas time - there is a market around every corner. You can fly to either Vienna airport or Bratislava - it’s around an hour from the city centre.

Prague!

We went to Vienna in the summer, which was lovely, and there is lots to do that is not weather dependent (fab galleries and Schonbrunn palace for example) so it would be good in the winter too, and I imagine at Christmas time it would be magical, as the city centre is full of beautiful buildings.

I would fly to Vienna airport btw not Bratislava - we bought public transport tickets in advance that we could use all over the city (u-bahn, tram) and we only needed to pay an extra couple of euros to get the train from the airport - I imagine Bratislava would cost a lot more.

Paris is stunning in the lead up to Christmas. The window displays, lights and markets… oh take me back!

Bruges is more traditional Christmas market style but beautiful and compact.

As far as I can see there are no direct flights from Manchester to Vienna so that would be out as it does not fit what OP wants.
Paris has flights but make sure they are to CDG Airport as you can get train directly to Central Paris from there and if you stay on system get to final hotel on same ticket.
You could do Brussels from Charleroi as well just get the different flibco bus from airport

Jet2 and Austrian are both showing direct flights from Manchester to Vienna in December 2022 on skyscanner. I think we flew Austrian when we did the same trip.

I should have done better checks.
Austrian Airlines look brilliant free carry on luggage on their cheapest flights.

Prague is lovely in the winter. Wroclaw or Krakow in Poland also have markets.

Vienna - there are lots of Christmas markets, the one at Schonbrunn was particularly lovely, with the palace as a backdrop. Plenty of places for hot chocolate and patisserie, stalls selling bratwurst. Street decorations were beautiful. Compact city, lots of galleries and museums, fantastic architecture, cheap public transport and snow if you're lucky!

Wroclaw, it's gorgeous! We were there late November for three days, can't wait to go back. The Christmas market happened to be in, so pretty but not huge like the German ones etc. Fab bars and restaurants too, and so cheap.

Nuremberg. Not absolutely sure atm but we flew there from Manchester pre pandemic

Vienna. Their galleries & museums are open on Xmas Day.