Between xmas-NYE: With 1 year old

[BrettsBurger]

Hi,

We are thinking of going for a European city break 27 Dec - 03rd Jan, with our then, 1-year-old in tow.

Has anybody else done a similar holiday and can recommend destinations? Somewhere that prolongs the festivities with good Christmas markets and has enough to keep us busy indoors if the weather is poor.

Germany closes the Christmas markets around the 23rd so you won't find a Christmas spirit there.

Lots of far northern Italy (the bit that used to be Austria) has Christmas markets open til 6 Jan, and lots of the towns are completely gorgeous like postcards.

But the bigger ones with skiing can get busy and expensive at that time of year, whereas the smaller ones tend to have fewer tourist attractions in case of bad weather, so def do your research.

Lots of them have lovely indoor swimming centres with baby pools as well as spas and saunas so they are pretty great wet weather options! Or just choose a hotel with a good pool.

I'd suggest maybe looking at Trento - gorgeous xmas markets and town, plus a fab natural history museum you can spend hours and hours in.

Amsterdam is perfect at Christmas. There’s Winter Festival which includes Winter Paradise (until the second week of January), the light festival (until late January) and various other events and activities. I definitely recommend doing a canal cruise to see the lights. It’s also possible to do a day trip (either coach trip or public transport) to Efteling which is magical at any time of year but especially so at Christmas.