Please critique our Christmas market plans

[MaitlandGirl]

We (DW, myself and MIL) are planning a trip to Europe for the Christmas Markets and some general tourist stuff.

This is what we've come up with so far, but we're not sure if we're making the most of our time.

Paris - 4 nights,
Strasbourg - 4 nights (including day trip to Colmar)
Nuremberg - 3 nights
Munich - 3 nights (including trip to Neuschwanstein Castle)
Disneyland Paris - 3 nights

We'll be travelling by train between cities apart from when we fly from Munich to DLP where we'll fly.

Does this sound workable? Is 4 days too long in Strasbourg, would we be better adding an extra night in Nuremberg or Munich? We're in Australia so need the 4 nights in Paris to recover from the flight and still be able to explore.

I do really enjoy the Christmas Markets but there is much sameness about them. I would suggest you pick cities that you want to visit and make the Christmas Markets the frosting on the cake.
Nuremberg is normally very crowded at Christmas, detracting from the city. If you chose Stuttgart over Nuremberg (I would), check to see if the medieval market at nearby Esslingen is open this year. It is something a bit different in an attractive small town.
I’d do extra night in Munich so you can do a day trip to Salzburg, which is only an hour and a half a half by train and just so Christmassy.

Is there a reason why you're not going to DLP while you're in Paris the first time? Or do you have to go back to Paris to fly back to Australia anyway?

Are you not interested in Berlin or Cologne? i don't know much about Strasbourg, Nuremberg or Munich as to whether there's enough of interest to see in 3/4 days in winter, but I'd imagine that the Christmas markets would get a bit samey after a while and it seems a bit mad to make them the focus of a trip from the other side of the world.

But I suppose it depends on what you're interested in an how the trains are going to work. I also appreciate that, if you're Australian, you have different views on journey length than us Europeans used to places being closer together.

We're not really sure what we're doing to be honest - we've just lost FIL and the Christmas Markets are something MIL has always wanted to do, so really this is mostly for her.

At the moment it's a concept - visit Europe and see the Christmas markets, but I agree that we need to do more while we're there, otherwise we're just going to spend the entire trip drunk on mulled wine while MIL looks at yet another christmas tree decoration she can't bring home as it'll get broken in the suitcases.

I'd rather fly in/out of Paris as a return is cheaper than two one way tickets which is why we've got Paris proper at the beginning and DLP at the end.

I'm beginning to think we're going about this all wrong - maybe I should be asking which are the must see markets and then building our trip around those. Eisslingen medieval market looks great and Salzburg would be fantastic, I'm almost tempted to throw in a day trip to the Vatican as well (MIL is catholic) but I'm wary of trying to do too much and not actually having time to see anything.

Train journeys don't bother us in the slightest but I don't want to spend more than a half day on a train.

All advice is gratefully received.

I agree with choose cities that have other things you want to see & then factor in the markets - Vienna & Salzburg both great as places to visit & both extra Christmassy, Munich is nice, but not as nice as those 2 places (I found Vienna had more to do)
DLP will be very cold to spend time in queues for rides - is that a must?

OP, I have an Australian friend who's been to Europe a few times. He sometimes went on coach tours to see lots of places without too much thought or planning. I'm not suggesting you do the same, but some of the itineraries for these trips might help you with your planning in terms of where would be worth visiting?

https://www.shearings.com/coach-holidays/germany

https://www.globaljourneys.com/tours/europe/winter#!Sort=Rank|Country=Central%20Europe,Europe%20Multi-Country

https://www.leger.co.uk/germany#tour-search-results

Oh thank you @Bjorkdidit that's going to be a huge help. :)

You've got it right about the sameness of Christmas Markets - you can only see so many Christmas decorations, candy canes, mugs of mulled wine, honey hearts and Santas before the whole thing becomes repetitive. Instead, pick some interesting things to do in your chosen cities (Paris, Strasbourg, Nuremburg and Munich are all great places to visit) and spend one day at the Christmas markets in each city.

Drop Disneyland - why would you spend 3 days in a place that is an artificial, plastic "attraction" when you're in Europe and surrounded by real castles, beautiful cities and genuine culture that goes back thousands of years?

Add the DLP days to your time in the Munich/Salzburg area - e.g. spend 2 days in Salzburg, where there are Christmas markets, plus the castle, old city, cathedral, and all things to do with Mozart. And of course the Sound of Music stuff.

You don't really have sufficient time to go to the Vatican City.

I would do 2/3 nights in Strasbourg. Have an extra night in Paris.

Disney Paris is one day so you don't need 3 nights there.

I'd drop Munich or Nurnberg (if you decide to go for Vienna...) due to travel time.

I think there is a lot of Cities and you might find them a bit boring after the 3rd.
I'd look for unique experiences for each City stay to make it more interesting.

For example: If you go with Strassbourg, hop onto the train across the border to Bad Krozingen for a relaxing spa day....

Don't drop Munich because of your day trip to Neuschwanstein and a potential day trip to Salzburg. You could easily drop Nuremberg and replace it with Stuttgart. If you're desperate to see Nuremberg, it can be done from Munich because it's only an hour on the train.

For the Xmas markets element have you considered a river cruise? All the main companies do short market focussed cruises in Nov/Dec and you coukd add this to other destinations

I second, look for cities which interest you, the markets are the extra.

I love Nürnberg, but I lived nearby so I am a bit biased. While it does get crowded, I found Berlin not any better.

About taking oranments home: we fly back with plenty of wood, ceramic and glass and so far nothing has broken. Last year DH carried a small pyramid into his hand luggage. The rest is just carefully wrapped and put between the dirty clothes.

It might be worth looking at The Man in Seat 61 website, everything you ever wanted to know about European train travel and routes is in there

@MaitlandGirl I can't help with your itinerary, but we're going to Munich in December for three nights. We've decided we probably won't visit Neuschwanstein Castle, but we are going to Salzburg for a whole day. It's under two hours on the train. Just booked our tickets on the Trainline app.

I would consider staying overnight or 2 nights near neuschwanstein, it's lovely, we got a package that included the other castle, carriage ride and meals. A good contrast to the markets, and it's not so far from Austria though I was driving not on the train

Amsterdam would be lovely in the winter but cold. Maybe go a bit further north to Denmark or Sweden instead of Disney land?

The OP is flying into and out of Paris, so the original itinerary (with Salzburg or Stuttgart instead of Disneyland) is about right if she does not want to spend more than half a day at a time on a train. Vatican, Amsterdam, Denmark and Sweden are too far away from the proposed core travel area - even Vienna is another 3 hours on from Salzburg and over 4 hours from Munich by train.

Is Paris a must-see for you, or is it the place that works out best for flights? As in, you definitely want to start and finish in Paris?

I’d definitely agree that you should choose the cities you want to go to - rather than focus on the markers. In any case all European cities will have some Christmassy stuff going on, so it’ll feel like a Christmas trip wherever you go.

Have you been to Europe before?

If I was planning a trip I’d think about maybe doing all, or just some, of Munich - Vienna - Budapest - Krakow - Prague - Berlin. All straightforward via train. You could do different combinations eg just Munich, Vienna, Prague. All those cities are lovely in their own right and also great at Christmas. You can train from Paris to Munich if you were set on starting at Paris.

Or closer to your starting point of Paris and less travel, Paris, Brussels or Bruges, Amsterdam, Paris.

Would skip Disney or at most do it for one day.

Paris is an absolute must - not so much for the Christmas markets but definitely for the city itself.

curent thinking is -

paris 4 nights (to recover from jet lag)
strasburg 3 nights
stuttgart 4 nights
cologne 4 nights
paris 3 nights and then home

We’re going to do a day trip to Disney from Paris at the end of the trip as that saves us money actually staying there.

We’re going round in circles with this as I’d love to find a way to visit Rome and Venice but that will just have to be next time. I can’t see how to fit it in with this trip unless we fly into Rome and out of Paris but that blows the budget totally.

Leave Italy for another time unless you add more days to your itinerary and cash to your budget.

If you have not booked yet, search for multi-city/open jaw flight tickets instead of two singles.

I love both Nuremberg and Munich but I am not sure if I would do both markets, in fact I would probably not do all those markets at all, they get pretty samey afer a while.
Also, we didn't like Neuschwanstein at all

You must really like Christmas because I think that sounds a bit much. Munich is great and I have been for the Christmas market a couple of times, on one occasion we did a day trip to Nuremberg by train. It was absolutely heaving. I wouldn’t spend three nights there personally.

I'd fly straight out of Paris on a budget airline flight to Venice (Ryanair)

Get over your jet lag there and then do the rest by train.

Venice - 4 nights
Verona - 1 night
Munich - 6 nights (markets and day trips to the castle and to Nuremberg)
Stuttgart - 2 nights
Paris - 4 nights (or take a night from Munich to add in DLP day trip)

Much more variety and they'll all have Christmas markets to visit

Sorry, not Ryanair. Fly EasyJet as they have 2 cheap flights per day from CDG into Marco Polo.

Get a water taxi from Marco Polo into Venice and prebook tickets for Doges palace secret tour a couple of days in to your trip. Now that will be a fantastic start for your MIL. Verona is also beautiful and you'll have the experience of Italy, Germany and France in one visit without travelling more than a few hours on the train at any one point or moving around too much.