At the Thanksgiving holiday each year Mrs. GRE and I go somewhere in Europe to check out the Christmas markets. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving is early this year and many of the markets will not yet be open for our 11/23 - 11/28 trip through FRA.

It appears that the markets in Frankfurt and Koln will be open as of 11/24. So, our thinking as of now is to land at FRA 11/24 and take the train to Koln where we would stay the nights of 11/24 and 11/25. Then on 11/26 we'd go back to Frankfurt and stay the night of 11/26 and 11/27.

Questions:
Any other cities with better markets to see in this region?
It appears that there is a Bahnhof at FRA with trains direct to Koln which take less than an hour? Any need to buy tickets in advance?
Any hotel suggestions? Based on TripAdvisor and price (would like to spend ~100EUR/night) I'm considering the NH City Center in Koln and the NH Frankfurt City in Frankfurt.

Thanks!

If I may suggest, you could skip the fast train ( 300km/h ) from FRA to Cologne and choose the far more scenic Rhine route instead. The fast track is mostly tunnels and encavements and doesn´t offer much to see plus you really feel the speed as the train kind of shakes fairly often.

Why not take a comfortable IC train Frankfurt - Cologne with a proper dining car ( eliminated from the fast ICEs ) and enjoy the scenery? And I would even add an overnight stay at Koblenz, a real gem of a city, before continuing to Cologne. And Bonn some 20 minutes before Cologne is not bad either...

In Cologne, the NH is a good ( Spanish ) hotel, not in a pretty location but central. An additional bonus is that you are next door to the Chocolate Museum where a medieval themed Christmas market has been held in the past few years. Much more interesting than the packed main markets at the Cathedral and Old Town.

At the Thanksgiving holiday each year Mrs. GRE and I go somewhere in Europe to check out the Christmas markets. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving is early this year and many of the markets will not yet be open for our 11/23 - 11/28 trip through FRA.

It appears that the markets in Frankfurt and Koln will be open as of 11/24. So, our thinking as of now is to land at FRA 11/24 and take the train to Koln where we would stay the nights of 11/24 and 11/25. Then on 11/26 we'd go back to Frankfurt and stay the night of 11/26 and 11/27.

Questions:
Any other cities with better markets to see in this region?
It appears that there is a Bahnhof at FRA with trains direct to Koln which take less than an hour? Any need to buy tickets in advance?
Any hotel suggestions? Based on TripAdvisor and price (would like to spend ~100EUR/night) I'm considering the NH City Center in Koln and the NH Frankfurt City in Frankfurt.

Thanks!
Answers (or ideas):
I would say stick with your original ideas.

The ICE between FRA and Köln is very fast (and pricey). You can buy tickets at any of the ticket machines or at a Bahn counter. If you don't mind a slower and more scenic ride, the RE trains go through Mainz, up the Rhein river valley, through Koblenz, Bonn and up into Köln. Factor about 2 to 2 1/2 hours for this, if memory serves. Get a bottle of Riesling and enjoy it with the Mrs. while watching the river and castles go by.

I'm staying at the weird looking Frankfurt Radisson this December. I got a rate of 99 euros (Weekend Magic rate).

You can browse a whole list of Xmas markets and what they offer here:

http://www.germany-tourism.de/ENG/culture_and_events/christmas_markets.htm

At the Thanksgiving holiday each year Mrs. GRE and I go somewhere in Europe to check out the Christmas markets. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving is early this year and many of the markets will not yet be open for our 11/23 - 11/28 trip through FRA.

It appears that the markets in Frankfurt and Koln will be open as of 11/24. So, our thinking as of now is to land at FRA 11/24 and take the train to Koln where we would stay the nights of 11/24 and 11/25. Then on 11/26 we'd go back to Frankfurt and stay the night of 11/26 and 11/27.

Questions:
Any other cities with better markets to see in this region?
It appears that there is a Bahnhof at FRA with trains direct to Koln which take less than an hour? Any need to buy tickets in advance?
Any hotel suggestions? Based on TripAdvisor and price (would like to spend ~100EUR/night) I'm considering the NH City Center in Koln and the NH Frankfurt City in Frankfurt.

Thanks!

My $0.02:

I would choose which route you take for the train rides depending on the time you are taking them. Don't forget, it gets dark fairly early (~4-4:30pm).

However, here's another suggestion:

Another option (I'm biased as I'm from Mainz ;-) ) might be to consider the special the German Bahn is offering:
EUR 29 rt Mainz/Wiesbaden - Cologne per person if return is the same day, needs to be bought in advance, but free choice of trains - you can take either the scenic or the fast route and - most importantly - you DO NOT have to decide which train you want to take, as long as it is one of the direct ICE's.

Since the main train station in Cologne is right next to the cathedral and one of the chritmas markets, this is easily doable - GF and I did this last year. We took a train leaving Mainz around 8am on the scenic route, arrive in Cologne around 10am and then left around 8:30pm (last train around 11pm) arriving around 9:45pm back in Mainz.

So how about staying all nights in Mainz or Wiesbaden (~30 mins from FRA), do some sightseeing there, take a daytrip to Cologne, visit Frankfurt, and if you have time, you might want to go to Seligenstadt (~1-1.5hrs local train(s) from Mainz/Wiesbaden, about EUR15pp)! The Christmas Market will be open and it is a beautiful small city.

David

If you know what you are doing, book the train tickets upfront. Much cheaper. Also, there are tons of promos for weekend only travel, group travel (2+), non-highspeed trains, etc... go to www.db.de and check it out. It takes a bit to navigate, but it will pay off