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Old Nov 24, 2010, 3:38 pm
  #1  
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Please recommend a Christmas market

I want to make a day trip to Germany (from London) to visit a traditional Christmas market. I've never been to a Christmas market before, so I'm looking for as good an experience as possible (although I'm not sure how that would be defined!) ideally near to an airport with regular service from London. Your suggestions and any supplementary info will be gratefully received? (My schedule is pretty flexible but I'm likely to want to go on a weekday if that makes a difference.)
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Old Nov 24, 2010, 4:45 pm
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Originally Posted by Wingnut
I want to make a day trip to Germany (from London) to visit a traditional Christmas market. I've never been to a Christmas market before, so I'm looking for as good an experience as possible (although I'm not sure how that would be defined!) ideally near to an airport with regular service from London. Your suggestions and any supplementary info will be gratefully received? (My schedule is pretty flexible but I'm likely to want to go on a weekday if that makes a difference.)
I'm not a Christmas market expert but for convenience I suppose you could either go to Munich or fly to Frankfurt and take the train to Nurnberg (Nurenberg). I have seen both highly rated.

http://www.travelintelligence.com/tr...istmas-markets

Rich
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Old Nov 24, 2010, 6:09 pm
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Originally Posted by richinaz
I'm not a Christmas market expert but for convenience I suppose you could either go to Munich or fly to Frankfurt and take the train to Nurnberg (Nurenberg).
Train from Frankfurt to Nuremberg/Nürnberg is probably a bit of a non-starter - average journey time 2.5 hours each way. Also, I found the Nürnberg market rather over-rated.

If I wanted to go to a Continental Christmas Market for a day I would probably not choose Germany at all, but... Copenhagen! The Tivoli Christmas Market is my favourite by far.
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Old Nov 24, 2010, 11:36 pm
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Originally Posted by Wingnut
I want to make a day trip to Germany (from London) to visit a traditional Christmas market. I've never been to a Christmas market before, so I'm looking for as good an experience as possible (although I'm not sure how that would be defined!) ideally near to an airport with regular service from London. Your suggestions and any supplementary info will be gratefully received? (My schedule is pretty flexible but I'm likely to want to go on a weekday if that makes a difference.)
Come over to Berlin for a day would be the easiest. Choose from 20 different CMs in Berlin two nice ones:

1. Gendarmenmarkt
2. Schloss Charlottenburg.
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Old Nov 25, 2010, 6:49 am
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I agree, Berlin has plenty of X-mas markets however, the old town of Nürnberg is a single big X-mas market.
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Old Nov 25, 2010, 2:28 pm
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Cologne has a major and lovely market right next to the main train station. Düsseldorf has market stalls all over the old part of the city.

DUS gives good access to both Düsseldorf and Cologne by a short train ride.

Audrey
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Old Nov 26, 2010, 12:36 am
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Berlin has plenty of different christmas markets. You will easily find a nice one. My favourite is the christmas market at Winterfeldtplatz.
Another recommendation would be Dresden. It has two very different christmas markets in walking distance. The "Striezelmarkt" as well as a medival christmas market in the old castle.
You should easily find a direct connection from London to Dresden or Berlin.
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Old Nov 28, 2010, 4:42 am
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My favorite markets:

1 Regensburg
2 Vienna (serveral, the main market at Rathausplatz is great)
3 Munich (serveral markets, incl. medieval, modern, oriental, traditional, gay)
3 Salzburg
4 Nurnberg (crowded)

Flying into MUC/SZG gives access to several interesting markets, incl. smaller ones in outside the bigger cities.
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Old Nov 28, 2010, 5:47 am
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The very well knowns are usually extremly overcrowed which is a rather strong fun killer. That applies to quite a number of christmas markets. I know this is true for Frankfurt and I assume it to be true for Nuremburg as well - even though that is a very scenic city to visit.

I was in Heidelberg visiting the local christmas market. I really enjoyed it and can recommend it any time. More information can be found at the Heidelberg Tourism Center or in the german version of the Weihnachtsmarkt Flyer.

In any case, enjoy it.
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Old Nov 28, 2010, 6:04 am
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another vote for Berlin. or Dresden, the christmas market is very nice and easy to do over a weekend. and closer to my place: Basel, Stuttgart and Strasbourg are very nice, too. For Strasbourg I may even come over for a vin chaud.


as a general rule: The best solution is to sample at least two Christmas Markets, preferably in a city for some serious shopping and a small town or village if you are looking for something a little bit more romantic. Alsace is a really good place for that. - or Berlin. Some town quarters have small, village-like christmas markets.
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Old Dec 2, 2010, 6:19 pm
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We just got back from 5 days in MUC. Several different christmas markets around town. They were fun. Took a day trip to NUE. One giant market in the middle of town. Can't miss it. Follow the lighted angels from the train station to the main town square. About 10 mins walk across a quaint bridge. LOVED the atmosphere at NUE.
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Old Dec 3, 2010, 1:58 am
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Nuremberg is nice, but very tourism-oriented.

I would add myself to the Dresden and Berlin supporters here. Also very nice are the christmas markets in Hamburg, especially the big one in the city center on Rathausplatz (town hall square).
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Old Dec 8, 2010, 10:07 am
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Wanted to attach another question to this thread. I am going to be in FRA next wed for a 13 hour layover, and wondered what would be a better going into Frankfurt or Wiesbaden. I am interested in going to a decent Christmas market although I don’t know if I can kill all day at a market. Ideally the Christmas market would have snow, since I am not going to being seeing much this year (snow that is). Anyway what are your thoughts. I saw one vote against Frankfurt since it is overcrowded.
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Old Dec 9, 2010, 1:13 am
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Originally Posted by encierro98
Wanted to attach another question to this thread. I am going to be in FRA next wed for a 13 hour layover, and wondered what would be a better going into Frankfurt or Wiesbaden. I am interested in going to a decent Christmas market although I don’t know if I can kill all day at a market. Ideally the Christmas market would have snow, since I am not going to being seeing much this year (snow that is). Anyway what are your thoughts. I saw one vote against Frankfurt since it is overcrowded.
Frankfurt definitely has the bigger and nicer christmas market compared to Wiesbaden. So I would prefer that. Whether there's snow there or not remains to be seen. The whole Rhine-Main area is generally one of the warmer areas in Germany and therefore most of the time snow doesn't last long there. I would suggest to regularly check the Frankfurt webcams.

I doubt that you can kill 13 hours just on the christmas market, but the Frankfurt christmas market is located near the city center, so you also have lots of options to shop. Many museums are also in the direct vicinity.

If you need tips and directions, just ask for it.

Last edited by SunshineStay; Dec 9, 2010 at 1:19 am
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Old Dec 9, 2010, 11:48 am
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If you don't mind about getting there with Ryanair , Bremen might be an option as well.

http://www.bremer-weihnachtsmarkt.de...?CHANGElang=en
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