Hi gang. Looking to plan a trip for the family this year to Germany/Bavaria/Austria for a Christmas tour. Any one gone on one lately and/or have recommendations for agents or packages? Thanks.
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I replied to your posting in the Vienna forum. There is no need for agents or package tours.
The markts are in the main town square. All you need to do is get there and you have a long time to plan the trip on your own.
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I agree with the other poster, do it on your own. I would never consider just visiting Christmas markets, I think that after a while it could get pretty boring. There are a lot of other interesting things to do and see, Germany is full of them. Therefore, select places to visit that have nice attractions besides the Christmas Market which you can visit in the evening when I think that they are at their best. Stuttgart has one of the oldest and prettiest and Europe%26#39;s largest Christmas market (3.6 million visitors) and two nearby towns%26#39; Christmas markets reachable by local transportation (S-bahn) have over a million visitors each: Ludwigsburg baroque Christmas Market; Esslingen midieval? Christmas Market. All three of these places also have other interesting things to do and see.
It%26#39;s also nice to come across a very pleasant Christmas Market accidently when visiting a place for other reasons. Such a chance discovery could become the highlight of your trip.
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Thanks to both of you. My only concern with using an agent is to arrange all the travel. None of us have ever been to Germany/Austria and guidance would be appreciated.
dougb, you provided a lot of useful info in your other post, and I thank you for it. Is this a %26quot;regular%26quot; trip for you or is this a first time thing?
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If you are concerned about traveling, you could just rent a car and drive yourself. Driving isn%26#39;t that much different in Germany or Austria. Most rentals, however, have a standard transmission (not automatic) if that would be a problem, but automatics are available at a large price increase. If you rent a car in Germany you can normally return it anywhere in the country without any extra charges. That would allow you to visit southern Germany and at least Salzburg in Austria without any problems, and then take the train to Vienna. For larger cities (e.g. Munich, Stuttgart) the excellent public transportation can be used minimizing your need to drive in large cities. Hotel reservations can easily be made by internet.
Neuschwanstein Castle in the snow is fantastic. We try to visit in February and stay at the Villa Jaegerhaus in Hohenschwangau with its excellent views of the lit-up by night castle. Go to your public library and check out books about Germany with lots of pictures in them and select places (consulting a map) that you would like to visit. Coming across a beautiful historic castle or monastery with a Christmas Market would be a plus.
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We have visited the Alps [Germany, Austria and Switzerland] several times but this will be our first trip to the Christkindlesmarkts.
First, to save money, you should fly mid-week. To save more money, plan to visit the Markts in the larger cities over the weekend when the hotel rates are lower.
We will depart for Munich on Thursday, December 7th and staying for 4 nights. On Tuesday, we will take a morning train for the 1h 42m trip to Nürnberg for 3 nights. On Friday, we will take several trains on a 1h 24m ride to Rothenburg o. d. Tauber for 3 nights. On Monday December 18th, we will take trains for 2h 34m to Frankfurt for 3 nights. On Thursday December 21st, we will take an 11-minute ride on the S-Bahn to the Frankfurt airport for the return flight to the US that departs at 11:20.
The hotels that I have selected are
Hotel Europäischer Hof - 104 €/night [http://www.muenchen-tourist.de/englisch/zimmeressen/heh/europaeischer_hof_e.htm]
Hotel Agneshof - 150 €/night [http://www.agneshof-nuernberg.de/index_e.htm]
Gasthof golderner Greifen - 3-night special rate 218 € [http://www.gasthof-greifen.rothenburg.de/e_index.php3]
Hotel Monopol - 109 €/night [http://www.hotelmonopol-frankfurt.de/en/index.htm?gew=1]
The total transportation cost for trains, S-Bahn and taxi’s will be about 240 €. For train schedules and fares use the DB website at http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
In deference to “marcopolko”, we had originally included the Stuttgart Markts and deleted a visit there ‘on this trip’ due to time constraints.
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marcopolco is right. Just plan on where you want to go and there will be plenty of Christmas markets. Our favorite Christmas market was in Salzburg. Our least favorite was Nurnberg. We went to Chiemsee and there was one on one of the islands, didn%26#39;t have time to go but looked interesting. The Bayern ticket is a very cheap and wonderful was to get around. Try and go to Prague if you have time, it is a great time of year to go and very close to where you will be, well worth the stop. Prague Christmas Market isn%26#39;t as nice as the ones in Bavaria.
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dougb328 suggested visiting Christmas Markets in larger cities on weekends because of reduced hotel rates. This is true (some but not all hotels do), but crowding at these Christmas Markets can be horrible then. Being stuck in the middle of a crowd and not being able to move or see things is not pleasant. I live fairly close to the Stuttgart Christmas Market and visit frequently during the week, but I have learned never to do it on weekends except early in the morning or by staying on the fringes.
Some smaller villages and towns only have their Christmas Merkets open on weekends and these can be pleasant contrasts to the large ones.
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Living in Germany for several years, our favorite Christkindlmarkt had to be in the Altestadt (old city) area of Cologne, along the Rhine river. Gorgeous.
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