Doing a European Christmas market trip by train

Christmas markets are a rare case where the train genuinely beats flying. The markets are in historic centres, the stations are in historic centres, and the airports are not. Add December weather disruption and short daylight hours, and the calculation tilts further.

Pick a corridor, not a wishlist

The mistake is choosing four markets you like the look of and then discovering they form a zigzag. Pick a line and follow it.

The Rhine corridor works well: Cologne has its market beside the cathedral, which is beside the station — you can be at a stall within five minutes of stepping off a train. From there the line runs south towards Frankfurt and on to Nuremberg.

The Danube corridor pairs Vienna with Salzburg, both on the main line, with Prague reachable to the north.

Or stay closer: London to Brussels is under two hours by Eurostar, and Brussels connects onward across the Low Countries and into Germany.

Two nights per city, minimum

One night means you arrive in the afternoon, see the market in the evening, and leave in the morning — and you will have spent more of the trip on trains than in squares. Two nights gives you a full day and two evenings, which is what these places are for.

Book the trains early, the market not at all

Advance fares on European high-speed routes are dramatically cheaper than walk-up, and December is busy. Book as soon as the timetable opens, typically three to six months ahead.

The markets themselves need no booking — almost all are free to enter. The exception is the big ticketed festival-style events, Hyde Park Winter Wonderland among them.

Watch the closing dates, and the gaps

This is where itineraries fall apart. German markets very often close on 23 or 24 December, while Czech, Estonian and Belgian ones frequently run into early January. A trip planned for 27 December through Germany will find shut squares; the same trip through Prague, Tallinn or Brussels will not.

Watch for single closure days too — Cologne closes for Totensonntag in late November, which is easy to walk into unawares.

Practicalities

Daylight in central Europe in December runs roughly eight in the morning to four in the afternoon. Plan sightseeing for the middle of the day and markets for the dark, which is when they look their best anyway.

Travel light. You will be walking to hotels over cobbles and there are more stairs in European stations than you remember. And leave space — a market trip generates purchases.

One warning

Do not build a tight itinerary around dates you found on a blog. Market dates move every year, and aggregator sites recycle last year’s. Check the official site for every city before booking anything — each of our listings links to it and shows when we last checked.