Christmas Market Tours 2026: 3 Ready Routes

Pick by how you want to move. The village route is the prettiest, and easiest by car or on a tour. Germany means one hotel and a train every morning. Prague to Vienna is for big city markets, and it holds our favourite of the lot, Dresden.

These were three separate trips, so you can take any one of them on its own. If you want our verdict on which markets are the best, that is on our best Christmas markets in Europe  page. This page is only about how to join them up.

A Christmas market cruise moves your hotel for you. Rhine sailings usually link cities such as Cologne and Strasbourg, and Danube sailings Vienna and Budapest, but the ship picks your hours in port, which rarely include the evening when the lights matter most.

Trains leave those hours to you. Our pick is the train; choose a river cruise if unpacking once matters more than late nights, and check each itinerary for which markets it really stops at.

A short Christmas market break works best with one base city. Two nights suits Cologne with Düsseldorf a train ride away. Three nights gets you Prague plus a day in Dresden, or Strasbourg plus a day in Colmar. Fly home from where you land, and pick a weekend only if you need the Friday to Sunday village markets, since the crowds peak then.

We have done both. The package on our first route saved us every transfer and put three villages in one day, but the bus sets how long you stay. The train routes in Germany and from Prague cost us only a little planning, and we stayed as late as we liked.

The middle way is a do-it-yourself route with a day tour for the part that is awkward without a car. Check the terms, because small-group tours can be cancelled: ours to Dresden was.

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Choose how many days you have. Three days gives you the villages, seven adds Germany and eleven covers all three routes. One day gives you Colmar and two villages. Days marked Fri-Sun need a weekend, because Kaysersberg and Rust only open then.

We landed at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg (BSL), which has separate Swiss, French and German sides, left through the French exit and boarded our tour bus. Driving times below are road calculations (OSRM route calculation, 1 November 2026); in Christmas traffic ours ran longer. Every town's dates are in our Alsace Christmas markets  guide.

Day 1: Freiburg and Basel

Airport to Freiburg  is about 56 minutes by road. We walked the Münster square and the little Bächle water channels. The Markthalle was crowded and we did not like the food much, so we walked on and had a German-style pizza with cheese, potatoes and tuna, which was good. Watch in the video · 1:12 

Freiburg to Basel is another 52 minutes. We reached Basel in the rain, in the evening, when most shops had shut, so give it daylight if you can.

Day 2: Riquewihr, Kaysersberg and Colmar

Basel to Riquewihr  is about 60 minutes, then 13 minutes to Kaysersberg  and 15 to Colmar . Our bus took about 20 and 30 minutes on those last two. Watch in the video · 11:09 

Nowhere on this trip felt busier than Colmar. We gave up on the gondola after seeing a queue of about an hour, then asked at four or five restaurants before one had room. There we had Alsatian pizza with cheese, onion, cream and mushrooms. Book dinner ahead.

Day 3: The castle, Obernai and Strasbourg

Colmar to Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle is about 29 minutes, on to Obernai  32, and on to Strasbourg  27. In Strasbourg we wanted a canal boat, but every sailing had sold out online, so buy that ticket before you travel. Watch in the video · 22:10 

Without a car or a tour

The fastest trains run Basel to Colmar in 37 minutes and Strasbourg to Colmar in 25 (Omio). The villages have no station, so use the Christmas shuttle from Colmar station, which runs Friday to Sunday (official shuttle page ).

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Strasbourg to Colmar train times  Ad

Where to stay on this route

Strasbourg or Colmar make the base. We did not sleep in Colmar. Compare areas in our guides to where to stay in Strasbourg  and where to stay in Colmar .

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This is the easiest of the three. We stayed four nights at the Garner Hotel next to Düsseldorf main station, took a train out each morning and came back at night, so we never packed a bag.

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Düsseldorf 

The markets spread through the Altstadt and all keep the same calendar, so give it your arrival day. Coming from the airport, take the S11 from under the terminal straight to the main station. Watch in the video · 3:27 

Cologne 

About half an hour by train. The cathedral market starts a few minutes' walk from the station. Watch in the video · 4:48 

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Dortmund 

Fastest train 45 minutes, average 51 (Omio). Come for the giant Christmas tree on Hansaplatz. Watch in the video · 8:37 

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Essen 

Fastest train 22 minutes, average 26 (Omio). Small markets start the moment you leave the station, and the big one is on Kennedyplatz. We filmed until the market closed and took the train back. Watch in the video · 3:08 

Düsseldorf to Essen train times  Ad

We bought a Deutschlandticket on a phone app. It covers local and regional trains but not ICE or IC services, so check which train you are boarding. Avoid 22 November 2026 (Totensonntag): the Cologne cathedral market and Essen are closed that day.

For other hotels, see where to stay in Düsseldorf . Dresden and Freiburg join these four on our Germany Christmas markets  page.

We decided on this trip three days before leaving. All four days are in one video; here is just the routing. Watch in the video 

Day 1: Prague 

We stayed at EA Hotel Rokoko on Wenceslas Square, a 10-minute walk from the Astronomical Clock. Watch in the video · 5:00 

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Day 2: Dresden  and back

The day tour we had booked was cancelled at the last minute because only two of us had signed up, so we bought a FlixBus seat and left Prague at 14:00. All five or six hours we had went on the Striezelmarkt. By rail, the 150 km or so takes about 2 hours 15 minutes. Watch in the video · 3:41 

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Day 3: Vienna 

We changed trains once on the way from Prague, about 4 hours in all, and paid less than the direct fare. Going straight from Dresden, the direct train via Prague takes about 6 hours 40 minutes (ÖBB timetable). Our Vienna hotel was the Mercure Grand Hotel Biedermeier. Watch in the video · 8:16 

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Day 4: Eisenstadt  and Rust 

We stopped at the wine cellars in Purbach on the way. Eisenstadt is 1 hour 9 minutes from Vienna by train, and Rust is a 14 km hop from there, about 16 minutes by road (OSRM route calculation, 1 November 2026) or by a local bus about every two hours at weekends. Make this a Friday to Sunday: Rust's market keeps those days. Watch in the video · 1:09:52 

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Opening dates differ by city, so a route only fully works inside the window when every stop is open. These are the 2026 windows, taken from each market's official page.

These windows can change with each market's calendar, so confirm them on the official pages before you book (official info, 1 November 2026). Every market's hours and full calendar are in its own guide, linked in the route sections above.

Hotels are the big cost. In Christmas season we saw Colmar at about €200-350 a night, Strasbourg and Freiburg at about €120-200, and rooms go months ahead. Outside the hotel, allow about €100-150 a person a day if you eat at stalls.

On the stalls in Alsace we saw Flammkuchen at €9-13, pretzels at €2-4 and cheese waffles at €5-7. Mulled wine is about €3.50-5, plus a mug deposit of €2.50-3 that you get back. The Ferris wheel at Dresden cost us €5 each. Keep some cash for small stalls. Basel is in Swiss francs and Prague in Czech koruna, so those two need different money.

Dress in layers: expect around freezing, and we were cold in Prague even in a fleece and a coat until we went back for a thermal layer. Waterproof boots matter more than anything else, since you spend the whole evening standing on wet cobbles.