As someone who’s been to a few:
- Vienna - very popular, very commercial but beautiful
- Budapest - beautiful, but most people just go to Vienna instead, even Hungarians
- Szeged - nothing to write home about
- Debrecen - nothing to write home about
- Pécs - beautiful
- Zagreb - beautiful scenery and location
- Hamburg - nothing to write home about, but I’ve been to it in over a decade
- Leipzig - I did not like it, but it was the whole city
- Krakow - holy shit this place is gorgeous, but I’m willing to bet it got commercialized a lot in recent years. I’d be willing to give it a another go.
- Brno - this place is an absolute banger. The main square is closed to traffic except for the rickety festive tram going through during waning daylight hours. But as soon as the sun sets, it’s a non-stop party of going from one Most bodega to the next with your reusable mug.
Hamburg - nothing to write home about, but I’ve been to it in over a decade
Have you been to the “official” one in front of the City Hall or the one in the red-light district? The latter can certainly be an experience.
I am biased because I lived in Brno for 8 years. But Brno all the way. I have been in Vienna, Dresden, Krakow, Prague and Brno is just best of them all in every way in the recent years.
Krakow is a lovely city to visit any time. You can see distinct periods in architecture. A beautiful medieval core and castle. USSR tenements, Modern “Western” Ikea and Starbucks scattered about and a countryside that would not look out of place in The Witcher III. (CD Project Red being Polish)
Bars and restaurants to die for.
A++ experience. Would do again.
I concur. I have fond memories of that city. I’ve visited there at the height of couch surfing and “free walking tours” tourism, hopping from one commie block lodging to the next with nothing but spare underwear in my backpack. Was well worth the 11hr bus ride from Budapest.
(IT) San Candido/(DE) Innichen or (IT) Merano/(DE) Meran, both in (IT) Alto Adige/(DE) Südtirol, in Italy. They’re quite small, but they are in a beautiful setting.
pretty much Anywhere, Germany
Schwäbisch Hall, Germany
Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany
Cadolzburg / Germany
It’s relatively tiny, but has a lot of unique stalls located in a largely intact medieval town centre with a huge castle directly attached.
Prefer this to nearby Nuremberg at any time!General recommendation:
Go to the markets in small historic towns.
They beat the big ones on mystic fairy-tale athmosphere alone…Another example for that:
Bernkastel-Kues / GermanyStrasbourg, France
Prepare for massive amounts of people though.
If you’re coming from Germany and want to go there via local train: Don’t even think about it. That train is too full even on normal days and is extremly horrible when everybody wants to visit the christmas market
Close by Heidelberg in Germany there is a village called Dilsberg, built within the walls of a medieval castle on top of a hill overlooking the Neckar River.
On 13/14 December there is a Christmas market where the residents open up the historic cellars under their houses to the public and sell spiced wine and handicrafts.
Probably not worth a long trip just for this since it’s rather small, but it’s right around the corner from Heidelberg, in one of the most beautiful regions of Germany IMO.On the other hand, the Heidelberg Christmas market is really nothing special.
Being from Belgium, I can recommend Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp personally.
They’re not on the same level as many German ones, but the historical background makes for a nice day out.
Dresden and Nuremberg
I can recommend the one in Salzburg - Austria
Zagreb does it well.
Lübeck is pretty awesome and artsy, if you manage to come early.
Dresden, Germany. It has the added benefit that there are three separate christmas markets all within walking distance of another.
- The classic Christkindlesmarkt at the Altmarkt
- A larger market at the Neumarkt stretching to the Elbe
- A medieval christmas market in the Stallhof
Nürnberg (Bayern), Germany
I have to disagree with you there. The Christkindlmarkt in Nuremberg is big with tons of people but not especially beautiful. I like Nuremberg, but recommend a visit at another time of the year.
It’s to full of people, to much people. It’s big, so probably worth visiting because the viarity of things you get there, but don’t go there on the weekend. If possible try from Monday to Thursday.
you’re right, it’s packed with people.
There’s another one with less people in Waldwipfelweg. I find that also cool because you can walk on that huge platform and admire a nice sight from up there.
