Regensburg Christmas Market

Four markets sit within an easy walk of a UNESCO old town that came through the war largely intact. Three are free. The fourth, in the torchlit palace courtyard of Schloss Thurn und Taxis, charges €6.50 on a Monday and €13.50 on a Saturday.

OpensNovember 19, 2026

ClosesDecember 23, 2026

Entry CostMostly free

Opening hoursVaries by market

Holiday hours · Dec 24: Closed. All of Regensburg's main Christmas markets have finished by 23 December. · Dec 25: Closed

Last updated : October 22, 2026

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❄ Opens November 19, 2026 · runs to December 23, 2026 ❄

5 Christmas markets across the city

All Christmas Markets in Regensburg

Ranked #1 is where we'd go first.

Romantischer Weihnachtsmarkt auf Schloss Thurn und Taxis

Innenhof of Schloss St. Emmeram, Emmeramsplatz 5

~100 traders across ~130 stands

The only ticketed market in the city, in the courtyard of an inhabited palace the organiser notes is larger than Buckingham Palace, lit by candles, lanterns and open torches with fire pits between the hut lanes. Basket weavers, potters, goldsmiths, woodcarvers and soap boilers work on site, and the Kinderzauberwald under century-old maples runs a steam locomotive ride, a historic Ferris wheel and a Kasperltheater.

Regensburger Christkindlmarkt

Neupfarrplatz, around the Neupfarrkirche

Regensburg's oldest market, with huts ringing the church for more than two hundred years, 120 metres from the Dom. Blueberry Glühwein and Original Regensburger Bratwürste are the local orders; there's a vintage children's carousel with a discount from 14:00 on Wednesdays, and St Nicholas hands out gifts to children on Wednesdays too.

Lucrezia-Markt

Haidplatz and Kohlenmarkt

Not a Glühwein-and-sausage market but the craftsmen's market, run since 1982 by the Regensburg artisans' association. Handmade jewellery, sculpture, instruments and work in metal, wood, ceramic, glass and textile, with theatre, music, pantomime and magic on small wooden stages and a hand-cranked wooden carousel.

Adventsmarkt im St. Katharinenspital (Weihnachtsmarkt im Spitalgarten)

Spitalgarten, Stadtamhof — the north bank, at the foot of the Steinerne Brücke

The beer-garden market, in the garden of the Katharinenspital brewery, looking back across the Danube at the Dom and the Steinerne Brücke. It is the best skyline of any Regensburg market and the one locals rate for atmosphere, with daily live music and international street food alongside the Bavarian. Note the 16:00 weekday start — don't cross the bridge at 14:00 expecting it open.

Zauberhafter gräflicher Christkindlmarkt

Rosarium, Dörnbergpark, west of the old town

A deliberately unhurried park market with several open fire seating areas and a musical programme. The smallest of the set and the one most often missed because of its part-week opening.

The Regensburg pocket guide, a street map of every market on one side and hours, prices and transport tips on the other

Free pocket guide

Every Regensburg market on one sheet of paper

Gloves on, phone dead, signal gone. A folded sheet in your coat pocket still works when nothing else does, so print this before you go.

A real street map with every market, the metro stops and a walking loop that links them
Opening hours for each market, Christmas Eve included, when most of them close early
What the food and drink cost, and what to order at the stalls
When to go to dodge the crowds, and how to get from one market to the next

Two A4 pages, made to print on both sides of one sheet. After that, a few emails a season. Unsubscribe in one click.

Airport, rail and getting around

Getting to Regensburg

How to reach Regensburg and get between the markets once you are there.

Nearest airportMunich (MUC) - roughly 100 km, about 1h15 by road; airportLiner runs a scheduled shuttle. Nuremberg (NUE) is a similar distance via Nürnberg Hbf

Getting aroundEverything is walkable and the numbers are small: Neupfarrplatz to the Dom 120 m, to Haidplatz 330 m, to Schloss Thurn und Taxis 465 m, to the Spitalgarten 624 m over the Steinerne Brücke, to the Hauptbahnhof 712 m. The full four-market circuit is under 2 km. Park at Parkhaus Petersweg, about five minutes from the centre.

From the airport

Munich Airport (MUC) → Regensburg

~1h15 by roadNot published

Roughly 100 km. airportLiner runs a scheduled 24-hour shuttle with shared seats for up to eight passengers; fares aren't published on the pages we could read. The rail alternative goes via München Hbf.

Private transfer to your hotel door

Late flight, small children or three bags each: a fixed price car to the door beats the train with luggage. The price is per car, not per person.

Check transfer prices

By train

Munich → Regensburg

~1h30 directBayern-Ticket €34, +€10 per extra traveller

About 38 direct trains a day. The Bayern-Ticket is valid from 09:00 on weekdays and from midnight at weekends, on public holidays and on 24 and 31 December.

Read the guide →

Nuremberg → Regensburg

~1h–1h10 directBayern-Ticket €34

The line had a full rebuild between February and July 2026 — 80 km of new track and twenty upgraded stations — and it was finished before the season.

Read the guide →

Hauptbahnhof → Neupfarrplatz

~10 minFree

712 m. Schloss Thurn und Taxis is closer still to the station at 509 m, so a station hotel is not the compromise it would be in a bigger city.

The whole four-market circuit

~20 min of walkingFree

Neupfarrplatz to the Dom 120 m, to Haidplatz 330 m, to Schloss Thurn und Taxis 465 m, to the Spitalgarten 624 m across the Steinerne Brücke. Under 2 km end to end — the tightest market crawl in Bavaria.

By car

Parking

—Not published

Parkhaus Petersweg is about five minutes' walk from the centre. The old town is a pedestrian zone and every market is inside it, so park once and walk.

Getting around

Regensburg → Passau

Bus until 12 Dec, rail from 13 DecNot published

The Obertraubling–Passau corridor is closed for renovation until 12 December 2026, with hourly express replacement buses via the motorway. Normal service returns with the timetable change on 13 December — inside the market season, so check which side of that date you're travelling.

Sleep close to the stalls

Where to stay in Regensburg

Book early. December does not do last-minute

Budget

Hotel Goldenes Kreuz

from ~€120

Haidplatz 7 — literally on the square the Lucrezia-Markt occupies, inside the pedestrian zone. Neupfarrplatz is 330 m away and the palace 570 m. Indicative rate, not a December quote.

Check December rates →

Mid-range

Hotel Orphée – Großes Haus

from ~€130

Untere Bachgasse 8, a few minutes from Neupfarrplatz and about six from Schloss Thurn und Taxis. Puts you inside the Neupfarrplatz–Haidplatz–Emmeramsplatz triangle, which is where you want to be. Indicative rate.

Check December rates →

Splurge

Hotel Goliath am Dom

from ~€145

Goliathstraße 10, beside the cathedral and 120 m from the Christkindlmarkt. For something different, the Brauereigaststätte Spitalgarten at St. Katharinenplatz 1 puts you inside the beer-garden market on the far bank. Indicative rates, not December quotes.

Check December rates →

Compare every hotel in Regensburg for your dates →Regensburg full for your dates? Nuremberg is 88 km - about an hour by train, and the market people always compare this one to and usually still has rooms →

The Regensburg Christmas Market (German: Regensburger Christkindlmarkt) is the Bavarian market that locals often rate over Nuremberg.

With four markets, each with a distinct personality, set in a UNESCO medieval old town where roughly 1,500 buildings still stand from the 13th to 15th centuries, Regensburg is the largest intact medieval town north of the Alps.

The distinctive draw of Regensburg’s Christmas market offering is the Romantischer Weihnachtsmarkt at Schloss Thurn und Taxis, a fire-lit craft market in the courtyard of a princely castle, and it’s probably one thing here you can’t get anywhere else in Germany.

Regensburg is the city you come to when you want the German Christmas market without the Munich shuffle or the Nuremberg tour-bus scale. The Altstadt is walkable end to end in twenty minutes, the four markets are scattered across it like a single market broken into chapters, and three of the four are free. The fourth (the castle one) charges admission but it is definitely worth paying for..

If I had to place Regensburg against its rivals in one line: Nuremberg is the template, Munich is the bigger-city version, and Regensburg is the one where the centre gives you space and the castle courtyard gives you something no other German market has.

Before you go

Regensburg Christmas Market Essentials

Sort before you leave

Get an eSIM. Your maps, tickets and the walk back to the hotel all live on your phone. Unless your plan roams free where you’re going (EU deals often stop at the Swiss border), an eSIM is the cheap fix. Get one on Airalo or Yesim if you burn through data, since it hops between networks on its own.

Insure the trip. Icy cobbles and Glühwein are a wobbly mix, and seeing a doctor abroad gets pricey fast without cover. Buy it when you book, so a cancelled trip is covered too.

Know your flight rights. Flights get messy in December. If yours lands three or more hours late for a reason the airline could control, EU rules can owe you up to €600 a person, and AirHelp only takes a fee if they win. Check your flight

Check the dates twice. Plenty of markets wrap up a day or two before Christmas, and some close early on Christmas Eve, so check before you book anything you can’t cancel. See every market’s dates

Drop the bags. Morning arrivals beat a 15:00 check-in by hours, and nobody browses stalls towing a suitcase. Radical Storage has drop-offs in most market cities. Book a bag drop

Put in your bag

Dress for standing still. You’ll spend hours on cold cobbles with a mug in your hand, so warm waterproof boots and thick socks do more for you than a fancy coat.

Carry coins. Lots of markets add a deposit for the mug to your first drink, and you get it back in coins when you return it. Small stalls like cash too, and outside the eurozone that means local money.

Pack a power bank. Cold drains phone batteries fast, and your phone is the map, the tickets and the camera all day.

Bring a universal adapter. Most of Europe uses round two-pin plugs, but the UK and Switzerland each have their own sockets, so one adapter that covers all three saves a late-night hunt.

Zip it up. Crowded squares are a pickpocket’s favourite shopping trip. Keep your phone and wallet in a zipped front pocket or a cross-body bag.

That’s the short list. The full Christmas market packing list covers the rest, from thermals to hand warmers, and sizes it to how cold your market gets after dark.

Open the packing list

The castle market (the reason to come)

The Romantischer Weihnachtsmarkt auf Schloss Thurn und Taxis runs 20 November to 23 December 2026 (closed 22 November, Totensonntag) in the courtyard of the Princely Castle of Thurn und Taxis — Schloss St. Emmeram, on the south edge of the Altstadt. Hours drift by day: Monday–Thursday 15:00–21:00, Friday 15:00–22:00, Saturday 14:00–22:00, Sunday 14:00–21:00.

It is the only one of Regensburg’s four markets that charges admission, and the tickets are one-entry-only, so buy online in advance for the early-bird discount and to skip the Saturday queue, of course.

What you get for the money is a market unlike any other in Germany. The castle courtyard is lit mostly by fire with open hearths in the stall streets, torches burning around the grounds and very few electric lights.

The huts sell handmade craft rather than the imported tat that dominates the central markets in bigger cities in Germany (and Europe in general). The food is slightly different too and you can find things like wild boar on a spit, Old Bavarian potato soup served in a hollowed bread loaf, and named drinks you won’t find at Neupfarrplatz, such as the Fürstenkelch and the Blaublut.

There’s a Children’s Magic Forest under century-old maple trees with nostalgic rides, and in past seasons a petting zoo with native animals (alpacas have made cameo appearances too). Dogs are allowed on a leash, as well, so that’s a big plus (for dog lovers such as myself).

The Christkind visits this market rather than the Christkindlmarkt, which is a small inversion that tells you which one the city treats as the headline.

So as you can see, it’s popular, and on a Saturday evening you’ll queue, without a doubt. The crowds thin markedly as the night progresses and the night-owl ticket both halves the price and lands you in a calmer market.

The consistent verdict, having weighed the fee, is that the castle market earns it. It is the one thing in Regensburg you can’t replicate elsewhere, and €6.50–€13.50 is a fair price for that.

The other three markets (each a different thing)

The castle gets the attention, but three free markets do the actual volume, and each has a personality the others don’t.

The Regensburger Christkindlmarkt on Neupfarrplatz is the main market, the oldest (tradition dates to the 18th century; first documented 1791), and the one the city brands “the most beautiful Advent market in Bavaria”, a Facebook-poll superlative worth treating with the skepticism a Facebook poll deserves.

It wraps the Neupfarrkirche, has roughly 70 stalls, a central stage with daily performances (the Regensburger Domspatzen choir appears), and a historic children’s carousel. The standout here is the drink variety with around 40 glühwein variations, including two genuinely regional ones such as Heidelbeerglühwein (blueberry mulled wine from the Bavarian Forest) and Apfelglühwein (apple mulled wine from Upper Palatinate orchards).

The Original Regensburger Bratwurst is the default food almost everyone opts to eat at this market. It’s a free entry, of course, and open 23 November–23 December, Sun–Wed 10:00–20:00, Thu–Sat 10:00–21:00, like majority of German Christmas markets.

The Lucrezia Markt spreads across Haidplatz and Kohlenmarkt (two squares but only five minutes apart) and is the arts-and-crafts market (the ones I absolutely enjoy). Long-running, pure artisan stalls with beeswax candles, ceramics, jewellery, paper art, soaps etc. If you’re shopping for actual handmade gifts rather than ornaments-from-a-shipping-container, this is definitely where you do it. It’s also free entry, 27 November–23 December, Sun–Thu 11:00–20:00, Fri–Sat 11:00–21:00.

The Adventsmarkt at Katharinenspital / Spitalgarten is the one regulars love very much, in my own experience.

Set at the foot of the Stone Bridge (Steinerne Brücke) on Stadtamhof (over the river, a little hidden) with the Regensburg Cathedral rising behind it.

It’s small, it’s family-oriented, there’s a bonfire, and the vendors are honestly friendlier than the central squares.

It’s the quiet favourite of the four for many reasons, because it’s the coziest, and the market to come to when the others have worn you out.

When to go (and how to beat the crowds)

Regensburg’s markets are smaller than Munich’s or Nuremberg’s, which is most of the point, but they still jam on a Saturday. Here’s how I’d play it.

Go on a weekday. Tuesday–Thursday is the calmest. The castle market’s Monday €6.50 ticket is both the cheapest entry and the cozies evening, which should be the play if your dates allow it, of course.
Go after dark. The markets are lit for the evening, and the castle courtyard especially comes alive once the fires are the main light source. The atmosphere switches on at dusk so arriving in the afternoon is fine for Neupfarrplatz shopping, but the markets are an evening thing.
The castle market after 19:00 gets you the night-owl discount and the thinner crowd. The trade is fewer hours since you’re arriving with about two left (but those are the best hours).
Avoid Saturday at the castle. It’s the €13.50 ticket and the longest queue. If Saturday is your only option, do Neupfarrplatz and Spitalgarten instead, and save the castle for a weeknight.
Totensonntag (22 November 2026) closes the castle market; the others don’t open that day either. Plan around it.

My pick is a Tuesday or Wednesday in early-to-mid December, like for almost every Christmas market out there. Neupfarrplatz and Lucrezia in the afternoon, Spitalgarten for an early-evening glühwein by the bonfire, then the castle market from 19:00 for the night-owl ticket and the fire-lit finale.

What to eat & drink

Regensburg’s food is more regionally specific than the standard German-market rotation, and the castle market in particular breaks from the bratwurst-and-glühwein default.

The Original Regensburger Bratwurst. The city’s signature sausage, grilled, served in a semmel. The Neupfarrplatz default.
Heidelbeerglühwein (blueberry mulled wine). From the Bavarian Forest, a deep red-purple pour that’s the city’s most distinctive drink. Find it at Neupfarrplatz.
Apfelglühwein (apple mulled wine). From the Upper Palatinate orchards. The lighter alternative to the blueberry. Also at Neupfarrplatz.
~40 glühwein varieties at Neupfarrplatz. The sheer variety is the point. Neupfarrplatz pours more glühwein variations than any market its size I’ve come across, and the regional fruit-wine versions are the ones worth seeking out.
Wild boar on a spit, and potato soup in a bread loaf. The castle market’s food break from the standard rotation. The bread-loaf soup is the thing to eat when the cold gets into you.
Fürstenkelch and Blaublut. The castle market’s named drinks, unique to Thurn und Taxis, not found at the free markets.
Gebrannte Mandeln. Candied almonds, the German-market default snack. Present everywhere.

✦ The mug deposit (Pfand): Regensburg’s markets use the standard German Pfand system with a refundable deposit on the glühwein cup.

Day trip or overnight?

Regensburg is small. It’s too small to be the only destination on a German market trip, if you ask me, but it’s the perfect one-night stay or day trip.

A direct train from Munich runs in about 1.5 hours, with frequent departures through the day which means it’s close enough to do as a day trip and far enough that an overnight lets you do the castle market properly (after 19:00, with the night-owl discount) without watching the clock for the last train.

If you’re pairing cities: Munich → Regensburg → Nuremberg is the natural Bavarian triangle, all connected by direct ICE in roughly 1–1.5-hour hops.

Do Regensburg as the middle night.

Tips for visiting

Buy the castle ticket online in advance. Early-bird discount plus skip-the-queue. The Saturday queue at Schloss Thurn und Taxis is the one queue in Regensburg worth avoiding.
Bring cash. The castle market warns not all stalls accept cards; there’s an ATM on site, but the free markets’ smaller stalls prefer cash too.
Dress for the cold. The castle courtyard is exposed, the fires notwithstanding. Layers, real coat, gloves. December in Bavaria sits around freezing, and you’re standing still outdoors for hours.
Don’t confuse the markets. Three are free, one (the castle) is paid. Visitors occasionally pay at the castle expecting the others to charge too — they don’t.
The Christkind visits the castle market, not the Christkindlmarkt. If the Christkind is the thing you want, Schloss Thurn und Taxis is the address.
Verify the schedule before you build an itinerary. The four markets run on slightly different dates and hours (the small Dörnbergpark market runs 19 November to 20 December, the castle opens 20 November, and the others open 23–27 November and close 23 December). Check tourismus.regensburg.de for the current season’s confirmations.

Independent Christmas journaling. All of the opinions on this website are mine and written from my personal perspective, with my love for Christmas behind it.

Tours

Make an evening of it

A few worth paying for. The markets themselves are free.

Regensburger Weihnachtsgeschichten

90 min · €20 (€18 reduced)

Meets at the Altes Rathaus in front of the Christmas tree at 18:00 and ends at St. Katharinenspital in Stadtamhof, which means it delivers you straight to the Spitalgarten market. Barrier-free. 2026 dates run 26 Nov, 28 Nov, 3, 5, 10, 12, 17 and 19 December. Private group €390.

Check availability ↗

Christkindl-Schifffahrt on the Danube

~90 min · €22 per person

Departs Thundorferstraße by the Steinerne Brücke at 12:00 and 14:00 during Advent and cruises downstream towards the Walhalla. Heated boat, Christmas readings, and a Glühwein or a non-alcoholic alternative with pastries included. 2026 sailing dates are published in the autumn.

Check availability ↗

Weihnachtliches Regensburg (private city walk)

90 min · €120 in German, €145 in English

Priced per group rather than per head, which makes it the cheapest option on this list for four or more.

Check availability ↗

Von Gänseklein und Kletzenbrot (Christmas food walk)

90 min · €369 per private group

A tasting walk through the old town's Christmas food. Group pricing only.

Check availability ↗

Your own fire pit at the Spitalgarten

An evening · €99

Not a tour, but the best thing you can book in Regensburg: reserve a Feuerstelle in the Spitalgarten market and stand round your own fire with the Dom across the water. Glühwein vouchers €4.50 each.

Check availability ↗

Combine your trip