A river cruise is the easiest way to see six Christmas markets in a week without packing your suitcase twice. Pick the right week and the right direction and you dock while the stalls are lit. Pick the wrong one and you sail past them during dinner.
Six lines worth booking for the 2026 markets, each with the one sailing we'd pick. The ribbon says what the line does best, and the nightly price is the lowest fare we found in October.
$470–630 a night
Danube Christmas DelightsBudapest to Passau, 13–20 Dec, 7 nights from $3,299
Seven in ten of Viking's 102 Passau calls this season give you an evening, and its Danube Christmas Delights stayed late in five of its six ports last December. Adults only, and 2027 sailings are due in full by 17 December 2026.
$500–780 a night
Christmas Markets on the RhineBasel to Amsterdam, 2–9 Dec, 7 nights from $5,449
Its Rhine sailing from Basel reaches 12 markets in a week, counting the trips to Colmar, Baden-Baden, Heidelberg and Cologne, and every one of them is open on the day. Several excursions to pick from in each port, and children from four.
€130–220 a night
Rhein AdventszauberCologne round trip, 3–8 Dec, 5 nights from €893
Publishes every port time on its own site, and its Advent sailings stay into the evening at most stops. Drinks are included on Premium fares, and children up to 15 sail free on Deck 1.
€590 a night
Danube Holiday MarketsBudapest to Passau, 16–23 Dec, 7 nights from €4,099
Tips, excursions, an open bar and transfers are all in the fare, and its Nights Out take you to the markets after dinner in Cologne, Rüdesheim and Bratislava.
$580–640 a night
Christmastime on the DanubeNuremberg to Vienna, 4–10 Dec, 6 nights from $3,647
Its Danube sailing starts with a night docked in Nuremberg, so you get the Christkindlesmarkt after dark before you've unpacked. A choice of excursions in most ports.
£200–300 a night
Christmas Markets along the RhineStrasbourg to Cologne, 1–5 Dec, 4 nights from £793
Three and four-night Rhine and Alsace sailings with drinks all day, no minimum age, and 20% off for children aged 2 to 9.
Prices are the lowest per-person, per-night fares for 2026 Christmas market sailings as of October. Evenings come from the Passau port register. Uniworld, Scenic and Tauck fold in tips, drinks and excursions, so compare what you'd pay in total.
| Line | Per night from | What's included | Evenings in Passau | Minimum age | If the river is low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Viking | $470–630 | One excursion per port, beer and wine with meals. Tips extra, about $20 a night. | 71%72 of 102 calls | 18 | Refunds only if the whole departure is cancelled. Swaps ships between its identical Longships. |
| AmaWaterways | $500–780 | A choice of excursions in most ports, wine and beer with meals, a cocktail hour. | 55%17 of 31 calls | 4 | Refunds only if the whole departure is cancelled. |
| Avalon Waterways | $580–640 | A choice of excursions, wine and beer with meals, a happy hour. | 45%10 of 22 calls | 8 | Moves you to a sister ship if the disruption lasts more than 48 hours. |
| Uniworld | €590 | Tips, excursions, an open bar and transfers. Evening Nights Out to the markets. UK fares with flights work out at £500–600 a night. | 88%7 of 8 calls | 4 | Its terms say water-level changes give no right to a refund. |
| Emerald | $1,070 | Excursions, drinks with meals and transfers. Last-minute deals cut the list price. | 93%13 of 14 calls | 12 | Tells affected guests 5–7 days before departure. |
| Scenic | $1,340 | Tips, excursions, an open bar and transfers. | 55%6 of 11 calls | 12 | Tells affected guests 5–7 days before departure. |
| Tauck | $1,230 | Everything, including tips, an open bar and hotel nights before and after. | 50%3 of 6 calls | 4 on family sailings | Refunds what it saves and covers your extra costs. |
| A-ROSA | €130–220 | Drinks all day on Premium fares. Excursions cost €29–69 each. | No calls listed | Children to 15 sail free on Deck 1 | Premium fares can rebook free until 15 days before departure. |
| CroisiEurope | £200–300 | Drinks all day except champagne. Excursions only on package fares. | No calls listed | No minimum, ages 2–9 get 20% off | Refunds the days you lose. |
| Riviera Travel | $425 | Excursions, and drinks with meals. | No calls listed | 12 | Caps coach replacements and pays compensation automatically. |
Minimum ages are the lines' published rules from 2024, so check them when you book. Low-water policies are as published in August 2026.
Every bulb is a day of the sailing. Gold means the market at that stop is open that day, red means it isn't, and dark means there's no market to speak of. Open any sailing for port times, where the ship really docks and how far it is to the stalls.
AmaWaterways · AmaPrima
Basel to Amsterdam · 2–9 Dec · 7 nights · from $5,449
Embark
Colmar trip
Market and old town, Baden-Baden in the afternoon
Heidelberg or Speyer, then on to Rüdesheim later in the day
Rüdesheim by day, then the Rhine Gorge to Lahnstein
Afternoon ashore, optional Cologne
Utrecht in the morning
Disembark
The 25 Nov sailing of this route boards in Basel on 25 November, a day before Basel's market opens.
Avalon Waterways · Avalon Imagery II
Basel to Prague · 10–21 Dec · 11 nights · from $6,384
On board by 5 pm
Black Forest or Freiburg, optional Colmar in the afternoon
Optional Heidelberg
Optional Rüdesheim
A Main village stop
Docked overnight
Off the ship after breakfast, coach to Prague
Free afternoon for the markets
Tour ends
The cruise ends in Nuremberg, then two hotel nights in Prague.
A-ROSA · A-ROSA SILVA
Cologne round trip · 3–8 Dec · 5 nights · from €893
Sails 17:00
10:00–18:00
08:00–19:00, transfer to Speyer
07:00–18:00, transfer to Strasbourg
Mainz 06:00–12:00, then Koblenz 18:30–21:30
Arrives 05:00
"Strasbourg" is the dock at Kehl and "Speyer" is the dock at Germersheim, so both need a transfer.
Uniworld · S.S. Maria Theresa
Budapest to Passau · 16–23 Dec · 7 nights · from €4,099
Embark
Market tour
Tour, then the market after dinner
Museum in the morning, then the market
Krems in the morning
Salzburg full day
Market tour on the market's last day
Disembark
CroisiEurope · Paddle riverboat
Berlin to Prague · 3–11 Dec · 8 nights · from £1,975
Boarding 18:00
Evening at Potsdam's lit-up market
Dresden's Striezelmarkt
Afternoon through Saxon Switzerland
Markets and an evening concert
Off at 09:00
The line warns that low water on the Elbe can turn nights on board into hotel nights near Berlin or Prague.
Viking · Viking Aegir
Budapest to Passau · 13–20 Dec · 7 nights · from $3,299
Port times are from the same sailing in December 2025. Viking publishes them only with your documents.
Board mid-afternoon
Back on board 20:30
14:00–22:30
06:00–23:45
07:30–14:00
Back on board 22:30
08:00–21:30
Disembark
Viking doesn't publish port times. The 16 Dec departure swaps Krems for a day sailing the Wachau.
Viking · Viking Hild
Trier to Basel · 7–14 Dec · 7 nights · from $4,395
Embark
Disembark
Uniworld · S.S. Antoinette
Cologne to Basel · 25 Nov – 2 Dec · 7 nights · from £4,199
Embark
Tour, then an optional evening at the markets after dinner
Koblenz in the morning, optional evening at Rüdesheim's market
Baden-Baden
Coach tour, free afternoon, shuttles to and from the ship
Walking tour with the market
Disembark
Tauck · ms Joy
Vienna to Nuremberg · 1–8 Dec · 7 nights · from $8,580
Starts late afternoon, with an evening at the lit-up markets
Full day with shuttles, sails after dinner
Melk in the morning, Linz by evening
Salzburg full day
Back on board in the afternoon
Tour after docking
Tour ends
Emerald · Emerald Dawn
Budapest to Passau · 9–16 Dec · 7 nights · from $7,480
Embark, free time after boarding
City tour, free time at the market
Optional evening concert
Optional Salzburg
Disembark, flights from Munich after 1 pm
Avalon Waterways · Avalon Visionary
Nuremberg to Vienna · 4–10 Dec · 6 nights · from $3,647
The Passau port register has Avalon Visionary in port 14:00–18:00 on 1 December.
On board by 5 pm, docked overnight
Day ashore, sails in the evening
Day ashore
Day ashore, optional Salzburg
Melk in the morning, Vienna by evening, docked overnight
Docked overnight
Disembark after breakfast
A-ROSA · A-ROSA AQUA or BRAVA
Cologne round trip · 2–6 Dec · 4 nights · from €634
Sails 17:00
Rüdesheim 10:00–16:00, then Mainz 19:00–23:59
In port 06:00 to 02:00 the next morning
Loreley at 10:00, Koblenz 15:00–21:30
Arrives 05:00
CroisiEurope · Standard or premium ship
Strasbourg to Cologne · 1–5 Dec · 4 nights · from £793
Boarding 18:00
Speyer or Mannheim, optional Heidelberg
Optional trip, gala dinner
Off at 09:00, no market time
Riviera Travel · MS Riviera Resplendence
Cologne round trip · 5–9 Dec · 4 nights · from $1,699
Board late afternoon
Arrive after lunch, in port overnight
Arrive in the afternoon, moored overnight, ashore after dinner
Moors in the morning, afternoon at the markets, overnight
Disembark
Riviera says the ship moors by Cologne Cathedral.
A-ROSA · A-ROSA BELLA
Passau round trip · 14–18 Dec · 4 nights · from €534
Sails 16:00
14:00–23:59
Dürnstein 07:00–12:00, Melk 15:00–21:00
07:00–19:30
Arrives in the morning
The cheapest departures of the season are the last ones before Christmas.
Scenic · Scenic Jewel
Basel to Amsterdam · 24 Nov – 1 Dec · 7 nights · from $9,360
Board, evening welcome
Arrive in the afternoon, Colmar or Freiburg market tour
Arrive early, Heidelberg trip
Arrive in the morning
Rhine Gorge at dawn, sails after dinner
Arrive early morning
Disembark
The 8 Dec sailing in the other direction docks at Kehl, across the river from Strasbourg.
Viking · Viking Eldir
Amsterdam to Basel · 2–9 Dec · 7 nights · from $3,295
Embark
Disembark
Resellers list different port mixes for this sailing. Check the day list before you book.
APT · APT Solara
Budapest to Amsterdam · 18 Dec – 2 Jan · 15 nights · from $9,801
Embark
Evening palace concert
Linz or Salzburg trip
New Year's Eve
Tour ends
This is a Christmas and New Year sailing, so most of its markets have closed by the time it reaches them.
No sailings match. Try another week or river.
Pick a port and the day you're there. We'll tell you whether its market is open and how far it is from the dock.
Each bulb below is one day. The brighter it glows, the more of the 38 river-port markets on these sailings are open. Tap any day to see what's trading.
From Thursday 3 December to Sunday 20 December 2026. Sail inside those dates and the only stops left to match are the weekend-only towns, like Dürnstein and Miltenberg, and Dordrecht's four-day market.
November3–35 open
December9–38 open
January4–7 open
38of 38 river markets open
Every river market on these sailings is open. Any port day on this date lands on a working market.
Strasbourg, Nuremberg and Würzburg open on Friday 27 November, Prague the next day and Amsterdam's Christmas Village on Thursday 3 December. Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Trier and Passau close on 22 December, and most of the rest go dark after the 23rd.
Sail the week before and you could be docking beside wooden huts that are still being bolted together. Sunday 22 November is Totensonntag, when markets across much of Germany stay shut for the day.
Small towns need more care than the big names. Dürnstein opens on four short runs and Miltenberg on three weekends. Melk only fully opens Friday to Sunday, and it finishes on 20 December along with Bernkastel and Cochem. If your sailing leans on wine villages, aim for the first two weeks of December.
Christmas-week sailings are a different trip. The ship is lovely and the dinners are long, but most German markets close on the 23rd. Vienna's Rathausplatz runs to the 26th, Salzburg to New Year's Day, Budapest and Prague keep going, and Amsterdam's Christmas Village takes the 24th off before reopening on Christmas Day.
Both rivers have more markets than you can visit in a week. If you only do one, do the Danube between Passau and Budapest. Pick the Rhine if you want to tick off as many markets as one week allows.
DanubeThe Danube wins on early dark and easy walking. Budapest, Bratislava and Vienna all give you a lit-up market by five o'clock, and Budapest, Bratislava, Linz, Passau and Regensburg are all within 12 minutes' walk of the ship.
Vienna and Nuremberg take more effort. Ships in Vienna moor at Handelskai, about an hour's walk from Rathausplatz, so take the U1. Nuremberg's canal port is 8 km out, so take a taxi.
✓ Our pick for a first market cruiseRhineThe Rhine wins on sheer numbers. Its sailings pass more than twice as many markets, and Cologne's cathedral market is five minutes from the Frankenwerft quay, with Koblenz, Frankfurt and Würzburg close behind.
Strasbourg, the best market on the river, takes more effort. Ships tie up 38 minutes' walk away or across the border in Kehl, so take the shuttle in, stay for dinner and take a taxi back.
Potsdam's market after dark, Meissen and Dresden's Striezelmarkt on the way, and Prague's markets at the end. It's the cheapest long sailing on this page, at £1,975 for eight nights, and the river most likely to run low, so read the line's water policy first.
Markets are at their best after dark, and on the Danube dark comes early. On 12 December the sun sets at 15:53 in Budapest and 16:38 in Basel. What decides your evenings is how long the ship stays.
Passau's port register lists every ship booked in from 20 November to 23 December 2026, all 374 calls. Half of them give you at least an hour in port after 16:30. The other half leave before the lights matter.
Share of each line's Passau calls with at least an hour in port between 16:30 and 21:00. Stadtwerke Passau berth schedule, November and December 2026, as of 21 October.
Two hours of lit-up market one way. None the other.
An evening by the cathedral, or a morning coffee before the stalls are even open.
Ask for port times before you pay. Lines have them months ahead even when the website doesn't, and the direction you sail can turn a lunchtime stop into an evening one. If they won't say, ask what time the last coach or shuttle goes back to the ship.
Your first and last cities are the only markets you can do after dark on your own schedule. Basel, Budapest and Nuremberg all deserve an evening, and a hotel near the stalls costs less than a balcony upgrade.
The same ship can stay in Passau until 18:00 on a Monday and leave at 15:30 that Thursday. Ask for both directions' port times and take the one with more evenings.
Balconies sit empty in December. Ships mostly sail at night, it's around freezing on deck, and you're ashore every day. Put the difference toward a hotel night by the market at either end.
In Rüdesheim, Speyer or Krems the market is the town. Wander it on your own and save your legs for the evening.
The Lipizzaner show in Vienna and the wine tastings sell out long before the ship sails, and some lines open December bookings in late May.
The Rhine hit record lows in September 2026, and on 21 October the gauge at Kaub still read too low to sail. Riviera pays compensation automatically, A-ROSA lets Premium fares rebook free until 15 days out, and Uniworld's terms give no right to a refund. Know which one you're buying.
Weekend departures sell out first. A-ROSA's last pre-Christmas sailings cost up to a third less than late November ones, and CroisiEurope's midweek Alsace sailings were still on sale from $819 in October.
Mug deposits run from €1 to €5 and plenty of stalls still prefer cash. Our Christmas market packing list sizes the rest to your route's weather.
The walk from the berth each line names to the main market square. Under 15 minutes means you can wander back at dusk on your own. Further out means a shuttle, and shuttles keep their own hours.
Some ships tie up across the Rhine in Germany. Tram D gets you into the centre in about 20 minutes.
About 15 km upriver, so the cathedral market is a coach ride away.
About an hour out by coach, so check which dock your booking names.
The Danube between Passau and Budapest gives you the most lit-up market time. It gets dark there around four, and Budapest, Bratislava, Linz, Passau and Regensburg are all a short walk from the river.
The Rhine passes more than twice as many markets, so it suits you if you want to see as many as possible. Cologne and Koblenz are under ten minutes' walk from the dock, and Rüdesheim's market starts a few streets from the riverfront. On either river, sail between 3 and 20 December.
It depends what you want from your evenings. Viking gives you the most time in port after dark, with seven in ten of its Passau calls lasting at least an hour past 16:30. AmaWaterways' Rhine sailing reaches the most markets in a week, Uniworld folds tips, drinks and excursions into the fare, and A-ROSA costs the least, from about €130 a night.
Yes, plenty. The 18 sailings on this page leave between 24 November and 18 December 2026, from Basel, Cologne, Amsterdam, Trier, Budapest, Passau, Vienna, Nuremberg, Strasbourg and Berlin. Eleven lines run them, from a four-night A-ROSA sailing at €534 to 15 nights over Christmas and New Year with APT at $9,801.
Yes, if you pick the right week and a sailing that stays in port into the evening. You unpack once and see six or seven markets in a week.
Half of this season's ship calls in Passau give you less than an hour in port after 16:30, so those show you the markets in daylight. Ask for port times before you book.
From about €130 a night per person on A-ROSA and £200 to £300 on CroisiEurope, to $470 to $630 on Viking and over $1,200 on Tauck and Scenic.
Uniworld, Scenic and Tauck include tips, drinks and excursions, so compare what you'd pay in total rather than the headline fare.
Between Thursday 3 and Sunday 20 December 2026, every river market with a full season is open. Amsterdam's Christmas Village opens on the 3rd, and Bernkastel, Cochem and Melk finish on the 20th. Weekend-only towns like Dürnstein and Miltenberg need a sailing that lands on their dates.
On some sailings. A-ROSA publishes its port times and stays into the evening at most stops, Viking's Danube Christmas Delights stayed late in five of its six ports in December 2025, and Uniworld runs evening trips to the markets after dinner. Add a night before and after the cruise and you'll get two evenings whatever the timetable says.
The line swaps ships, puts you on coaches between ports, or keeps the ship docked and buses you out each day. What you get back depends on the line. Tauck refunds what it saves, Riviera pays compensation automatically, Avalon moves you to a sister ship after 48 hours, and Viking and AmaWaterways refund only if they cancel the whole departure.
Lines decide about a week before you sail, so don't cancel early on a forecast.
Viking is adults only. Emerald, Scenic and Riviera take children from 12, Avalon from 8, and AmaWaterways, Uniworld and Tauck's family sailings from 4. A-ROSA lets children up to 15 sail free on Deck 1, and CroisiEurope takes 20% off for ages 2 to 9. Check the age rule when you book, because lines change them.
Sleep in the old towns and you're at the stalls every evening, whatever a ship's timetable would have allowed.
Four of the Rhine's best markets with your evenings at the stalls, and Colmar, which most ships only reach by coach.
Sleep by the Hauptmarkt instead of 8 km out at the canal port, and give Salzburg a whole evening instead of a four-hour coach excursion.
The same three cities as the Elbe sailing in under four hours of train, with no low-water risk at all.
Every confirmed 2026 opening date and Christmas-week hours in one email. Once a season, no drip.