Are you planning another European Christmas market trip?
Well, I built this page (and this entire website, really) with the full intention of helping you find the best European Christmas market to go to this year or next year, or the year after that, or… well, you see where I am going with this.
Europe (well, Germany really, but that's in Europe) is the birthplace of Christmas markets. The beautiful Christmas markets you see all over social media have been running for centuries.
Of course, they did not look as modern and as developed as they look today, but they do have deep history and a whole lot of culture to back up the tens of millions of tourists who visit Christmas markets all over Europe every single year.
How many Christmas markets are there in Europe?
Thousands. But you know what? I don't have the exact number (and I am not sure anybody does), but the best country-by-country estimates are in our market statistics. The year is 2026, I have visited 50+ Christmas markets, and my goal is to visit 500+ in the next decade.
So if I ever get to exhaust all the opportunities and manage to get a final tally, I'll be sure to update this piece.
Until then, you should know that nearly every country in Europe has its own version of a Christmas market, and countries like Germany, Austria and France tend to have a Christmas market in nearly every city out there.
And yes, I know, everyone's heard of the Christmas markets in Vienna, Budapest or Nuremberg. And they are all more than worth your time and money, of course.
But they are not the full extent of the Christmas market trips and opportunities that Europe has to offer. Not even close.
Did you know that most of the awards for the best Christmas market every year end up going to places most people have never even heard of?
In 2025, Craiova (in Romania) won the award for the prettiest Christmas market in Europe, beating all of the bigger cities with far richer histories.
Does that mean you should go there? Not necessarily.
The prettiest market and the best one are not always the same place
The ranking you get from photographs and the ranking you get from standing in these squares on a December evening pull apart further than most people admit.
In our index, Colmar rates 9 out of 10 for atmosphere and 3 for crowds, which is the widest split in Europe.
Prague, Cologne and Esslingen all sit at 4, which is a problem only after 4pm and only in the centre. One street back, earlier in the day, they are absolutely fine.
Bamberg scores 9 for crowds and 9 for value, the best pair of numbers in Europe, and it appears on almost nobody's list.
None of this is an argument against the famous ones, though. Strasbourg, for example, tops our own index at 9.1 with a 10 for atmosphere, a 10 for stalls and a 9 for value, which makes it the rare case of the most celebrated market also being one of the best priced.
And the famous ones are famous because they are good. That is the reality. But they'll punish you for turning up at the wrong hour, so you should know more about your options.
How do you pick a Christmas market in Europe?
Well, the good news is that… you don't have to pick a single Christmas market in Europe.
There's a way to do a whole lot of them in a single trip, and it all depends on you picking your "base": a city where you'll be staying and from which you'll be visiting other Christmas markets.
Or maybe you don't even have to pick a base. If you are comfortable being on the move (you are not travelling with family, for example), Europe is incredibly well connected by train (and by air), and you could visit several countries in a single week.
But that probably doesn't fully answer your question, does it? You might still be wondering how you should even pick one.
Well, this entire website was built to answer this question, and if I am being completely honest, this small guide you are reading right now can't give you a definitive answer.
That's why I am also inviting you to browse through the website. Look for inspiration. Read through other guides. See the images and videos from different cities and feel the vibes before you make a decision.
But also… learn how you should pick. 👇
What are your main criteria?
As a (self-proclaimed) Christmas market expert, whenever friends ask me how to pick their next Christmas market destination in Europe, I tell them that they have to define what they are looking for.
Or, in other words, what are their criteria?
I like to believe there are several important ones:
- Vibes and size: the most important one for me. Do you want a cosy little spot in a small city (Kaysersberg, for example), or do you want a full-blown Christmas market destination with 10+ spots in a single city (Vienna)?
- Crowds: how comfortable are you with crowds? Also, when do you plan on visiting? Nearly every (popular) option out there gets super crowded on weekends and in late afternoons around Christmas… So if you are not good with crowds, maybe opt for a spot that gets fewer tourists. If you can visit on weekdays and can do mornings, then you should be fine anywhere.
- Cost: and not just Christmas market costs. Those are mostly affordable for everyone and don't make a huge difference. The costs of the city itself are the ones to think about, and so are the costs of transport. Staying in the city centre in Vienna is a whole lot more expensive than staying in the city centre in Brno.
- Are you there just for the Christmas market: a really important one most people don't think about. Prague, at least when it comes to Christmas markets, is a bit of a disappointment. But the city itself is absolutely stunning and worth visiting regardless of the markets. Not every place out there can say this.
Assume you are doing two or more cities, not one
Most of the good December trips in Europe should be pairs, in my opinion, because the distances are short and the extra city is the extra fun!
Some examples that a lot of people miss:
- Bamberg is 35 minutes by direct train from Nuremberg. You could stay in Nuremberg and then visit Bamberg… or, if you want to save money, stay in Bamberg and then go to Nuremberg. It's far more affordable to be in a smaller city that's not on most people's itineraries.
- Colmar is 63 kilometres from Strasbourg and Kaysersberg 10 kilometres from Colmar. If you base yourself in Colmar, the only one of the three still trading after Christmas Eve, you can take the other two as day trips, along with the Alsace wine villages.
- Bratislava sits only 56 kilometres from Vienna and runs to 6 January, which makes it the obvious second half of any Vienna trip that goes late.
- Dresden and Prague are 117 kilometres apart and close on completely different dates, the 24th and the 6th, so that pairing gets you both halves of the season in one week.
- Salzburg and Munich are an hour and a half apart by train. Most people go to Munich and completely miss taking a short trip to the base of the Alps, where the chance of a snowy Christmas market is much higher.
Pick your dates before you pick your city
Almost everyone does this the other way round, falling for a photograph of Colmar, booking the flights, and only afterwards finding out the market packs up on 29 December. You need to start with your calendar instead, then hold it up against the Christmas market opening dates.
It might end up ruling out more cities in one go than any other question, and it takes a minute to answer.
I think half of Europe's market cities close on or before 24 December. Germany, for example, is the early-closing belt. Even though it does have Christmas markets that go beyond the 24th, they are the exceptions, not the rule. Some even pack up well before Christmas Day, with Esslingen on 22 December and the Ravenna Gorge on the 20th being just two examples.
Alsace does the same, Strasbourg stopping on the 24th and Kaysersberg on the 20th.
That's why, if you can't travel before those dates, you need to go east or south, where the season stretches into January. Vienna and Wrocław run to 7 January. Prague, Bratislava, Innsbruck and Warsaw to the 6th. Salzburg, Kraków and Budapest see the new year in and stop on the 1st.
