I’m thinking of maybe a long weekend with the family somewhere in Germany with a decent Christmas market and a few things to do ?
My kids will be 2.5 and 4.5 if that makes a difference ?
Has anyone got any recommendations / experiences to share ?
Many thanks
Dom

Can the kids hold Steins?

I don’t drink either so that’s not part of the attraction 😉

Went to Dortmund Christmas market last year and loved it. I think we flew out early on the Friday and then back home on the Sunday afternoon with Easyjet.

Taxi from the airport into Dortmund is about 20 Euros, we stayed at the hotel Ibis, which is about a 10 minute Metro ride into the centre or a 30 min walk.
I really like Dortmund. It’s the right sort of size for a weekend visit; plenty to see and do without it being too large that you don’t know where to start. We don’t have kids, so weren’t looking for ways to entertain them, but I am sure there’s stuff to do to keep them occupied.

The Christmas market itself is pretty large. I think they have the largest Christmas tree in Europe (or Germany, at least) – it’s made up of hundreds of smaller trees.

My sister lived in Düsseldorf last year. We went over with parents, other sister and six year old niece for the Christmas markets, everyone seemed to have a nice time.

Düsseldorf is a nice city anyway.

My wife always goes to a few Christmas markets each year with friends (usually Dusseldorf and Aachen). I’ve been once, I really don’t see the attraction of stalls all selling overpriced wooden tat. My daughter is a bit older than yours (8 now) and she would rather stay at home, the markets are really busy at times and I can imagine it would be claustrophobic for a little person.

The market in the caves at Valkenburg are really festive though and my daughter likes to go there, not sure there’s much else to do in the town apart from some hill reps up the Cauberg though. Unless you accidentaly happen to book a weekend when the cyclo-cross word cup is in town.

Cologne’s is nice – spreads from the Dom to the square at Heumarkt and there’s an icerink for the kids as well – so they have activities while you eat your bodyweight in marshmallow sweets and gluwein.

We go to Dusseldorf every year for a long weekend,we catch the train to koln for a day and spend 2 days in dusseldorf. we’ve taken everyone from 3 year old’s to almost dead. and everybody has enjoyed it.

We’re off to Bruges for the Christmas Market in early December. Not Germany, but the Eurostar makes life so much easier.

Luxembourg has about 4 mini ones and one big one in the city centre. Trier has a pretty good one too with some odd local specialities

Look, I like christmas as much as the next man, but its AUGUST.

there is a very good christmas market from frankfurt that goes to edinburgh each year.

the same german crew go over and its completely original, plus, for kids there will be a skating rink, big wheel, some jumpy bouncy things and so on, in the gardens under the castle,

just another option…

Heidelberg – epic.

The franchise for most of the big Christmas markets is owned by one company who control what stands are allowed so it tends to be quite homogeneous. The one here in Leipzig is internationally famous (direct flights from Stansted with *gulp* Ryanair) and you can also do the Dresden one too; the medieval market there being my favourite with a reslly good live stage.

i fancy this myself. could do Dusseldorf & Cologne in the same weekend – what is the German train system like? exquisite i imagine…

theres a 7am out of Manchester too!…

there is a very good christmas market from frankfurt that goes to edinburgh each year.

The one in Birmingham is now huge, I usually don’t get past the bar selling wheat beer though. We go by bike, makes the 15 mile return via narrow towpath interesting too

Cologne is very good, i wouldn’t spend too much time at the one near the cathedral though, it gets very overcrowded and is not as pretty as the ones closer to the river (As mentioned, the one with the ice rink), or the one at the other end of town (Neumarkt). Cologne is our favourite German city aswell, and we will definitely revisit it when we leave Germany. The one at Dusseldorf is also nice, very chilled out and not as busy as other big city markets. Avoid Frankfurt and Stuttgart with kids, they are ridiculously busy. I’ve not been to Aachen’s, but that is also apparently very nice.

Some of the smaller markets may be worth a visit. Trier is nice, and Hameln also (The Pied Piper town), but you’d have to fly to Frankfurt Hahn or Hannover respectively. Don’t be tempted to go to Monchengladbach’s though if you’re around Cologne/Dusseldorf, it’s like the shed section at B&Q.

One thing for people thinking about Dusseldorf, if you’re flying into Weeze it’s a long way to Dusseldorf itself (50miles ish) and the buses are not that regular – we’ve had friends who turned down offers of being picked up at the airport because they didn’t realise and then had 2hr waits at the airport for the bus.

One thing for people thinking about Dusseldorf, if you’re flying into Weeze it’s a long way to Dusseldorf itself (50miles ish

This. Fly to Dusseldorf itself (you’ll probably find that Lufthansa and Flybe are about the same price if not cheaper than Ryanair anyway). Trains into the city directly from the airport.

I’d only go to a German Market if there was a Festool stall…..

Dusselfdorf to koln train takes around 45 mins, and is cheep and every 30mins (or close to) watch you don’t get on the express it takes 15 mins but cost 4 times as much.

Trier is nice, and Hameln also (The Pied Piper town), but you’d have to fly to Frankfurt Hahn or Hannover respectively

For Trier, fly to Luxembourg from Gatwick with Easyjet. It’s about 30 mins drive from here and there’s a direct train from the city. You could also fly into Dusseldorf, do that one, then Cologne, then Koblenz (go visit Canyon while you’re there) and then Trier; they’re all easily doable by train and the first three are within an hour on the one train.

Apparently English markets are really popular in Germany now..

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