The Christmas Markets We’d Actually Travel For

If you want the full Christmas spectacle, choose London.

If you want the best German Christmas-market experience, I would choose Cologne.

If you want old-world elegance and a storybook Christmas, choose Vienna.

If you want one polished night of markets, shopping and a beautiful hotel, choose Düsseldorf.

If you want an easy festive day filled with food, shopping and wandering, choose Antwerp.

There.

No pretending they are all equally perfect for everyone.

Now let me explain why.

Best for: Christmas maximalists. I’d stay 3-5 days, my preferred timing is late November, and would I travel for it again? I keep doing exactly that.

London is my number-one destination in Europe anyway.

At Christmas? It becomes ridiculous. In the best possible way.

I have been to London around ten times and probably seven or eight of those visits have been during the Christmas season.

That means this isn’t somewhere I visited once, had nice weather and declared magical.

I keep going back.

Covent Garden. Harrods. Fortnum & Mason. Borough Market. Christmas lights. Poppies for fish and chips. A proper afternoon tea. And Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, which I still love even though travel advice occasionally seems to suggest we should all be far too sophisticated for anything touristy.

No. Go.

Winter Wonderland runs from 19 November 2026 until 3 January 2027, so my favourite late-November timing works particularly well this year.

What makes London different is that Christmas isn’t one destination within the city.

It is everywhere. The department stores are doing Christmas. The streets are doing Christmas. Restaurants are doing Christmas. Theatres are doing Christmas. Entire neighbourhoods are glowing.

If your idea of restraint is only putting up six Christmas trees this year, London is probably your city.

The downside is obvious: crowds. London in December can become so busy that the city stops feeling festive and starts feeling like an endurance event. That is why I prefer late November and why I would rather stay five days than attempt to “do London” in three.

We go out. Have lunch. Go back to the hotel for an hour. Then head out again when the lights come on. That isn’t lost sightseeing time. It is how I still have enough energy to enjoy London after dark.

Choose London if you want everything. Markets are only the beginning.

Best for: the classic German Christmas-market trip. I’d stay 1-2 nights, my preferred timing is late November into December, and would I travel for it again? Absolutely.

If London is the full Christmas spectacle, Cologne is where I go for Christmas markets.

I have been three times. Once as an organised bus day trip with girlfriends. Twice with Bas, by car, staying one or two nights.

I can save you the experiment. Stay overnight. The day trip was exhausting. The overnight version is the reason Cologne became my favourite German Christmas-market destination.

Cologne doesn’t give you one market. It gives you different Christmas worlds across the city.

The Cathedral market runs from 16 November to 23 December 2026. Heinzels Wintermärchen in the Altstadt begins on 23 November, spreads across Alter Markt and Heumarkt and has more than 100 stalls plus a large ice landscape. The Harbour Christmas Market starts even earlier, on 13 November.

That variety is the point. One minute you are beneath Cologne Cathedral. Then you are wandering around the Heinzelmännchen in the Old Town. Later you are beside the Rhine at the maritime market.

And when your feet have decided they are no longer participating? There is a little Christmas Market Express. Use it. You don’t get a medal for walking.

What I’m eating in Cologne: Reibekuchen with apple sauce, my favourite. Then currywurst. Probably raclette, despite being lactose intolerant and knowing perfectly well what I am doing. And if I can find it, white Glühwein - I prefer it to the heavier red version.

Why I stay overnight: because Cologne is even better once you stop treating it as a race. We stay centrally, park the car, wander, eat, go back to the hotel, shoes off, lie down, then head outside again after dark. That is the version of Cologne I recommend.

If you tell me: “I don’t particularly care about shopping or museums. I want to go somewhere because I LOVE Christmas markets.” Cologne.

Best for: nostalgia, elegance and culture. I’d stay 3-5 days, my preferred timing is late November or early December, and would I travel for it again? Yes.

Vienna is completely different. It doesn’t feel like Christmas has been installed on top of a city. It feels as though the city was waiting for winter.

We spent roughly a week there in early December. On our final day, it snowed.

I still remember standing on Stephansplatz beside St Stephen’s Cathedral while the snow fell. If I were directing the final scene of a Christmas film, I probably would have rejected it for being too obvious. But there we were.

Vienna has plenty of Christmas markets. In 2026, Stephansplatz and Schönbrunn open as early as 6 November, Rathausplatz and Karlsplatz from 13 November, and Maria-Theresien-Platz from 20 November.

But I wouldn’t go to Vienna simply to collect Christmas markets. Go to the opera. See the palaces. Have a proper dinner. Eat a schnitzel that appears to have been designed for a much larger plate. Walk through the old centre. Then find yourself at another Christmas market.

Vienna was busy when we visited, but it didn’t feel as overwhelming to me as London or Cologne can. The rhythm felt calmer: morning out, lunch, back to the hotel, warm up, late afternoon out again, dinner, Christmas lights.

Because the city itself is such an important part of the experience, I would give Vienna at least three days. Preferably more.

If London is Christmas turned up to maximum volume, Vienna is the opposite kind of luxury. Atmosphere. Old buildings. Culture. Time. And, if you are lucky, snow.

Best for: Christmas plus shopping. I’d stay 1 night, I’d travel by car, and would I travel for it again? Yes.

Düsseldorf has a difficult job in this list, because I keep telling you Cologne has the better Christmas markets. And I stand by that.

So why go to Düsseldorf? Because Düsseldorf isn’t the same trip.

The Christmas markets run from 19 November until 30 December 2026 and are spread through the central city, close to the major shopping streets and Altstadt.

That makes Düsseldorf very easy to combine: Christmas stalls, Altstadt, Königsallee, shopping, the Rhine, currywurst, then back to a beautiful hotel. This is where Düsseldorf wins for me.

We have stayed at The Wellem, and that is a hotel I would genuinely consider booking again. For a one-night trip, the hotel matters more to me. I don’t want the cheapest functional room miles outside the centre. I want the night away to actually feel like a night away. That doesn’t mean five-star everything. It means comfort, location and less friction.

And if we are driving from the Netherlands, we sometimes combine Düsseldorf with Westfield Centro in Oberhausen too. Not because Centro is in Düsseldorf - it isn’t - but because it works easily as part of the journey by car.

If you ask me for Germany’s Christmas markets? Cologne. If you ask me for one lovely Christmas night with shopping, the Kö, Altstadt and a good hotel? Düsseldorf.

Best for: an easy festive day. We usually don’t stay overnight, we often travel by train, and would I return? Almost every Christmas.

Antwerp is the odd one out. And I love it for that.

It doesn’t have the scale of Cologne. I wouldn’t tell someone to fly across Europe because Antwerp has the greatest Christmas market on the continent.

But Bas and I return to Antwerp regularly throughout the year and almost every Christmas. Somewhere along the way, it became tradition.

For us, it is wonderfully easy. We can cross into Belgium, take the train from Essen and arrive at Antwerpen-Centraal. Then we walk. Shop. Eat. Have a drink. Wander through the Christmas market. Have a jenever. Eat fries with stoofvlees. Probably find some smoutebollen. And eventually take the train home.

No hotel required. No major itinerary. No driving after the jenever.

If we do drive, I like parking on the other side of the Scheldt and walking through the Sint-Annatunnel. You descend on those fantastic old wooden escalators, walk underneath the river and emerge near the historic centre. Even arriving becomes part of the day.

The Christmas market doesn’t need to occupy the whole city. Antwerp itself is why we are there. The shops, restaurants, historic streets, Belgian food and drink. Christmas is layered on top. And because we know we will return, there is no urgency - which might actually be one of the greatest travel luxuries of all.

Choose Antwerp when you don’t need Christmas to become a production. You simply want a lovely Christmassy day.

Still can’t choose? Here is how I would decide.

I would probably start with Cologne.

That might seem strange when London is my favourite city of the five.

But if what you specifically want to experience is a European Christmas-market trip, Cologne gives you the clearest version of it.

Multiple substantial markets. German Christmas food. Glühwein. Lights. Ice skating. Old Town. The Cathedral. Everything close enough to enjoy over one or two nights.

It feels like you went somewhere for Christmas.

Then start collecting the others.

I wouldn’t send you to London in mid-December. And I wouldn’t promise you an empty Cologne either. These are popular places because they are good.

From my own experiences of these five, Vienna felt the easiest to enjoy slowly despite being busy.

But my bigger advice is not to chase some mythical crowd-free Christmas market. Change the way you travel instead.

Stay longer. Book centrally. Go out earlier. Take breaks. See places during the day and again after dark. Don’t attempt twelve things every day.

Build enough space into the trip that other people stop ruining it.

This is something I have learnt over years of city trips.

The hotel isn’t only where you sleep. On these winter trips, it is part of how we manage the city.

We go back. Take our shoes off. Warm up. Lie down. Use our own bathroom. Do absolutely nothing for an hour. Then go back outside.

That is why I increasingly value centrality. A central hotel buys you time and rest. It doesn’t need to be the most expensive hotel in the city. It needs to make your trip easier.

And I will always recommend the trip first, the right area second and an individual hotel only when I genuinely think it adds something.

I wouldn’t wait until December to start thinking about it.

The 2026 festive season begins surprisingly early. Vienna has markets opening from 6 November. Cologne’s Harbour market begins 13 November, with its major central markets following through November. London’s Winter Wonderland opens 19 November, and Düsseldorf starts on the same date.

For London in particular, I prefer late November. The festive season is already underway, but you avoid pushing your trip into the most intense December period.

For Cologne and Vienna, late November into early December would also be my sweet spot.

Düsseldorf works beautifully as a one-night Advent escape.

Antwerp is the one I am happy to decide much more spontaneously.

After doing these trips repeatedly, I have developed a few rules.

Stay overnight when the journey itself is going to exhaust you.

Don’t stay outside the city just to save a little money if it makes returning to your room impractical.

Don’t treat a hotel break as wasted time.

See Christmas cities after dark. Wear the comfortable shoes. Eat the Christmas-market food.

Book the one special thing you will actually remember: afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason, an evening at the Vienna State Opera, a beautiful hotel for one night in Düsseldorf. It doesn’t have to be the most expensive part of the trip. It just needs to make the trip feel like yours.

And perhaps most importantly: you don’t need to see everything. I would rather return home remembering one snowy evening on Stephansplatz than remembering that I successfully completed 17 items on a Christmas itinerary.

That depends.

For a full Christmas trip with several days to spare? London.

For a proper Christmas-market weekend? Cologne.

For the most beautiful grown-up winter escape? Vienna.

For one indulgent night away? Düsseldorf.

For an easy Christmas tradition I can imagine doing year after year? Antwerp.

Which is exactly why all five belong here.