Where to Spend Twixmas & New Year in Europe — What I Learned from Celebrating in Six Cities

Keep this compact - it should help you self-select before the long-form story below. This isn’t a ranking.

Berlin — when the big celebration itself is the point.

Prague — when you want the postcard Twixmas feeling to continue around New Year.

Düsseldorf — the cautionary tale: verify when the Christmas world actually ends, and be willing to retreat if the evening isn’t for you.

Vienna — when you want the whole trip to feel like a winter occasion.

Antwerp — when you want an easy, compact one-night escape rather than a major expedition.

Rome — when culture, food and the wider city-break experience matter more than snow or a giant fireworks display.

Berlin was four nights: two before New Year's Eve and two afterwards.

We stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton and spent 31 December exactly as I like to spend a city-break morning: a proper breakfast, plenty of coffee and then nowhere particularly urgent to be.

We wandered. We ate. We went back to the hotel relatively early.

And then we got ready.

Because that evening we were going to Silvester at the Brandenburg Gate.

This was New Year's Eve on an entirely different scale from anything we'd done before. An enormous outdoor celebration, music and performances, presenters speaking German quickly enough that plenty went completely over our heads, and an extraordinary number of people waiting together for midnight.

I had expected that many people to feel overwhelming.

Strangely, it didn't.

The space was large enough that I never remember feeling trapped in a crowd, the atmosphere was genuinely good and I felt safe. When midnight arrived, there was a central fireworks display and that wonderful moment when thousands of strangers are suddenly celebrating exactly the same thing.

What I remember almost as vividly as the countdown, though, is the cold.

I wore Uggs. My feet were still frozen.

Properly, painfully frozen.

This is not a trip for the coat that looks nicest in photographs. Wear the warm one. Add the thermals, gloves, scarf and hat. Your future toes will thank you.

New Year's Day was almost the opposite of the night before. We slept late, had a long hotel breakfast and then walked through Berlin, seeing places that are normally busy on a strangely quiet first day of the year.

Would I do that enormous outdoor celebration again now?

Probably not.

But that's not because I regret doing it. Quite the opposite. At that stage of our lives it was exactly the kind of New Year's Eve we wanted. If you want music, people, energy and a proper event, I completely understand the appeal.

I've simply changed.

And that turned out to be one of the bigger things these trips taught me: the New Year's Eve that suits you can change as you do.

Berlin still runs this the same way for 2026: the Senate’s official Silvesterparty at the Brandenburg Gate returns on 31 December 2026, with free entry along a roughly 1.5km party mile between the Gate and Kleiner Stern, DJs and live music, and a fireworks countdown at midnight - entry opens around 21:30, and arriving before 11pm is worth it to avoid queues.

Prague was different.

We stayed for roughly five nights at The Julius, right in the city, and this wasn’t a trip where New Year's Eve had to do all the work.

Prague itself did that.

It is one of those cities that seems to understand winter. The old buildings, the bridges, the lights, the river — put them underneath a cold grey sky and suddenly the entire place looks like somebody has designed a Christmas postcard and allowed you to walk around inside it.

Our days were slow.

Long breakfasts. More coffee than strictly necessary. Walking into the city without much of a plan. Stopping somewhere when we felt like it.

We also did a hop-on hop-off bus, which I would absolutely recommend if you want an easy overview of the city, and a boat trip. Seeing Prague from the water in winter was one of those things that turned out to be far better than something we had simply booked to fill a couple of hours.

On New Year's Eve we were around the bridges. It was lively but, in my memory, noticeably less overwhelming than Berlin. There were people outside, celebrations and fireworks around the city, but I felt perfectly comfortable walking around.

And the Christmas feeling hadn't disappeared.

That matters more than I realised at the time.

If I book a trip for the days between Christmas and New Year, I don't particularly want to arrive and discover that everybody has already started dismantling Christmas around me.

For the 2026/27 season, Prague’s official Christmas markets on Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square run daily from 28 November 2026 through 6 January 2027 - so the Twixmas feeling genuinely does carry all the way past New Year here.

There is one other thing I remember very clearly.

The wind coming off the river is cold.

Bring the hat.

Not the tiny decorative hat that looks nice with your coat. An actual hat.

I would choose Prague again for this period without hesitation. In fact, I think the days between Christmas and New Year may be one of the loveliest times to experience it.

New Year's Eve is part of the reason to go.

But Prague in winter is the real event.

Not every New Year's trip we've taken has worked.

Düsseldorf didn’t.

Which surprised us, because we actually really like Düsseldorf.

We stayed at The Wellem for what I think was two nights, expecting a compact little festive escape. Instead, we arrived to find much of the Christmas atmosphere we had imagined already disappearing around us.

Stalls had gone or were being dismantled.

That sounds like a small thing. It wasn't.

If you've chosen that particular week because you want the strange lingering magic between Christmas and New Year, watching Christmas physically being taken apart around you changes the entire feeling of the city.

For 2026, Düsseldorf’s official Christmas market runs from 19 November through 30 December - so if you’re travelling specifically for the days after Christmas, don’t assume the market will still be up when you arrive.

The bigger problem for us, though, was New Year's Eve itself.

The centre was extremely busy and we saw young people throwing fireworks around. I didn't feel comfortable. I didn't feel particularly safe.

That is our experience of that particular night, not a judgement on Düsseldorf generally. We've enjoyed the city at other times.

But that night?

After perhaps an hour, we'd had enough.

So we did what grown-ups are allowed to do.

We left.

We went back to The Wellem, climbed into our enormous bed, found a film, opened the snacks and made our own evening lovely.

And actually, that’s one of the memories from these trips that I rather like.

There is no prize for staying at a party you're not enjoying.

Sometimes the best decision of the night is going back to a beautiful hotel, taking your shoes off and opening the crisps.

Would I specifically choose Düsseldorf for New Year's Eve again based on our experience?

No.

Would I go back to Düsseldorf?

Absolutely.

Those are two completely different questions.

Vienna was wonderful.

Five days, four nights, staying at the Vienna Marriott Hotel.

And then it snowed.

At that point Vienna really didn’t stand a chance of disappointing me.

There are cities that happen to look nice in winter, and then there are cities where winter seems to make sense of the entire place. Vienna belongs firmly in the second group.

The architecture. The history. The cafés. The grand buildings. The lights.

With snow on top of all of it, it felt like a storybook.

We used the hop-on hop-off bus here too, and Vienna is one of the cities where I think it genuinely earns its keep. It’s a large city with a great deal to see, so being able to get off, explore and then continue without turning the entire day into a transport exercise made everything easier.

There was plenty happening in the city, it was busy without feeling unpleasantly crowded to me, and at midnight we were simply outside among everyone else.

There was some fireworks, people celebrating, that lovely New Year’s energy.

But I don’t remember the midnight spectacle being the thing that made Vienna special.

Vienna doesn’t need New Year’s Eve to make the trip special. New Year’s Eve simply gives you an excuse to be there.

That’s an important distinction.

For 2026, Vienna’s 35th Silvesterpfad (New Year’s Eve Trail) runs on 31 December from 2pm to 2am, free entry, across eight squares in the centre - Rathausplatz, Freyung, Am Hof, Graben, Stephansplatz, Kärntner Straße, Neuer Markt and Riesenradplatz in the Prater - with around 700,000 people expected to turn out across the whole trail.

Would I go back?

Immediately.

And unlike the enormous Berlin celebration, I don’t feel I’ve aged out of Vienna at all.

If anything, I think I appreciate this kind of trip more now.

One warning: it was properly cold.

Hat. Scarf. Gloves. Warm shoes. Layers.

Vienna may look like a fairytale, but fairytales apparently require thermals.

Not every New Year's trip needs five days and a flight.

Antwerp proved that.

We live close enough that there was absolutely no practical reason for us to stay overnight.

So naturally, we booked a hotel.

We stayed for one night at Sapphire House Antwerp, largely because we both wanted to be able to have a drink without one of us having to drive home afterwards.

And I love this kind of mini escape.

Antwerp is compact, beautiful and easy. We spent 31 December doing what we often do there anyway: walking around, shopping on the Meir, stopping for something to eat or drink and enjoying the city.

It was busy, but it didn't feel unpleasantly busy to me.

The festive atmosphere was still there too.

For 2026, "Winter in Antwerpen" runs from 4 December through 3 January 2027, with a New Year’s Eve fireworks display on 31 December and a closing New Year’s drink on 3 January - so the festive season here comfortably outlasts New Year itself.

But the thing that made this trip different wasn’t really Antwerp.

It was New Year's Eve.

I've always loved the anticipation of it.

That slightly sentimental feeling that one chapter is closing and another is about to begin. You don't know what the next year is going to bring yet. For a few hours, everything still feels possible.

Perhaps that’s why I like being away for it.

Sometimes all I want from New Year's Eve is the feeling that we've gone somewhere together to turn the page.

Antwerp is very good for that.

If Berlin is the enormous event, Antwerp is almost its opposite.

One night. A lovely hotel. Dinner. Drinks. A beautiful city. No complicated itinerary.

Sometimes that is plenty.

And then there was Rome.

Rome was five days, and it remains one of the most extraordinary New Year's trips we've taken.

Not because everything went perfectly.

It really didn’t.

Our hotel near Termini was dreadful. I can't reliably remember its name anymore, so I'm not going to pretend I can.

The water pressure disappeared and then suddenly returned with water that was far too hot. We changed rooms and it didn’t particularly improve matters.

And Bas, who is almost two metres tall, couldn’t even stand properly beneath the shower.

He had to shower with his head bent.

This has subsequently given me a very niche but surprisingly useful piece of travel advice: travelling tall? Look at the bathroom photos.

We spend ages checking beds, breakfast rooms, pools and views when choosing hotels.

Nobody checks whether their nearly-two-metre partner will physically fit underneath the shower.

Perhaps we should.

Fortunately, the hotel was the weak part of an otherwise extraordinary trip.

Rome over New Year felt completely different from Berlin, Prague and Vienna. It was winter, but not the kind that makes you question whether you still have toes.

A normal winter coat was enough.

We ate extremely well, wandered through the city, used the hop-on hop-off bus — which I think is fantastic in a city with this much to see — and spent New Year’s Eve at the enormous celebration around Circo Massimo.

There were art installations. Music. Acrobats. Performers moving through the air. Outdoor bars where we could get something to drink and food when we wanted it.

And one song.

Over and over again.

Greenback Boogie, the song you may know as the opening theme from Suits.

We heard it so many times during that trip that somewhere along the way it became ours.

To this day, it is our song.

The fireworks themselves?

I remember both of us having roughly the same reaction.

Oh. Was that it?

Which is perhaps the best evidence I have for my theory that fireworks aren’t what makes a New Year’s trip memorable.

Because I would repeat Rome in a heartbeat.

And the following morning gave us something considerably more memorable than fireworks ever could.

Months before the trip, we had applied for tickets to attend a papal celebration at the Vatican.

We got them.

So on 1 January 2020, we were inside St Peter’s Basilica for the Papal Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and the 53rd World Day of Peace, celebrated by Pope Francis.

And Pope Francis walked into the basilica less than a metre away from me.

I’m not particularly religious.

I was still completely overwhelmed by it.

There are travel moments you photograph because they’re beautiful.

And there are travel moments where some part of you seems to understand, while they’re happening, that you’re going to remember them for the rest of your life.

That was one of those.

The night before, our celebration was the Festa di Roma 2019/2020 around Circo Massimo - I’m keeping that historical detail sourced to that specific trip rather than implying an identical programme repeats every year. For 2026, Rome’s own free, open-air Capodanno concert returns to Circo Massimo on 31 December, with performances from around 9:30pm continuing well past midnight.

Would I choose Rome again for Twixmas and New Year?

Absolutely.

Just with a different hotel.

After Berlin, Prague, Düsseldorf, Vienna, Antwerp and Rome, I no longer think about New Year’s trips in terms of which city has the biggest celebration.

I think about the whole trip.

Check when Christmas actually ends. If you’re travelling because you want Twixmas, this matters enormously.

Give yourself time either side of midnight. Some of my favourite memories have nothing to do with 31 December: long breakfasts, walking through unusually quiet streets on 1 January, a boat trip through Prague, snow in Vienna and that extraordinary morning inside St Peter’s Basilica.

Book a hotel you’d be happy to retreat to. Düsseldorf taught me this rather effectively.

Don’t underestimate winter. Berlin, Prague and Vienna can be genuinely cold. Looking elegant stops being particularly important once you can no longer feel your feet.

The fireworks aren’t the trip. Some of our most memorable New Year’s experiences didn’t have the most memorable fireworks.

And don’t keep choosing the New Year’s Eve you think you’re supposed to want.

I loved that enormous celebration in Berlin.

Today I’d probably choose something different.

Not because one is better than the other. I’m different from the person who stood at the Brandenburg Gate all those years ago.