German holiday market vacation - Munich based

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Your friend is right, all of the markets mentioned here are pretty commercial and market to tourists.

If OP is interested in off the beaten path Christmas markets, how about this:
Have Cologne as a base, Cologne has several markets and lots of museums. Then just a 20 minute train ride away are those two markets that are only known locally but pretty unique. I have not been to the medieval one but heard good things. I did go to the one at Gruenewald a few years ago and found it magical. No commercial vendors, only artisans. It’s just at a different level but also different from what Americans are usually looking for (website is only in German I’m afraid).

Muenster is easily accessible by train from Cologne as well.

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Leaning towards salzburg and vienna - short train ride between the two and two nice cities to explore

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anybody who has been to either of these cities have any tips, suggestions, advice?

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How long are you planning to stay for?

Although they are a bit cheesy, I’m quite fond of the dorling kindersley “top 10” books. We used the latest one for Vienna last year, and it helped us plan a lot of what we wanted to see.

Except for a couple of sights, much of Vienna is walkable and beautiful to walk around, and I’d suggest staying somewhere quite central. We stayed close to but not quite in the center in the Hilton Vienna Plaza, which felt more like a boutique hotel than a Hilton (large rooms with marble bathrooms, art deco themed and really lovely), walkable to a lot of places and near both tram and subway for further out places.
Sights - apart from the markets that you’re going to - Museums - a lot to see - secession, Belvedere palace, Leopold, kunsthistorische Museum, Albertina and Albertina modern and probably others that don’t come to mind immediately. It partly depends what art you like, of course. St Stephan’s cathedral and the city center (beautiful squares etc), the lippizaners, Schönbrunn palace, Sacher Torte (and coffee shops in general, and do try some of the local specialty coffees ), Hundertwasser House, Sigmund Freud House 
.

I’ve not been to Salzburg so no suggestions for that.

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We did Vienna and Salzburg just a few years ago. I got a few tips off of CC!
The Christmas Markets are fun but lots of trinkets so we enjoyed the spirit and the environment but did go for the shopping. You will like the festive atmosphere!!

Biggest recommendation is to make dinner reservations for each night before you leave. You can always email them to cancel.

In Salzburg make dinner reservations at Sum Fidelen. You can email them directly and can do so way in advance. There will be mostly locals and amazingly delicious food. It is a pub with great atmosphere. Not dressy, lively.

We stayed in Sacher hotel which we loved. There are plenty of nice hotels. The Sacher is just over the bridge from the center of town and was quiet at night for sleeping, lots of restaurants nearby, easy walk to Old Town. I would recommend that area for hotel.

In Vienna, very close to the long line of people waiting in line for the Saccher Cake, there is a gorgeous bakery with fabulous choices with upstairs (make a reservation for the upstairs!) Gerstner Bakery. You can take or leave the Saccher Cake but I would not wait in line for it!!

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We went for the Christmas Markets in 2022. Vienna by far was our favorite city. If I were going to go to one place, it would be Vienna. We actually wanted to go to Strasbourg as well, but could not fit it into our itinerary so we went to Bruges and Rheims instead. Vienna has many, many Christmas Markets. It seemed like we ran into one in every major intersection. We stayed across from St. Stephens, which had a great market. The biggest was at the City Hall area. Our favorites were smaller ones that were in distinct neighborhoods where local residents and workers gathered at the end of the day to celebrate. Take the subway. It is amazingly clean and efficient and runs on the honor system so no lines or turnstiles. You just buy a pass and put it in your pocket in case anyone asks to see it. Amazed me. We missed the market at Schoenbrunn Palace, but the tour of the private royal quarters there was well worth it.

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Vienna: What do you like to do, how many people are in the party, and when are you looking to go? (Xmas or earlier in December?)

If you like the Hapsburg Empire history with its rich palaces and pomp & circumstance, definitely go to Schönbrunn Palace, and the Hofburg Palace with its Sisi museum. Both places have Xmas markets still open Xmas week

If this does appeal to your family, I actually read the books The Accidental Empress and Sisi: Empress on her Own after the trip. I also watched The Empress on Netflix (I watched it in German, but it’s also in English) after the trip. It might have been nice to have done that beforehand. But the difference between the books vs the show are interesting, and both give a nice introduction to what you actually will see.

Belvedere is another palace with gorgeous grounds (and another Xmas market) that is now a art museum.

The Rathaus (City Hall) is where the biggest Xmas market is. Some people don’t like how commercial it is. There are rides for little kids and ice skating, but when we were there the week of Xmas it seemed to be more locals enjoying the atmosphere vs tourists. I loved the atmosphere of that market the best.

I loved climbing the tower of St. Stephens, but that’s my thing, being high up and looking over the city. They also have a crypt tour. I kick myself for not seeing the catacombs when we were in Paris, so this was nice for me. You will see a couple of large vaulted areas that are full of bones. There is also a small Xmas market there too.

Karls Church is pretty nice if you like churches and have the time. In 2015, they were renovating and left the scaffolding up. You could pay $3 and climb up to the top and see where the church is painted to look like marble. I though that was very cool, but they don’t do that anymore. Now, you can climb up and go outside with a pretty view of the area. The Xmas market outside there was closed when we got there.

St. Peter’s Church isn’t much to look at from the outside, but the inside was pretty impressive. We went inside to get warm.

We didn’t do much at the Prater (the amusement park). We had an awful dinner (service wise) nearby. They also had a Xmas market.

Food - we are more street vendor, fast sit down type people. For for nicer sit down dinners, we just wander up to places, look at the menu and go in. In general we didn’t have a problem. The only slight issue was Xmas Eve because everything shut down early. I think we were the last group they took. The only time we made reservations was on Xmas day for dinner. But we definitely don’t look for high dollar places. $$$ is our max and $$ is better.

Where to stay - definitely central if you can. We stayed at an airbnb around the corner from St Stephens. We had 6 people and I didn’t want to book 3 hotel rooms. If we were a group of 2, I’d do a hotel room. When my parents took us in 2015, we stayed in an airbnb near Karls Church which was a pretty good location too.

We walked a lot, but public transportation is great as mentioned above

Oh we also tried to do a brewery tour that was in a more residential district, but we took the streetcar an hour or so out to find they were closed for 2 weeks. Oops.

We also didn’t do the Opera House. That doesn’t appeal to my family, but it does to plenty of others.

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It will be two of us - mid December. We like museums, bookstores/libraries, food (but not fancy), history (old not world wars), and culture (but more like looking at an opera house not going to an actual opera).

Should we do both Vienna and Salzburg. I don’t think we can fly in or out or Salzburg - so we would have to go back to Vienna at least for the flight back.

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I’ve never been to Salzburg. We were torn between that and Innsbruck and chose the latter. It looks like the train ride is 2:45, so it might be possible to do a really long day trip? Or stay there a couple of days and train to Munich and fly from there?

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We took a direct train from Salzburg to Munich in the late evening, taxi or uber to and checked into the Munich airport Munich Airport Friessing Marriott Hotel using our Marriott free night certificate and took their free shuttle to the airport early in the morning for a direct flight home. There are connections from Salzburg but


I will say that the Friessing station was sort of dark and deserted at night. Be ready with a plan to get to the hotel.

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Just looked at flight - no direct from Boston to Vienna or Salzburg!

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I lived in Salzburg for a semester in college many, many years ago. I flew into Munich and took the train to Salzburg. Amazing city!

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Found some direct flight to Vienna - they don’t run every day, and I had a day of the week with no flight!

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Two of our favorite places in Austria are Salzburg and Vienna.

We were in Salzburg on December 5, so we got to experience Krampus. It was something.
We tended to eat at not-fancy places. I remember Zum Fidelen Affen restaurant, the Steigl and Die Weisse breweries. We needed a reservation at ZFA, not necessary at Steigl or Die Weisse then, but I don’t know about now (5 years later).

Vienna has so many museums. The Albertina art museum, the Belvedere (Klimt), the history museum. All worth the time.
Food was so good. We don’t have a problem with pork or veal, fwiw.
Demel for cake and coffee
FiglmĂŒller for schnitzel. We went to Lugek (part of their family f restaurants), which wasn’t as rustic.
Zum Schwarzes Kameel (the black camel), traditional Austrian food, lovely setting.

Cake, cake, cake, coffee, and more cake, haha.

Austrian wine is as good as their beer.

It is so much easier now with on-line reservations. Getting through with my decades-old German was interesting to say the least. Because of our last name they expected us to speak the language, but were accommodating when we didn’t.

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so I am now thinking Vienna- Salzburg-Munich - traveling by train between the three places - will have to figure out the number of nights in each - and I will be able to get direct flights on each end

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OK - new plan - staying only in Munich and doing day trips from there (including Salzburg) - so anybody have Munich tips?

(could not get the flights to work out with Vienna and Munich)

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We loved this small hotel, right by the train station.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187309-d585770-Reviews-Schiller5_Hotel-Munich_Upper_Bavaria_Bavaria.html

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We stayed at the Hotel Mio for a few nights. Convenient to everything.
Previously have stayed in a studio at the Hotel Maximilian - kitchenette + nespresso machine and a place to sit in the evenings.

For dinner, the Hackerhaus (Hacker-Pschorr brewery), Augustiner brewpubs, Zum Alten Markt.
Kaiserschmarrn at Rischart Cafe for breakfast.

There is a lot of pork on the menus!

Visit the Treasury and the Residenz.

Nuremberg is about an hour away on the train

Buy tickets in advance via Deutsche Bahn.

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I don’t know much about Munich. We flew in there in 2012 for my first trip to Europe. We spent 1.5 weeks with a private guide who drove us 6 family members all around Germany in a van, mostly looking at castles, but also a day trip River Cruise on the Rhein, a day in Legoland, a day in Wolfsburg, and then dropped us off in Berlin for a few more days. Everything was set up for us, and it was wonderful. Peter felt like family by the end, but I digress.

Anyhow, you are 2.5 hours from the iconic Neuschwanstein Castle, if that interests you. Looks like it can be a day trip you can do solo, though having a guide seems to be easier from what I googled. The Hohenschwangau is also right there
 We are castle freaks in our household. Other may not be. But Bavaria is just so so so beautiful. You probably can’t go wrong anywhere.

Edit: I see Nuremberg is an hour away. I’d definitely add that to your list for Xmas markets. It’s on my bucket list.

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hotel and flights are book - Munich here we come - still open to any site, food, or shopping suggestions for our trip

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