Four Christmas markets, and the journey between them

If you are travelling before Christmas, all four cities work from the last days of November. That is the simple case.

If you are travelling between Christmas and New Year, the picture changes. Munich’s market has closed. Vienna’s Rathausplatz market closes on 26 December, while Schönbrunn continues until 6 January. Prague and Budapest carry on. A journey in that week is better built around Prague, Budapest and Schönbrunn in Vienna than around the full four-city circuit.

For a calmer visit, choose weekdays in the first two weeks of December. Friday evenings and the weekends before Christmas are usually the busiest times in every city.

Four markets in four nights is possible. It is rarely the version of the trip people are glad they chose. Once packing, the journey, check-in and arrival are counted, each change of city takes the better part of half a day, and in December the light has gone by half past four.

Two cities in four or five nights, or three cities in a week, leave time for what the markets are actually for: an unplanned hour, a concert, a long lunch somewhere warm. Prague with Vienna is the classic pairing. Vienna and Budapest are the quickest pair to connect. Munich fits best at the beginning or the end, and before Christmas Eve.

By road, Prague to Vienna takes around four hours, Vienna to Budapest around two and a half, and Munich to Prague or Vienna around four, before allowing for stops, traffic and winter conditions. Rail journeys take broadly similar times on most of these routes, except between Munich and Prague, where the train is noticeably slower.

A private car does not make those journeys much shorter. What it changes is what the day contains. Between Prague and Vienna, Český Krumlov can turn the transfer into a longer, more considered day rather than a direct journey. Between Vienna and Munich, Melk makes a natural pause above the Danube. Between Vienna and Budapest, Bratislava sits almost exactly halfway. A transfer day becomes a day with a place in it: door to door, with the luggage staying in the car.

Rooms in the historic centres are the first to become scarce, particularly for the weekends before Christmas. A hotel within walking distance of the market changes the trip more than the category of the room does.

The second priority is anything with a fixed time: a concert, a dinner reservation, or timed entry to a palace or museum. These are often the details that turn a market visit into an evening.

The third is the arrival. A winter flight that lands late is a poor moment to work out the airport taxi queue. It is a small arrangement, and the one people most often wish they had made.