Christmas Market Road Trip: Germany & Austria

WATCH our full road trip on Youtube!

Pro tip: If you are going at Christmas, you are going too late. Timing is everything. Look up the dates that markets start and be there as close to opening day as possible. It’s worth it. The closer you get to Christmas, booths start running out of goods and ultimately close on Christmas Eve & Day. Ideally for Americans, the best time to go is Thanksgiving!

On somewhat of a whim, my friend Hannah and I flew to Munich over Thanksgiving week, which is a low international tourist season in Europe. We didn’t even intend to go for the Christmas markets, but traveling this time of year offers a lot of room for flexible plans, which is how I was able to road trip Scotland in 2022 without booking any rooms until the day of. It’s off season for a reason- usually chilly and wet weather- but I love the flexibility of choosing an adventure as it unfolds.

On arrival in Munich, we did have our first night booked in advance just so we knew our landing spot. After that, everything we did was a mystery to us until the day it happened, and somehow it played out so beautifully that I would recommend this itinerary to anyone. Overall, we spent limited time in the city of Munich on the front and back end of the trip, mostly as anchors for the round trip flight.

Our first morning in Munich, we peeled out early to pick up a rental car in the outskirt of the city to take to… well, TBD. But this is where the real excitement began: the Autobahn.

The Autobahn is every rumor you have ever heard. As Lindsay Lohan says in Mean Girls, “the limit does not exist.” Our Enterprise rep left us with one piece of advice: pedal to the metal. Hannah does not need to be told this, so we decided it was better for me to drive. (One of my favorite and her LEAST favorite memories is when she got a speeding ticket driving my car to Canada).

Prior to coming, we had made a shared Google map of random pins of things we had a come across on Tik Tok and Atlas Obscura. I really don’t know how we developed our path, other than we wanted to see the Dachau concentration camp and ended up in Liechtenstein. We set the GPS to Dachau, put on some Taylor Swift, and were quickly laughing at the “auhsfart” exit signs on the highway.

Here’s the thing about Hannah: there is not another young woman as interested in World War II as she is. Her bucket list is almost entirely WWII highlights, specifically in France. She loves Band of Brothers and tears up just about every time she sees a war veteran. For me, dark tourism is my favorite subject matter in general and I research mostly off-the-beaten path points of interest. This makes a great combo for us as travelers together as many WWII sights are dark AF. So not only had I bookmarked Dachau, but all of the cemeteries around it.

Years ago I had been to Auschwitz, where the guides were very adamant that we took photos to show people the travesties that went on in this horrendous place so that humanity may never repeat. Dachau was nearly at the opposite end of this. We were shocked to see that people had built homes on the edge of the grounds in the 80s, literally overlooking the fence of Dachau. We asked “how could people bear to have a view out of their bedrooms, facing the site of a genocide?” The answer was that the property was probably cheap for that reason…. and people don’t generally seem to care in Germany- or maybe on a deeper level they are trying to drop the stigma like Colombians with Escobar.

In fact, there’s no barracks left here at all because shortly after the war, people were using them as vacation stays. Eventually there was enough uproar about the morality of this that the barracks were demolished out of respect for the victims. Later in our trip, we met with a German friend of mine whose girlfriend wondered why we would want to visit the town of Dachau, implying they don’t even think about the fact the camp is there.

The most interesting part of the tour though, was how our guide explained that upon liberation by President Truman, the town of Dachau claimed they didn’t know what was going on in this camp, even though they had seen thousands of ‘prisoners’ walk miles from the train station to the camp over multiple years. The U.S. government basically said “if you want to play dumb, we will ensure you know exactly what happened here,” and made the local community haul the dead to a cemetery. They paraded them through town for all to see the atrocities that they had turned a blind eye to.

Because a tour of Dachau wasn’t enough for us, and thanks to the added freedom of having a car, we drove to multiple cemeteries in town where victims had been buried, and even lit a candle for one of them. (There’s candle vending machines in cemeteries here!)

Our only major goal with driving was to get to the next place before it was dark. Which was very difficult when the sun was setting at 5pm. At the point of leaving the cemeteries, we were far off the tourist path and had lunch at one of those sweet little pubs, with great schnitzel, that almost never sees an American.

HERE IS THE PROBLEM WITH THAT: they all wanted to give us a complimentary shot. They were so appreciative to have us in their restaurants and it was very sweet, but we absolutely did not want a shot of vodka.  Oddly enough, this became a common problem for us and we were so politely declining their gesture. I literally could not bring myself to do it- but once again the car came in clutch as an excuse!

Then it was back to the Autobahn. We had a couple of hours to get to Liechtenstein where we booked a two-night AirBnB in the mountainside. This turned out to be quite the road trip journey as we had to cross through both Switzerland AND Austria to get there. This geographically is very hard to understand so feel free to grab a map. The major caveat here too is that we were advised to stop at the last gas station in Germany to buy a $10 permit to be able to legally drive in Austria. We did not purchase this for Switerzerland because we weren’t supposed to end up in Switzerland, so we held our breathe for the 30 minutes that we somehow ended up there, that we wouldn’t get in trouble for not having a pass.

At an already very dark 6 p.m., we pulled into the itty-bitty capital of Liechtenstein to a parking lot. We got out hoping to find an evening snack somewhere when we heard a drum banging in the distance. It was like hearing a tribal sound approaching from afar in an otherwise very sleepy looking area. Light started glowing in the distance as we literally saw people with torches and drums walking down the street, waving flags. Because we are nib noses, we jumped in the crowd, walking until someone who spoke English could fill us in.

Turns out, there was a soccer match that night: Liechtenstein vs. Luxembourg. This was the visiting team marching up to the stadium. So we kept right on marching with them and bought tickets to the game.

Before you get too excited, this game had a smaller crowd than most Indiana high school football games. Liechtenstein had not won a single game in 34 match losing streak, but there were some die-hard fans, including a group of boys from the nearby school. They had an 8-person fan row set up in the stands with a Liechtenstein flag and Marmot stuffed animal. They were an absolute hoot and we joined right in with them, because I’m nothing if not a bandwagon girl when it comes to sports. They filled us in on the whole plight of the Liechtenstein team and even bought us some beers. To clarify, an 18-year-old bought me a beer. I was 28. I work in beer in a country where he was shy of the legal drinking age by 3 years. But hey, in a country where this is perfectly fine and a beer is $15 on a normal day, a win is a win.

Except for team Liechtenstein. Their loss streak would have to continue for another 331 days.

In series of very winding mountain roads, we finally ended up at our quaint little AirBnB, with a full day ahead to explore Liechtenstein, which to no offense of theirs, really wasn’t needed. There’s not a lot going on here if we are being honest. It was more of a country check list place than tourist destination, but I will say it was very safe and clean.

Bright and early on our second morning in the 2^nd smallest country in the world, we set off for our next big destination: Neuschwanstein Castle. Americans would refer to this as the inspo for Cinderella’s castle at Disney World and it really is one of the most stunning views of a “princess-like” castle. The inside kind of sucks though if we are being honest, but it’s still generally worth the tour. Pro tip: do not skip walking to the bridge. This is THE iconic photo spot of the castle.

The town nearby is cute enough to do some fancy dirndl shopping and get lunch. If you go to Feuerhaus, you might even get a cat on your lap while you eat. I found this disgusting, but Hannah loves cats and this might have been her highlight of the trip haha! This was my first time ordering a pork knuckle in Germany and saying it changed my life is dramatic… but it was pretty dang phenomenal. We would get at least 2 more of these before the end of the trip.

Now we were finally at our real crossroad of where the heck do we go from here. With 6 days left, we had no more major destinations on the map besides some gorge, and even then we weren’t sure what town to stay in. We spent about an hour looking at a map and trying to call places to stay with no success, due to the language barrier on the phone.

So, in the dark, we started driving towards a promising-looking town with hotels, hoping we could show up with better luck communicating in person.

That’s when we saw it. The mecca. A random Nivea store. Because I’m a shopaholic, I whipped a U-y and said “I’ve never seen a NIVEA store. We have to go.” Our luck was now back in action.

This wasn’t JUST a Nivea store, this was a partner hotel/ spa. Not only did I find my new favorite German deodorant in here, but we started chatting up the desk guy about the area. He told us this town is a hot ski spot, but in the dark we had no idea there were mountains surrounding us. The price for a night here was a little more than we wanted to pay, but it got our gears churning that maybe this was the town we should stay in for the night. We Googled other hotels in the area and found one a mile away.

Turns out we were in Garmisch, home of the 1936 Winter Olympics. It was almost like a German Aspen- cute coffee shops, cuckoo clock souvenir stores, and local family bars. Our limited planning paid off because we never would have known to book here and it was our favorite stay of the whole trip. With no other plans after we checked in, we walked to dinner across the street at a quiet family bar.

In the USA, I rarely sit at the bar. I just like a normal table. Anywhere else, I’m 100% sitting at the bar and sucking up the local knowledge around me (or buying people picklebacks). Hannah and I spent 2 hours chatting with our new friend and bar owner about things to do in the area, the state of the beer industry in Germany, and  everything in between. He lead us to our next adventure: Christmas Market #1.

When we woke up the next morning, we saw the big, obvious ski mountains and the very quaint vacation town that accompanied it.

We were also just a short 10-minute ride from the gorge that we initially book marked as a potential stopping point. After a day of vintage thrifting in town and checking out the Olympic park, we drove over to the gorge.  It was a bit of a hike to get back to it after parking, but this was probably the most spectacular activity we did the whole trip. It felt like a fairy tale, walking along tunnels next to rushing water with droplets falling down the sides, using our phone flashlights to see the path. Once again, we got out just as it was getting too dark to do much else.

Once again, we were geographically stunned to learn that Innsbruck, Austria was just an hour drive away, and their Christmas Market was in full swing. As much as we wanted to avoid driving in the dark, when a local tells us we have to do something, we have to do it. So our Enterprise car came in clutch again, taking us back over the border to Austria.

We were like deer in headlights showing up to this Christmas market. We really didn’t know anything about them at the time. We didn’t know the mug situation or what the best foods were or that when you see a Christmas item you like, buy it or regret it! Hannah and I were literally blown away by this outdoor market covered in lights and cheer. We split spätzle, got mulled wine (gross), rode the carousel, had the hot cheese wheel. It was so magical. I hadn’t felt Christmas cheer like that in years. We were hooked.

The next morning, we begrudgingly decided it was time to leave our favorite little town of Garmisch and even more, our wonderful rental car. We had already called and extended our reservation by a day to have extra time in Garmisch. At some point it did have to return to Munich, and so did we. But what the heck were we going to do there? It turns out, leave.

We dropped the car and did not stick around. After our little Austria Christmas side quest, we started searching for other Christmas markets. We discovered that Salzburg’s opening night of Christmas markets was the next day, so Hannah and I took the 2 hour train from Munich.

This timing could not have been more perfect. As we made our way to the main square that evening, people had started gathering around a little stage. Being the non-native speaking sheep that we are, we followed. A local next to us told us “stay! They are going to tap the keg!” And that’s how two American girls ended up with some of the first steins of beer at the Salzburg Naschmarkt. To this day, that is the biggest Christmas market mug I own.

Unfortunately, we ended up with a nasty scary hostel, and after that 1st night, I moved us to a Marriott with my points from work. A small snaffoo in our otherwise diligently unplanned itinerary. But, it’s worth mentioning that Salzburg was a little pricey, and it’s not worth doing a hostel here, so prep your expectations accordingly.

While it also was never on our original list, the prospect of yodeling on a large bus with a tour group called us. How could we visit Salzburg and not do the Sound of Music Tour? Let me tell you, it was 10/10. Our guide was dressed in an authentic dirndl, cute as a button, singing all of the songs for 3 hours on a bus to the many movie sights. It was a horribly rainy day, but everyone sang along in great spirits.

I’m also a huge fan of salt mines, particularly Krakow, and Salzburg has one you can ride a little cart through. For our afternoon activity, we took a hired car to the mine, where we put on mining uniforms and went down slides in the cavern. Definitely tack this on to your Salzburg adventure! Our time here was fairly quick and we headed back to Munich for 2 final nights in the city before our flight home.

A year prior on my dad and I’s Greek Cruise Adventure, we had met a nice German gentleman named Philip. He had been traveling solo so he tended to join our father-daughter duo for a beverage on the deck in the evening or at the shipboard entertainment. We stayed connected and I had no hesitations to reach out to him to meet us for lunch. He and his girlfriend met up for a couple of hours to have coffee and lunch, with Philip intending to take us to the Munich Christmas market in the afternoon.

This was when we discovered that the Christmas market was closed for the day. They did not open on Sundays. We were all shocked, standing at the gate with other hopeful families. So we never went to the Munich Christmas Market. Though it looked fantastic through the fence, I technically can’t recommend either way if it’s as good as we hoped.

Hannah and I were about tapped out at this point anyway. We had adventured until we couldn’t adventure anymore. From driving the Autobahn to tapping the Salzburg beer keg, we had probably caused enough of a raucous in this section of the world. It was time for us to go home. Besides, Hannah and I had plenty of  shenanigans in our future to plan. NEXT STOP: EGYPT.

Final tips: Time has passed since this trip and I can confidently advise to start with a big city, hit the surrounding small town Christmas Markets, and do them early in the season.  I have since done Brugges, Prague, Luxembourg, and Cesky Krumlov.  By the time we did some of these on Christmas day, they were winding down with minimal supplies left. You can hardly go wrong with any market. If you love the Christmas season, keep this high on you bucket list and make it happen!