Earlier this month, we travelled to Prague, Salzburg (with a day trip to Hallstatt), Vienna and Budapest for a vacation I’ve dreamt of for many years. Having always wanted to explore the beautiful Christmas Markets all over Europe, I went with high expectations and they were beyond exceeded. After being forced to cancel this trip in May 2020, to be able to make it happen this year for a winter vacation, was a great joy and the greatest privilege. We saw some stunning markets, some of the world’s most famous paintings and architecture, ate more cake than I’ll admit and walked all day in truly spectacular cities. I should add that this recap will highlight non-Christmas things as well. So even if you’re not a fan of the winter, I hope you find some recommendations here that are useful for a trip you plan!
Use these links to skip to a particular city!
Prague
Salzburg
Hallstatt
Vienna
Budapest
Recommendations are highlighted (in black) with links (in pink) to websites, Instagram pages or my own Instagram stories, where I felt they were most useful. I’ll cover which museums, palaces and more tourist attractions we went to, but I hope you also find some other suggestions worth considering! I’ll link to all of our great accommodations as well. Public transport in every city was incredible and when we did get tired of walking in the cold, there was always Google Maps and a tram/bus/metro to the rescue! We booked all our inter-city train tickets in advance on Trainline with the help of the invaluable seat61 which is an essential resource for Europe travel! Expect crowds wherever you go, they’re no longer just a summer phenomenon! Ok, time to get into specifics. Here goes 🙂
Prague
Our first stop, and maybe that had something to do with the fact that I think it was my favourite stop! Our Airbnb was absolutely perfect, the kind of place that’s great to come back to after a long day exploring a new city. There was even a small Christmas market on that street and I’ll always remember it as the first one I ever got to see. Prague has a few tourist attractions that are worth waking up early for because the crowds there make it difficult to actually appreciate them. These include Charles Bridge, Old Town Square and the Astronomical Clock and Prague Castle (although we didn’t buy tickets and see it from the inside, there’s a lot to see outside including the cathedral and the walk up to the Castle is worth it for the views). The cobbled streets around Old Town Square are beautiful, with lots of cute cafes to stop at including Sladka Cesta which has great breakfasts and the nicest staff. If you’re only in Prague for a couple of days, you will mostly find yourself around this area and that’s fine, particularly if you enjoy wandering without an agenda as I do!
We went to two Christmas Markets in Prague, one at Old Town Square itself which of course is the most historic setting for it and ate our first Trdelník or ‘chimney cake’, warm, grilled dough rolled in cinnamon sugar and/or filled with chocolate plus many more flavour options! There are multiple stalls selling them and although they’re said to be originally Hungarian, we definitely saw more of them in Prague than in Budapest. Try Langos (also Hungarian), deep-fried dough topped with cheese which is as indulgent as it sounds and I personally found it hard to eat more than a few bites! Sakrajda is gingerbread in roll form, spiced and nutty, and very portable for a snack-while-you-walk thing! And of course, while all of this is available even outside the market, the thing you cannot miss is the mulled wine, hot wine, hot chocolate, hot apple, basically any kind of hot drink you desire.
I had a glass of mulled wine at the second market, at Wenceslas Square, a huge, busy street full of shops (my favourite Flying Tiger has a store there!) and restaurants with the stunning National Museum at the end. The Christmas Market here was the one that really blew me away. Less crowded, more charming, and therefore, easier to browse the stalls with cute handicrafts than the one at Old Town Square. There was a great live band on the evening we were there (first photo in the post) and sipping my mulled wine while listening to their lovely music was an absolute holiday movie moment. You can, by the way, keep the glass or mug by foregoing the deposit and I highly recommend it as the best kind of souvenir!
In non-Christmas market food, we had a great meal at Cafe Elektric with tons of vegan and non-vegan options. As a vegetarian, I find that while travelling, vegan food is often more versatile and tastier than just grabbing a cheese sandwich. I had a coconut curry which was yum! Don’t forget to eat some Czech kolach, a sweet, Danish-like bread filled with cream cheese and fruit, or the more traditional poppy seeds, among other fillings. You’ll also find savoury versions. We hunted down Kolacherie, the cutest little cafe specialising in these, serving great coffee and the lovely owner was happy to give us tips on where else to go in Prague as well as browse through a guidebook on sale. Do not miss this place! We stepped out of the tourist areas to the neighbourhood of Karlin, where we had an indulgent brunch at Můj šálek kávy (‘my cup of coffee’), the strongest flat white I’ve ever tasted and some heavenly apple pancakes. This place is popular and even on a weekday morning, we waited for about 15 minutes for a table, worth it!
We met some lovely people in Prague, always willing to help and even though we didn’t know the language, everyone found a way to help us with directions or anything else. The supermarkets are wonderfully stocked and if like us, you like to make small meals in your Airbnb, there is no dearth of options. I really loved Prague and hope to be back some day!
Salzburg
I went to Salzburg ready for an onslaught of Mozart and Maria (some of the most iconic scenes of The Sound of Music were shot here), but we actually had the best time exploring the city beyond these big tourist magnets. We stayed at the cute and comfortable Adlerhof (to our surprise, we got an entire apartment and could make ourselves at home) and could walk into the city center easily. Mirabell Palace, where part of Do Re Mi was shot, now mostly houses government offices so there’s very little open to tourists but if you want to go see the fountain where the Von Trapp children dance in the song, go right ahead! We then made our way to Hohensalzburg Fortress which absolutely blew our minds and was worth the short but steep climb to the top. It is also worth the price of entry and can take about three hours to walk through the whole fortress, where every part is beautifully explained and presented to tourists.
At the base, is the Dom zu Salzburg or the Salzburg Cathedral which is stunning and I’d recommend going inside and spending some time just admiring how intricate its interiors are. The Christmas Market here was one of my favourites of the whole trip, really charming, lots of stalls selling cute handicrafts and beautiful blue mugs (which unfortunately I didn’t keep!) with hot drinks. The market at Hellbrunn Palace was also incredible, more elaborate in its decor, spread across a wider area and though much more crowded, a must-visit if you’re here during the holidays. We chanced upon a farmer’s market which had the greatest variety of baked goods I’d ever seen along with a stall selling just dips of every kinda imaginable. Made for a great picnic lunch! For vegan or vegetarian food, Heart of Joy is Indian-inspired (and therefore a bit funny to go to as an Indian, but the menu is varied and makes a change from the usual options) and very popular going by how full it was on a weekday afternoon. I do recommend a stop at the very famous Cafe Sacher (less packed than the one in Vienna) because it’s pretty and the Sacher Torte is worth trying once. A little expensive, yes, but contrary to the reviews I’d read, it wasn’t dry or underwhelming. I enjoyed it, it’s a nice and soft chocolate cake filled with apricot jam. Would I dream about it? Probably not, but if you like desserts, an afternoon at one of Austria’s most historic coffee houses is a must do!
Hallstatt
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hallstatt is a popular day trip from Salzburg for most visitors to Austria (a ferry takes you across the lake when you get off at the station on the other side). This small town, known for its salt mines, is one of the most picturesque places I’ve ever seen and I understood why large crowds make their way there every day.
If you’re not visiting the salt mines (accessible by cable car), I think Hallstatt can be covered in about 3 hours as the main thing to do is explore the town on foot. We spent much longer here, waiting for our train to Vienna in the evening and were done walking the streets earlier than expected. As charming as they are, it did get very cold so in hindsight, a shorter trip would have been better. But the beautiful, quaint houses, incredible lake views and that iconic photo is worth braving the cold for! There are plenty of restaurants and cafes to stop at for a variety of food. We grabbed pizza, plenty of coffees and an apple strudel (not very crisp but definitely tasty).
There are staircases that you can take for better views through the streets and over the lake, which also means you can escape the crowds when you need to. Make sure you grab a bench by the lake and just take in the views and if you’re there early winter, that includes the snow-covered Alps. A day trip here is recommended for sure!
Vienna
After Prague, Vienna might be my second favourite stop because of just how much there is to see in this majestic city. Some of the world’s most famous art and most incredible architecture makes it a city where you never really stop being amazed. My best advice here is to choose what you really want to see and stick to two or three places to avoid feeling saturated. Our Airbnb was at a walkable distance from most places. We chose to see the Upper Belvedere (it’s a good idea to book tickets in advance so you can skip the humongous queues; we used GetYourGuide) where the works of Gustav Klimt are mainly what draw the crowds. It’s a beautiful museum and it’s important to take your time to look around since there are so many people, it takes a while to get to each of the galleries.
The Christmas Market in the palace garden was incredible, we drank hot ‘apfelstrudel‘, ate a very welcome hot and cheesy plate of spätzle and finished with kaiserschmarren, an Austrian version of a pancake torn into pieces and served with stewed plums. It was an incredible meal and these foods taste especially good in the winter. You will find the same things in cafes too, but it’s more fun to eat them in the market! Make a stop at the Museum Quarter, full of irresistible gift shops, modern art galleries and much more. There’s plenty to see here, both free and ticketed. However, the one thing you should not miss is the Kunsthistorisches Museum which wasn’t even on our list until we heard someone in Hallstatt talking about it and I couldn’t be more grateful to have been at the next table! This museum really made my jaw drop, it’s SO beautiful, you can just wander around gaping at the architecture before you hit the colossal collection of art, which is no less amazing.
Another must-see is St Stephen’s Cathedral at the incredible Kärntner Street, full of restaurants, shops and a buzzing Christmas atmosphere although I think walking through it in the summer would be beautiful as well. The cathedral is absolutely incredible (to be honest, even the smallest churches we saw through the trip were so pretty) and the catacombs tour is a short, affordable and very interesting thing to do once you’re inside. There is a Christmas Market at the cathedral too and you can spend hours just wandering around this Stephenplatz area. A small shop selling the most delicious cannoli (I’d never eaten them before) caught my eye and they were so good we went back again the next day!
For food, I knew that one of the places I’d stop at would be any of Vienna’s iconic coffee houses. Yes they’re very touristy, yes there are looooong queues but if you’re here, and want a little taste of history (and cake!), I do recommend trying one. We decided on Cafe Central, waited 45 minutes and I was so worried I’d be deeply let down but I wasn’t! We had a delicious chocolate cake, perfect apple strudel and it was a beautiful cafe, with lovely staff and great vibes. We also got cheap and tasty meals at Spar and Billa supermarkets, a good vegan burger at Swing Kitchen and on the last day, when we decided to walk a little further away from the touristy areas (although to be honest, the city center is the most beautiful part and also where you’ll find the maximum things to do), we headed to Leopoldstat and chanced upon Cafe Mima. Great cake and a halloumi sandwich I’m still thinking about!
The thing about Vienna is there’s always more to see and even after four packed days, I’m excited to go back one day and see the rest!
Budapest
Our final stop and also the most rainy one unfortunately! After two weeks of wandering around and admiring our incredible step counts, we were finally ready to slow down in Budapest. The weather played a role here, it was much more comfortable to be indoors and while we roamed the Jewish Quarter and walked a bit in Buda Castle, we spent most of our time in the District V neighbourhood where we stayed. Our AirBnb was just a few minutes away from the Shoes on the Danube memorial and the Hungarian Parliament. The St Stephen’s Basilica was right there as well, and the area had great restaurants, cafes and yes, one last Christmas Market for us to enjoy. We saw two markets in Budapest and compared to the other cities, they were more focussed on food and had some huge, absolutely packed food stalls! Vegetarian food wasn’t really available though, so we had two meals at Hummus Bar (best falafel I’ve eaten!), more donuts than I should probably have eaten at The Box Donut (the tiramisu and pistachio strawberry, ohmygod), the famous Hungarian Dobos Torte at the very cute and not touristy Istvan Cukrazda (or ‘Stephen’s Confectionary’). We also enjoyed the strong coffees at Cause Roastery. We took a ferris wheel ride after decades, ate more Trdelník and generally enjoyed the slow pace of this portion of the trip.
We skipped the thermal baths but did check out the ruin bars, two things Budapest is famous for. Szimpla Kert is the most popular but I preferred Csendes which is a cafe in the day and a bar at night (clearly showing my age with this preference!). If you’re interested in the city’s nightlife then ruin bar hopping is the thing to do unlike the restaurant hopping that we did 🙂
On our last evening in Budapest, it snowed for two seconds and absolutely made my day! While a snowy trip would have been beautiful, for a first-time visitor to these cities, early winter is best and a tiny bit of snow is a terrific bonus.
Aaaaand I think I’m done! I hope this post is useful for you or anyone you want to share it with. Please let me know if you have any questions in the comments below and I’ll be happy to answer them!
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