The Christmas Grand Tour

Christmas is a special ocassion anywhere in the world, but moreso in Europe.  Cities and towns dress up with lights and decorations.  Carol singers fill the air with Christmas songs.  Stands selling Christmas specific foods and goods popped up in public squares.  The best example of these can be found in Central Europe, especially in Bavaria and Austria.  These yearly festivals are known as Christkindlmarkt, or Christmas Market.  When doing a European tour at Christmas time, it is recommended to include one or more cities hosting a Christmas Market like Munich, Salzburg or Vienna.

My personal five must-see places in Europe are London, Paris, The Alps, Venice and Rome.  However, I modified this template when we had our honeymoon in Europe in December 2011, adding Munich to my itinerary.  Although my first choice for The Alps is Zermatt, it would simply be too far from Munich to be feasible, which means I had to go for my second choice, which is Luzern.  It is probably the most famous Swiss city among Asians, given that many tour operators here include it in their “Best of Europe” packages.

While in Munich, you can do a day trip to the Neuschwanstein Castle, which is the famous castle that inspired Walt Disney's design of his own Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland.  It's about 2 hours train ride from Munich and although the path to the castle is difficult when it snows, the reward is well worth it.  It is one of the most photogenic building in all of Europe.

The Christmas Grand Tour, therefore, looks something like this:

1.       London

2.       Paris

3.       Luzern

4.       Munich

5.       Venice

6.       Rome

€

With six cities, it’s rather difficult to fit this into a 2 week vacation.  16 nights minimum is recommended, 20 would be perfect.  Here are some examples itinerary for the Christmas Grand Tour:

16 nights:

3 in London

3 in Paris

2 in Luzern

3 in Munich

2 in Venice

3 in Rome

20 nights:

4 in London

4 in Paris

3 in Luzern

3 in Munich

2 in Venice

4 in Rome

The longest train journey would be the Munich – Venice leg, taking 6.5 hours through the beautiful Brenner Pass.  The train ride to and from Luzern also require change as there is no direct train between Luzern and Paris/Munich.

Train rides:
London - Paris 2.5 hours (Eurostar)
Paris - Luzern 4 hours via Basel (TGV and SBB)
Luzern - Munich 5 hours via Zurich (SBB and Eurocity)

Munich - Venice 6.5 hours (Eurocity)
Venice - Rome 3.75 hours (Frecciargento)

How to Book European Train Tickets

In general, point to point tickets are almost always better than the Eurail Pass.  Most fast trains requires an extra reservation fee which defeats the purpose of the railpass: spontaneity.  It's also much cheaper to buy tickets for fast trains months before departure date, and is usually much cheaper than a railpass when you total all the ticket prices.

The best website for European train travel is Man in Seat 61 which provides every little detail about how to book train tickets in Europe.

For London - Paris:
Eurostar

For Paris - Switzerland:
SNCF (French Railway)
Choose Other countries (EUR) in the country list to avoid being redirected to its affiliate websites.

For within Switzerland:
SBB (Swiss Railway)

For trains to and from Germany:

DB Bahn (German Railway)

For trains within Italy:
Trenitalia (Italian Railway)
Italo (Private railway company in Italy)