Christmas Markets On the Rhine With Viking Cruises
If you’ve never been to the Christmas Markets in Europe during holiday season, there's no better way to immerse yourself in the festive cheer than by embarking on a unforgettable journey along the Rhine River with Viking Cruises.
Starting in Basel and ending in Amsterdam - each day we woke up in a new town ready to explore the twinkling lights and Christmas markets brimming with holiday treats!
Join us as we show you our Viking Cruises Christmas Market experience along the magical Rhine River.
Having done both Ocean (Into the Midnight Sun) and River Viking cruises, we were excited to sail on the Christmas Markets river cruise since it allowed us to be in a new place everyday.
Some differences between this and an Ocean cruise is that there are shorter meal windows, more chances to interact and socialize with your cruise-mates, and with the river being very stable - the ship doesn’t rock at all.
There was a very nice top deck, but since it was December and too cold to be outside - the only time it was in use was the day the ship sailed passed many castles on the river.
As with every Viking cruise, there is a free excursion at each stop and you can choose to pay for some optional excursions. We recommend paying for the Colmar and the Heidelberg excursions as they were the most bang for the buck. In addition, if you’re feeling adventurous, we recommend staying for the whole day in Cologne and taking the train to catch the ship in the evening in Dusseldorf. You can read more about it in the Cologne section.
Our favorite time to eat on the ship was usually lunch as it seemed that the kitchen had an easier time pulling off the menu with some passengers out on excursions.
The exception was the German Dinner night - probably our favorite meal!
We had the Silver Spirits package, which allowed us to pick wines off the menu to drink each meal. If you are a wine drinker or like cocktails, this would be a great choice. You still get the house wine for each meal included if you don’t have the Silver Spirits package.
Out of all the Christmas Markets we saw, we thought Cologne, Germany had the best combination of decor, dressed up vendors, delicious food, and interesting crafts.
If you’re into the enchanting, fairytale look for Christmas, definitely go for the optional excursion to Colmar, France which also includes Riquewihr, the inspiration behind Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
This mulled wine had burning sugar on top!
The one thing I saw repeatedly in the Christmas Markets was warm, mulled wine. As an American, mulled wine was new to me - the best way to describe it is a holiday flavored, warm sangria.
But just what is it? Combine red wine with spices like cinnamon, cloves, orange peel, and sugar. Then, heat it up and you’ve got mulled wine! It’s perfect for cold days and chatting with people outdoors - which you’ll get plenty of at the Christmas Markets!
Different cities have their own takes on mulled wine with some using rum or brandy and some even lighting the drink on fire!
German Dinner Night - this was easily the best dinner of the whole cruise as it featured local cuisine, cheese, and beer. We loved the adorable setup for each table and how festive the atmosphere was!
Castle Spotting on the Rhine - Starting from Rüdesheim all the way to Koblenz, the ship will sail on the Rhine during the daytime so passengers can see all the interesting castles on the shore. It was quite cold on the top deck, but that didn’t stop us from watching there!
Crew - As usual, the crew were fantastic, attentive, and full of holiday cheer. They are usually one of the highlights of any Viking Cruise, ocean or river.
Cruise Itinerary
The Viking cruise started in Basel, Switzerland with the dock conveniently being very close to town. You can take the city tram to the center in almost no time or walk to the center very easily. There was also an included excursion to the city on the day of check in.
There were several nice Christmas markets in Basel - the main ones are at Münsterplatz and Barfüsserplatz. At the markets there were over 200 stalls selling a variety of holiday-themed items, Christmas decorations, handcrafted gifts, and traditional food and drinks.
It was easy to walk between the two markets. I found the best time to see them was right before sunset. This way you could see the combination of lights and daylight illuminating all the structures.
If you have the time:
the Toy Worlds Museum was unexpectedly captivating
The Town Hall of Basel had a beautiful Christmas Tree with musicians
Colmar turned out to be one of the most fairytale looking Christmas towns on the whole itinerary. It’s on the Breisach river stop - so we recommend taking the paid Colmar & Riquewihr excursion. Colmar is also considered to be the capital of the Alsatian Wine region, so if you like wine you’re in the right place!
Here are some of our favorite spots for taking photos with the Christmas Decor:
Point de vue sur
La Petite Venise
The Christmas Tree in front of Hotel Saint Martin
Au Vieux Pignon
Mini Statue of Liberty spotted from the bus
Colmar is also the birthplace of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor who designed the Statue of Liberty! There is a miniature of the Statue of Liberty in a roundabout in Colmar. You’ll see it on the drive from the ship to Colmar. (see photo above from bus)
Other popular areas in Colmar for Christmas festivities are:
Place de l’Ancienne Douane
the Place des Dominicains
At the end of the Colmar trip, you’ll eat lunch at a nice restaurant with a good selection of Alsatian food and Alsatian wine.
Riquewihr, France is the inspiration behind the village in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and the perfect place for Christmas Decor! It’s part of the Colmar excursion - yet another reason to do this excursion!
When you enter the town, you’ll see that it’s one long road full of half-timbered houses with ornate decorations and carved woodwork on the exteriors. Throw in lots of festive Christmas decor and you have everything you ever wished for!
Make sure to try some Riesling wine while you’re here. It’s not like the Riesling in the USA, which is usually a dessert wine, but more like a dry, white wine.
We had about 3 hours to roam around, which ended up being the perfect amount of time to walk around, take photos, and sample some of the food here.
Strasbourg, named the ‘capital of Christmas’, is in northeastern France, located on the border of Germany. As a result, the city has a unique architectural style that blends French and German influences.
It’s also home to the European Parliament and is an academic hub with many prestigious universities and research institutes.
The main draw is definitely the beautiful and well-preserved old town, which contains the stunning UNESCO World Heritage Strasbourg Cathedral. Entrance to the cathedral is free - so make sure to take the time to gape at the jaw dropping interior and the stunning astronomical clock.
Afterwards, check out the Christmas Market set up right outside of the cathedral. It’s the perfect backdrop with loads of Christmas decorations everywhere!
Just a short walk away, the big Christmas Tree of Strasbourg is surrounded by Christmas shops - make sure to check that out too!
Heidelberg is a charming town located on the Neckar River, with mountains on both sides. It’s an optional excursion that we highly recommend, as the guide is a local who has lots of interesting tidbits about the town and life there.
Highlights:
Seeing the world’s largest wine barrel at the Heidelberg Castle. It was built in 1751 with 131 oak trees!
Lunch hosted by a local University of Heidelberg student - it was nice hearing stories about the city from a student.
Seeing the bronze monkey on the Old Bridge that is said to bring good luck - If you stroke its mirror, you will become wealthy; if you touch its fingers, you will return to Heidelberg; if you touch its mice, you will have many children
Cologne, Germany - home to its own beer called Kölsch, which can only be brewed in Cologne by law, turned out to be one of our favorite cities for Christmas Market decor! We loved it so much we decided to stay the whole day and let the ship sail to the next port!
Why did we do that? Well, since the schedule only allowed 2-3 hours in Cologne and we knew we could take the train to Dusseldorf to catch the ship in the evening, it was an easy decision.
Getting the train ticket to Dusseldorf wasn’t quite as easy as thought it would be, but more on that later.
Why we like the markets in Cologne so much:
Markets were better decorated with more detail
Vendors were all dressed up versus other cities who were dressed in street clothing
food quality was better
souvenir and crafts were much better
On top of that, the UNESCO World Heritage Cologne Cathedral is truly a sight to behold. It’s the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and took a mind boggling 632 years to build!
Back to the Dusseldorf train ticket - we had imagined German ticket machines would be designed with logic and user experience in mind, but to our surprise they were extremely confusing to use. We had to enlist some friendly locals to help us get the right tickets! In the end, still a great adventure and glad we did it!
Our last city was the city of canals and bikes - beautiful Amsterdam! Did you know there are more bikes than people here?
There are also more canals in Amsterdam than Venice!
About those bikes and canals - we took a nice canal tour around Amsterdam and tried our best to stay out of the bike paths (but it was hard).
From the ship to our hotel - we used Uber since we had luggage, but otherwise we would have used to easy to use public transport.
Remember to bring an umbrella and waterproof shoes as December is a month of lots of on and off rain.
Some highlights:
Rijksmuseum - a stunning museum full of conventional art as well as modern art, it’s worth spending at least a half day here. The library viewing platform is worth checking out - just ask one of the staff members how to get there as the place is a complete maze.
Ice rink Museumplein - hard to beat the photogenic setup here with the lighted Christmas Tree and the regal Rijksmuseum right behind it
Zero Zero - a Italian sandwich shop with only the best ingredients, we were very impressed by the quality of this place!
Bocca Coffee - one of many wonderful coffee shops (not the ones serving weed) scattered throughout the city
Canal cruise - I know it’s touristy, but it was nice seeing the city from the canal! I actually stood outside in the back area for most of the cruise.
There was the annual Light Festival going on during this time - which had interesting light sculptures scattered all around the city along the canal. Many people booked night cruises to see the art - we didn’t have the time but I heard it was quite cool!
Another interesting tidbit about Amsterdam was that the locals seemed to take pride in not using umbrellas, even in heavy downpours. So we certainly stood out with our gigantic umbrellas!