Recommendations for Christmas Markets Cruise

I am going to take my mother on a Christmas / holiday Markets river cruise. She is 75 and able to get around well. She loves Christmas and has a collection of over 500 Santa clauses. I would Appreciate any recommendations on cruise line and any/or anything to avoid Thx

I would start with deciding which region you want to cruise. My own experience was on the Danube River from Budapest to Nuremberg, and I loved it. With the exception of the day we had scenic cruising through the Wachau Valley in the morning, and visiting Melk Abbey in the afternoon we had the opportunity to go to at least one Christmas Market every day.

Nuremberg has one of the largest and most famous of the Christmas Markets, my personal favorite was on the grounds of the Thurn & Taxis palace in Regensburg.

If you are not sure where you want to go there are a number of reviews that include photos. Peruse a few of them to see if something piques your interest.

I am going to take my mother on a Christmas / holiday Markets river cruise. She is 75 and able to get around well. She loves Christmas and has a collection of over 500 Santa clauses. I would Appreciate any recommendations on cruise line and any/or anything to avoid Thx

We have done 5 river cruises during the market season with another booked for this year. We have also enjoyed a half dozen DIY land trips over this period.

Some will say that weather is cold and hours of sunlight short. For us, we love Christmas and the season in certain parts of Europe is simply wonderful! This past year we had lots of sunny days and fluffy snow and it was pure magic!

We sailed the Main, Danube, Saone, Moselle and Rhine and enjoyed each of them.

Our favorite was the AmaCerto Budapest to Nuremberg. We added time in Budapest and Prague and enjoyed both very much. Most recently we cruised the Rhine on AmaReina and quite enjoyed those ports, especially Colmar, Heidelberg and Strasbourg. We have done two that departed from Frankfurt with Avalon and enjoyed those ports and cruises less overall.

My mom is 83 this year and just loves visiting the Christmas markets and river cruising. She will be joining this year on AmaSerena on the Rhine. She enjoys the gentle walker tours AMA offer and we are able to either strike out on our own or do the active tours. We find the variety of tours offered by AMA works well for us and we really enjoy the cruising experience AMA provides.

We went in late November 2011 with Vantage and had a great trip. We both bought hiking boots and some water proof spray. Dressed in layers. That way if it got a little warmer we could strip some off. Weather was really good, but cold. Gloves, scarfs, hats. My wife looked like a walking snow man but we made out good. The Christmas markets are a hoot. Willard

I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. Our Christmas Market cruise experience was Nuremburg-Vienna with Uniworld. DH was 71 at the time and we both get along quite well. We flew in 2 days early and stayed very close to the Nuremburg Christmas market which is spectacular. What isn't discussed much is the free concerts in the churches, the wandering musicians, the entertainment stage where various groups perform during the day. We spent a wonderful day sampling the gluweine and eating sausages, enjoying an organ concert and leisurely taking in the market. I'm glad we had the opportunity to see the market this way since there's no way we could get the full scope of the market with just a 3-4 hour window that the cruise line provides.

The Uniworld trip included stops at several markets along the way, a sleigh ride thru the Black Forest and an evening concert in Vienna---all of which were enjoyable.