Family is looking to spend Christmas 2025 in Austria. Parents and 4 kids. Everyone has traveled internationally extensively at this point. Anyone been there over Christmas and have feedback? Very, very roughly looking at something like this right now:

12/20 - 12/24 - Vienna for the markets and history
12/24 - 12/28 - Innsbruck for the snow/mountains/skiing
12/28-12/30 - Salzburg for the history and sites
12/31 - back to Vienna for NYE which is supposed to be epic
1/1 - fly back to US

Thoughts/ideas/feedback? Thanks in advance!

Looks like a fantastic trip, no notes from me! Austria is one of my favourite countries in the world, should be absolutely stunning that time of the year.

I hold your feedback in high regard, so thank you! Places we're going and days at each one seem about right from your experiences?

We did Vienna and Salzburg (along with Munich) in November 23 - it was fantastic.

Salzburg - my reminder to anyone going there. Augustinerbrau (not related to the German brewery) is possibly the best bier haul in all of Europe. Go there as many times as you can.

Augustinerbru Kloster Mlln - Brewery and beer pub in Salzburg, beer from wooden barrels and regional delicacies - Augustinerbier

Fit in Zell am See and Hallstatt as side trips from Salzburg. The Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna has a great Christmas market. Also Christmas Day everything shuts down, so plan ahead to find what's open or you will be eating at KFC…if they are even open.

It does. I think you could trade one of your initial days in Vienna for another day in Salzburg to go to the surrounding Salzkammergut area (Hallstatt, St Wolfgang, etc.), but either way I think you're fine.

This looks to be an awesome trip! Definitely a bucket list for us.

Where did you end up booking things from? Any sites specifically? I wouldnt know what to guess as far as cost for us, so just want to make sure I'm looking in the best, most cost savings areas, when it comes times to plan, without compromising things to see and do.

Went to Austria for Thanksgiving and the weekend after in 2021 and it was great. I highly recommend Rosewood Vienna and Pramerl and the Wolf for dinner. If you want an interesting and off the beaten path cultural recommendation, we enjoyed this museum: https://hundertwasserhaus.info/

Just did Vienna and Budapest over Christmas. 5 days Vienna, 3 Days Budapest. Doing it over again, I would do 4 days Vienna, 4 days Budapest. 8 people total,me,my wife,4 kids and a son in law, and a fiance'.

We did Christmas 2023 in Austria and loved every minute of it. Flew into Vienna and out of Salzburg. There is much more to do in Vienna, but we enjoyed Salzburg much more. I suspect the weather may have had more to do with our impression than anything else. It was really cold and rainy every day in Vienna and a sunny 50 degrees the whole time we were in Salzburg. We did a lot, but here's some of the things that stood out:

Vienna:

• Wiener Christkindlmarkt am Rathausplatz. There are A LOT of Christmas Markets, but liked this one the most and then the one at Schonbrunn. Schonbrunn is a considerable distance from most things, though.
• Vienna House of music
• Belvedere (upper and lower)
• Schonbrunn Palace
• Watched a performance of Vivaldi's 4 Seasons at Karlskirche.
• Christmas morning mass with the Vienna Boys Choir at Hofburgkapelle

Salzburg:

• Sound of Music Tour (We are huge Sound of Music fans, so this tour and then finding other filming locations around town was fun).
• Augustinerbrau
• Fortress Hohensalzburg
• Mozart's Birthplace and museum (2 different places)
• Christmas Market

aggiefan2002 said:

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Family is looking to spend Christmas 2025 in Austria. Parents and 4 kids. Everyone has traveled internationally extensively at this point. Anyone been there over Christmas and have feedback? Very, very roughly looking at something like this right now:

12/20 - 12/24 - Vienna for the markets and history
12/24 - 12/28 - Innsbruck for the snow/mountains/skiing
12/28-12/30 - Salzburg for the history and sites
12/31 - back to Vienna for NYE which is supposed to be epic
1/1 - fly back to US

Thoughts/ideas/feedback? Thanks in advance!

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Too many days in Salzburg, IMO.

If Innsbruck, assume you're going to ski Garmisch as well?

If not totally set on Innsbruck, look at Kitzbuhel. Closer to Vienna.

You're also not too much farther to the Dolomite region from Innsbruck. That's a bucket list item. Look up the Sella Ronda. Most unique skiing day you'll ever experience.

We just got back from week in Prague over NY. I cannot wait to get back.

This looks like a really cool trip. I think you should do it!

We just went to Vienna, Salzburg, and Fuschl am See over Thanksgiving this year. Can't recommend enough. Loved it all.

I would agree though that's too long in Salzburg. There's not much there unless you're doing day trips elsewhere.

I agree on Salzburg. We were only there a couple nights and still rented a car to drive into Germany. There were things we missed in Salz I'm sure but it didn't blow me away, ymmv though.

Thanks all for the replies. With the travel there on the 28th we'd basically have an afternoon and two full days in Salzburg. That's too long? We'll have four kids so we don't want to go more than three places during the trip if we can help it.

aggiefan2002 said:

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Thanks all for the replies. With the travel there on the 28th we'd basically have an afternoon and two full days in Salzburg. That's too long? We'll have four kids so we don't want to go more than three places during the trip if we can help it.

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depends on what you want to do.

How old are the kids?

aggiefan2002 said:

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Thanks all for the replies. With the travel there on the 28th we'd basically have an afternoon and two full days in Salzburg. That's too long? We'll have four kids so we don't want to go more than three places during the trip if we can help it.

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I sure don't think you are going to go wrong, no matter what you do. We spent a week in Prague, but then again I have a classmate there. A week in one place was perfect for us. But we didn't stay in town all day every day.

We just did a Christmas market river cruise in Prague, Germany and Paris right after Thanksgiving into early December. Had a great time. Prague and southern Germany are amazing. We went to Vienna about two years ago and it's a terrific place as well. Have fun!

chick79 said:

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We just did a Christmas market river cruise in Prague, Germany and Paris right after Thanksgiving into early December. Had a great time. Prague and southern Germany are amazing. We went to Vienna about two years ago and it's a terrific place as well. Have fun!

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What cruise provider?

Viking

A Christmas market river cruise sounds awesome!

It was a bucket list for my wife especially but we both enjoyed the hell out of it. Southern Germany (we were mostly in Bavaria) is beautiful.

We (2 adult couples) several years ago: flew into Vienna for Christmas then train to Salzburg and then train to Munich for New Years Eve and flew home from there. Vienna and Munich both way more memorable than Salzburg and since no one else has mentioned it yet, go to Figlmuller in Vienna for their wiener schnitzel.

We took a river cruise through Austria and Germany last month just before Christmas and loved it. I would highly recommend it.

The cruise line we used is relatively new (Riverside) and exceeded our expectations with service and quality of the good. We had previously been on 6 or 7 ocean cruises but had never experienced a river cruise. The smaller ship and higher ratio of crew to passengers really made a big difference. We will definitely use this cruise line again in the future if the opportunity presents itself.

We spent a couple of nights in Vienna before boarding the ship. Our hotel was on the ring road (Ringstrasse) near the Opera house and was a perfect location. We were able to walk to all of the historic sites and a half dozen different Christmas markets. We never even needed to use the bus or train system. Since we knew we would be visiting a lot of different Christmas markets, we wanted to do something different and took a tour to a nearby WWII work camp and memorial (Mauthausen) which was sobering but something we wanted to make sure our son saw.





We loved Vienna and Salzburg. Our ship also visited Linz, Krems and Passau. We flew into Vienna, and out of Munich.

It was a wonderful trip and it was nice taking the big family vacation in winter instead of summer for a change.

Put another shrimp on the bar-B!

We did a similar itinerary on the Danube in 2023. Passau, Linz, Krems, Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest. Had a great time!

I wish you were going earlier in December, so you could go to the Krampus run. The Salzburg one is unbelievable. I wish so much we could have something like this in the US, but there is no way that would fly! It's also right next to the Steigl brewery, which is awesome in it's own right.