Strasbourg, Vienna, Nuremberg — done them all? There's a whole second tier of European Christmas trips that most travellers never consider, and the bonus is that every one of them works by train. Rail Europe has pulled together five alternatives, and they're a genuinely mixed bunch: a town hall turned Advent calendar, markets inside a cave, and a cogwheel railway to Santa's front door.
Start in Gengenbach, in Germany's Black Forest. Each Advent, the 24 windows of the historic town hall become a giant, working Advent calendar, with a new illuminated picture revealed every evening from 30 November. The building is under scaffolding this year, but a full-scale replica façade means the tradition carries on regardless. The Advent market runs 27 November to 23 December, with the finished calendar glowing until 6 January — and Strasbourg is only around 40 minutes away by rail, so you can pair the famous with the unexpected.
Graz takes a different approach in Austria: rather than one big market, a scatter of them spreads across the historic centre, all walkable. Look out for the illuminated Advent calendar on the town hall and a life-size nativity carved from ice in the Landhaus courtyard. Markets run 20 November to 24 December, and direct trains from Vienna take from about 2 hours 20 minutes.
Valkenburg, in the southern Netherlands, is the quirkiest of the lot — Christmas literally underground. The town's marlstone caves host a market inside the Gemeentegrot, or Municipal Cave, part of the wider Christmas Town Valkenburg programme running 13 November to 3 January. The cave market itself closes 30 December. It slots neatly into a rail route through the Netherlands, Belgium or western Germany.
For families, Montreux is the pick. A cogwheel railway climbs from Lake Geneva to Rochers-de-Naye at 2,042 metres, where Santa's House opens 20 November to 24 December. The ride takes about 46 minutes and is arguably the best part; Santa entry is ticketed separately.
Finally, Milan's Oh Bej! Oh Bej! fair around Castello Sforzesco isn't really a Christmas market at all — it's a centuries-old celebration of the city's patron saint, St Ambrose, held in early December. New for rail fans, European Sleeper now links Brussels to Milan overnight, so you can sleep your way to the fair.
What makes these five useful is how well they combine. Gengenbach pairs with Strasbourg, Graz with Vienna, Valkenburg with a Benelux loop. If the big-name markets feel like a checklist you've already ticked, these are the trips that make December feel fresh again — with the journey doing some of the festive heavy lifting.
