December 2016 trip Germany/Switzerland/Italy/Austria

I need some help planning a trip for my husband and I. We want to travel for about 2 weeks in the middle of December 2016. We are both outdoor people and interested in seeing more landscape and nature than cities and museums, but we want to mix that in a little too. We just got back from a trip through Ireland and Iceland where we got in a car and just went -lots of hiking, exploring, finding new places and stumbling across things. I love that kind of trip so we were thinking of getting a global rail pass for the 2 weeks we are there. That way we can hop on/hop off and see a ton. I've never traveled in this area at all though, so I'm not sure exactly where to go or how flexible we can be with trains.

If anyone could give us a little advice on things not to miss, where the best vistas are, and what to expect trying to get there I would be forever thankful! I think it will be cheapest for us to fly into Munich from the US so that's our starting point. Our must haves are Innsbruck, Swiss Alps, Austria & Venice. I've heard about a place called the top of Europe, or maybe the top of Germany? This looked amazing as well. I would also really love to see some of the Christmas Markets and see some little towns.

On our last trip we only booked a room every other day, and I was thinking of doing every third day on this trip so that we have some flexibility but stay on track timing wise. Do you think this would be possible that time of year or this a very touristy time? Can anyone give me ideas on what the weather will be like in Mid-December as well? I know there's no hard and fast rule as to temperature, but I just need to get general sense of how many layers to pack for hiking. We are totally fine with super cold and long long hikes if it gets to somewhere amazing.

Thanks for any help!

hi christine
first of all, welcome to the thorn tree. the middle of december is coming up pretty quickly, so you havent much time left over to plan your trip (or to book things ahead). generally said, this is not a very touristy time at all, but you might still want to book accommodation before you leave the us for some places (like munich, venice and somewhere in the swiss alps) that you really dont want to miss. weather wise, mid-december can be everything between up to 10 degrees and sunny / wet and grey and chilly at around 0 degrees / to very cold with temperatures down to minus 20 degrees (i'm talking of celcius). so far this year, the weather has been very mild (in berne, switzerland - where i live), and it looks at its going to stay that way for untill after christmas. but of course if you go up the top of a mountain, it will be much colder there than here in the "lowlands". bring onion layer clothing, so that you can adjust if it turns out to be warmer or colder as expected.

as for where to visit: you have 2 weeks and are looking at including munich, innsbruck, the swiss alps, venice and parts of austria (besides innsbruck). including the time you will need to travel from one place to the other, you are looking at a maximum of 2 days per destination. which is already too little. if you really want to include so many places in 2 weeks, dont try to include even more places. and fly back from zurich (that will probably be the cheapest) or vienna or venice (instead of having to travel back to munich to fly out of it). munich has a good christmas market and innsbruck has one as well.

the top of europe is the jungfraujoch in switzerland and its totally worthwile (but very expensive) to go up the jungfraujoch on a clear and sunny day. the top of germany is the zugspitze in germany.

Switzerland:
You may have a look at
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch/en/ http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/en

cheapest bus Munich - Switzerland:
http://www.checkmybus.co.uk/

Train fares to Top of Europe/Jungfraujoch:
http://www.jungfrau.ch/en/tourism/travel-information/tickets-rates/interlaken-ost/fares-for-individual-travellers/

We are taking a similar trip this month, visiting the German/French/Swiss areas near Basal/Freiburg, then northern Switzerland, then to Salzburg for Christmas. Due to the winter time of year, we are concentrating our trip mainly on the cities and their Xmas markets, but will also visit some of the natural wonder spots, weather permitting. If you are interested, we can after completing our trip write a post with our experiences.

Thank you! That would be absolutely amazing! I would love to hear how it went for you and what you managed to see or recommend! Thank you so much for offering!

Jungfraujoch is exactly what I was thinking of, it just look so beautiful. 2 days is really all I want to spend in each place -at the most. I prefer travelling where you jump around a lot and see tons of different things. flying out of Zurich is a great idea though - I will look into the pricing there. Thanks!

Christine,

We returned from our December trip to central Europe and had a great time. Here are some of my thoughts, comments and suggestions for your 2016 December trip.

1. The weather. We were very, very fortunate re the weather: Europe experienced a very mild and warm December in 2015 which made our trip even better. The weather was more like early spring than winter - mild temperatures, no snow, very little rain, and many sunny days. The worst days were the last two days at the end of December which were cloudy and cold with some rain. If the weather had been so cold and cloudy for our entire trip, many of the outdoor and scenic parts of our trip would have been less enjoyable. For scenic landscapes, etc. the best part for such a winter trip were the leafless trees - they create a totally different and often attractive scene, including allowing you to better see important landmarks without the leaves blocking all or part of the view.

2. The Christmas markets and decorations definitely make the cities and towns more pretty and scenic, but we didn’t buy many items there. The Christmas markets are similar from city to city, but the larger cities seem to have the better markets.

3. We encountered very few other tourists except in the most popular tourist sites (such as the Neuschwanstein castle and in Salzburg for Christmas which is a popular tourist destination for Christmas). In some cases - especially in the county areas - we were the only tourists at the hotel, landscape scene, etc.

4. We rented a GPS equipped car and found it very easy and efficient to travel from place to place quickly with little difficulties. Traffic was usually light except in the cities where it was still manageable. We were able to visit a lot more places, sites, etc. by using a car and were also on the fly able stop at some very beautiful and picturesque spots that we could have never done if we had traveled by train.

5. We visited the following areas, all of which we enjoyed with the starred items we particularly enjoyed: Riquewhir, France and the surrounding countryside; Bern, Thun, Spiez, Murren and Lucerne, Switzerland; Freiburg, Black Forest; Hohenzollern castle; Ulm; Neuschwanstein castle; Linderhof castle; Plansee, Austria; Salzburg and surrounding communities; Munich; Steiff Museum near Ulm; Rothenburg; Wertheim & Miltenberg, Germany; Rhine valley and Markburg castle.

I think that the biggest potential issue with traveling in December is the weather - especially if you plan to visit a lot of outdoor areas and sights. If the weather is bad, then the experience will not be as enjoyable and could even prevent you from making that visit. Also, I don’t think that winter is a good time to do hiking and similar more active outdoor activities, even if the weather is good. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any specific questions that I can answer re December travel.

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