In Strasbourg, France, throughout the holiday season, Santa-capped teddy bears festoon a restaurant’s facade. Stuffed polar bears adorn another. In a Yuletide arms race, buildings are affixed with giant, gift-wrapped packages, glittering white deer and oversize gingerbread men. Turning the central medieval quarter into a Christmas maze, curtains of lights glow above cobblestone lanes lined with food and gift stalls. And in the central Place Kléber, lights on a nearly 100-foot-tall Christmas tree flash and glow, synchronized to carols.
Across Europe, Christmas markets pop up like fairy-dusted street fairs, with temporary chalet-style shops selling everything from handmade ceramics to warmed wine and abundant food. Visitors shuffle among the merry warrens, holding their cellphone cameras high.
“The closer you get to Christmas, Strasbourg really becomes like Times Square,” said Jonathan Frank, a former Broadway videographer who retired to the city two years ago.
A popular way to visit the markets in France, Germany, Switzerland and beyond is to take river cruises on the Rhine, Danube or Main, spending roughly $2,000 to $4,000 a week. Could I replicate such a holiday pilgrimage for less by using trains to get around?
Along the Rhine, through the Alsace region of northeastern France, trains run continuously between Strasbourg in the north and Basel, Switzerland, in the south, allowing access to market cities and towns en route. To test my budget and my tolerance for seasonal cheer, I spent about $300 on trains, splitting six nights between lively Strasbourg and popular Colmar at Airbnbs that averaged $180 a night. In exchange for convenience, I hoped to gain priceless control over when and where to wander.
“If you stay a week in Strasbourg, you will gain three kilos,” said Pierre Feisthauer, a tour guide who runs Discover Strasbourg, during a two-hour market tour that I booked through Airbnb Experiences (about $26).
The tour on my first evening offered a practical lay of the land in the old town on an island in the River Ill, a Rhine tributary where, by Mr. Feisthauer’s count, more than a dozen markets cluster in plazas and pedestrian lanes, drawing two to three million visitors throughout the season.
He also demystified the food, led by tarte flambée — a thin Alsatian pizza topped with cream sauce, chunks of smoky slab bacon and onions — and followed by sausages, spaetzle, potato pancakes and soft pretzels, served salted, sugared or cheese-covered (most dishes cost between 2 and 12 euros, or roughly $2 to $13). Dessert stalls sold gingerbread loaves, nougat too pretty to eat and cookies by the kilo.
White or red vin chaud, or mulled wine (about 3 to 6 euros), accompanied it all. The white version with
The website maxtravelz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Last week Lufthansa made history. Weeks ahead of its major European rivals, the airline resumed scheduled services to Israel. As of last Monday, the German carrier is offering four weekly flights between Frankfurt and Tel Aviv and three from Munich. The routes mark the first time the company has operated to the country since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in early October.
As artificial intelligence conquers more and more areas of our lives, the Austrian National Tourist Office is launching the world’s first “Authentic Intelligence”. At “Chat SkiPT”, real-life ski instructors answer live questions about winter holidays and beyond.
With winter in full swing, you might be gearing up for a trip to some of the best ski resorts in the country. Or, if you're like me and have yet to learn the art of winter sports, you're probably just jealous of all of your friends partaking in that apres-ski life. (You know, the part where the only muscles you use are the ones in your arm that help lift a hot toddy to your lips.)
A passport is more than permission to travel across borders; holders of the world's most powerful passports have access to different ways of living that other passport holders do not. Heading into 2024, new data reveals not only the passports that give access to the most countries, but also where you might find a better quality of life.
The world's most powerful passports for 2024 have been revealed — with the biggest shake-up in rankings we've seen in several years, including a never-before-seen six nations in first place.
Over the last five years, the world has changed a lot. A global pandemic ground much of the global population to a halt with travel the most restricted it's ever been in my lifetime – and most likely yours too. Russia’s war on Ukraine and now Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza are causing shockwaves around the world, reshaping the statuses of countries and the rights of their citizens.
One Thursday last March I emerged from the Jungfraujoch, Europe’s highest train station, and crossed into another world. Inside the station, a guide with a novelty Swiss flag was marshalling a party of Asian visitors. Outside, we were soon on the Jungfraufirn, a small glacier that feeds the Aletsch, the largest glacier in the Alps. Sunlight shone through breaks in the cloud, and the ice, flanked by buttresses of dark rock, ran south for miles. The pitch was gentle and the ungroomed snow looked inviting.