Central Europe Christmas Markets: Zagreb, Ljubljana, Graz and Budapest

1. Day 1: Arrive in Zagreb

   Zagreb Airport to your hotel in central Zagreb, then Ban Jelacic Square

   • Drive about 24 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Zagreb
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Zagreb Airport (ZAG), about 17 km south-east of the centre; most connections from North America arrive through a European hub by early afternoon. A driver meets you in arrivals for the drive of about 25 minutes into the city, and your room is ready from mid-afternoon (we hold your bags if you arrive earlier). The hotel is central, a short walk from Ban Jelacic Square, the main square of the Lower Town. At about 4 pm, as the light goes and Advent in Zagreb switches on, your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week, then walks you to the square, where the big tree stands and the stalls sell gingerbread hearts, sausages and hot drinks. We carry on along the lit avenues to the bandstand in Zrinjevac park, then sit down together to a welcome dinner of Croatian dishes at a restaurant in the centre. The evening ends early on purpose, since most of you will have flown overnight.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Zagreb Airport (ZAG)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Evening walk through Advent in Zagreb: Ban Jelacic Square and Zrinjevac park
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the 4 pm briefing

   Activity: Plan to land by early afternoon to join the evening walk.

2. Day 2: Zagreb's Upper Town and Sljeme

   Zagreb Upper Town on foot, then the cable car up Sljeme and back

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Zagreb
   Day 2 details

   We start at 9:30 am with a local guide in the Upper Town, Gornji Grad, before the market crowds. Walk up through the Stone Gate, where candles burn at a shrine to the Virgin, to St. Mark's Square and the church with the Croatian and Zagreb coats of arms on its tiled roof, then along the Strossmayer promenade, where the Advent stalls and lights look out over the Lower Town. If you are there at noon you hear the cannon fired from the Lotrscak Tower. The cathedral is still under restoration after the 2020 earthquake, so we see it from outside. Lunch is a sit-down meal in the old town, with strukli, Zagreb's baked cheese pastry, on the table. Early in the afternoon the van takes us to the cable car up Sljeme, the summit of Medvednica above the city, where snow often lies when Zagreb has none, for a short walk and views back over the city. Back down by dusk, your guide leads a tasting of fritule and mulled wine at the stalls, and the evening is yours.

   Included

   • Upper Town walk with a local guide: the Stone Gate, St. Mark's Square, the Strossmayer promenade and the Lotrscak Tower
   • Sit-down lunch in the old town
   • Sljeme cable car up Medvednica and back, with a short walk at the top
   • Guide-led tasting of fritule and mulled wine at the Advent stalls

   Optional experiences

   • The Museum of Broken Relationships in the Upper Town

   Easier option: Stay in town instead of going up Sljeme: a café in the Upper Town and a slow walk back through the Lower Town.

   More active option: Walk a forest trail at the top of Sljeme with your guide, conditions permitting, before the cable car down.

   Free time: Evening free at the markets

   Activity: Steep lanes and stairs in the Upper Town; the cable car does not run in high wind, and then we stay in the city.

   

3. Day 3: Ljubljana and the riverside lights

   Zagreb to Ljubljana, then the castle by funicular and the Ljubljanica at dusk

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Ljubljana
   Day 3 details

   After breakfast we drive about 140 km west to Ljubljana, under two hours on the motorway, crossing from Croatia into Slovenia with no border stop. We check in close to the river and have lunch on our own near the Central Market. In the early afternoon the funicular climbs to Ljubljana Castle: walk the ramparts and look out over the red roofs to the Kamnik Alps, often white by December. We come back down on foot as the light fades, because dusk is the moment for Ljubljana. The Ljubljanica is lined with lit trees and lights strung between the houses, and the festive stalls run along the embankments from Presernov trg past the Triple Bridge. Your guide walks you through the works of the architect Joze Plecnik, now on the UNESCO list: the bridges, the riverside colonnade of the market and the embankments themselves. Then the evening is free, with the stalls a few minutes from the hotel.

   Included

   • Drive from Zagreb to Ljubljana with your guide
   • Funicular up to Ljubljana Castle and the castle ramparts
   • Dusk walk along the Ljubljanica: Presernov trg, the Triple Bridge and Plecnik's riverside

   Easier option: Ride the funicular down instead of walking.

   Free time: Lunch on your own; evening free

   

4. Day 4: Lake Bled in winter

   Ljubljana to Lake Bled and back

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ljubljana
   Day 4 details

   An early breakfast, then about 45 minutes north-west to Lake Bled, at the edge of the Julian Alps. We go up to Bled Castle as it opens, before the day visitors: the castle stands on a cliff about 130 m above the water, first written about in 1011, and from its terraces you look down on the island church and across to the mountains. Back at the shore, if the weather and the lake allow, a pletna, the wooden boat rowed standing up, takes us out to Bled Island to climb the 99 steps to the Church of the Assumption and ring its bell. If the boats are not running we walk part of the lakeside path instead. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Bled, and afterwards it is time for kremsnita, the vanilla and cream cake the town is known for. On Advent weekends there are stalls by the lake. We are back in Ljubljana in the late afternoon, and the evening is yours.

   Included

   • Bled Castle entry
   • Pletna boat to Bled Island, weather and lake permitting
   • Sit-down lunch in Bled
   • Kremsnita at a café in Bled

   Optional experiences

   • Entry to the Church of the Assumption on Bled Island (paid on the island)

   Easier option: Stay by the shore after the castle: a café on the promenade while the others go out to the island.

   More active option: Walk the full path around the lake, about 6 km, with your guide in place of the free hour after lunch.

   Free time: Evening free in Ljubljana

   Activity: Steep paths up to the castle (the van can take you to the top); 99 steps on the island.

   

5. Day 5: Ljubljana's market, then Graz

   Ljubljana to Graz by way of Maribor, then the Schlossberg and the old-town markets

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Graz
   Day 5 details

   A slow morning in Ljubljana. Walk with your guide to the Central Market, Plecnik's long colonnade by the river, where farmers set out cabbages, apples and honey on the open square from Monday to Saturday (not on Sundays), and pick up a coffee on the embankment. We leave at about 10:30 am and drive about 200 km north-east past Maribor into Austria, around two and a quarter hours, reaching Graz for a late lunch on your own. The historic centre and Schloss Eggenberg are on the UNESCO list together. In the afternoon the Schlossbergbahn funicular takes us up to the Schlossberg and the Clock Tower for the view over the roofs as the light goes. Then we walk down into the old town for the markets: the main one on Hauptplatz in front of the town hall, the smaller one by the Franciscan church, and in the courtyard of the Landhaus, a nativity carved each year from blocks of ice. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Morning walk to Ljubljana's Central Market
   • Drive from Ljubljana to Graz with your guide
   • Schlossbergbahn funicular up the Schlossberg, with the Clock Tower
   • Evening walk through the Graz markets: Hauptplatz, the Franciscan quarter and the ice nativity in the Landhaus courtyard

   Easier option: Take the funicular back down instead of walking.

   More active option: Walk down the Schlossberg steps past the Clock Tower to Schlossbergplatz.

   Free time: Lunch and evening on your own

   Activity: The Central Market's open-air stalls run Monday to Saturday, not on Sundays; on a Sunday we walk the embankments instead.

   

6. Day 6: Across Hungary to Budapest

   Graz to Budapest through western Hungary, then the Castle District and the Basilica market

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Budapest
   Day 6 details

   The longest day: about 360 km and four hours of driving, about six hours door to door with the stops, which is why we do it in our own van rather than on the six-hour train other trips use. We leave Graz at 8 am, cross into Hungary and stop mid-morning for coffee, then for a sit-down lunch at a country inn (csarda) in western Hungary, roughly halfway. We drive straight up to the Castle District in Buda at about 2 pm, part of the UNESCO-listed Danube banks, and walk the lanes to the Fisherman's Bastion for the view over the river and the Parliament as the sun goes down, a little before 4 pm. After check-in your guide walks you to St. Stephen's Basilica, where the Advent market fills the square and, on many evenings, light plays across the facade, then on to Vorosmarty Square for the city's best-known Christmas fair: huts of handmade toys, ceramics and leather, chimney cake (kurtoskalacs) turning over the coals, langos and goulash. A farewell dinner near the river ends the day.

   Included

   • Drive from Graz to Budapest with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch at a country inn in western Hungary
   • The Castle District and the Fisherman's Bastion with your guide
   • Evening walk to the Advent market at St. Stephen's Basilica and the Christmas fair on Vorosmarty Square
   • Farewell dinner

   Easier option: Stay in the van at the Castle District and ride to the hotel early for a rest before the evening walk.

   Activity: Four hours of driving in about six hours elapsed, broken by a coffee stop and lunch.

   

7. Day 7: The Szechenyi baths and home

   Budapest: the Szechenyi baths, then Budapest Airport

   • Drive about 48 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   A slower last morning. We go to the Szechenyi Thermal Bath in City Park at about 8:30 am, before the late-morning crowd. Its outdoor pools are fed by thermal spring water all year, so you sit in water at about 26 to 38°C, depending on the pool, with steam rising into the cold air and, if you are lucky, chess players at the stone boards. Stay about two hours; your ticket includes a locker, so bring a towel or hire one there. Afterwards there is time to pack, walk along the Danube embankment or have an early lunch on your own near the hotel. At about 1:30 pm the van leaves for Budapest Airport (BUD), about 25 km and 40 minutes in daytime traffic, and your guide sees you to the terminal before saying goodbye. Book a flight leaving after about 4:30 pm; if you are staying on in Budapest, we drop you at your hotel instead.

   Included

   • Szechenyi Thermal Bath entry with locker
   • Drop-off at Budapest Airport (BUD)

   Easier option: Skip the baths and have a slow breakfast and a walk along the Danube embankment instead.

   Free time: Late morning free; lunch on your own

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 4:30 pm to fit in the baths.

Wildlife and weather: December days are short and cold, often near freezing, with rain, sleet or snow possible in every city; snow is most likely on Sljeme and at Bled. Pletna boats on Lake Bled only run when the weather and the lake allow.

• Zagreb2 nights
• Ljubljana2 nights
• Graz1 night
• Budapest1 night