Holiday Cruises 2027 · 2 of 3
The cold finds you first.
It slips under your scarf the moment you step off the shuttle, sharp and clean, and every breath you let go hangs in front of you like a small white cloud. Somewhere above the rooftops, church bells are ringing. Ahead, through an arch of old stone, the square is glowing.
This is Nuremberg's Hauptmarkt on a December evening, and the Christkindlesmarkt is in full swing. Rows of wooden stalls run under red-and-white striped canopies, every one strung with light. The air is thick with things you can almost taste from here: bratwurst crackling over a beechwood grill, sugared almonds turning in copper pans, gingerbread still warm from the oven. Above it all drifts cinnamon, clove and orange, rising from steaming pots of Glühwein.
Someone presses a mug into your gloved hands, and the warmth soaks straight through to your fingers. You lift it to your face. The steam meets the cold and curls away into the dark. That first sip, red wine and spice and a little sweetness, spreads through your chest like a fireplace.
A brass ensemble starts a carol near the church. A child laughs as a carousel turns. Vendors call out in German, a bell jingles on a stall door, and the couple beside you touch mugs without a word, because they don't need one. Across the square, the Frauenkirche's Gothic front glows gold against a night sky that might, just might, bring snow.
And here is the part that still feels like a secret. You didn't get here by train or taxi, and you haven't repacked a suitcase in a week. Last night your ship was moored below Regensburg's stone bridge. The night before, the Danube carried you out of Vienna while you slept. Every morning a new town. Every evening a new market. Every night, a warm cabin waiting a few steps away.
If something in you just said count me in, hold onto that feeling. Here is what it takes to make that evening yours, because nights like this one are among the first in all of travel to sell out.
Four weeks a year
Europe's great Christmas markets open in the last days of November and close just before Christmas. That gives each river roughly four weeks of market season, and every river cruise line wants its ships there for all of it.
The ships themselves are small. A river ship carries about 150 guests, a fraction of an ocean liner, and only so many can tie up in Vienna or Strasbourg on the same night. Few ships, a short season and a lot of people who have dreamed about this trip for years: the arithmetic runs one way.
The record shows it. AmaWaterways sold out every one of its Christmas market sailings in 2023 and again in 2024, and Avalon's 2025 holiday departures were 97 percent booked before the season began.1 Lines keep adding holiday departures, and those fill too.2 When Celebrity opened its first river season, all 33 of its 2027 Danube and Rhine sailings sold out in under five hours.3
The travelers who stand in that square in Nuremberg are, almost without exception, the ones who booked a year ahead.
Timing is everything
A Christmas market cruise that leaves too early arrives to empty squares, so the dates matter as much as the ship.
| Key date | 2027 |
|---|---|
| First Sunday of Advent | November 28 |
| Nuremberg's Christkindlesmarkt opens | About November 26 |
| The sweet spot to sail | November 27 – December 12 |
| Most German markets close | December 22 – 23 |
Vienna and Budapest open in mid-November and run past Christmas, so the Danube's first ports are ready early. Amsterdam is the exception on the Rhine: its main market opens in early December, so a late-November sailing sees the canals lit for the Amsterdam Light Festival instead. We chose every one of our sailings so the markets are open when you arrive.
Three ways down the river
Christmas Markets on the Danube · AmaWaterways · AmaLea · Nov 27 – Dec 4. The classic. Begin in Budapest with the Basilica market and its light show, then Vienna's Rathausplatz by night and a bike ride to Schönbrunn Palace's market. Melk Abbey, a day in Salzburg or Passau, Regensburg's torch-lit palace market and the finale in Nuremberg. AmaLea carries 156 guests, most in cabins with twin balconies.
Holiday Markets: Vienna to Nuremberg · Uniworld · S.S. Beatrice · Dec 1–8. The all-inclusive choice. Two full nights in Vienna, spiced wine and a monastery organ concert in Dürnstein, Linz, Passau's glassworks and the same Regensburg-to-Nuremberg finale. Unlimited drinks, spirits included, and gratuities are part of the fare.
Christmas Markets on the Rhine · AmaWaterways · AmaSofia · Nov 27 – Dec 4. The cathedral route. Amsterdam's lit canals, Cologne's market below the Dom, Rüdesheim's Christmas Market of Nations, Heidelberg's castle, Strasbourg, Colmar and a finale in Basel. AmaSofia is new for 2026.
How to choose
- First river cruise? The Danube is the one most people dream of, and Nuremberg is the most famous market in Germany.
- Want every drink and tip covered? Uniworld folds them into one fare, and the two nights in Vienna give you time to linger.
- Been to Vienna already? The Rhine trades palaces for cathedrals, half-timbered towns and three countries in one week.
- Love to stay active? The AmaWaterways sailings add guided bike rides and hikes in nearly every port.
What booking a year ahead gets you
Booking early is not about paying sooner. Most sailings need only a deposit to hold your cabin, with the balance due months later. What it buys is choice: the balcony instead of the porthole, cabins side by side for friends traveling together, and the pick of flights before holiday airfares climb. The excursions that fill first, like the small-group market walks and the Salzburg day, open to guests who are already booked.
How to plan it
- Choose your river, then your dates. Pick the route that fits, then a departure inside the market window.
- Hold the cabin with a deposit. Many lines return deposits until a set date, and we confirm the terms for your sailing before you commit.
- Arrive a day early. A night in Budapest, Vienna or Amsterdam before you sail protects you from a delayed flight and gives you a market evening of your own.
- Pack for the cold. Layers, a warm hat, gloves you can hold a mug in, and boots for cobblestones.
- Plan the days ashore. Our Shore Secrets port guides cover every stop, including which markets to see by day and which by night.
The bottom line
It is easy enough to find a Christmas market cruise. Finding the right river, on the right dates, in the cabin you want, takes research and timing. That is where we come in.
2027 at a glance
- Christmas Markets on the Danube · AmaWaterways, AmaLea · Nov 27 – Dec 4, 2027 · Budapest to Nuremberg
- Holiday Markets: Vienna to Nuremberg · Uniworld, S.S. Beatrice · Dec 1–8, 2027
- Christmas Markets on the Rhine · AmaWaterways, AmaSofia · Nov 27 – Dec 4, 2027 · Amsterdam to Basel
See every holiday sailing on our Holiday Cruises page.
Notes
- Travel Weekly, “For most river cruise lines, it's a wrap on Christmas bookings,” 2025.
- Travel Weekly, “High demand spurs the creation of more Christmas market river cruises,” 2025.
- Travel Market Report, “Celebrity River Cruises 2027 season sells out in five hours,” September 26, 2025.
Let us hold your cabin
Time is your luxury. We plan the journey.
404.421.1742 · info@aureviavoyages.com · See all our holiday sailings
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