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Global Travel Planning
Europe in December: Route, Highlights and Winter Travel Tips
The enchanting atmosphere of European Christmas markets, overnight ferry adventures, and unique cultural experiences make winter travel across the continent a magical experience. We share practical insights from our three-week December journey through Berlin, Stockholm, Helsinki, Krakow, and Budapest to help you plan a smoother winter adventure.
• Berlin's Christmas markets offer an authentic German festive atmosphere with delicious food and handcrafted goods
• Food tours provide valuable historical context and local tips while introducing you to regional cuisine
• Stockholm's Skansen open-air museum offers a glimpse into traditional Swedish life with special Christmas activities
• The overnight ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki provides a surprisingly luxurious and festive travel experience
• Helsinki's snowy streets create the quintessential winter wonderland atmosphere
• Zakopane makes an excellent day trip from Krakow with mountain scenery and thermal baths
• Budapest's ruin bars, particularly Szimpla Kert, offer unique nightlife experiences in abandoned buildings
• Pack thermal layers, hand warmers, boots with thick soles and good grip for icy conditions
• Plan accommodation near public transport and research holiday closures if travelling during Christmas
• Pre-book holiday meals well in advance, as restaurants have limited availability during festive periods
Show notes - Episode 76
🎧 Listen to next
- Episode #45 – Germany Travel Guide: Expert Tips for first-time visitors
- Episode #54 Top 10 Tips for UK and Europe Train Travel in 2025 and Beyond
- Episode #57 – 15 Essential Europe Travel Tips for First-Time Visitors
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Are you thinking about a European?
Speaker 2:adventure in December.
Speaker 1:In this week's episode, doug and I share what it's really like from Christmas markets and overnight ferry rides to fascinating museums and Budapest's famous room bars. Based on our own three-week trip through Berlin, stockholm, helsinki, krakow and Budapest, we'll give you practical tips to help you plan smarter and travel easier for your own Europe and winter adventure. Hi and welcome to this week's episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Now, last December, doug and I packed our bags in London and headed off on a three-week adventure around Europe.
Speaker 1:We did indeed, now we mixed it up with trains, planes and even a ferry, as we made our way to Berlin, stockholm, helsinki, krakow and Budapest, before coming back to Edinburgh for New Year. Now, in this episode, we're going to take you along for the ride and we're going to share some of our favourite moments.
Speaker 2:Oh yes.
Speaker 1:When we had many Like a food tour in Berlin, museum hopping in Stockholm, the snowy days in Helsinki, christmas markets in Krakow and, of course, budapest's famous ruin bars. Now we're going to chat about what went smoothly, what we might do differently next time and the practical tips we picked up along the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and because this isn't our first time traveling to europe and winter?
Speaker 1:I've done that, most definitely not. I've done it plenty of times. Um, we're also going to draw on our wider experience. Just give you advice that will really help if you're planning a cold season trip of your own around europe. Yeah, so we're going to start off with, I guess, chatting about you know why we wanted to do a winter trip around Europe, I guess for start off.
Speaker 2:That's a good point. Away from trains, I mean.
Speaker 1:Obviously I always want to do train travel wherever I am in the world yeah, so well, basically we just wanted to be we were spending some time over in Europe anyway based in the UK, and we just felt that it had been a while since we'd spent any time in Europe. I used to live in France, in the French ski resorts. I kind of missed that snowy you know French, swiss, because also my parents lived in Switzerland for quite a few years that kind of I don't know Christmassy magic of the snow. So I guess that was the discussion wasn't it?
Speaker 2:That was a good start. And also I was pestering you because I wanted to take the Eurostar from St Pancras to Amsterdam Central Station after the reopening that's right. Or reopening, yeah, that was another reason.
Speaker 1:And, of course, the other reason and a major factor for me was I actually wanted to go and experience the Christmas markets in Germany yeah yeah, which were amazing.
Speaker 2:They really were.
Speaker 1:I have to say, were really, really amazing. So if you're thinking about going to Europe and Christmas markets, I have to say Germany just does them so well, so, so well. So should I give a quick? Do you want to give a quick outline of the route, or should I do that?
Speaker 2:You can do that and I'll chip in.
Speaker 1:Okay, right. Well, we started off in London and then we headed up over to Berlin, in Germany, but we did go via. We had to change trains, didn't we in amsterdam?
Speaker 2:yeah, we made that decision because we've been to amsterdam before. Shall we skip through on this particular uh adventure so, which was just a few hours there, really?
Speaker 1:yeah, just enough time we did. We did try out leaving our luggage in the left luggage because we thought that would be important, just in case you know, if you're planning to do this sort of trip and you're thinking, oh actually, um, I've got luggage but I want to leave stuff, how do we leave it behind if we're actually going to explore Amsterdam?
Speaker 2:for a few hours.
Speaker 1:So we did try that, didn't we?
Speaker 2:We did, and it would only take the actual physical card. It was not contactless.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So that was a kind of eye-opener. So anyway, it was Amsterdam for enough time to get off the train, go and have a little explore in Amsterdam. So we'd been there before, so we we weren't too bothered about spending time there, um. But so then we headed off to berlin and then we had a few days in berlin and then we then flew. So that was train. So I should say london to amsterdam, berlin was trained, yep.
Speaker 2:Then we flew to stockholm we did and that was that was fun.
Speaker 1:I enjoyed that yeah, I actually wanted to do it by train, but it was going to take us too long, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:yeah, too long. Fire hamburg. It was going to take us too long, wasn't it? Yeah, too long by Hamburg. It was going to take too long, and we did actually have a day we needed to be back by.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So we had to sort of make the best fit, as everyone does for any adventure.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So again, we had to kind of and I guess it'll be the same if you're planning a trip there things that you'll have to cut and things that because you'll figure out what it is that you want to do. That's right. And so one of the actual I should mention this as well actually is that one of the things we want to do is go to some countries in Europe that we haven't been to, because we actually have been to, I would say, most countries in Europe, but we hadn't been to Finland and we hadn't been to Poland. That's correct.
Speaker 1:So they were included in the trip because that was something that were new destinations for us, but anyway, so we flew to stockholm, we did, uh, spent a few days in stockholm. Then we took the ferry, which was I just loved it anyway.
Speaker 2:We took the ferry overnight ferry to was being brave, because he's not particularly a big fan of uh sea travel no, you don't like boats at all, so, um, but we took an overnight ferry to hels in Finland.
Speaker 1:Then from there we had to fly again, so we flew to.
Speaker 2:Warsaw.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because the flight to Warsaw was a fraction of the cost of the flight to Krakow.
Speaker 1:That's right. So we were heading to Krakow, but because the flights were so expensive, we flew to Warsaw and then took the train to Krakow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty quick train journey.
Speaker 1:Which was pretty good, yeah, and then from Krakacker we then again we'd taken the train again. We took the train to Budapest.
Speaker 2:We did.
Speaker 1:Where we spent Christmas before we flew to Edinburgh just before New Year. So that was kind of. So we had a bit of a. It was a really kind of planes, trains and a ferry. We can't say planes, trains and automobiles, planes, trains and automobiles. It was planes, trains and a ferry.
Speaker 2:So that was kind of the trip. We could say it was planes, trains and trams, as well, well, we did take trams.
Speaker 1:I've said local transport. So the overall trip was from the 9th of December to the 29th of December in 2024. So those are the dates that we went. So obviously the festive season in Europe, so a lot of fun, and we did go to a lot of Christmas markets, which was kind of part of what we wanted to do. So should we go through the highlights and our favorites, because we could go through each destination? But I think that may be something that we do in a further podcast so we can go a bit more in depth and a bit more detail about the different destinations. And we've already had some actual specialists on to talk about Berlin. You know, kate, from my Germany vacations be not talk about Berlin and about Christmas market. So, yeah, so we do try to get the destination specialist to come and give you that deeper knowledge. But also we want to reflect on our own experience as traveling. So I guess, favourite city experience Now I guess we could talk about each city for this one maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Can I say all of them? What? All your favourite ones? Yeah, they're all favourite.
Speaker 2:I really enjoyed Stockholm. I mean there's a double reason for visiting there to go and see a friend of mine but I did enjoy that. I like the feel of being in Stockholm at Christmas time. It was nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I enjoyed it. I must say I did enjoy Stockholm as well, and there were some museums that we enjoyed in Stockholm as well. So we went to Skansen, which is, I guess, it shows what it was like to live in Stockholm and Sweden hundreds of years ago maybe. I think it's like generations and generations ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a side of museums, markets and fairs. It's a bit like Beamish in the UK.
Speaker 1:I was thinking it's a showcase of showing what it was like to live in Sweden, and the homes and the school and all the different things. That were what it was like, so that was really interesting from a historic point of view, but it was highly recommended for us to go and there was a lovely Christmas market on on there there really was, and there's lots of traditional dress and traditional music, food, food and some fantastic food.
Speaker 1:You know, I can't even remember the names of things, but we tried well, we'll share photos and the show notes of the stuff like this, and we also took a lot of videos. So if we would get youtube videos up with this as well. So I guess that. So, yes, sweden was fantastic, stockholm was fantastic. It was very, very special. Um, if we kind of rewind a bit because we missed that berlin we did um and berlin we did a fantastic food tour. Now I always recommend um doing this in the first couple of days when you're in a destination, because usually the guides will not only show you the best places to eat, but they'll give you loads of tips. They'll probably quite often they'll share their knowledge of other restaurants and other places you learn about the best foods yeah, you really do different things, sometimes off the beaten track as well.
Speaker 1:Places you'd never find on your own absolutely, and also it's often supporting local as well. They're working with the you know, local, local restaurants. So we did it was really good. We did a berlin secret berlin walk and tour and we also not only did we learn about the food and try the food, but also learn about the history, and I think that's also really important. And I know we've done a lot of food tours. We did a lot of food tours this year actually in Spain. We've done a lot in London and you learn, you do in Paris, I'm trying to think Rome. I've done food tours everywhere and it's just a fantastic way to learn about the culture and the history. You really do experience it through food. So I'd highly recommend that, and we met lots of people on that tour that always do food tours, don't they?
Speaker 2:We did that's right. We were comparing notes from various locations to be shared in common.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that was really good. So I guess that for Berlin. But the Christmas markets I can't. Germany just does Christmas markets so well, they genuinely do they really do.
Speaker 2:Lovely atmosphere, great atmosphere, party atmosphere. Yes, they get very busy, but the food is just.
Speaker 1:Food is fantastic. The things you can buy are fantastic If you look for the beautiful wooden made, locally made products, beautiful things that you can buy.
Speaker 2:As you say, the food was fantastic we had this um cherry kish yeah, crepe that sticks out we still remember it.
Speaker 1:It was so good with chocolate, was it with nutella?
Speaker 2:I have a feeling it was. We tried to record it because it was so cold.
Speaker 1:Both of our glasses were it was just fantastic, so I can't really. Christmas markets if you're planning to head to Europe for Christmas markets, germany really is, I would say, the number one destination. We did go to lots of Christmas markets and other places.
Speaker 2:I was going to say there's more than one to choose from oh, so many, so so many, and also in Berlin, we went to an ice bar as well didn't we?
Speaker 1:We did. It was the first time we tried an ice bar, nice spot, which is interesting. Yeah, guess what? The cold? Yeah, absolutely. Um, then helsinki. I guess the highlight was just the snow. It snowed when we're in helsinki. It was so cold, so christmassy but yeah, and you know what I did have to stop myself getting on a train and going up to the arctic circle to see santa he did yeah, and so that is definitely on my have to go to Finland longer next time and to do that.
Speaker 1:So, and that is very popular. I know a lot of people fly into Helsinki and then fly up to the north of Finland to go and see Santa and honestly, I don't care how old you are, I would want to do that.
Speaker 2:You still believe in Santa, don't you? Yeah, I do I do.
Speaker 1:Now, poland. We stayed in Krakow, which is very famous for its Christmas markets. Christmas markets are very nice, I'm not going to complain about them. Really good Food was good. We did a couple of day trips. We went to Auschwitz, which I will say it was incredibly difficult. I would say if you are planning to visit Auschwitz, you do not plan anything else that day. I found it very difficult for the rest of the week, um, just to cope with it emotionally demanding yeah it's very difficult.
Speaker 1:So that was, that was a difficult, but I would. I would say, if you are going to be in krakow, it's you know, go and go and visit, yeah we did a day tour as well around krakow itself yes, we did um and we also went out to zaka pain, which um is very popular kind of winter resort in the mountains. Loved it, loved that.
Speaker 2:We really enjoyed that experience, didn't we?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was just really. Again, it was very festive. I'm not sure the food we did. We had some food. I think it's very touristy so it was probably quite expensive the food that we had, we had to end up having a pork knuckle, didn't we?
Speaker 2:It was huge.
Speaker 1:I think knuckle did was huge. I think it was a bavarian uh restaurant, yeah, but it so that it was the zackerman itself was amazing. The experience was really good. Um, would take, would recommend taking a day trip now, the day trips from especially well, I guess all time of year, but in december a lot of people are going to krakow for the christmas market, so day trips get booked up very, very quickly. Um, so I made sure, as soon as I knew your dates I booked those, true?
Speaker 2:and that's a good tip also on that. Uh, zacapain one there was um at the end of the day was the water oh yes so imagine how freezing cold is outside and went in this hot, steamy water park.
Speaker 1:It was huge yeah, it was, it was, but it was fantastic. It was really really cold, obviously really cold, but in this hot spa outside fantastic, again, very, very popular. And we did do that day trip on a saturday, so it was busier than I reckon it would have been in the week, obviously. Um, but yeah, that was fabulous. So definitely add that to us. We didn't actually in in, we went on to budapest. We didn't do any of the um, the uh, what you call them spas in, uh, in thermal spas in budapest, but I would do that next time, but at least we did that in zacapain. So that was something. Um. And then budapest, but I would do that next time, but at least we did that in Zakopane. So that was something. And then Budapest. Now we've been to Budapest before we have Quite a few years ago, so we did spend Christmas in Budapest. So obviously things were short, things were closed. That was a bit more challenging. I will talk about that in a bit, but we did enjoy a boat ride down the Danube.
Speaker 2:That was really nice yeah, I will say one thing about the accommodation, because we're going to be spending Christmas there. We took a mixture of hotels throughout the trip, didn't we? But we did book a nice one for the Christmas, yes, in.
Speaker 1:Budapest I did. I got a nice hotel with a pool so that we could kind of relax and enjoy that. I think where we kind of slipped up with Budapest was food and restaurants, but I will talk about that a bit. Um, best surprise, um, I have to say, the thing that I didn't expect to love but absolutely love was the ferry from, from from stockholm to helsinki yeah, I was like I said.
Speaker 2:I'm full of trepidation because I get very seasick. Anybody who knows me will know that is true, um, but I didn't on this one. It was a huge ship, booked in advance, but the layout inside was not what I expected.
Speaker 1:It was like a cruise ship. Apparently Neither of us have been on cruises, so I'll say that Doug and I have not taken a cruise so we don't know, but we were told it was like a cruise ship.
Speaker 2:Told it was like a cruise ship.
Speaker 1:So you go and you've got like a whole open central section with different, like a street, a street with restaurants and shops, yeah, and all your, all the little, all the rooms sort of look down on the main street.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good way of describing it yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I mean, obviously, if you're taking lots of cruises, you're probably going to go and yeah, well, that's what it's like in a cruise, but um we haven't taken cruises. It's something that we will may in the future, but there's lots of kind of debates about them.
Speaker 2:One thing I like about that as soon as you board the ship, there's a massive Christmas tree right in the center, yeah, in the center. That's quite Christmassy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was. It was actually really festive. They had Christmas music on, they had a center. It was great we took a lot of video of and that was really easy. So, honestly, if you're going to go to Stockholm and you're thinking I want to pop over to Helsinki, well, just take the ferry. Honestly, it was really easy. It wasn't massively expensive.
Speaker 2:No, no good deal. I shopped around. There's a bit of difference in price of various companies.
Speaker 1:I think I went through a company called Aferry which was we'd had to pay the best deal, yeah, we. So we had a um two birth cabin to ourselves bathroom. It was really nice. Honestly, it was really really good. I enjoyed that. So, again, we've got some videos and photos of that, so we'll share that and we hope you'll get this stuff on youtube as well, so we can show you what we're talking about, because we know that helps whilst we mentioned the ferry, um, probably good time to mention a good tip for traveling around multiple locations, like is to travel quite light because in that berth on the ship was there wasn't a lot of room.
Speaker 2:I mean, we were fine because we were traveling relatively light.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think that's something we'll talk about with practical tips and advice, because that is a really important consideration. But I think, yeah, for highlights and favorites, was there anything? Was there a standout accommodation or any meals that you kind of think, oh wow, I don't want to have that again.
Speaker 2:obviously we've talked about the crepe I was just going to say it's individual moments um. A friend made some elk, cooked some elk when I was there, yeah, stew in stockholm never had that before. That was special because obviously homemade as well. I won't mention the lady's name because she's very shy, but thank you very much yeah and then.
Speaker 1:Uh, definitely the crepe was. It was another highlight and I'm trying to think what other meals we had that I would absolutely go back and try again.
Speaker 2:Well, next door to the room bar in Budapest, we tried some sort of street food that was pretty special. Again, I'm not sure what I was eating, but I work with a colleague from Hungary who recommended some things and some places to go. So thank you, Lily, if you're listening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, can you list those in the show notes as well?
Speaker 2:That was really special, that food.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think if we list that in the show notes as well, that'd be useful if anybody's heading to Hungary, because that was really helpful. But, as I say, one of the downsides was the fact that we arrived in Budapest on Christmas Eve, but I will talk about that in a little bit more detail. Yeah, so one place I also want to mention in Budapest that we really enjoyed. One of the highlights were the ruin bars.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really good.
Speaker 1:I really enjoyed it, I mean there's quite a few, but we went to the Zimplaket, which is actually the oldest of the ruin bars. So ruin bars are basically abandoned buildings which were well, they were basically changed. In the early 2000s, I think they started changing them into basically decaying buildings that were taken over and changed into bars for people to go to. So there's a lot on the nightlife in Budapest. Obviously we're a little bit older. We didn't stay up until 2 o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1:Let's put it that way. But we had to go and explore them because we'd heard so much about the Roman Bar.
Speaker 2:So I'd highly recommend that.
Speaker 1:The one we went to is the one that was actually recommended, yeah, and that's the zimplaket one, which is the it's apparently the oldest one, so I will say it's a, it's a maze of rooms, that's just. It goes on and on and on, doesn't it go upstairs and around and like there's just loads and loads of rooms. There's loads of lights, loads of. It's just incredible how it's all decorated and like different rooms are different. There seem to be books in one room and just people sitting and chatting all over the place.
Speaker 2:There's some stores selling a few bits and pieces. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So loads of stuff. One thing to say is that a lot of it's open air, so make sure you wrap up, because you will get cold if you don't. Yeah, so they're mainly found in the former Jewish quarter of Budapest. But, yeah, honestly, get yourself to a room. But we went in the evening but I think that opened sort of later in the afternoon. I'm not sure about that, but the actual times, but I know they open until like 4 o'clock in the morning or something. But they do have markets and things that go on as well, some of them.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so highly recommend going to a room and bar in Budapest because it's totally unique. It's the only place that you find them so worth going to, Definitely. So those were some of the highlights, and I guess that doesn't really matter where you're going to be traveling in Europe in winter. I guess when you choose your destinations, again it's thinking the practicality of how you're going to get around and that sort of thing. So we did spend a bit of time working out how much we could do in the three weeks that we had to include the destinations that we wanted to. We did do this quite fast and I know that is part of our travel at the moment, that we're doing a lot of research and so we're doing a lot of travel quite quickly so that we can get a bit more information and experience to share.
Speaker 1:Obviously, we would recommend, if you can do it, probably spend a little bit longer in places than we did. Yes, so that would be one thing that I would say. But let's talk about practical things like the logistics, weather, things that you've got to think about. In fact, there's not much daylight, is there that time of year?
Speaker 2:That's true. Yes, the journey times. I mean in the middle of winter they can be impacted by the weather. One of the flights we took was an hour or so late. You know it can happen. Trains, you've just got to be that little bit of flexibility. But all the train journeys we did between places was one single train, so we're not having any connections.
Speaker 1:Well, apart from amsterdam, that was, we did have to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what we were, because that was the first time we were catching and the eurostar is pretty reliable, yeah, um, so that's what we sell. About three or four hours in um, about three hours, I think, in in amsterdam, yeah, we give us up that.
Speaker 1:That's true. If you're giving yourself, if you're having connections, give yourself plenty of time for those connections. I think that's important. But yes, the other journeys that we took were kind of direct. If that warsaw to to krakow was a direct uh, we changed.
Speaker 2:We got from the airport the shop and airport into also.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, then it was direct, so that made things a little bit easier and less complicated. Yeah, um, we had no problems booking things. Um, we booked I reckon I booked things in october yep, um, and things were. We're getting booked up, um, particularly actually the hotels over christmas. That was a big we, because we needed to work it out and we actually we've had the same. We've been doing consults for our uk travel planner website and podcast recently and we've actually said to people who are planning to go over Christmas we've said this over the last month or so, the last couple of months book your accommodation and where you're going to eat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, most definitely Christmas Day meals, so you, don't get caught out because we got caught out. So you know, sometimes we can make mistakes as well. So think about things like your transportation. Now Think about as well, if you're taking some of the more budget airline flights, about what your luggage allowance is and also so I'm going to say this because I tend to buy things and you're going to go to some of those Christmas markets and you're going to want to buy some of that stuff- it's hard to avoid yeah exactly so when you pack to leave, initially make sure that you don't use your full luggage allowance because, believe me, then you're going to struggle to put your bits and bobs in that you buy.
Speaker 1:So we took between us two. We had a backpack each which was seven kilograms, that's right. And then we had one suitcase, one small I'm not talking small Pull-along suitcase Now. It was expandable, which helped. But again, the luggage allowance that we booked I think the limit was 15 kilograms. I think I had to up it on one of them. So we had to check that because some of those islands are very strict, that's it. Um so, and we often hear people say, oh, you just just take hand over, just take hand over, just take out, that's all you need, just carry on, carry on. Seriously, in europe I would not be advising that, because seven kilograms they are strict. Um, I've had, I've seen people have to take things out of the luggage, I've seen people have to chuck stuff away.
Speaker 2:Well, we did.
Speaker 1:And you know you can wear 17 jumpers and 17 pairs of trousers or whatever. But we saw that in one of those flights as well, because the bag was slightly too wide. They will make you put it into this thing that will check the width and height and depth of your bag. So if you're confident that you can fit everything that you're going to need for three weeks, you know, on a winter trip or any time of year into seven kgs for the entire trip, then go for it. I just know for one that is not possible I think it's very difficult.
Speaker 2:I think it's a challenge, particularly if you've got electronic.
Speaker 1:You've got laptops and cameras and things and they're quite weighty yeah, I just think it's a always assume that you're going to need to put something in the hold. I would just say that, so go with the offset with that. Even if you've got a backpack and it's a big backpack you probably will put it in the hold because it's going to be more than 7 kg.
Speaker 2:I suppose what I'm saying is don't make assumptions that you're not going to need extra baggage and just be aware of what you're booking, because, particularly if you're using multiple airlines, yeah, I just think it's bad advice.
Speaker 1:I just I don't agree with it. I hear it quite often I'm going that it's just bad advice and people, I generally think, who haven't had a lot of experience traveling around europe on on budget airlines, for example, or trains, because, honestly, you do not want to be getting on and off trains with a lot of luggage no, I start with particularly european um train platforms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, quite a bit lower yeah, so I think that's definite okay. So the other thing I want to talk about is accommodation. So one thing I would also recommend is that you really look at where your accommodation is, that it's close to public transport. Um, especially, you know thinking that if you're there at christmas, there may not be any uber, there may not be any trams running, so either you're going to be walking a long way or you know it's just not worth it. So we always look at, always make sure that the accommodation is close to the public transport.
Speaker 2:That's right, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we did that in all of the locations that we stayed in, Not necessarily in the centre, I mean in Berlin. We didn't stay near the train station, which we have done in the past.
Speaker 2:It was an S-Bahn or U-Bahn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was easy to get to, but I made sure I'd researched all of that beforehand. Stockholm we were staying with a French, that was really easy. So she gave us the directions to get a bus. So we got a bus to her Helsinki, obviously we got off the boat. So then we got a tram to the accommodation. Um, in warsaw, again it was a tram to get to the accommodation, which is fairly easy. Um, and budapest, again a tram straight to the hotel. Yeah, but again, working out, obviously we're there for christmas, so there was no trams running for a couple of days. So then you've got to think are things within walking distance? Yeah, um, so that's something to consider.
Speaker 1:Now, one thing that I messed up one was a comment, not the accommodation, was food, because we were gonna be at the hotel of a Christmas, christmas Day and Boxing Day we kind of had. What I hadn't done was look at the hotel menu and it didn't really resonate with us. So what I did was book and it was't really resonate with us. So what I did was book, and it was quite last minute, booked quite a well-known hotel in Budapest for Christmas lunch. But again I messed up because I'd left it until late and it said service was from 12 till 3.30, and I booked a table for 2.30.
Speaker 1:And that was a big mistake because when we walked mainly because we were going to have breakfast in the hotel, which was included, so we didn't want to have lunch too soon after breakfast we got there and there was no food left. We've actually had a refund from the hotel, an apology, because we got there and there was literally it was a buffet and it was miserable. The service wasn't very good, the food wasn't brilliant and there was not very much of it left, so that really kind of ruined christmas day. So I just would say, anywhere that you may be staying over christmas, make sure you sort where you're going to eat on christmas day and be clear what time the meals are being served yes, if it's a buffet, so it might say it's served from 12 to 3 30.
Speaker 1:In fact I think we got there quarter three I have a feeling it was quite and we got there and they literally stopped about 15 minutes later. There were a bit of gas that we arrived at that point and we're like nobody said when we're booked. I just assumed service would continue, that we continue to be food out, and they were like no, there's no food. And I was like, oh, that's fantastic. Um, so that was a bit of a mess up. So there you go. Even you know we can make make errors. Um, breakfast, we tried to make sure it's included in the hotel where possible, yeah so we do stay in hotels.
Speaker 1:I will say this this trip we did stay in hotels we did because it was a short trip.
Speaker 1:We do a little bit of washing in the room if we need to, yeah, but yes, we stayed in hotels that we could get breakfast at, which again helps, and you don't have to think in the morning. What about packing? Now? We get asked this all the time. I've just actually published a post about what to pack for london in winter, so you can pop over to our london travel planner site if you're heading to london. Um, main thing is layers. You hear it all the time, don't you?
Speaker 2:but it is true I think layers and decent footwear yeah, two things.
Speaker 1:You need to make sure that you've got layers. Absolutely you need to. We actually went and bought um some thermal we did thermal. So we both had thermals, which I'll be taking to antarctica in a few months time. Um, yes, we bought this and I also bought some good uh boots, so there were kind of fur line boots. Um, they're great with a very with a thick sole because, again, you're walking on very cold um pavements. So you don't want thin soles because, believe me, that cold is going to come through and you're going to freeze.
Speaker 1:I actually bought some thermal socks as well, and we had our absolute go-to now, when we travel, when it's cold, which are some hand warmers.
Speaker 2:Hand warmers An absolute must.
Speaker 1:We pack hand warmers every time and we used them all up, because there's nothing worse than just feeling cold. In fact, even when I was in Italy, when I was in Puglia in November, I'd taken hand warmers and I actually, because it was quite chilly, the place I stayed in, I used the hand warmers, had the hand warmers in the bed because they stay warm for 24 hours really good.
Speaker 2:Another thing as well, because we're all all the same, we all want to take photos and videos. Trust me, it's not easy if your fingers are freezing.
Speaker 1:No, that's true. I remember that from a few years ago when we were in Denmark and it was something I was trying to take pictures of the Little Mermaid with my DLSR camera.
Speaker 2:I remember that.
Speaker 1:And it was minus 20 with the wind chill and my fingers turned blue. I'm not kidding, and they were painful I'm not kidding, and they were painful it was really painful, and this is pre-hand warmers, yeah, but now, honestly, and we got caught out when we were in South Korea- oh, that's right.
Speaker 2:A year and a half ago and we were very lucky that we met a beautiful mum and daughter from Singapore who had hand warmers and gave us a couple for that day because, honestly, it was so cold. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So if you're going somewhere cold, we highly recommend that you get yourself some hand warmers get some thermals um make sure that you've got a good hat, or particularly if you've got no hair. Yeah, well, I have hair and I still like to have a good hat. Now I even I remember again. Actually, this denmark seems to be coming up with copenhagen. Um, was it? Yes, it was no, it wasn't.
Speaker 1:It was Norway and Bergen we stayed in Bergen and again winter and it was the wind chill and I ended up having to buy a hat, with a fur hat but that covered my ears with fur yeah, and I'm actually taking a similar hat. I bought another one a few years ago when we were in Orkney, when, again, it was very, very cold and it was amazing.
Speaker 2:I was going to say that should have been warmer then.
Speaker 1:But, again, make sure you've got something to cover your ears. I mean, I'm prone to ear infections, so that's something that I highly recommend, that you consider so very important those sort of things, footwears, like I mentioned before, that you check that things have got grip. I mean, when we were in Helsinki, it was fairly sheet ice on the pavement, wasn't it? So make sure that you have shoes, footwear and shoes that will give you that grip. I'd also highly recommend as well, if you're going to do this, make sure you've got travel insurance. Seriously, it's very easy to slip and fall on these pavements, even when they are gridded. It's just on the ice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the risk factor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah so we never travel that travel insurance I do but we make sure that you have cover for that, because you don't want to fall over, break your leg, and then you the expense that's going to cost, that'll be crazy, um. So yeah, I really would recommend that again when you're thinking about your travel allowance. Layers of a key. So I bought actually uniclo do really good, um, like little polo, and they do. They're very, very thin, um, but keep you warm. And I've bought quite a few of those and I wore those as kind of the the first layer and then a long sleeve top over that and then a jumper, and then we've got a. We've got a coat which is like five in one, coat that we bought in australia, which has got um, okay, body warmer, and then it's got the outer layer which keeps, which is water proof or resistant yeah um, so yeah, so consider that it snowed a lot when we were in helsinki it really did so we did need it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's nothing more miserable than you're wondering any freezing cold, yeah not at all um.
Speaker 2:So I mean, you did try some sort of winter punches, don't you?
Speaker 1:that's true. That's to warm you up.
Speaker 1:Absolutely some grog yes absolutely now, um, festive season. If you're traveling over the festive season in europe, that's going to come with uh things to consider. So, um, obviously, over christmas day, boxing day, most things are shot. Uh, so don't expect. So make sure that you plan what you are going to do on those two days, which was nice meals, definitely plan, uh. We headed, and when we arrived in budapest, again, we, we headed straight to the supermarket. But you know what? We made the mistake of not stocking up enough, because the hotel we were in had a kitchen. We had our own little kitchen in the room, but we didn't buy enough food, and then, of course, it was short for the next two days, so that was our mistake. Um, so, yeah, we, we lived off cheese and packs of crisps, I think, and some chocolate for a few days. Uh, so yeah, so just plan that, um, plan that out. And then there were a few takeaways, I think on boxing day we managed to get pizza or something yes, I would, yeah, I think you did.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, so things like that markets don't are not going to be open over the Christmas as well. So just check the timings of markets that you want to go to when they actually will close. A lot of them will go to Christmas Eve, but just check the timings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:I think that's important. Yeah, and again, as I say, you're going to buy things. Believe me, you're going to buy things. So you know. In fact, we bought all the festive little decorations and hung them up in the room. We did didn't we?
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was really nice. So just think about that with your luggage allowance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some nice quirky little Christmas decorations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I think that just the pre-booking making sure that you know what is open and what isn't open is important. Now, apps and tools and I use the Deutsche Bahn Now apps and tools and I use the Deutsche Bahn.
Speaker 2:Deutsche Bahn, I can't pronounce it, yeah Deutsche Bahn for the trains which I've used on many trips.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not an ultra-influence. I don't think it's the most straightforward apps to use, but I'm quite familiar with it, so yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've used that quite a lot, haven't you? And then obviously, you've got Currency Conver converter, because we did have a number of currencies. So don't assume this is another thing. Actually, a lot of people assume, when they come to Europe, that everybody uses the euro. That is not the case. In fact, yes, women, in Amsterdam they use euros, germany uses euros and Finland uses euros, but Poland, hungary and Sweden don't.
Speaker 2:No, they don't.
Speaker 1:So you've got to consider that. So now we have a Wise app on our phone so we have different currencies on that, so it was easy to pay. I think we had some cash, but only in euros, from what I remember.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we had that from previous trips. It wasn't planned to take euros with us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we didn't change anything we just happened to have it on it and honestly, just happen to have it on it and honestly I know we kind of recommend having a little bit cash because you never know if the machines are going to go down. But it's actually getting to the point where it's rarer and rarer and rarer to use it. It's more just when the terminal goes down that you need it yeah, even in the markets in berlin.
Speaker 2:That's all card everything was card.
Speaker 1:I don't think we're ever, and a lot of them will say no cash, they don't want cash. Um, I think maybe there's one or two maybe they want cash, but it's just so rare these days, um, that we didn't so yeah, one little tip about um currency and cash and paying for things.
Speaker 1:One little tip is to always check the amount that's been entered onto the card machine yeah, that's important because quite often you'll go to tap and you don't actually see the amount because they're beholding the machine up so you can't see it. And we recommend always and if you can't, to say can you just put it down so I can see? You know, 99% of the time I'm sure there's absolutely no issue. But you know what? I don't want to tap my card and find there's an extra zero at the end of that and I have heard that's happened to people. So always ask to look before you tap, because it's just so easy to just tap and walk away and you've paid for it.
Speaker 2:And if you find yourself walking away, you can always just say oh actually, can I have a receipt please?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's a good thing. A lot of places won't give you a receipt?
Speaker 2:No, they won't. It's a backup if possible. Yeah, back up if possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I use Google Translate all the time because, much as I would love to speak every language in Europe, I don't and don't always assume that people are going to be able to speak English either, because there are some places that English won't be as widely spoken as we would imagine. Again, learn a few words. Doug's always better at this than I am. I used to be the one that was good at languages and fluent in French and now Doug always learns hello thank you.
Speaker 2:I try and learn, please, and thank you good morning.
Speaker 1:And other apps that you use. I know you use the transport app in Stockholm. We use that quite a lot, don't we?
Speaker 2:Yeah well, the transport app. So I think it's always good if you're buying tram tickets and bus tickets.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it makes it easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I would say that was. Those are the main apps that we use. Yeah, so I would say those are the main apps that we use. I do like Google Translate. I have a thing about going into supermarkets when I travel, so I find it really useful to use the Google Translate to look at what actually it is that I'm buying to eat. So you can have a look at the cans and the different foods and it's like, okay, this is this or this is that, before you decide, you want to buy it, and we've used that a lot over the last few years, so google translate is amazing now that you can got that visual thing.
Speaker 2:I'll give one little secret. That's one thing we do actually enjoy doing going in supermarkets and having a look at local foods, don't?
Speaker 1:we, oh, we do. I always think it's absolutely fascinating. It's just it's so much fun. Now, um, is there anything we would do differently if we planned this better now, bearing in mind, doug and I have traveled extensively around Europe by train in winter, um, and I think the one thing that caught me out was that couple of days of a Christmas is not planning the Christmas day meal better, um, so that for me, that would be the absolute thing that I would make sure. If I was planning that, I'd be 100% sure that we were happy about where we're going to eat and I would double check the time that I booked. That was the thing. I don't know if that would be anything that you would change um more trains.
Speaker 1:More trains, less boats oh no, the boat was great it was a highlight for me. I loved it.
Speaker 2:Actually, if we're doing a similar trip. We had a bit longer. I'd love to have gone across to Estonia as well yeah, we did say that.
Speaker 1:that was. That was the one thing. So I guess, yeah, adding more time would always be a huge plus, but we enjoyed what we did for sure, oh, we really did. Yeah. So I mean, what would be your single highlight If you had to choose one thing? What would you really enjoy? And you know what? We didn't really talk about those museums in Stockholm either.
Speaker 2:But you know, if we do a podcast about stockholm, we will talk far more in detail. Just mention my name, you know viking museum.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I love that. Yeah, the nordic museum. You didn't want to go, but you loved it, so we'll talk a bit more about that in the in another episode I was really relaxed at skansen.
Speaker 2:I thoroughly enjoyed that part yeah, it was really good.
Speaker 1:I I think for me I really enjoyed that food tour in Berlin, I think, learning the history of the area, that we walked around and trying the food and just chatting with other travellers about different places they'd been different markets that they'd gone to in Berlin. I think that was just a highlight, and I just love walking around those Christmas markets.
Speaker 2:I had another one. Just come back to him. I forgot how much I enjoyed this on the train journey from Amsterdam to Berlin. We were in a compartment on the train and everybody was chatting with this lovely German gentleman.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was really good to talk to people and that's what's really nice about train journeys is you get to meet people and chat with people, and that's really good. Right to end the podcast with our one tip for anyone planning to do whatever it is that we've talked about so obviously this. This podcast is talking about planning a trip to europe in december, so this has got to be our one tip. If you are planning a trip to europe in december, what would you say, doug?
Speaker 2:plan, plan and plan your transport, look at it, study it.
Speaker 1:Don't take any assumptions, keep it realistic and keep it flexible yeah, I like that and mine would be to take hand warmers and to make sure that you, your footwear is good enough that you're not going to slip and hurt yourself. So obviously I would say travel insurance is is a given anyway, but, um, honestly, you need to make sure that you have got there's nothing. It gets very slippery. I can't. I can't stress that enough, and I get a bit worried when I'm walking on these pavements.
Speaker 1:They're literally sheet ice, that's right um, so it gets cold enough, obviously, that everything freezes, so it might snow and be beautiful, but underneath you might have the ice. So, um yeah, don't take that for granted. Um, yeah, so I think that's probably it for this this week's episode. Um, so that's episode 76.
Speaker 1:I can't believe it can you um, and it was so exciting to chat about our trip around europe last year. Um, if you'd like to hear more details about any of the particular destinations that we spent time in, if you want to hear more about Berlin, more about Stockholm or Helsinki or Krakow or Budapest, let me know. Let us know via speakpipe. If you've been to any of those destinations at Christmas, let us know. We want to hear what, how you got on, what you thought about those. We will share photos, as always, of the trip on the show notes, which will be at globaltravelplanningcom forward slash episode 76, um, and we hopefully will get some youtube videos on as soon as possible. We're trying to work on that channel now, um, but I guess that just leaves us to say until next week. I don't know, doug, you've got anything to say, or?
Speaker 2:that just makes me want to go back again. Just reading through it all and reliving it all again makes me want to go back again this year yeah, it was very much fun.
Speaker 1:Well, actually I have to say some point. We're hoping to get a Christmas market river cruise up and running. So if that's something you're interested in, then let us know, because that's something we may organise for next 2026 Christmas that would be good. Festive season and the run-up to Christmas, come over to Europe and do a river cruise with us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would be great to meet some of our listeners.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it would be fantastic. Anyway, I guess that just leaves us until, say, until next week, though happy global travel planning. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the global travel planning podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanningcom. Remember, if you, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app, because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts, just like you.