Winter Trip Itinerary: Germany, France and Switzerland
A quick, six day trip visiting the Swiss Alps and Christmas Markets in Germany, France & Switzerland!
January 2026 is our official 10 year anniversary, and to celebrate, we took an early trip to Germany, France and Switzerland in December (without our little guy!). Because we didn’t have him with us, we tried to pack in as much as we could and ended up doing 5 different cities in 6 nights.
Obviously, this type of travel isn’t for everyone, but we like to do quick visits to cities, so it worked really well for us, and I love how much we were able to squeeze in in such a short amount of time!
One thing I loved about this trip was bringing my nice camera and getting to play with taking pictures of buildings/markets! It was so fun to get to exercise my creative brain in this way and I was surprised at how much I loved that part of our trip.
Below is our itinerary including how we got to each city and what we did. I’ll also share some helpful tips/tricks and things we experienced along the way!
sunny building in Strasbourg, France
Day 1- Arrival in Heidelberg, Germany
We flew into Frankfurt, Germany and immediately took a train to Heidelberg. I knew I didn’t want to stay in Frankfurt for a night, mostly because I don’t love traveling in bigger cities. We were exhausted because we made it to Heidelberg around 4 am our time (without sleeping at all on the way there), and our hotel was kind enough to give us a room early so we could nap!
Where we stayed: Hilton Heidelberg - would very much recommend! This was one of our favorites of the trip… kind people and we paid a little extra to get our room early as well as drinks/dinner that were served in a separate lounge area. It was just what we needed after a long travel day!
After showers and a quick nap, we headed out to explore the town. Thankfully it is faily small, and felt walkable to us.
Heidelberg Castle: we paid a small fee to take the funicular up to the castle, and once we got up there, it was a gorgeous view of the city! We had a great time exploring the castle and scouring out what Christmas markets we were going to visit since we could see them below.
Christmas Markets + Eating + Shopping: Once we got down, we wandered through the town and walked through some of the Christmas markets. I did another post on ranking the markets we visited here, but spoiler!!! this town definitely had our favorite markets! We grabbed a quick snack at Vetter’s where Jordan tried some sausage + German beer and I got potatoes and it was perfect fuel to keep wandering. Basically, we wandered down Hauptstraße, a big street with tons of shopping and popped in and out of shops.
We were still exhausted when we got back and ended up going to bed at 7:30 pm, which was much needed!
train at Heidelberg Christmas market
Day 2 - Strasbourg, France
In the morning, we grabbed coffee at Sternweiler in Heidelberg and headed to the train station to catch our train to Heidelberg.
*We used trains to hop between each city we visited, and while it did feel a bit expensive, it was relatively simple and easy to navigate. I used a site called “Omio” where I could book train tickets through an app on my phone and it was super simple!
Where we stayed: When we got to Strasbourg, we headed to our hotel: Voco Strasbourg. I chose this one because it was close to the train station and everything in the main area of town was so, so, so expensive! Our room wasn’t quite ready so we dropped our bags and headed out to explore.
Christmas Markets: We stumbled upon multiple Christmas markets as we made our way to the city. Again, you can read more specifics about the Christmas markets here.
Cathedral: One of the markets was right next to a gorgeous Cathedral. We were able to go inside for free and it was so beautiful, especially all the strained glass windows! This was a must-see!
Petit France: As we made our way through Strasbourg, we stumbled upon this cute area called Petit France, filled with old buildings, bridges, and cobblestone roads. We grabbed lunch (french onion soup, of course!) at a restaurant called L'Oignon and sat out on their patio where the people watching was fantastic!
We spent the rest of the evening snacking our way through the Christmas markets and ended up eating dinner at a steakhouse type restaurant that I actually don’t think I’d recommend, so I won’t put it here!
Then, we headed back to the hotel and tried to sleep for our early morning!
Carousel at the Christmas Market by the Cathedral
Day 3 - Basel, Switzerland
Before heading out, we grabbed a coffee at Le Petit Stub and then caught our train to Basel. Honestly, I was torn between Basel and Bern when planning this trip. I knew we were headed to Grindelwald, and wanted a town to break up the long train ride over there. I ultimately settled on Basel and am glad I did- we enjoyed it so much!
Where we stayed: Hotel Victoria - also right by the train station. My thought process was to book places close to the trains so we could easily drop our luggage in the town we arrived in before heading out to explore!
Christmas Markets: Again, we were able to stumble upon a few Christmas markets in this city. I enjoyed how cozy they felt, and one even had a fire you could sit around to warm up.
I think my favorite part of Basel was all the beautiful buildings. We had so much fun just walking through the town and admiring the architecture. We crossed the Rhine, and from the bridge, both banks had gorgeous buildings overlooking the river. Most of our time in Basel was just spent wandering around and popping into various shops. We enjoyed watching kids playing at one of the Christmas markets and drank gluhwein.
I also found a store that I LOVED - Søstrene Grene and ended up buying a bunch of stuff here as well! They had super affordable home decor items and it reminded me a bit of IKEA but with extremely cute things!
Where we ate: For dinner, we found an authentic Swiss fondue restaurant called Fondue Stübli. When we walked in, it was pretty empty and we weren’t sure what to expect, but in about 30 minutes, this little hut-like restaurant was PACKED. We got the truffle and prosecco fondue which came with bread and potatoes, and then ordered pears and wine to go with it. It was deeeeelicious and a really fun fondue experience!
One thing I will say about Basel (and all of Switzerland, really) is that it felt pretty expensive. I feel like this is a known thing, but still helpful to mention!
Day 4 - Grindelwald
The next morning, we got up and took the bus over to a coffee shop on the other side of the Rhine called Brü Specialty Coffee. We walked back to our hotel through the city and got a few more views of the river and beautiful architecture before heading out.
Our train to Grindelwald was one of our longest, but the ride was beautiful! Rolling green hills turned into snow-capped mountains as we made our to Grindelwald, and we got there in the early afternoon.
Where we stayed: Hotel Fiescherblick - our absolute favorite stay of the trip! Where do I even begin? First off, everyone working there was SO nice. We were the first guests to check in for the winter season after having been closed for a few weeks and we were everyone we talked to was so kind. We also learned that they had just received a Michelin Star for their restaurant connected to the hotel, and everyone was so proud.
What we did: We grabbed a snack and hot chocolate at Kringle cafe, and walked the town. One thing that surprised me about Grindelwald is that there was not a ton of shopping like there is in other small mountain towns we have visited. But, the views were incredible and we had plenty to look at!
We got back to our hotel and made our way up to the outdoor hot tub, which had beautiful mountain views. And, we met a few friends from the US/London which is always so fun to do on vacation!
Also, it had just snowed, which I learned was uncommon for Grindelwald this early in December! If you are wanting more snow, it seems like later in the season may be better, but thankfully we got really lucky!
Where we ate: We ended up eating dinner at a restaurant called Barry’s and it was so yummy. We got some comfort food- a burger and caesar salad, which was much needed after snacking our way through the markets over the last few days, then made our way back to our hotel for the evening.
Day 5 - Grindelwald
Grindelwald was the one town we decided to spend two nights in so that we could relax a bit and give our bodies a break. We started the day with breakfast at the hotel, which was absolutely incredible, though I’m not surprised given that they had such an amazing restaurant on site! The sweet gal working at the hotel helped us plan our day so that we could explore the mountains a bit. One thing I appreciated is that she checked webcams up on the mountain to make sure that when we got up there, we would have a good view of everything and not totally miss the view due to cloudy weather.
What we did: Our first activity was taking a lift up to First mountain. It took about 25 minutes to make it to the top, and when we got there, the views were stunning! There was a cliff walk along the side of the mountain, which honestly felt terrifying, but also breathtaking! The views were unlink anything we’d experienced before!
Our next activity is where things took a bit of a turn.
We had decided to rent sledding gear for the afternoon because we don’t ski, and sledding (or sledging) is a popular thing to do, even for adults. We grabbed our gear and took a train to a different little area to begin our sledding journey. But, after a missed sign, we ended up on sledding down a ski slope and I took a pretty nasty fall. I won’t go into too much detail and thankfully I am okay, but all that to say, it was really fun until it wasn’t! ha!
If you did try to sled, make sure you really know where you are going and watch for signs/slope closures along the way.
Our late afternoon was filled with multiple train rides to try to find a doctor who was open on Saturday, an x-ray and checkup to make sure I didn’t have a concussion or broken bones, and then more train rides back to Grindelwald. When we got back, we were exhausted and decided to go back to Barry’s for another comfort meal.
We grabbed a glass of wine in our hotel lobby afterwards and got to reconnect with our friends from the hot tub which was truly exactly what we both needed after a scary afternoon.
Day 6 - Lucerne
The next day, I woke up pretty sore and we pushed our train tickets back to be able to take it slow. We had another wonderful breakfast at the hotel, and did one last hot tub before heading to catch our train to Lucerne.
Where we stayed: When we arrived in Lucerne we dropped our bags at our hotel: AMERON Luzern Hotel Flora. It was raining, so we grabbed umbrellas and ventured out to try to see the Christmas markets and a little bit of the town before it got dark (which is veryyyyy early, around 4:30 pm!).
We also learned that a lot of the stores are closed on Sundays, so we unfortunately did not get a lot of shopping in, but it was still fun to window shop!
Covered bridge: There is a really beautiful covered bridge that you can walk across and this was one of the things we did as we explored the area.
As we were walking, Jordan saw this neat building up on a hill with a big sign on it. I looked it up, and it was a hotel with a bar/restaurant, so we decided to go explore and I am so glad we did!
Where we ate: The hotel was called Château Gütsch and since it was up on a big hill, you had to take a funicular to get there. When we arrived, there were stunning views of the entire town as well as the surrounding mountains and lake. We grabbed a drink at the bar, which had big beautiful windows overlooking the city and a live pianist.
Then, we headed to dinner at Ristorante La Cucina, where Jordan got a black truffle pasta and I got pasta with butter sauce- yum!
We decided to have an early night and headed back to the hotel, since we were flying out of Zurich the next morning, and had to take an early train over. Overall, I’m glad we decided to stay in Lucerne instead of Zurich though, because it was a walkable, cute, small town and felt fun to explore!
View from Château Gütsch
The next morning we caught an early train to Zurich and hopped on our flight home! While this was not a “restful” trip by any means, I thought this itinerary was a great way to hit a bunch of different places in a short amount of time!