Eight Luxury Escapes to Take Before Christmas, From Vienna's Advent Markets to the Arctic Icehotel

Every November, artists from around the world travel to Jukkasjärvi, a village in Swedish Lapland, to carve a hotel out of ice taken from the Torne River. They have about four weeks to finish the rooms. On 11th December the doors open, and by spring the whole building has melted back into the river it came from.

The Icehotel is the most extreme version of something that happens all over Europe in the weeks before Christmas. Lifts start turning on the glaciers above Zermatt. Wooden stalls go up on cathedral squares in Salzburg and Strasbourg. A bridge of pontoons appears across the Grand Canal in Venice for a few days. Each of these places has an opening night, and if you arrive close to it, you see the place at its freshest, before the school holidays fill the hotels.

Here are eight, listed in the order their season begins.

1. Zermatt, Switzerland: glacier skiing under the Matterhorn from 1st November

Zermatt starts its winter at the top of the mountain. From 1st November, skiers ride up to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, which at 3,883 metres is the highest cable car station in Europe, and ski the glacier long before the lower slopes have snow. From 14th November, the Matterhorn Express gondola links the village to the glacier via Schwarzsee. The resort's Winter Opening Weeks run until 6th December, and the lower ski areas open in stages as the snow arrives.

Zermatt is closed to ordinary cars, so you leave yours at Täsch and finish the journey on a shuttle train. The Matterhorn, at 4,478 metres, fills the view from much of the village.

Where to stay: The Mont Cervin Palace sits on the main street, a short walk from the station, with a large spa and rooms that face the mountain.

2. Vienna, Austria: the City Hall market opens on 13th November

Vienna's main Christmas market fills the square in front of the neo-Gothic City Hall from 13th November to 26th December. Beside it, the Eistraum ice rink lays around 3,000 square metres of ice along paths that wind through the Rathauspark, and it stays open until 6th January. Inside the City Hall, choirs from Austria and abroad sing Advent concerts in the great ceremonial hall on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons until 20th December.

If you have visited before, note one change: the market outside the Belvedere palace will not take place in 2026, as construction work is under way in front of the building.

Where to stay: Hotel Sacher faces the State Opera and has received guests since 1876. The chocolate cake that carries its name is older still. Franz Sacher created it in 1832, at the age of 16, for Prince Metternich, and the hotel café serves it with unsweetened whipped cream.

3. Copenhagen, Denmark: Tivoli Gardens lights up on 13th November

Tivoli Gardens opened in 1843, and at Christmas it turns into a winter village in the middle of the city. The season runs from 13th November to 3rd January, with the gardens closed on 24th December. Inside, you will find wooden stalls among the rides, mulled wine served with raisins and almonds, and small round pancakes dusted with sugar and dipped in jam. The Tivoli Concert Hall stages The Nutcracker each Advent in sets and costumes designed by Queen Margrethe II.

Outside the gardens, the market map has changed this year. The popular market on Højbro Plads will not run in 2026, and a new market takes its place on City Hall Square from 11th to 20th December.

Where to stay: Hotel d'Angleterre overlooks Kongens Nytorv, the city's grandest square, and traces its history to 1755.

4. Sibiu, Romania: the Great Square market opens on 13th November

Saxon settlers founded Sibiu in the 12th century, and its old town still shows it: pastel merchant houses, defensive towers and steep roofs set with small dormer windows shaped like half-closed eyes, which locals say keep watch over the streets. From 13th November 2026 to 3rd January 2027, the Christmas market fills the Great Square, Piața Mare, with more than 120 stalls, a Ferris wheel and an ice rink. Try the smoked sausages, cabbage rolls stuffed with pork and rice, and chimney cakes, sweet dough wrapped around a spit and baked over coals until the outside caramelises.

The town was European Capital of Culture in 2007, and the Brukenthal Museum, in a baroque palace on the same square, opened to the public in 1817, which makes it the oldest museum in Romania. After the market, walk down to the Small Square and across the cast-iron Bridge of Lies.

Where to stay: Hotel Împăratul Romanilor stands a short walk from the Great Square. Rebuilt in 1895, it counts Franz Liszt and Johann Strauss among its past guests.

5. Salzburg, Austria: the cathedral square market opens on 19th November

Salzburg's Christkindlmarkt spreads across Domplatz and Residenzplatz in the UNESCO-listed old town from 19th November to 1st January 2027. The stalls sell handmade decorations, carvings and regional food in front of the cathedral, and the programme follows Alpine tradition. On 5th December at 6.30pm, the Krampus run fills the square with horned, fur-clad figures who, in local folklore, travel with Saint Nicholas to frighten children who misbehave. A Perchten run follows on 21st December.

About 20 kilometres north, in the village of Oberndorf, Silent Night was sung for the first time on 24th December 1818, with words by the priest Joseph Mohr and music by the schoolteacher Franz Xaver Gruber. The Silent Night Chapel now stands on the site of the original church, an easy half-day trip from Salzburg.

Where to stay: Hotel Sacher Salzburg stands on the bank of the Salzach, with views across the river to the old town and the fortress above it.

6. Venice, Italy: a bridge across the Grand Canal on 21st November

In 1630, plague killed a large part of Venice's population, and the Republic made a vow to the Virgin Mary: if the city survived, it would build her a church. The result is the domed basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, designed by Baldassare Longhena and consecrated in 1687 at the mouth of the Grand Canal. Every 21st November since, Venetians have walked to it to give thanks.

For the Festa della Salute, which falls on a Saturday this year, the city builds a temporary bridge of pontoons across the Grand Canal from Santa Maria del Giglio. Thousands of people cross it to light a candle inside the basilica, stalls sell fritters and sweets, and many Venetian families still eat a stew of smoked mutton and cabbage that belongs to this day alone. The city confirms the dates of the bridge by ordinance in early November.

The timing suits you in two other ways. The Art Biennale stays open until 22nd November, and the day-tripper access fee applies only on selected days between April and July, so late November carries no charge.

Where to stay: The Gritti Palace, once the home of Doge Andrea Gritti, stands on Campo Santa Maria del Giglio, exactly where the votive bridge begins.

7. Strasbourg, France: the oldest Christmas market in France opens on 27th November

Strasbourg's Christkindelsmärik is first recorded in 1570, which makes it the oldest Christmas market in France, and the city has called itself the Capital of Christmas for decades. The 2026 edition opens on 27th November. The city has not yet published the closing date, although last year's market ran until 24th December.

The stalls spread across the old town island, from Place Broglie, where the market began, to the square below the cathedral. Built from pink sandstone, the cathedral was the tallest building in the world from 1647 to 1874, and after dark it becomes the backdrop for the whole market. Place Kléber holds the city's great Christmas tree. Try the spiced gingerbread, the small Alsatian Christmas biscuits sold by weight and mulled white wine, an Alsatian speciality.

The TGV from Paris takes about 1 hour 45 minutes, so you can reach Strasbourg from London in a day by rail.

Where to stay: The Régent Petite France sits on the river Ill in Petite France, the old tanners' quarter of half-timbered houses and canals.

8. Swedish Lapland: the Icehotel opens its 37th edition on 11th December

The 37th Icehotel opens on Friday 11th December 2026. Each winter, artists design the art suites and halls from scratch using ice from the Torne River, so no two seasons look the same. When the thaw comes, the building returns to the river.

The rooms stay below freezing, and guests sleep on reindeer hides inside thermal sleeping bags. Most people spend one night on the ice and the rest of the trip in the heated rooms on the same site. If you arrive before opening, ICEHOTEL 365, open all year since 2016, offers art suites made of ice and snow. Kiruna Airport is about 15 kilometres away, and the long Arctic nights of December give you the best odds of seeing the northern lights.

The opening package for 10th to 12th December is already fully booked, so look at the week that follows.

Where to stay: Book one night in an art suite for the experience, then move to a warm room or cabin on the Icehotel site for the rest of your stay.

How to choose

If you want snow and sport, go to Zermatt or Swedish Lapland. If you want music, pastry and candlelit squares, Vienna and Salzburg sit about two and a half hours apart by train and can share one trip. Venice and Strasbourg give you the deepest history, and Sibiu gives you the finest medieval square in Transylvania at its most festive. Whichever you choose, check the opening date on this list against your free week and book now, as the best rooms in all eight go first.