UKC

Hey everyone,

Being the poor student I am I'd like to go to the Christmas Markets in Germany except its a bit too expensive.

Can anyone recommend some in the UK?

Cheers

In reply to luckywally:


Try this link:

http://www.christmasmarkets.com/UK.html

In reply to luckywally:

I know what you mean! We always went to Koln, Hamburg and Rothenburg markets when we lived there, all excellent which we miss going to but we have found Winchester market really good. Loads of good stalls, great scran and an ice rink.

I'm going to Prague this year. But the last two we've had a lovely time in Bath. Last year we did Cheltenham. This year we're doing Birmingham (which is highly rated).

If you google there are some reviews of the UK's best. Some don't last as long as others.

In reply to luckywally:
Birminghams is meant to be the biggest outside of Germany

In reply to batson:

Birmingham's market starts this Saturday

In reply to luckywally:
My sister says the one in Bury st edmonds is good but be prepared to walk as its spread all over town.
I like the Lincoln one, it got abit tatty but in recent years they have been working to get the overal quality of stalls to a good level, with a nice mix of english and overseas crafts.

In reply to luckywally:

My missus, who loves German christmas markets, goes to Birmingham most years. She thinks it's quite good. There is a nice (but small) one in Bath.

In reply to luckywally:

Edinburgh's is pretty good and seems to be getting better each year.

Also a great city for a weekend away, much better than Birmingham in my opinion.

Where are you based? With the price of petrol now it might be just as cheap to get a budget flight to (for example) Munich if you're going to make a weekend of it.

In reply to Hannah S: Lincolns is one of the most established of the UK ones. I haven't been for a while as it was just ridiculously busy, and whilst there was some interesting stuff, there was still a lot of generic german wooden tat.

In reply to luckywally:

Manchester is by far the best i have been to.

In reply to luckywally:

I haven't done many, but the Brum one is quite good.

Neil

In reply to luckywally: I used to be a big fan of the Xmas markets in Manchester, but £4.50 for a sausage in a tiny piece of bread and £6 for a gluvine is a bit much these days. And that is all you would want to buy in them cause the rest of the stalls are just full of tat.

In reply to EeeByGum:

aye the same think every year (as in identical products), most of which are crap, too expensive, too crowded. The Manchester one is rather dull these days.

In reply to luckywally:
Birminghams is definitely the best one in the country. Best one out of Germany in fact! Luckily it's a 10 minute walk from my work place mwaaahh!!!

In reply to luckywally: Edinburgh's is so good I actually take a day off work so i can take Mrs j along. it's a combination of scottish and german so lots of gluhwien (sp?) and venison burgers to keep us warm while we peruse the usual shite these places try to sell.

In reply to graeme jackson:

And if you go to the Edinburgh one, you can go on the Ferris Wheel and the ice rink as well.

In reply to tony:
true enough but take your thermals. It gets bloody cold on Princes street in december for some reason (colder than the rest of Embra)

Thanks so much for all the replies! Bham sounds good, definitely look into it. I think someone mentioned that York was meant to be lovely too and I hear its quite pretty.

I'm based in Derby, we had a look at Lille going on the train, its not toooo pricey but too much for my budget really. Also, my bf is flying home to Dublin on the return so that ruled out a few places.

I used to live in Belfast, so if anyone is over that way the Christmas market there is good!

In reply to luckywally: We went to B'ham last year and it was heaving - really spoilt it.

In reply to luckywally:

My wife raves about the Manchester one too.

In reply to luckywally:


The Lincoln Market is only an hour away on the train from Derby and there are usually specials laid on from Nottingham Station. I like Birmingham but the atmos at Lincoln can be better with it being very medieval around the castle area where the market is.

In reply to luckywally:

Another vote for Lincoln here. It's frickin' massive and much more diverse than a lot of the wooden hut clone type markets. I'm not so interested in the crafty stuff, but there's loads of food stalls. And yes, the setting around the cathedral and castle does lend a certain extra atmosphere.

It's only on for one weekend and it can get very busy.

In reply to Bloodfire:

I'll see your 10 minutes to Birmingham and I'll raise you 25 minutes to Nuremberg :-P

To the OP: I always thought the one in Bath was lovely, and I still think it's one of the best I've been to (including in Germany). If you did decide to come to Germany to see them, then I would suggest looking at the medium sized ones, rather than the massive ones - they are similar to what the Manchester one sounds like. Medium sized towns often have a bit more charm about them.

Tim

In reply to adam:

For the uninitiated I will clarify "very busy".

"Very busy" last year meant that they couldn't let one more person into the castle area for fear of people being crushed to death in some kind of Pamplona-esque gore fest.

Everyone was ushered round some side roads which meant basically doing a loop round Lincoln like a herd of gluhwein-hungry cattle. After about an hour of shuffling there was a small area of stalls to browse if you could find a way to the front of the crowd at any given one.

If you wished to try your luck again getting into the castle area you would have had to take another hours shuffling back round to the start and hope for the best (but you weren't allowed to hang around there and wait, should it still prove busy. You'd have been sent on loop two of your nightmareish groundhog day.)

Just sayin.

In reply to Alyson: a bit like b'ham...

In reply to Submit to Gravity:

Or Nuremberg...

In reply to luckywally: having not visited any other christmas markets than Manchester's i'd have to say its Manchester's, of course!

In reply to luckywally:

The Brum one is pretty good. Some rather generic stalls, but decent stuff to be had between them too. The food is worth it alone to be honest.
There was a cool little pop-up boutique place last year too, doing vintage clothes, hand-made clothing and various alternative craft stuff too, on the same street as the market. Dunno if it'll be there this year or not, but I may pop into town in a week or so to check it out anyways.

In reply to luckywally: The one at Chester is nice.

In reply to Alyson:

Stay home and simply pour some boiling red wine into a bowl of pot pourri and voilà, Glühwein without that cattle feeling.