Christmas happens in a lot of places. Here is where to book it.
Mulled wine under a Viennese town hall, a double-decker past Regent Street’s angels, a reindeer sleigh above the Arctic Circle. Reviews of the festive tours worth your December.
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31Four Christmas bookings that set the whole season up.
London’s lights from the top deck, Brooklyn’s blazing front gardens, Santa’s village in Lapland and a Munich market with a guide who knows which stall pours the best Glühwein.
01London, after darkLondon: Christmas Lights Bus Tour With Live GuideOxford Street, Regent Street and Covent Garden lit up, seen from an open top deck with a guide on the microphone.
02New York, BrooklynNYC: Dyker Heights Christmas Lights & Skyline View Bus TourDyker Heights, where whole streets compete with ten-metre nutcrackers, plus a stop for the Manhattan skyline.
03Lapland, Arctic CircleRovaniemi: Reindeer, Huskies & Santa Claus VillageA reindeer sleigh, a husky run and the queue for Santa himself, packed into one snowy day out of Rovaniemi.
04Munich, AdventChristmas Markets Food Tour in MunichThe Marienplatz market by stall, with tastings of the sausages, roasted almonds and spiced wine that keep it warm.
An American Christmas: Brooklyn lawns, Radio City kicks and a cocoa cruise past Liberty.
No country has more Christmas tours to book than the USA, and most of them start in New York. Choose your kind of evening, then compare what it costs to board.
Our pick★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · NYC: Dyker Heights Christmas Lights & Skyline View Bus Tour · from $69
New York lightsDyker Heights front gardens, Rockefeller tree, Fifth Avenue windows.
Holiday showsThe Rockettes, Branson stages and a Motown Christmas revue.
Harbour cruisesCocoa on deck and the skyline lit for the season.
Carriages & private ridesA horse carriage through Central Park, a car out to Brooklyn.
All 117 American Christmas tours →
Six cities that do Christmas better than the rest of the calendar.
Regent Street’s angels, a Fifth Avenue tree, Santa’s own post office, a market in front of a Viennese town hall, a Baroque square in Prague and the Champs-Élysées strung with light.
Christmas lights tours, from Regent Street to Dyker Heights.
The most booked kind of Christmas tour on the site. Choose the deck, the street and the city; the bus does the walking while you look up.
3Christmas markets with a guide: which stall, which mug, which square.
Germany and Austria built the Christmas market and still run the best of them: wooden huts, roasting chestnuts and Glühwein in a mug with a deposit on it. A guide gets you to the good stalls before the crowds do.
Every Christmas market tour →
The Christmas tours more people book than any others.
Every festive tour on the site →Eight festive days out with the longest booking lists in the world, from London’s lights buses to the snowfields of Lapland.
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London: Christmas Lights Bus Tour With Live Guide
Spend 60 to 90 minutes touring London’s festive lights with an English-speaking guide such as Brennan, Shaun, Ethan, or Emma. See Regent Street, Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, and the London Eye from an open-top bus. Choose an upper-deck view or the warmer lower deck, and dress for winter weather.
From · $33
Read our review →
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Rovaniemi: Reindeer, Huskies & Santa Claus Village
from $221
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Paris: Tootbus Open-Top Christmas Bus Tour
from $46
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NYC: Dyker Heights Christmas Lights & Skyline View Bus Tour
from $69
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London Christmas Lights Tour by Vintage Bus Open Top
from $37
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Rovaniemi: Snowman World Entry Ticket in Santa Claus Village
from $41
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Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Guided Tour
from $63
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New York City: Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Tour
from $46
Lapland at Christmas: Santa’s village, a husky team and a reindeer sleigh.
Rovaniemi sits on the Arctic Circle with Santa Claus Village a short ride from the airport. In December there are only a few hours of daylight, so the good tours pack the sleigh rides around the brightest part of the day.
- 1Rovaniemi: Reindeer, Huskies & Santa Claus Villagefrom $221
- 2Rovaniemi: Snowman World Entry Ticket in Santa Claus Villagefrom $41
- 3Rovaniemi: Santa Claus Village and Arctic Circlefrom $140
The Christmas dates that will not wait for a late booking.
Most of December can be booked the week before. These four run on fixed dates, short seasons or a single midnight, and the good places go long before you land.
- 01Christmas Markets Food Tour in MunichMost German markets close on the 23rd or on Christmas Eve. Book market days for Advent, never for the week after.
- 02Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring the Rockettes TicketThe Christmas Spectacular runs from November into early January, and December weekend seats go first.
- 03Festive London Christmas Day River Thames Lunch CruiseLondon’s Tube and buses stop on Christmas Day. A lunch cruise solves the getting-there and the eating together.
- 04Madeira: New Year’s Eve Fireworks by CatamaranThere is one midnight and each boat has a fixed number of places. New Year’s Eve cruises fill before anything else.
What a Christmas day out costs, wherever you spend it.
Every festive tour on the site, grouped by price. Plenty of the best December evenings cost less than the hotel breakfast.
Lights walks, market tastings, carol concerts and the open-top bus loops.
Guided market days, Brooklyn lights tours, Christmas shows and festive dinners.
Lapland days with huskies and reindeer, private carriages and New Year’s Eve on the water.
Three Christmas traditions you can only book for a few weeks a year.
A rink in a castle courtyard, a sleigh pulled by horses through the snow, a mug of spiced wine at a wooden hut. None of them exist in July.
Christmas Ice Rinks
Every December, castle courtyards, museum forecourts and town squares freeze over for a few weeks of skating. Light trails often run alongside, so an evening ticket covers both. Rinks run timed sessions, and the after-dark slots are the ones that fill.
- 1Brooklyn Dyker Heights Christmas Wonderland Bus Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 245 reviews
- 2Branson’s Christmas Wonderland★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 97 reviews
- 3Christmas at Warwick Castle – Light Trail & Ice Skating Packages★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 95 reviews
Sleigh & Carriage Rides
In Salzburg the carriage swaps wheels for runners when the snow is deep enough. In New York the same idea means a blanket over your knees through Central Park and past the lit-up hotels. Prices are usually per carriage, not per head, so bring three friends.
- 1New York City Christmas Lights Private Horse Carriage Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 237 reviews
- 2Christmas Horse-Drawn Sleigh/Carriage Ride from Salzburg★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 154 reviews
- 3NYC: Magical Christmas Lights Carriage Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 121 reviews
Mulled Wine Tastings
Glühwein in Germany, vin chaud in Alsace, glögg in Scandinavia: hot wine with cinnamon, clove and orange, served in a mug you can keep or hand back for the deposit. A tasting walk takes in a few stalls and the food that goes with each.
- 1Dresden: Advent Tour with Stollen Tasting and Mulled Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 140 reviews
- 2Christmas Vibe: Old San Juan Pitorro Rum Tasting Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 85 reviews
- 3Christmas Lights and Markets Guided Walking Tour with Mulled Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 72 reviews
Minus five by four o’clock: the warm side of a northern Christmas.
Northern Europe in December gets dark mid-afternoon and colder after that. Plan the outdoor part for the light, then head indoors: a candlelit church concert, a festive dinner with a show, a food tour that moves from one warm room to the next.
By city: where to spend Christmas
New Christmas tour reviews.
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NYC: Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Express Hot Coco+Santa Cookie
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New Years Eve Speakeasy Drinks and Ball Drop Tour NYC
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Ultimate NYC Christmas Lights At Night Walking Tour
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Private Christmas Lights Horse Carriage Tour In New York City
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Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Tour from Times Square
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NYC Rockefeller Center Christmas Lights Horse Carriage Ride
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New Orleans French Quarter: Seasonal Christmas Tour
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