Christmas Markets of Austria and Bavaria

White sheets of snow lie softly across the Austrian Alps as you travel between palace rooms, market squares and mountain towns wrapped in winter color. At Vienna's Schonbrunn Palace, you move through white-and-gold Rococo rooms, where mirrors and ceiling frescoes catch the palace light. You follow the scent of gingerbread through Salzburg's 500-year-old Christmas Market, while Munich's six-storey tree rises above the glow of wooden stalls. In snow-dusted Seefeld, you’ll climb aboard a horse-drawn carriage for a ride through the Tyrolean countryside, listening to the gentle clop of hooves as alpine scenery unfolds around you. In Innsbruck, you warm your hands around Gluhwein as Swarovski crystal glints from the market stalls and chatter fills the cool air. The Salzburg Market Tasting experience brings you closer to the people behind the stalls, as you meet a market stallholder over mulled wine and a piece of traditional Lebkuchen. At Neuschwanstein, you follow the castle's ornate rooms and story-book details, tracing the world said to have inspired Walt Disney.