Every year from September onwards I get the same phone call: we want to go for Advent, but we cannot decide between Vienna and Prague. Eleven seasons in, having walked both cities in December more times than I can count, I have an answer ready. It is not the name of a city. It is a question back to you.

Full disclosure: I marginally prefer Vienna. But I know people who came back from the Viennese markets disappointed and from Prague delighted, so let us set my taste aside and look at numbers.

Money: what you will actually spend

This decides it for most people, so it goes first. Prices are from December 2024. Expect five to ten percent more this winter.

  • Punch or mulled wine in Vienna: 4.50 to 6 euros a cup, plus a 3 to 5 euro mug deposit you get back. Rathausplatz sits at the top end, Spittelberg too, though the mugs there are nicer.
  • Svarak in Prague: 100 to 150 crowns on Old Town Square, roughly 4 to 6 euros. The surprise for most Slovaks: central Prague is no longer cheap. On Namesti Miru or Kampa you pay 70 to 90 crowns, about 3 to 3.60 euros.
  • Sausage: 5 to 7 euros in Vienna. On Old Town Square you can pay 150 crowns for a mediocre one. Classic tourist trap.
  • Lunch in a normal restaurant: Vienna 14 to 20 euros, Prague outside the centre 10 to 15.
  • Double room in December: Vienna 90 to 140 euros a night, Prague 70 to 120.

Overall, Prague works out fifteen to twenty percent cheaper, unless you never leave Old Town Square, in which case the gap disappears completely.

Getting there from northern Slovakia

From Turzovka, Vienna is about four hours by car via Bratislava. Prague is five and a half to six via Zilina and Brno. That extra hour and a half decides any day trip.

From Bratislava, Vienna is a walkover. Trains run hourly, the trip takes 66 minutes, and the EURegio ticket costs 16 euros and covers Vienna's public transport all day. It is the best transport deal in Central Europe. Prague by train from Bratislava is four hours; RegioJet or Leo Express tickets run 15 to 25 euros if you book ahead.

Practical version: Vienna for one day, Prague if you have two or three.

The markets themselves, which is the real question

Vienna spreads its markets across dozens of squares and each has its own character:

  • Rathausplatz. Biggest, brightest, most touristy. Children love it, adults tire of it after an hour. Ice skating paths through the park and trees strung with light-up hearts.
  • Schonbrunn. Compact, in front of the palace, with a decent music programme. Coach tours arrive around eleven and it fills fast.
  • Spittelberg. My favourite. Narrow Biedermeier lanes, crafts that actually look like crafts, less plastic. Go on a Thursday early evening.
  • Karlsplatz. The alternative one — organic food, design, a small animal enclosure for kids. Good even for people who find markets dull.

Prague concentrates almost everything in the centre: Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square. Old Town, with the tree, is beautiful for about fifteen minutes, and then the crowd pushes you out. The stalls repeat: trdelnik, sausage, mead.

Let me be blunt: trdelnik is not a Czech Christmas tradition. It is a tourist invention of the past twenty years. If you want something genuinely Czech, eat a bramborak, some roast pork knuckle, or buy vanilla crescents in a proper cake shop.

But Prague holds one card people rarely mention: Namesti Miru in Vinohrady. A smaller market where locals actually go, prices are normal, and the atmosphere is what people picture when they picture Prague. The markets on Kampa and by St Ludmila's church work the same way.

In Vienna you go for the markets. In Prague you go for the city, and the markets happen to be there. That is the whole difference, and it is worth knowing before you book.

Crowds and timing

Both cities are packed on the second and third Advent weekends. Go midweek if you possibly can. Tuesday or Wednesday between 15:00 and 19:00 is the sweet spot: dark enough for the lights, early enough to miss the weekend wave.

Vienna opens its markets around 15 November, Prague usually on the first Sunday of Advent. Go in November and you get half the crowds and the same lights.

With children: Vienna, no contest. Rathausplatz has the ice rink, ponies, a carousel and the illuminated trees. Prague for a small child is cobbled, slippery, and full of elbows at head height.

So who should go where

  • First Advent trip, with kids, one day, travelling from Slovakia: Vienna.
  • Watching the budget, love the city itself, tolerate crowds, have two or three days: Prague.
  • Done both, want something calmer: Prague away from the centre — Vinohrady, Kampa. Or Vienna's Spittelberg on a weekday.
  • Going mainly for gifts and craftwork: Vienna, Spittelberg and Karlsplatz.

We take small groups to both, usually twelve to sixteen people, and we build the schedule so there is time to sit down rather than just march through. If you still cannot decide, call us. It is a five-minute conversation and it usually settles it.