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Best Christmas Trips Without Flying: Festive Holidays by Train, Ferry & Cruise
Christmas travel doesn’t have to begin in an airport departure lounge. You could watch frosty countryside disappear past a train window, sleep your way across the North Sea, wake up in the Scottish Highlands or spend Christmas tucked away in a countryside cottage. You could even reach the snowy Swiss Alps without getting on a plane.
Some of the best Christmas Trips Without Flying make the journey part of the holiday. And you definitely don’t have to stay in the UK. High-speed trains, overnight ferries and Europe’s extensive rail network put Christmas markets, historic cities and winter landscapes within surprisingly easy reach.
Here are some of our favourites.
Christmas in Europe by Train
Europe is much closer by train than it sometimes feels. From London St Pancras, direct international trains put several European cities within easy reach, while onward connections open up hundreds more possibilities. Better still, you arrive in the heart of the city, avoiding the journey from an out-of-town airport.
Where can the train take you?
Direct Eurostar from London
Paris • Brussels • Lille • Rotterdam • Amsterdam
Easy onward connections:
Bruges • Cologne • Strasbourg • Switzerland
Go even further:
Connect through Europe’s rail network for Christmas trips across Germany, Austria, Switzerland and beyond.
Air-Holiday Insight
Don’t automatically think of Eurostar as a return trip to one city. With a little planning, two or three Christmas destinations can become one brilliant rail holiday.
Paris
Paris is one of the easiest European Christmas Trips Without Flying.
Board a direct Eurostar at London St Pancras and you’ll arrive at Paris Gare du Nord in around 2 hours 16 minutes.
At Christmas, the city glows after dark. Festive markets appear around Paris, the Champs-Élysées sparkles with lights and the city’s famous department stores unveil elaborate Christmas displays. Galeries Lafayette’s enormous Christmas tree beneath its stained-glass dome is worth seeing even if you aren’t planning to shop.
But don’t build your entire trip around Christmas attractions. Wrap up warm and wander beside the Seine, explore Montmartre, stop for hot chocolate and see the Eiffel Tower illuminated after dark.
Air-Holiday Insight
Don’t automatically pay extra to stay beside the biggest attractions. Being close to a useful Métro station can make exploring Paris far easier. Search for hotels.
Disneyland Paris
Christmas at Disneyland Paris brings a completely different kind of festive magic, with the parks transformed by decorations, twinkling lights and seasonal entertainment. During the Christmas season, look out for festive parades and shows, Disney Characters in their Christmas outfits, seasonal food and beautifully decorated Main Street, U.S.A. The exact programme can change each year, so check what’s running for your dates.
Getting there without flying is easy too. Look for direct Eurostar services to Disneyland Paris when available, taking you straight to the station beside the Disney Parks. If a direct service doesn’t work for your dates, take the Eurostar to Paris and continue by local train to Disneyland Paris instead.
Make Disneyland Paris the whole break or combine a couple of park days with Christmas in central Paris.
Air-Holiday Insight
Compare park tickets and accommodation before booking, particularly around weekends and school holidays when festive dates can be especially popular.
Bruges
Bruges already looks like somewhere from a Christmas card. Cobbled lanes, canals, medieval squares and stepped-gable buildings give the Belgian city a storybook feel before the decorations even go up. Add Christmas lights, winter stalls, Belgian chocolate and warm waffles and it becomes a brilliant festive break.
Getting there from Britain involves two trains. Take the Eurostar from London to Brussels-Midi/Zuid, then change in the same station onto a Belgian SNCB train to Bruges. The whole journey can currently be booked together and takes around 3 hours 20 minutes.
The historic centre is compact enough to explore on foot, making this particularly good for a short break but stay overnight if you can. Bruges can feel completely different once many of the daytime visitors have left and the historic centre becomes quieter.
Did you know? Bruges’ remarkable medieval appearance partly survived because the city’s economic importance declined for centuries. While wealthier cities extensively rebuilt, much of old Bruges remained.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam gives you two very different ways to arrive without flying.
The easiest option is a direct Eurostar from London St Pancras to Amsterdam Centraal. No onward train is needed.
Or forget the train altogether and make the journey part of the holiday with a ferry to the Netherlands.
Whichever way you arrive, Amsterdam works particularly well if you want a festive city break that isn’t entirely about Christmas markets. December brings illuminated canals, narrow canal houses, museums, cosy cafés and winter events. Take a canal cruise after dark, spend a few hours in the Rijksmuseum or wander away from the busiest streets into Amsterdam’s neighbourhoods.
If your arrival doesn’t line up with hotel check-in, luggage storage can also buy you a few extra hours of exploring without dragging your cases around the city.
Cologne
If Christmas markets are the main event, Cologne is well worth travelling a little further for. The city hosts several festive markets, each with its own atmosphere, from the spectacular market beneath Cologne Cathedral to smaller themed markets dotted around the city.
From London, take the Eurostar to Brussels-Midi/Zuid and change there onto another Eurostar service to Cologne. There’s no need to change stations in Brussels, and the entire journey can currently be booked together.
The arrival in Cologne is rather special too. Step outside Köln Hauptbahnhof and the enormous Gothic cathedral rises beside the station, with the historic centre just beyond.
Give yourself time to explore more than one market. Part of the fun in Cologne is wandering between them and seeing how much the atmosphere changes across the city.
Strasbourg
Strasbourg takes a little more effort to reach, but this is where travelling without flying starts to become a proper adventure.
Take the Eurostar from London to Paris Gare du Nord, then continue to Strasbourg on a high-speed TGV train from Gare de l’Est. The two Paris stations are close to each other, but you’ll need to allow time to make the transfer. Eurostar currently offers London–Strasbourg connecting journeys, with the total trip taking around six hours.
And Strasbourg is worth the journey. Its famous Christkindelsmärik dates back to 1570, giving the city centuries of Christmas tradition. Festive stalls spread through the historic centre, an enormous Christmas tree dominates Place Kléber and half-timbered buildings provide the sort of backdrop that barely needs decorating.
If you have longer, don’t stop at Strasbourg. The surrounding Alsace region is filled with smaller towns and villages that can turn a city break into a much bigger Christmas trip.
Sleep Your Way to Scotland
You don’t even have to leave Britain to make the journey part of your Christmas holiday. Board the Caledonian Sleeper in London, settle into your room and wake up in Scotland the following morning. Overnight services run to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William, making the journey itself the first night of your Christmas break.
For a winter escape, we’d be tempted to keep going north. Snow isn’t guaranteed in December, but the Highlands bring dramatic winter landscapes and frosty mornings. Fort William puts you close to Ben Nevis and Glen Nevis, while Inverness makes a great base for Loch Ness and the wider Highlands. Stay in town or hire a car when you arrive and escape to a remote cottage for a few days.
Travel to Switzerland by Eurostar & Train
Yes, you really can get from London to Switzerland without flying. But this one needs a little more explanation than simply saying “take the train”.
Start with the Eurostar from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord. You’ll then need to change stations, taking a short local train across Paris to Gare de Lyon before continuing by high-speed train into Switzerland. Don’t book a tight connection in Paris. Although the local train journey between the stations is short, allow plenty of time to get off Eurostar, navigate Gare du Nord, travel across Paris and find your onward train at Gare de Lyon.
Once you’re there, the country’s mountain railways take things to another level.
The Bernina Express and Glacier Express are two of Switzerland’s most famous scenic rail journeys, and either can turn the train itself into one of the highlights of the trip. The Bernina Express travels through dramatic Alpine scenery between Switzerland and northern Italy, including the Bernina Pass and the Landwasser Viaduct. The Glacier Express links Zermatt and St Moritz, crossing hundreds of bridges and dozens of tunnels on a journey of around seven and a half hours.
Scenic trains often need separate reservations even if you already hold a rail pass, so check the rules for the exact service before you travel.
If you’re planning to explore more of Switzerland by rail, it can also be worth comparing regular train tickets with a Swiss Travel Pass, especially if your trip includes several journeys rather than just one scenic route.
Take an Overnight Ferry at Christmas
There’s something about travelling by ferry that makes a Christmas trip feel like an adventure before you’ve even arrived. Take an overnight crossing and it gets even better. Book a cabin, have dinner, go to sleep at sea and wake up in another country ready to continue your journey.
The Netherlands is particularly good for this. You can sail Harwich to Hook of Holland, Hull to Rotterdam or Newcastle to Amsterdam (IJmuiden), giving you options depending on where in Britain you’re starting from and where you want to end up. From Hook of Holland, continue by public transport towards Rotterdam, Delft, The Hague or Amsterdam. From Hull, wake up near Rotterdam, while the Newcastle crossing brings you close to Amsterdam — ideal if you’d rather spend the night travelling than lose most of a day getting there. Or take the car and turn the crossing into the beginning of a European Christmas road trip.
France has plenty of options, from the short Dover to Calais crossing to routes including Dover to Dunkirk, Newhaven to Dieppe and Portsmouth to Caen. Once you’re across the Channel, you’re free to head towards Christmas markets, smaller towns and countryside stays that aren’t always as convenient by rail.
Taking the car can be particularly useful for families at Christmas too. Presents, winter coats, boots and everything else that seems to multiply at this time of year don’t have to be squeezed into airline baggage allowances.
Air-Holiday Insight
Don’t automatically choose the shortest crossing. Compare ferry routes, departure ports and sailing times first. An overnight ferry that gets you closer to your final destination can sometimes make far more sense than a short crossing followed by hours on the road.
Escape to the Isle of Wight for Christmas
You don’t need to cross an international border to have a Christmas island escape.
The Isle of Wight is separated from mainland England by just a few miles of water, but that short ferry journey still gives you the feeling of properly going away. Winter is very different from summer. Beaches become quieter, coastal walks are peaceful and seaside towns settle into a much slower rhythm.
Find a cosy cottage, hotel or holiday park stay, stock up on Christmas food and slow things down for a few days.
Walk around Freshwater Bay, explore the West Wight, watch the sea from Ventnor or find a pub with a fireplace and nowhere else you need to be.
For a quieter festive escape, it’s one of the more unusual Christmas Trips Without Flying — and you don’t have to travel halfway across Europe to do it.
Book a Cosy Christmas Cottage
Sometimes the best Christmas holiday is the one where you barely go anywhere once you’ve arrived. A cottage completely changes the rhythm of Christmas. Slow breakfasts. Winter walks. Board games and Christmas films. Dinner around a big table and evenings beside the fire. The Cotswolds might be an obvious choice, but look further. The Yorkshire Dales, Northumberland, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Wales, the Lake District and Scotland all have fantastic possibilities. Coastal cottages can be especially atmospheric in winter, when the summer crowds have disappeared.
What we’d look for
- Fireplace or wood burner
- Proper kitchen
- Large dining table
- Dog-friendly if needed
- Walking routes nearby
- Pub within walking distance
- Hot tub for an extra treat
- Flexible cancellation where possible
A whole holiday home also works brilliantly for larger families or groups who want to spend Christmas together without squeezing everyone into someone’s house.
Air-Holiday Tip: Check the kitchen photos properly. “Kitchen” can mean anything from a full-size range cooker to two hobs and a microwave. That’s quite an important distinction when you’ve volunteered to cook Christmas dinner.
Take a Christmas Cruise Without Flying
A Christmas cruise can take you surprisingly far without going anywhere near an airport.
Sail from UK ports such as Southampton, Tilbury, Portsmouth or Liverpool, with festive itineraries ranging from short breaks in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany to longer Christmas voyages around Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands and Scandinavia.
Prefer river cruising? Festive sailings along the Rhine, Danube and Seine combine the journey with Christmas markets and some of Europe’s most beautiful winter cities.
Christmas Cruises We’re Watching
Christmas Markets of Holland & Belgium
14th December 2026
3 Nights
From £296pp
Sail from Tilbury aboard Ambition for 3 nights, with time ashore in IJmuiden for easy access to Amsterdam and the surrounding area.
German Christmas Markets
16th December 2026
6 Nights
From £849pp
Sail from Southampton aboard Balmoral for 6 nights, with Hamburg and its Christmas markets at the heart of the trip.
Canary Islands Celebration
20th December 2026
14 Nights
From £1689pp
Sail from Southampton with Cunard for 14 nights, with stops including Funchal in Madeira and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Christmas & New Year Voyage to Spain & Portugal
21st December 2026
15 Nights
From £1794pp
Sail from Tilbury aboard Ambition for 15 nights, calling at Gijón, Málaga and Vigo. Spend Christmas and New Year combining Spanish ports.
Planning Christmas Trips Without Flying
Flight-free doesn’t automatically mean hassle-free. A little planning makes a huge difference.
Which Christmas Trip Without Flying Is Right for You?
Want easy?
Take a direct Eurostar to Paris or Amsterdam.
Want traditional Christmas markets?
Take Eurostar and an onward connection to Bruges, Cologne or Strasbourg.
Want family Christmas magic?
Combine Eurostar with Disneyland Paris for one of the easiest big festive trips without flying.
Want the journey to be part of the holiday?
Sleep your way there on an overnight ferry or the Caledonian Sleeper.
Want peace and quiet?
Book a cottage or escape to the Isle of Wight.
Want to unpack once and let the destinations come to you?
Take a Christmas cruise from a UK port, with festive sailings ranging from European Christmas markets to Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands.
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