{"id":584188,"date":"2025-11-21T06:58:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/584188\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T06:58:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:58:15","slug":"europes-biggest-christmas-market-in-unlikely-capital-just-53-flight-from-uk-europe-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/584188\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s biggest Christmas market in unlikely capital – just \u00a353 flight from UK | Europe | Travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Europe\u2019s biggest Christmas market<\/a> has just lit up for the season \u2013 but it\u2019s not found in Germany or Austria, but in Craiova<\/a>, a colourful city in southwest Romania<\/a>. Spread over roughly 280,000 square metres (over three million square feet) of lights, rides and festive decorations, Craiova\u2019s Christmas market<\/a> is billed as the largest in Europe, turning the entire city centre into a glowing winter wonderland.<\/p>\n

Having opened on November 14, it will run until January 4, 2026, giving Brits plenty of time to squeeze in a long weekend before or after Christmas<\/a>. Craiova\u2019s market has earned a number of impressive titles, including the “Most Beautiful Christmas Market in Europe” by a panel of travellers, surpassing renowned destinations like Germany’s Munich market or Vienna’s Christkindlmarkt<\/a>. In this Romanian city, visitors can enjoy the highest-flying Santa sleigh in Eastern Europe<\/a>, a huge panoramic wheel or even a dance on the ice rink.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019re there, it\u2019s full-on storybook stuff, according to Ski Vertigo<\/a>. The historic squares and surrounding streets are packed with traditional wooden chalets<\/a> selling handmade gifts and decorations, food stalls serving mulled wine, hot chocolate, grilled sausages and sweet chimney cake, a big ice rink and fairground rides for families and themed areas with oversized decorations, music and nightly performances.<\/p>\n

“Think millions of twinkling lights, photo spots on every corner and that mix of old European architecture and over-the-top Christmas d\u00e9cor you usually only see in films.”<\/p>\n

Winter travel specialists at Ski Vertigo said Craiova<\/a> is shaping up to be one of Europe\u2019s most magical \u2013 and best-value \u2013 festive breaks. They analysed Skyscanner to find the cheapest flights<\/a> available now and found return fares from London to Craiova International Airport (CRA) starting from around \u00a353 per person on sample dates, with many winter trips falling in the roughly \u00a350\u2013\u00a370 range when you\u2019re flexible on travel days.<\/p>\n

\u201cA quick check on Skyscanner shows return flights from London to Craiova can often be found in the budget range when you\u2019re flexible on dates,\u201d a Ski Vertigo spokesperson said. \u201cFor many people, getting to Europe\u2019s biggest Christmas market can cost less than a night out back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just don\u2019t underestimate the weather. This part of Romania<\/a> gets a proper continental winter \u2013 December days are cold, nights are freezing, and frost (and the odd dusting of snow) is very common.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beautiful but brisk,\u201d Ski Vertigo added. \u201cWe\u2019d strongly advise visitors to wrap up warm \u2013 thermal layers, a proper winter coat, hat, scarf, gloves and decent boots \u2013 so you can stay out for hours, skating on the ice rink, wandering the stalls and soaking up the atmosphere, without having to duck indoors every 20 minutes to defrost.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Brits who feel they\u2019ve \u201cdone\u201d the usual German and Austrian markets, Craiova offers something bigger, more theatrical and still surprisingly affordable \u2013 all just a short three-hour 20-minute flight from the UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s biggest Christmas market has just lit up for the season \u2013 but it\u2019s not found in Germany…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[28002,35745,56261,114578,184334,2000,299,184335,5187,184338,176127,1438,184339,184336,5006,184337,57944,59345,176129],"class_list":{"0":"post-584188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-budget-travel","9":"tag-christmas","10":"tag-christmas-market","11":"tag-christmas-shopping","12":"tag-craiova","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-europes-biggest","16":"tag-european","17":"tag-fairground-rides","18":"tag-ice-rink","19":"tag-romania","20":"tag-short-flights","21":"tag-southwest-romania","22":"tag-tourism","23":"tag-traditional-wooden-chalets","24":"tag-travel-section","25":"tag-winter","26":"tag-winter-wonderland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115586394454316028","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}