Yuletide Charm: A Bavarian Journey

Group Leader: Mr. Jason Engle

Departing: December 16, 2027

Departure City: Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX

660 days until the trip!

Join the Mailing List

Not ready to enroll yet but want to receive updates from the group leader and discount notifications? Join the mailing list!

Send this Page to Your Parent

Are you a student and want to share this page with your parent? Text them this link.

Important Dates

6/1/2026

Early Enrollment Discount (-$300)

7/19/2027

Deadline for E-Z Pay Enrollment

8/28/2027

Convenience Billing Final Payment Deadline

8/28/2027

Deadline for Peace of Mind Plan Enrollment

11/16/2027

EZ-Pay Final Payment Date

12/16/2027

Departure

Announcements

No announcements yet...

Overnights

Munich 2 • Innsbruck 1 • Lucerne 2 • Heidelberg 1

Includes

Accommodations

Accommodations in centrally-located three-star or four-star hotels. Rooming on a triple basis. Double rooms: $300 per person.

Transportation

Round-trip transportation on scheduled airline. Deluxe touring motorcoach. All public transportation tickets included where applicable.

Meals

All breakfasts. One lunch. All dinners. Traditional cheese fondue dinner on Day 6. Lunch in Titisee on Day 7.

Guides

Services of a specially-trained passports Tour Director throughout. All tips are included in the Program Cost. Whisper headsets included.

Inclusions

Entrances and activities as noted on itinerary.

Travel Protection

Passports provides a complimentary Post-Departure Travel Protection Plan that includes coverage for Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Medical Expenses, and more.

Summary

Days 1-2: Home - Munich

Arrival in Munich: Arrival transfer

Tour Director-led walking tour in the Schwabing area: Schwabing Christmas Market

Dinner

Overnight

Day 3: Munich

Half-day city sightseeing in Munich: Local Guide, Nymphenburg Palace and Gardens

Christmas Markets: Christkindlmarkt, Kripperlmarkt, Medieval Christmas Market

Dinner

Overnight

Day 4: Munich - Innsbruck

Travel to Innsbruck via Neuschwanstein: Neuschwanstein Castle

Tour director-led walking tour in Innsbruck

Dinner

Overnight

Day 5: Innsbruck - Lucerne

Travel to Lucerne via Liechtenstein: Sightseeing stop in Vaduz, Liechtenstein's capital city

Dinner

Overnight

Day 6: Lucerne

Tour director-led walking tour in Lucerne

Traditional cheese fondue dinner

Overnight

Day 7: Lucerne - Heidelberg

Travel to Heidelberg, via Rhine Falls, Black Forest, Titisee,: Rhine Falls from Laufen Castle's Belvedere Platform and Panoramic Elevator, Scenic Drive through the Black Forest, Sightseeing stop at the lakeside town of Titisee, Lunch in Titisee

Dinner

Overnight

Day 8: Heidelberg - Home

Depart Heidelberg via Frankfurt

Tour Detail

Days 1-2: Arrival in Munich, Schwabing Area Walking Tour
Arrival in Munich

Depart the U.S. for Europe via scheduled carrier. This is the big day! Watch the morning light gather slowly, first off the left-hand side of the airplane, then everywhere. It's the next day, and Germany!

You'll be struck by your first impression of Munich and its landmarks, which have been beautifully restored to their pre-war conditions.

Tour Director-led walking tour in the Schwabing area

In the company of your Tour Director, explore Schwabing, the area popular with Munich's youth, students, artists and writers alike. This part of the city retains an offbeat flavor, very much like Greenwich Village in New York City, or the Latin Quarter in Paris. Writers Ibsen and Rilke, as well as artists Klee and Kandinsky, lived and worked here.

Schwabing Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt)

The Schwabing Weihnachtsmarkt, true to its location in Munich's bohemian district, is the finest of Munich's artists markets and a showcase for contemporary culture, with high-quality crafts, art, music and culinary delights!

Day 3: Munich City Sightseeing, Christmas Markets
Half-day city sightseeing in Munich

A sightseeing tour in München takes you around the impressive Theresienwiese, site of the famous annual Oktoberfest. In the center of the city discover the grand set-piece boulevards of the Ludwigstrasse and Maximilianstrasse with their Neoclassical palaces, and the monumental Feldherrnhalle where, in 1923, Hitler failed in his attempt at the coup d'état known as the Munich Putsch. See the student area of Schwabing, Königsplatz, the Residenz, the Frauenkirche, whose 300-foot-high onion-domed towers symbolize the Munich skyline, and the historic Marienplatz. The tour ends with a performance of the red-coated mannequins in the Neuen Rathaus (Town Hall) Glockenspiel.

A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Munich, will accompany your group.

Visit to the Nymphenburg Palace and Gardens

Visit Nymphenburg Palace, once the summer residence of the Bavarian sovereigns. See rooms decorated in their original Baroque style from the 17th century, as well as Rococo and Neoclassical decor. The gardens were landscaped in the 18th century by an employee of André Le Nôtre, who designed the gardens of Versailles.

Christmas Markets

Munich's Christmas market tradition dates back to the medieval fairs of the 14th century. Nowadays, the capital of Bavaria sparkles at Christmastime with some twenty markets located throughout the city, many with a special theme (there's even one at the airport, with a skating rink!).

Marienplatz Christmas Market (Christkindlmarkt)

Visit Munich's historic Christmas Market (Christkindlmarkt), held in the splendid setting of Marienplatz, by the Town Hall. It's got all one can expect of a German Christmas market, with a hundred and fifty stalls set up around a 100-foot-tall Tannenbaum dressed in white lights.

Manger Market (Kripperlmarkt )

Check out the Kripperlmarkt (Manger Market) located on Rindermarkt, a short walk from Marienplatz. This market offers all that's needed (and more!) to create Nativity scenes, notably exquisite woodcarvings from Oberammergau and the South Tyrol.

Medieval Christmas Market

For a journey through the Germany of fairy tales, walk through the Medieval Christmas Market (Mittelaltermarkt), located on Wittelsbacherplatz, near the Odeonplatz U-Bahn station. There, euros are called guilders, costumed vendors hawk traditional ornaments and tempting food (roasted piglets are popular), and musicians entertain the crowd.

Day 4: Neuschwanstein, Innsbruck Walking Tour

Today, follow a scenic route into fantasyland.

Guided tour at Neuschwanstein Castle

Enter the dream castle built by Bavaria's "mad" King Ludwig II. About Neuschwanstein, the model for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty's castle, it is said that Ludwig employed a stage set designer rather than an architect. The result is pure theatrical fantasy, stimulated by the King's fancy for Wagnerian music: from artificial grottoes to ornate rooms to dazzling views of the Alps from the belvedere.

Travel to Innsbruck

Your coach takes you to the Austrian mountain resort of Innsbruck, which hosted the Winter Olympic Games twice, in 1964 and 1976.

Tour director-led walking tour in Innsbruck

The city's historic center is concentrated in a few small blocks. Your tour director will introduce landmarks such as the Hofburg Palace (summer residence of the Hapsburg monarchs), the cathedral, the Little Golden Roof, Maria-Theresien-Strasse, and the rococo-style Helblinghaus. View the Triumphpforte the Triumphal Arch is one of Innsbruck's most prominent sights. Like a triumphal arch of antiquity, it bears witness to Innsbruck's history.

Old Town Christmas Market

Enjoy a visit to the Christmas markets in Innsbruck, a magical winter experience set against the stunning backdrop of the snow-covered Nordkette mountains. The most famous market, located in the Old Town (Altstadt) beneath the Golden Roof (Goldenes Dachl), features charming wooden stalls selling traditional Tyrolean crafts, festive decorations, and seasonal treats like Kiachln (fried pastries with cranberry sauce).

Day 5: Liechtenstein, Lucerne

More majestic scenery today as you travel through Austria's Arlberg Alps to the postage-stamp-sized Principality of Liechtenstein. A fragment of the former Germanic Confederation, it became a sovereign state in 1719 but now functions as an economic satellite of the Swiss Confederation, to which it is linked by monetary, postal and diplomatic conventions.

Enjoy a photo stop in Liechtenstein's capital city, which is famous for its Postage Stamp Museum!

Cross the border into Switzerland, traveling through its historic cantons to William Tell's country.

Day 6: Lucerne Walking Tour, Cheese Fondue Dinner
Tour director-led walking tour in Lucerne

Explore Lucerne's Old Town. You may want to feed the ducks from the ancient wooden Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge). Pause at Thorvaldsen's Löwendenkmal (or Lion of Lucerne), near the remarkable Glacier Gardens. See the large and noble Jesuitenkirche, one of the landmarks that show that the rural alpine areas in central and southern Switzerland remained Roman Catholic following the Reformation.

Franziskanerplatz Christmas Market

Soak in the traditional Swiss festive atmosphere at the Franziskanerplatz Christmas Market held in the heart of Lucerne. Featuring beautifully decorated wooden stalls selling handmade crafts, seasonal delicacies, and holiday gifts. Visitors can enjoy Swiss specialties like Glühwein (mulled wine), roasted chestnuts, and gingerbread while listening to live Christmas music.

Traditional cheese fondue dinner

At tonight's dinner, taste a real Swiss cheese fondue.

Day 7: Rhine Falls, Black Forest, Titisee, Heidelberg

Stop in the Swiss town of Dachsen to visit Schloss Laufen, built on a rocky spur above the colossal Rhine River Falls. Goethe described the spectacle of the river plunging from a height of seventy feet at the foot of this medieval fortress as "the Source of the Ocean." Take in the view from the castle's Belvedere Walk and Platform, but don't miss the panoramic elevator.

Scenic Drive through the Black Forest

Travel through the wooded landscapes of the mountainous Schwarzwald.

Pause in a small town located on the picturesque shores of the glacial lake Titisee, and you'll understand why it has become a favorite destination.

Enjoy lunch at a quaint restaurant.

Travel to Heidelberg

Continue to the seat of Germany's oldest university (1386) , which inspired Sigmund Romberg's operetta The Student Prince.

Free time in Heidelberg

Get ready for your last German Christmas Market, the Weihnachtsmarkt, open during the four weeks of the Advent. Enjoy the seasonal music and hear the choirs sing traditional songs of the season. Stroll through the festively lit areas and sample some of the local specialties, some prepared only at Christmastime. Have your final Glühwein and find your last souvenirs.

Day 8: Frankfurt, Departure

Board your coach for the ride to Frankfurt.

Auf Wiedersehen! Memories of Glockenspiels, Cinderella castles, oom-pah bands, fastidiously clean villages and fast, sleek automobiles all blur together as you bid adieu to Germany at the bustling Frankfurt airport.

You'll arrive home eager to share your adventures with family and friends.

Upload a Photo

Using your cell phone, login to this web site. Click the button below and take a photo. The photo will be saved to your camera roll and to this photo stream.

STEP 1:
STEP 2:
STEP 3:

Group Photos

No photos posted yet. Be the first!!

New Post

Messageboard

No posts yet...





passports educational travel logo

passports Educational Group Travel partners with teachers across the United States to provide high-quality educational travel experiences to their students. Educational tours visit destinations around the world - primarily France, Italy, England, Spain and Costa Rica - at low, guaranteed prices.

CONTACT US

passports
51 Union Street Suite 106
Worcester, MA 01608

1-800-332-7277
Email Us

© Copyright 1992-2026 Passports Educational Travel | All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy