Berlin Christmas Markets Opening Day: Five Markets, One Day, About £109
Berlin's big Christmas markets open on Monday 23 November 2026. A Stansted day trip lands at 09:15 and flies home at 20:50, 11.6 hours on the ground, for about £109 with flights and the day. Gendarmenmarkt is the only one that charges, €2, and it's free Monday to Friday 12:00 to 14:00.
Five Christmas markets, one Monday, about £109. Berlin's big markets all open on 23 November, and a day trip from Stansted gets you there for day one of the lot.
The £59 flight is our board's estimate for the route, checked on 29 September 2026, not a locked-in fare, so check today's price. The other £50 is our own cost data for the day on the ground: train in and out, local transport, lunch and dinner.
The day
Out of Stansted at 06:30, landing 09:15. Flight home is 20:50, so 11.6 hours in Berlin. The FEX or S-Bahn gets you into town in about 30 minutes for €4, and a BVG AB day ticket is €9 if you're hopping between markets. You will be.
Five markets, and only one charges
Gendarmenmarkt, the WeihnachtsZauber, is the famous one and the only one of the five with a ticket, €2. Here's the bit most people miss: it's free Monday to Friday between 12:00 and 14:00. You're there on a Monday. Go at lunchtime and keep your two euros.
Alexanderplatz runs 11:00 to 22:00 and it's free. The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church market on Breitscheidplatz is free and runs the longest, right into 3 January. Charlottenburg Palace opens at 13:00 on a Monday, also free, and it's the prettiest backdrop of the lot. Spandau Old Town is free too, but it's out west, so we'd save it for another trip.
What we'd actually do
Land, train in, and start with something that isn't a market, because nothing opens before 11:00. Brandenburg Gate and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe are both free and right next to each other. Alexanderplatz from 11:00, Gendarmenmarkt in the free window from 12:00, then Charlottenburg in the afternoon as the lights come on. Dinner back in town, and aim to be on the train to the airport by about 19:00.
Is it worth £109?
£109 is a bit over what we'd normally call a cheap day. But it's five markets, 11.6 hours on the ground, and four of them cost nothing to walk into. Frankfurt's market opens the same day and comes in at nearly three times that from Manchester. Berlin's the smarter Monday.
Food's the one to watch. Dinner in our cost data is £24, more than lunch and the train put together, so eat properly at the stalls and you'll claw some back.
See the full day
Berlin on Mon 23 Nov: flight times, time on the ground and today's price
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Photo credits. Top: Andreas Trojak, CC BY 2.0. Alexanderplatz: Marten.editor, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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