Valkenburg Christmas Markets, Holland

Possibly the most unique markets I have been to!

Valkenburg is in Holland, we flew to Cologne, Germany and hired a car to drive about an hour to an hour and a half over the border. Pretty easy to get to and if you do fly into Cologne you have a perfect opportunity to combine the Christmas market visits.

What makes them unique?

The markets are in caves! There are 2 caves, the Velvet Cave and the Municipal Cave You should book entrance to the caves/markets in advance, the negative to this is you need to be prepared, less spontaneous and yes, it costs. But I did find it special and certainly unique. I also think there is quite some flexibility with the slot allocation, I don’t think they pay too much attention to the time, as long as you have a ticket for the correct day, that said, do aim to be plus or minus at the entrance for your allotted slot.

The city has these Marl stone/rock caves, and goes about making the most of them at Christmas time. There’s no big difference between the 2 caves, only that there are 2 locations (close by). A major difference with the Valkenburg Markets compared to others I have visited, they don’t have the food and drink stands. All the stands are selling Christmas items. There is a lot of cheap Asian made tat. But I don’t want you to take that as a negative, we really liked this. Christmas is quite tacky with the decorations and things you put up, but in a very very fun way. We enjoyed seeing everything they sold and the chance to buy these bits and pieces, at very reasonable prices, and we did come away with a lot of stuff. It's fun, bright, flashy, and atmospheric. You will like it.

For food and drink there is a central bar. This is on multi levels in the cave which has bands and entertainment play throughout the day at various times. This is the only place to buy the drinks and food in the market.

As you wonder round, they have fun installations set up, to take pictures, and selfies. It's well decorated, illuminated and planned in a way for you to have maximum joy and fun.

Weather does not affect you. There’s no rain in a cave and the temperature is ok. It's spacious enough inside and with the ticketed entrance they can control the numbers, therefore never feeling overly crowded.

Kids like it here. It is safe for a start, no cars in a cave, and the entrance exit is one door. They can run backwards or forwards, they will eventually end up at the same point. The cave would be suitable for a pushchair. The attractive decorations and installations they have set up amazes the kids, and the stands selling the Christmas gifts, decorations and toys certainly get the children’s attention.

It has been the first market where I was genuinely interested in buying Christmas items rather than just food and drinks. It's not so much Christmas crafts and handmade objects rather cheap plastic items, but honestly, I see this as a positive so don’t take it in a bad way. Yes, you need to be a bit planned, with booking and paying for your entrance, but how unique and special is this, markets in a cave, very cool.

The town has a castle on the hill you can visit (the Velvet cave is underneath it), and the town center itself seems to be kind of 'T' shaped. There are shops obviously, and it seems loads of bars and restaurants. What impressed me, and I typically don’t mind the cold. The bars all have outside terraces, and they are packed. Everyone is eating and drinking outside in the cold...and on our visit it was cold!! You can’t get into some they are so busy, in fact in some cases you have more chance if you want an inside seat. I have probably never seen anywhere like this, where it was perhaps subzero and the terraces were full, yes, they had outside heaters but believe me it wasn’t toasty.

Without a reservation it can be challenging to find a place to eat and drink, but it is not impossible, if you do want to be a bit spontaneous - we didn't make any reservations. There is a nice buzz and feel about the town and the streets are alive for what is a relatively small town.

Over the river there is a small kind of open-air Christmas market, it is really only selling food and drink at this one.

On the Christmas market website, there are various activities you can book and plan. Having not done these, I am unable to discuss them, the website does explain each one and if anything takes your fancy of course book up. While we were there, they did have the Christmas parade, they call Landal Christmas Parade, this was a surprise unplanned bonus for us. You will need to find the route from a local or online and decide where you want to stand, it is slow to start and goes on a while, once it gets going, it is fun, colourful and cheerful. Very much like a small carnival with elaborate floats, dancers and a great festive atmosphere.

For a unique market and the chance to buy fun decorations for your place back home, Valkenburg may be hard to beat.