Holiday season travel: Christmas market cruises

On this episode we’re talking about holiday travel, but a special niche, specifically river cruises that hit the big Christmas markets in Europe. The Christmas-market cruises came to our attention last year when Tauck president Jennifer Tombaugh was a guest on a family-travel Folo episode and talked about the cruises with enthusiasm. But shortly after that episode was published, new Covid restrictions arose in Europe, markets were canceled and borders were closed, which put the cruises on hiatus for another year. But now in 2022 the itineraries are expected to go ahead as scheduled, so we've brought Tombaugh back to talk about bookings, demand and the "magic" of a December Danube cruise. She is joined by river cruise expert Lisa Fitzgerald, of Fitzgerald Travel, and our river cruise editor Nicole Edenedo. Related: River cruise insight: Christmas market sailings in Europe are filling up fast https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Insights/Christmas-market-river-cruises-in-Europe-selling-fast Europe insight: Making the most of Vienna's Christmas markets: https://www.travelweekly.com/Europe-Travel/Insights/Making-the-most-of-Vienna-Christmas-markets From November 2021: With Christmas markets closed, river cruise lines cancel or alter sailings https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Christmas-markets-close-river-cruise-lines-cancel On this episode: Jennifer Tombaugh, president of Tauck: https://www.tauck.com/blog/from-tauck-president/ Lisa Fitzgerald, founder of Fitzgerald Travel: https://fitzgeraldtravel.com/about Nicole Edenedo, river cruise editor, Travel Weekly: https://www.travelweekly.com/nicole-edenedo Rebecca Tobin, Travel Weekly managing editor and host: https://www.travelweekly.com/rebecca-tobin  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.