Managing Expectations For Fall In Europe

While I’ve given you plenty of dreamy fall destinations, it’s important that you don’t come to any of them with the expectation that you can perfectly recreate the small-town America fall vibes. It will requiring searching to find a café that will put syrups in coffee, and autumn doesn’t make service with a smile magically appear in Europe.

Some of the places on this list are not small towns at all, rather they are picked for fall foliage or fall activities. The style of architecture is also extremely different in Europe than in the U.S., and I’ve found that to be one of the biggest differences. Being surrounded by stone can be a vibe, especially around Halloween and for Harry Potter, Wednesday, or Dark Academia lovers. Still, it will never feel as cozy as the wooden single-family homes we are used to (if you are American, that is!). To help combat this, I picked out accommodation at each destination that feels the homiest and coziest to me, as a small town American, and accommodation which would spare jokes from Rory and Lorelai (so no Cheshire Cat!)  

Ludwigsburg, Germany – World’s Largest Pumpkin Festival

If you’re looking for cozy fall, I’ve found Southern Germany to be the cozy fall capital of Europe. Multiple of my recommendations are here, and there are so many cute small towns that I am writing entire article just on fall in Germany. Ludwigsburg is the epitome of fall, and the place I’d recommend most of all.

Every year from around end of August to early November, the world’s largest pumpkin festival takes place in Ludwigsburg, which is just 15 minutes from Stuttgart with public transport. The festival takes place in the Blühendes Barock Palace, where in addition to dozens of impressive pumpkin sculptures and thousands of pumpkins, the palace grounds also have a Japanese garden, a Rapunzel-like castle tower, a fairytale garden, aviaries (birds) and many more beautiful gardens. The place is tranquil, and even without the pumpkin festival I’d recommend.

Anyway, the Pumpkin festival serves many pumpkin themed foods, from pumpkin fries to pumpkin käsespätzle, which was literally the best käsespätzle I’ve had in Germany (it’s kinda like a mac ‘n cheese, and you find it at Christmas markets as well!). Of course, there’s also pumpkin spiced lattes and a shop with all kinds of teas, coffees, snacks, and knick knacks.

The town of Ludwigsburg itself is quite cozy too, and I even stumbled up an antique market while there that really put the nail in the cozy coffin. The great thing about Ludwigsburg is that it is situated in this conglomerate of other great small southern Germany towns, each with their own little event in the fall, though none as big as the pumpkin festival.

If you time it right, you can also catch Cannstatter Volksfest, the second largest beer festival in Germany, in Stuttgart. It is literally Oktoberfest, but slightly less crowded and expensive, which makes in wayyyy nicer. It’s exactly the kind of thing that you might come home from and find a drunk naked Marty on your dorm building floor.

If you want to visit all those little towns I mentioned, I’d say you really only need a day or two in each, so you can stay somewhere central like Mannheim (more central to the other small towns) or Stuttgart (closer to Ludwigsburg and a more accessible to bigger towns as it’s a major city). These options are both cozy AND central:

Hotel Baren is actually one town away from Ludwigsburg in Marbach am Neckar, but the town itself is also so small and cute that I think it would be the perfect place to stay as well. Wake up, see Bavarian houses covered in vines as you walk to the local bakery, and then grab a 15 min train to Ludwigsburg.

If you want the true Rory and Lorelai in Europe era, you can stay at a hostel in Stuttgart like I did

Fussen, Germany – Neuschwanstein Castle

Everyone in the world knows Neuschwanstein castle, the inspiration for the castle at Disneyland. You can probably imagine, too, that it looks good surrounded by the yellows and oranges of fall. But a few hours at an albeit gorgeous castle isn’t enough to satisfy the cravings for a cozy fall. No, Neuschwanstein makes the list because the nearby town, Fussen, is a perfect Gilmore Girls village.

Fussen is exactly the size I expect Stars Hallow would be. It’s got enough restaurants that you don’t have to eat at the same spot every night, but not so much that you are entirely overwhelmed. Some hearty Bavarian food is the perfect thing to warm you up in the chilly October weather.

The train station in Fussen is nestled in the valley of mountains, a one track type of place that let’s you know you’ve escaped the hustle and bustle the second you arrive. Neuschwanstein is only 30 minutes by bus from Fussen, so I highly recommend staying in town! If you truly only have time for a day trip here though, here is one from Munich which I think gives you sufficient time.

Still, if you want your Gilmore Girls fall, then don’t miss out on Fussen and all that it has to offer. There are plenty of nearby fall essentials other than Neuschwanstein, so rest assured that you can safely fill a few days here. There are waterfalls, plenty of viewpoints, and a bridge through the woods that is giving Adirondack in Upstate New York. My pictures are from when I visited in Winter, but you can imagine how beautiful it would look in fall.

You can even pop over to Austria in less than an hour and visit Burgruine Ehrenberg, a small fortress. When I went, albeit in December, there was no one there and I had the whole place to myself to explore. It felt so calming and definitely gave me the peace I was looking for. I saw everything in these pictures in two or three quite packed days. Spending a week around Fussen is definitely possible, but it requires some more trips to other nearby sights and towns.

The coziest of places in Fussen are here:

Edinburgh, Scotland

It’s crazy to me that a somewhat major European city could be considered on a list for small cozy fall towns, but Edinburgh somehow feels homey. Maybe it’s that the weather is always grey regardless of the season, so they have plenty of experience. Maybe it’s the castle, or maybe it’s gothic buildings that inspired Harry Potter, or the university that could definitely remind you of Yale. Regardless, Edinburgh – and Scotland in general – could be a great Autumn trip.

You start in the city to get your fill of coffee and sightseeing. Visit the University of Edinburgh to stand in for Yale, the Scott Monument can stand in for the town gazebo, and you can peruse endless stone-lined shopping streets for the vibes. Then you can head up to the highlands to get the smallest of small-town experiences where there are only a few shops in each town, a

Although, the highlands in autumn might start to feel like winter…

Dinant, Belgium

I came through Dinant on an end of August road trip through the Belgian Ardenne, and it was already feeling like fall. I’d say you would be good just staying a day or two, but it’s positioned around many other cute little road trip towns such as La Roche-en-Ardenne and Redu that can extend your trip. Dinant is definitely the prettiest of them all, and it has that fall feel because it is situated between two mountains, with a river running right down the middle. A grand church is perched right into the side of the mountain, and the street below is lined with little shops.

Dinant may be a little too touristy to be the perfect Gilmore Girls town, but it’s a cool place. For instance, it is lined with decorated saxophone sculptures because Dinant is the birthplace of the inventor of the instrument.

You can do plenty of fall things like take a short hike to viewpoints in the mountains (although Lorelai and Rory would not approve of such exercise), drink some Belgian beer, and sample Belgium chocolates from as many shops as you’d like. The cafes here are especially nice because you can often sit along the river while you sip your coffee.

At the end of the day, you can take some chocolate to go and eat it while you’re cozied up in bed at one these places:

Valley of the Seven Castles, Luxembourg

Luxembourg is the perfect fall destination in western Europe, because it has way more hills and foliage than it’s Belgian and Dutch neighbors. In fact, Luxembourg is seen as some of the closest “hiking” for some of my Dutch friends. I put hiking in quotes because the Luxembourg hills are not huge mountains. If you come from a place with mountains, you won’t be impressed. But I digress, because the foliage and the route I am about to describe make a great fall trip!

The valley of the seven castles is a 34km winding route through Luxembourg which has seven castles along the way. Driving through the Eisch River Valley as the leaves are turning orange, stopping at old castles and cafes nestled in the hills in the perfect fall vibe.

I find that the valley of the seven castles doesn’t actually include the most grand, marvelous castles of Luxembourg. In fact, some of them are just ruins. Luckily, since the country is so small, you can add on the other castles with no problem. Esch-sur-Sûre Castle, Château de Bourscheid, Berg Castle, and Vianden Castle are within a 35 minutes of the start/end of the Valley route (Mersch) and are indeed marvelous (why they not considered part of the original route is beyond me)

Although the route is short, you can easily extend this trip to last more than a few days if you want. Since you’d be coming here for a slow-paced trip where you sip coffee and admire scenery, you don’t want to do the whole thing in a day or two. In addition to the extra castles I mentioned, you can also tack on a visit to Moselle, the wine region of Luxembourg. You can visit the nearby Luxembourg city, which is known for it’s free public transport and cleanliness. Although, I find the city pretty boring, and it doesn’t give fall vibes.

Luxembourg is also extremely reachable after visiting Dinant, or the rest of the cute Ardenne towns in Belgium. So, you could get both of these cozy fall visits in one trip if you wanted!

Luxembourg itself offers some of the most perfect Dragonfly Inn-style accommodation. Just look at how cute these ones are!

Transylvania, Romania

I bet Romania is not what you imagined for a Connecticut small town dupe, but the Transylvania mountains have unbeatable fall foliage alongside some gory, Halloween-esque castles. Although we never see the Gilmore Girls celebrate Halloween (which now that I think about it, is kinda odd), fall is not complete without a little ghost story or two. I should note that Romania doesn’t play up too hard on the Halloween or Dracula stuff so don’t expect it to be a completely decked out themed vacation, but there are even more reasons that Transylvania is perfect for fall than this.

You may only know Transylvania from movies and stories, or from the fact that Dracula’s castle is here. But I bet you didn’t know that the school where they filmed Wednesday is also here, along with some other stunning gothic castles. Romanian food is also great for fall, with meat-filled savory dishes like Sarmale (stuffed cabbage rolls that are so good I’ve spent hours trying to make them since I last went) leading the way.

When I went, I did a tour to Dracula’s Castle and Peles Castle from the capital, Bucharest. Bucharest is nice but it’s definitely not a cozy Gilmore Girls town nor is it the most exciting city in the world. They do have this beautiful bookstore that may or may not be Rory Gilmore approved though. The tour was the perfect duration, so I can recommend it. But if you want to stay longer in the countryside or small towns, then I also get that.

My biggest regret in Romania was not staying longer and driving through the Transylvania mountains (not that I had a car anyway). The views look stunning in any season, but I think fall would make me melt.

Almabtrieb in Austria, Italy, Germany, or Switzerland  

Almabtrieb is exactly the kind of random festival Stars Hallow would have. It involves decking cows out in flowers, giant bells, and crowns, then parading them through town. At the end of the night a celebration commences with the whole town, full of food and community. Almabtrieb celebrates the return of livestock from their summer grazing in the mountains down to the barns and fields for winter. It happens in the alps of Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland at the end of summer, early fall.

If you want to see Almabtrieb, you do have to go in early fall since the season for the return of the cows runs from mid-August to mid-October, although Almabtriebs in October are much harder to find. Because of this timing, you may not get too much fall foliage or guaranteed sweater weather, but these events take place in small villages alongside farmers markets and regional delicacies specifically for the celebration. And again, this feels like exactly the type of thing you’d find Kirk at.

There are so many Almabtriebs that I cannot recommend just one. I think this is something you could easily combine with another fall town, especially the ones in southern Germany like Ludwigsburg or Fussen & Neustenstein Castle. So, I recommend first thinking about the region you prefer, and then looking for a list of dates for that region. I haven’t found a master list with dates of every Almabtrieb across all the countries, but you can find mini lists for each region. In Germany most Almabtriebs take place in the region of Bavaria, In Austria it’s Tyrol, and in Italy it is South Tyrol and the Alps.

Almabtriebs are also called Transhumance (everywhere), Viehscheid (Bavaria), Desmontegada or Désarpa (Italy), and Alpabzug or Alpabfahrt (Switzerland)