A German Christmas market that has been going since 1996, and it is thirty this year. Wooden huts glowing in the square, a big lit tree, a skating rink, hot chocolate, Santa, and a tent strung with paper stars. It is free to walk into. We drive you there and home.
One Saturday, one market, and no parking to find downtown.
Cancel 14 or more days before you go and you get 90% back.
Choose your own adventure: we drop you off, and the bus picks you up in the same spot.
A short, flat walk on even ground, at your own pace.
A yellow school bus, which is the most cost-effective way to run a short trip. It is what keeps the fare down and lets us run these days as often as we do.
The market fills the square in front of Kitchener City Hall and the building itself. Outside are the wooden vendor huts, the big tree and the skating rink. Inside are the main tent, strung with bulbs and paper stars, and the City Hall Rotunda. You move between them as the cold decides.
The food is the German kind: schnitzel, bratwurst, leberkäse, loaded potatoes, apple fritters and hot chocolate from the huts, and more sitting down in the tent.
Free to walk into, hard to walk out of hungry.
The rink in front of City Hall is open through the market, with the huts lit up around it. The children's area, Kidskindl, has Santa, craft tables and, last time we were there, a pony tent.
You get almost six hours at the market, from 10:45 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon. It stays open until eleven at night on the Saturday, so it will still be going strong when the bus leaves.
Skates on, then back to the huts to warm up.
Downtown Kitchener, at City Hall. The whole day is here.
We pick you up
Just north of Yonge and Bloor subway station. Come up the Asquith exit and look for the bus.
This route runs a yellow school bus, which keeps the fare down on a short ride.
Kitchener's German Christmas market, running since 1996 and in its thirtieth year. For the anniversary the city stretched it from a single long weekend to two, and we come on the first Saturday of them. Free to enter, for everyone, all day. It is indoors and out at the same time: a main tent and the City Hall Rotunda for the shopping you do sitting down, wooden vendor huts and a skating rink outside for the shopping you do in a coat. The drop off is the Duke Street entrance at the back of City Hall, which puts you inside it rather than across the square.
Good to know:
Facilities: Washrooms in City Hall, Food huts and the main tent
We drop you back
The bus returns to the same place it left from, so you go home the way you came.
This is our estimated return time, not a guarantee. Traffic can change it and some trips do run late, so please leave yourself some room afterwards rather than booking something tight against it.
A December market day, mostly outdoors.
Admission to the Christkindl Market is free for every age, every day it is open. So the whole day costs you the fare and whatever you decide to eat or buy.
The huts, the rink and the square are outdoors in December. Warm layers, a proper coat, hat and gloves, and boots with grip, because the first week of December in southern Ontario can be wet ground, ice or snow. The tent and the Rotunda are there to warm up in.
It is a school bus with no washroom on board, so go before you get on.
Pick a fare below. It comes straight from the booking system.
Only one trip scheduled
December 05
This is the only date this season, so there is no second chance at it.
We're Canada's outdoor bus service. Since 2010 we've taken more than 300,000 people to parks, trails and days out without a car.
Wooden huts lit up in the dark, a big tree with a star on top, a tent strung with bulbs and paper stars, and a rink in the middle of it all.
The Christkindl Market is free to everyone, every day it is open. Your money goes on hot chocolate, schnitzel and whatever you carry home.
Kitchener has run this since 1996. For the anniversary the city has stretched it from one long weekend to two and expects more than a hundred thousand people.
Seventy thousand people came last year in four days. Parking near City Hall that afternoon is somebody else's problem. We run a school bus, which keeps the fare low. Go to the washroom before you board, because there is none on board.
★★★★★ 4.6/5.0 on Google
“This is the 1st time I used Parkbus but it won’t be the last.”Brenda H. · Google
Took a day trip to Algonquin Park with Parkbus. They pick up on Asquith Ave. in the Bloor/Yonge area and have a quick break stop at the Onroute Barrie. All stops enable guests ample time to explore the destination. This is a highly a good idea trip for those that appreciate spending time in nature minus distractions.OnAir48444 · Tripadvisor · Oct 2025
Booked in minutes, had an unreal day in Algonquin, and was home by dinner.Cameron · Happy Parkbus customer
Cancel more than 14 days before departure and you get a 90% refund, with 10% withheld for payment processing. Inside 14 days refunds are not available, except for a medical emergency in the 48 hours before departure, which needs a signed doctor’s note within 14 days of the missed trip and returns 50%. Tickets are transferable: you can change the passenger name up to 48 hours before departure.
If Parkbus cancels a trip, you get a full refund. We decide no later than 48 hours before departure and only on confirmed conditions: the park closed or the park authority asking us to stand down, an evacuation order or alert, an area restriction order, the highway closed, or the trip judged unsafe to run. A forecast is not one of those things, and trips run rain or shine.
Warm up with a hot chocolate, skate under the lights, and ride home with a bag of treats.
Not quite the right fit? These all leave from the same spot downtown.
