Every year, plenty of travelers land in Munich or Vienna on a Saturday evening, plan to stock up on groceries the next morning, and find every supermarket shuttered. Sundays and public holidays in Europe still work differently from what most Americans, and a fair number of Brits, are used to. In some countries the shops simply close by law. In others it depends on the city, the size of the store, or whether you are standing in a tourist zone.
None of this should put you off traveling on a Sunday. It just means a Sunday or a holiday needs a slightly different plan from a Tuesday. Here is what closes, what stays open, and how to arrange your days so a closed door never costs you a meal or a museum.
The short version: who closes on Sundays
Rules vary a lot, so treat this as a starting point and check locally for anything that really matters to your plans.
| Country | Regular shops on Sunday | Where you can still buy food |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | Closed, with a few special shopping Sundays a year | Big train stations, airports, gas stations, some bakeries in the morning |
| Austria | Closed | Station and airport shops, gas stations |
| Norway | Closed, except small grocery stores | Grocery stores under 100 m², gas stations |
| France | Mostly closed, open in tourist zones | Bakeries and markets in the morning, small grocers |
| England and Wales | Large shops open six hours, small shops any time | Almost anywhere, just shorter hours |
| Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands | Largely open in cities | Most supermarkets, often with shorter hours |
Restaurants, cafés and bars open on Sundays nearly everywhere. The closures hit retail: supermarkets, clothing shops, pharmacies outside the on-duty rotation, and hardware stores. Sightseeing is mostly unaffected on a regular Sunday. Many museums are open, and some are even free on certain Sundays.
Germany and Austria: the strictest Sundays
Germany’s Sunday closing tradition goes back to a 1956 federal shop-closing law, the Ladenschlussgesetz. Most states now set their own opening hours, but the Sunday rule holds: regular shops close on Sundays and public holidays. States allow a handful of “verkaufsoffene Sonntage,” shopping Sundays usually tied to a local festival or Advent, and the number depends on the state.
What stays open:
- Shops in large train stations and airports. Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Munich Hauptbahnhof and Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof all have supermarkets that open on Sundays, and they get very busy by late afternoon.
- Gas stations, which sell basic groceries at higher prices.
- Bakeries, many of which open for a few hours on Sunday morning. Go early, since popular items sell out.
- Kiosks and “Spätis” in Berlin, the late-night corner shops that sell drinks and snacks.
Austria works much the same way. The Austrian economy ministry’s business hours page sets out the basic rule: sales outlets close on Sundays and public holidays, with exceptions for places like airport and railway station shops. In Vienna, the supermarkets at the main stations, such as Wien Hauptbahnhof and Praterstern, are where locals do their Sunday top-up shop.
The practical fix is simple. If you arrive on a Saturday, buy breakfast and snacks for Sunday before the shops close that evening. If you are self-catering for a weekend, do your shopping on Friday or Saturday morning.
Norway: the 100-square-meter rule
Norway closes most shops on Sundays, with a well-known loophole. Grocery stores with a sales floor of 100 square meters or less may open, along with gas stations and garden centers. That is why you will see small Joker or Bunnpris stores open on a Sunday while the big supermarket next door is dark. Some larger stores even rope off a small section that meets the size limit.
Two things catch visitors out. Prices at these small stores run higher than at the big discount chains, and you cannot buy beer in Norwegian supermarkets on Sundays at all. If you are heading into the fjords or the mountains on a Sunday, shop on Saturday. Our guide to eating cheap in Europe has more on stretching a grocery budget in expensive countries.
Sweden and Denmark are much more relaxed. Big-city supermarkets in Stockholm or Copenhagen usually open on Sundays, often with shorter hours.
France: depends on the street
France’s general rule is that shops do not open on Sundays, but the exceptions are wide. Food shops often open on Sunday morning, which is why Sunday is a great market day in many French towns. Restaurants and cafés open freely. And since 2015, Paris has had twelve international tourist zones, including the Champs-Élysées, Le Marais, Montmartre and Saint-Germain, where shops can open on Sundays and in the evening. The City of Paris has a page on these Sunday opening exemptions (in French).
Outside Paris and the tourist zones, expect a quiet Sunday afternoon. In smaller towns, a 1pm lunch at a café after a morning at the market is very much the local way to spend it.
The UK, Southern Europe and the Netherlands
In England and Wales, large shops over 280 square meters can open for a maximum of six hours on Sunday, somewhere between 10am and 6pm. In practice that means supermarkets open 10 to 4 or 11 to 5. Small convenience stores can open whenever they like, so you will rarely go hungry. Scotland has no equivalent limit.
Spain and Italy vary by region and city. Big cities and tourist areas have plenty of Sunday trade, while smaller towns can be very quiet, especially in the afternoon. The Netherlands has moved toward Sunday opening in most cities, though some more traditional towns still close.
Public holidays: the days that catch everyone
A public holiday usually follows Sunday rules, or stricter ones. In countries with tight Sunday laws, holidays close nearly everything except restaurants and transport. The tricky part is that many holidays move each year or exist only in certain countries or regions.
Holidays observed across much of Europe
- Easter: Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays in many countries, and Easter Sunday itself is closed in most. Large shops in England and Wales cannot open on Easter Sunday.
- Ascension Day and Whit Monday: both move with Easter, landing in May or June, and are holidays across much of continental Europe.
- 1 May: Labor Day in most of the continent.
- Christmas and New Year: 25 and 26 December and 1 January. In Germany, shops close at 2pm on 24 December when it falls on a weekday.
Holidays that are more local
- 15 August, Assumption Day: a major holiday in Italy, where it is called Ferragosto, as well as in France, Spain, Austria and parts of Germany. Many family-run shops and restaurants in Italian cities close for a week or two around it.
- 1 November, All Saints’ Day: a holiday in many Catholic countries and regions.
- Bank holidays in the UK: these fall mostly on Mondays. GOV.UK publishes the official bank holiday dates for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which differ slightly from each other.
- National days: 17 May in Norway, 3 October in Germany and 14 July in France are public holidays, so expect closed shops.
For country-by-country dates, a site like Office Holidays lists each year’s public holidays, including regional ones. Check the dates for each country on your route before you lock in the plan.
Museums and sights: the Monday problem
Ironically, Sunday is often fine for sightseeing. The day to watch is Monday, when many museums across Europe close for the week. Some major ones pick Tuesday instead, so check each venue before you plan the day around it. Our post on free things to do in Europe is worth a look here too: several big museums, such as the Louvre with its free first-Friday evenings or the Vatican Museums on the last Sunday of the month, have free slots that fall on or near the weekend, and they get crowded.
On a public holiday, sights vary more. Some major museums stay open and get very busy. Others close entirely, especially on Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and 1 May. Always check the specific date on the venue’s own website instead of the general opening hours.
How to plan around a Sunday or holiday
A little planning turns a closed Sunday into one of the best days of the trip. Here is how we approach it:
- Mark the closed days first. Before you plan anything else, note every Sunday, public holiday and Monday on your route, along with which country you will be in on each date.
- Do your shopping the day before. Buy groceries, toiletries and anything from a pharmacy on Saturday, ideally before late afternoon.
- Make Sunday an outdoor day. Parks, hikes, lakes, beaches and city walks do not close. In Germany and Austria, Sunday is when locals head to the woods, the lakes and the beer gardens.
- Use the day for travel. Trains run on Sundays, often with a slightly reduced timetable. A Sunday transfer day means you lose nothing by being on the move. Check holiday timetables in advance, since some regional services drop to a weekend pattern.
- Book restaurants for public holidays. With shops closed, everyone eats out, and the popular places fill up fast.
- Keep a backup for rain. If Sunday turns wet, have one indoor option ready. Our list of rainy day plans for European cities helps.
Arriving on a holiday deserves extra care. If you land in a small town on Easter Monday or 15 August, the only open food might be at your hotel or a gas station. Pack something to eat, or arrange to arrive in a bigger city with a large station.
Where Sunday is genuinely the best day
Some of Europe’s best Sunday experiences only exist because the shops are closed. A few ideas:
- Berlin’s Mauerpark flea market and the karaoke that runs in the park’s amphitheater on summer Sundays.
- A Sunday morning market in a French town, followed by a long lunch.
- A lake day near Munich or Salzburg, where half the city goes swimming on summer weekends.
- A quiet city walk in Vienna when the shopping streets are empty and the cafés are full.
Plan those in, and a closed Sunday stops being a problem and becomes a reason to slow down. If you are timing a trip around seasons as well, our shoulder season guide pairs nicely with this one.
When you build your route, it helps to see the closed days in one place. In Lentii you can lay out each day of a trip, note which country you are in and what is shut, and move a museum visit off the Monday it would have been wasted on. Share it with your travel companions, and nobody ends up standing outside a dark supermarket at 10am on a Sunday.
FAQ
Are shops open on Sundays in Europe?
It depends on the country. Germany, Austria and Norway close most shops by law, France closes many outside tourist zones, and England limits large stores to six hours. Sweden, Denmark and most big cities in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands are far more open.
Where can I buy groceries on a Sunday in Germany?
Try the supermarkets in large train stations and airports, gas stations, bakeries in the morning, and late-night kiosks in Berlin. Shopping on Saturday is the reliable option.
Are museums open on public holidays in Europe?
Many are, and they get busy. Some close on Christmas, New Year’s Day and 1 May. Check the specific date on each museum’s website, since holiday hours often differ from the regular schedule.
