Top 10 Holiday Destinations for a Perfect Winter Getaway
These 10 Holiday Destinations Are Essential for an Amazing Winter Getaway
In search of the perfect winter getaway? Whether its destination you desire is a luxury beach vacation, relaxation on a warm island or an adrenalin packed ski trip, this winter has the vacation for you!
From world-renowned luxury getaways to the surreal beauty of the Northern Lights, here are our top 10 winter destination vacation spots.
Take in the opulence of imperial palaces and indulge in Christmas markets in continental Europe in Vienna, Prague or Budapest or in more north European destinations in the very lively cultures and night-time pleasures of capital cities such as Reykjavik in Iceland.
Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara was once known as the American Riviera for its beach camping, gourmet restaurants and Spanish-colonial architecture. Lots of vino is produced here too. More than 60 vineyards and tasting rooms in Santa Ynez Valley make up this California town’s laidback feeling. Those cute brick-lined streets have long been a destination for celebrities – especially at Christmas time, that all-important holiday movie season – and the sunset walks and botanical gardens are every bit as picture-perfect as they sound, without requiring much energy or ingenuity on the part of the visitor.
Long Island
And if you’ve accumulated some additional vacation days this winter, splurge and take a romantic weekend up at a rustic cabin, or go skiing! Whatever your pleasure, Long Island has something for you – beaches, historic mansions, award-winning vineyards, boutique shopping and dining experiences that you will absolutely want to brag about to all your friends! Charleston dishers up history, food and Southern hospitality in equal amounts. Sample the flavours of the southern United States on those age-old cobblestoned streets, and in its stately historical plantations houses.
Los Angeles
There will be cookie swaps and visits to great aunts and long-lost cousins while you listen to a distant relative drone on about global warming. Your desperate need to travel just might be fulfilled with a three-day weekend skiing in the mountains or lounging on a Caribbean cruise, or you could stay closer to home renting a mountain cabin, but T+L has the perfect package to satisfy any craving for travel this winter. Downhill skiing is popular around here; and Ellicottville has a swinging ski resort where, if you’re feeling racy, you can stay right downhill. Alternatively, you could go east to Gatlinburg, for the best in mountain hiking, coupled with cartons of cold Tennesee whisky or some moonshine.
South Korea
Seoul presents some of the finest cultural festivals of the year in the dead of winter, a time of year that has also inspired Koreans’ most popular outdoor activity: hiking to the peak of a mountain or down to the tidelands to see the first sunrise of the new year happen – a ritual that makes your wish just that much more likely to come true. Hiking in Bukhansan National Park is wonderful in winter: its blood-red woodland dusted in fluffy snowfall.
Dubai
Winter in the UAE is sunny and an ideal time to visit and enjoy the luxurious hotels. Stay at the Burj Al Arab, book one of the spectacular suites in the world, with a view of the beach or city’s glitter is a luxurious stay-cation. Stay at Terra Solis Desert Conservation Reserve in glamping tents that have camel-riding and falcon shows in addition to camel safaris Set aside a few hours for scaled-down replicas of London’s Big Ben and Paris’s Eiffel Tower housed in Global Village festival park.
Vienna
With Christmas fast approaching and your calendar filling with distant cousins arcs, a winter getaway could be just what you needed to chill and recharge. Vienna offers a lovely spot, a Christmas of its own, lustres, markets and mulled wine. Es is also a good location for gallivanting around gaudy imperial palaces and hanging out in chic coffee houses.
Maldives
Maldives, a tropical boutique paradise at the center of the Indian Ocean, is often favoured for honeymooners and first-rate travellers in the globe. The sensational resorts here contribute to the luxurious beauties inside the original ocean villas, with lucent beaches, mild seawater and sunshine. There’s luxe camping on sandbanks or vintage beach cinemas at Finolhu, which also has the world’s best shark sightings, and nearly ‘dolphin-diving’ at its house reef. Adventures continue at the nearby Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru, with rare leopard sharks, enough manta rays to encircle the hotel, and gambler triggerfish curiously nibbling around divers’ camera and light rings. Pricing A three-night package for two adults at 6 Senses starts at USD $2,400, while at Finolhu, luxe camping on sandbanks or a vintage beach cinema both start at USD $350; crate diving with dolphins costs USD $105.
Iceland
For those who desire more extreme winter conditions, Lapland can provide Abisko for the northern lights and snow- coated isolation for weeks at a time. Or visit Rovaniemi for the man in the red suit, with his bushy white beard. they couldn’t have picked a better southern city to take a road trip: Deep History, the shaded squares and the food make Savannah the right Swan for the kind of van that Greenvans rents Savannah Georgias’s best historic Hotel and Convention city! Take a Swan for Savannah for a weekend getaway, or take the family on winter-weather romantic or family road trip adventures
New York City
Wherever your style lies, you are certain to find something in NYC you can enjoy – have a gander at its museums, and take in some fine dining and a Broadway show as well. In Rovaniemi, his home city in Finland, you can hatch plans to conquer the north, while sipping warm glogg from Aladdin-themed mugs and wending your way through cobbled streets. Charming bars, set in cosy side alleys, brim with fairytale-themed decorations while the jingling of rides fills the air around the 19th-century Tivoli amusement park.
San Juan Puerto
Rico’s capital is just the right blend of Old-World elegance and new-world tropical luxury, a destination that is ideal for families and couples, but just as much fun for a solo weekend. Spend the day, lying on white-sand beaches or exploring some of the island’s historical hot spots, and sunset drinks on the beach; then dance the night away. And you don’t have to travel to the West Coast every year to indulge in ski vacations – Ellicottville in westernmost New York State is also worth considering, with hotels such as the Inn at Holiday Valley located only a shuttle trip from the slopes.