Whilst the 2020 festive season may be a worldwide washout and cyber gatherings will be the most fun most of us will have, there’s no better reason to daydream of where to travel in 2021. My guess is that once this pandemic fizzles away, we’ll all be itching to travel more than ever and tourism will be pining for our attention.
Travel over the festive season is becoming increasingly popular. We’re all getting bored of the awkward staff parties, avoiding eye contact with Keith from HR hovering under the mistletoe. Even New Years can be as stressful as it is fun, deciding where to go, knowing you’ll get FOMO wherever you choose. But there’s more to Christmas and New Years than dry turkey dinners, racing to the bar before midnight and key workers squeezing down your chimney.
The festive season is the perfect time to travel. It can be one of the most fascinating times to get away and experience a whole new culture. You’ll learn a lot about worldly traditions and you can escape the commercial hype that you’re so familiar with. You can even have amazing weather and brand new life experiences.
So however 2020 turns out, here are 9 ideas of how to spend more festive seasons around the world. Give yourself a whole new resolution: to see how the most wonderful time of the year is done, outside of your comfort zone.
Experience Christmas where families are tormented by giants
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For Icelandic children over Christmas, a mysterious nocturnal visit is more feared than anticipated with glee. In Icelandic legend, the 13 Yule Lads – sons of giants who ate naughty children, come down from the mountains 13 days before Christmas to terrorise children into good behaviour. The 13 lads play tricks on the locals – sneaking into homes at night and licking spoons, scraping leftovers from bowls and slamming doors. On the eve of the big day, they leave gifts for good children or potatoes in the shoes of the naughty children. If your kids are misbehaving, a yuletide trip to Iceland will sort them right out.
For those on the good list, in Reykjavik, you can visit the Christmas shop. Here you can send a postcard to a child back home that will be signed by Santa. It’s a magical place to travel to in the festive season. Especially when you can soothe chilly bones in natural hot spring water in one of the country’s many geothermal pools. Grab yourself a Lopapeysa – the traditional, thick, knitted jumper, then drive out of town to see frozen waterfalls at Gullfoss and a chance to spot the green spirits dancing in the sky, aka the Aurora Borealis.
Hike a mountain on Christmas Day and celebrate the New Year hours ahead of everyone else
Christmas Day hikes in New Zealand are how many Kiwis build up their appetite. Travel here in the festive season and you’re smack bang in the middle of summer. New Zealand is, rightfully, famed for outdoor pursuits, and nature this time of year is blossoming at your fingertips. You could be hiking up Rob Roy Peak (pictured) followed by a snooze on a lakeside beach in Wanaka, near Queenstown. This mountain town is only a few hours drive from the coast where fresh crayfish are caught for an alternative festive feast. The air is so warm in December that the locals have their turkey dinners al fresco and go rock climbing and sailing instead of pass out in front of the telly.
In the North Island, everyone heads to the beach and surfers catch a Christmas and New Years Day swell. The South Island is for the mountains, where the north is less touristy and dotted with beach coves, volcanoes and heaps of Māori culture. You’ll also beat everyone at home to the new year, if you haven’t got enough to brag about already.
Watch colourful parades and go knocking on doors for a taste of your neighbour’s punch
It’s no secret that Mexico takes its festivities seriously. Christmas Eve, or Buena Noche, is the big one for celebrations. It’s the 9th evening of Las Posadas, meaning ‘The Inn’ – a nod to that fateful night of the heavily preggers Mary, knackered Joseph and the oblivious ass. Every night, each house in the neighbourhood takes turn to host a Posada party, complete with homemade Ponche, punch to you and I. The punch ingredients consist of fresh and dried fruit, tamarind, sugar cane and hibiscus, plus rum for the grownups. Hic!
Oaxaca is a classic setting for Buena Noche celebrations with their decadent parade, lively atmosphere and immense nativity scene. Expect the Three Kings, floats brimming with kids in angel costumes and of course, Baby JC. The city itself is worth a few days exploration. Feast on enchiladas drowned in mole – the local pride – chilli and chocolate sauce, peruse the bustling Mercado and then catch a bus to the coast. Margaritas, Mescal and vibrant parades shimmying down the street, what’s merrier than that?
Forget chubby guys in suits and dance with lucky dragons
Christmas is only a big deal in much of the Western World. It’s only when you go east that you realise we’ve all conned ourselves into buying people gifts they really don’t want or need. Christmas in South China is foggy, bleak and uneventful. But around the corner is a month-long celebration of family get-togethers where locals share hotpots and set off blazes of red flames in the street. Whilst you dodge the firecrackers under your feet, you’ll see kaleidoscopic Chinese dragons visiting each village house to bring good luck for the new year. Red decorations adorn doorways and the kids are given red envelopes for a prosperous year. The entire village is on board – an army of adults transport vats of rice and chop meat and veg ready for the ongoing feasts.
A month should give you enough time to get around a few rural towns. Yangshuo is a great base for any backpacker, but I strongly recommend getting off the beaten path, choosing a village on the map, catching a bus and seeing how the real locals do it. Villagers in rural China want you to join them – having a foreign guest is seen as lucky, and the young ones get to practice their English. Whilst you’re filling your face and spitting the bones on the floor in true local fashion, you can play Mahjong with Grandpa and learn some local lingo.
Rave to psytrance and buzz around palm fringed beaches
Goa is one of the only places in India where they celebrate Christmas, because of their Colonial Portuguese past. The houses are artfully decorated with glowing star lanterns. Masses are held at midnight and the locals are in cheerful spirits. The coastline is dappled with sandy beaches where sacred cows traipse along and locals sell handmade artefacts. The sun beats down and the sea breeze carries the smell of delicious Goan curries. When the sun goes down, the party gathers and raves absorb revellers into the next day. You’ll struggle to find anything but psytrance banging from the sound systems – it was born and bred in Goa. Big-name DJs call Goa their ‘winter’ mecca for good reason. Fire spinners illuminate the beach, whilst the Indian Ocean laps against the moonlight. It’s truly a magical time of year.
Renting a scooter and zipping around beaches through banana tree plantations is all part of the fun. Listen to word of mouth for where the parties are. Then meditate your way into the morning. Join yoga on the beach at sunrise and take a dip in the Indian Ocean. Travel to Goa in the festive season gives Christmas spirit a whole new meaning.
Party in the street and link arms to toast to old friends
Voted the UK’s prettiest city, Edinburgh does not disappoint on New Years, or Hogmanay as it’s called in Scotland. Old traditions are blended with contemporary entertainment. Big names play on outdoor stages and the crowds light a torch for the ‘Fire Ceremony’ – a procession older than Christianity to ward of evil spirits in the coming year. Christmas was banned in Scotland for 400 years after the Reformation because it was a Catholic holiday. Scots had to work over the festive period but were still allowed to party for Hogmanay. So this ancient festival grew into the biggest celebration of the year.
Buy a ticket online for the Hogmanay celebrations and take your booze in a carrier bag. Far milder than the highlands but still nippy, a hip-flask of whiskey is highly recommended. Make sure you’re looking up to the castle at midnight for a spectacular display of fireworks over the glowing gothic city. Link arms and sing Auld Lang Syne at midnight. And for a hangover cure, raid your fancy dress box and get yourself out to South Queensferry for a freezing cold dip in the North Sea. Is there a more refreshing way to start the new year?
Hang up your hammock and drink coconuts on a tropical island
This is a journey of epic proportions. If singing Christmas Carols from the deck, drinking rum and diving into the Caribbean from the mast floats your boat, then this is unmissable. The San Blas Islands are an archipelago off of Panama, 365 in total, one for each day of the year. Some are only big enough for 2 to sit comfortably, whilst others are big enough to home a village of the Kuna Yana people. You can book a sailboat from Panama to Colombia (or vice versa) via the islands, and have a merry old time whilst you’re at it. Ho-ho-ho. As part of the package, the crew bring you fresh seafood caught by locals who paddle by on kayaks, selling their catch or their coconuts. There is nothing to do but swim to white-sand islands, snorkel, watch dolphins play, swing in a hammock and sip on your drink of choice.
You can book through Blue Sailing, and if you want to feel like a true pirate, ask for Captain Rudy on the Alessandra. You come off it feeling like Robin Crusoe had a scrap with Jack Sparrow, and you’ll never see Christmas the same again. You need a strong stomach for the 30 – 40 hour sailing between Cartagena, Colombia and the islands. This one is for the more adventurous and not the faint-hearted!
Ski legendary powder and stay in a private lodge up a mountain
If you really want to plush up your yuletide and ski unmarked tracks, Island Lake Lodge in British Colombia is a festive dreamland. Cat-Skiing is an alternative to heli-skiing to get to that tricky backcountry, and this place is legendary in Canada. The family-owned lodge is set atop the Lizard Range, deep in the Canadian Rockies, near the cute ski/ coal town of Fernie. The resort owns over 7,000 acres of land which is prone to some of the best and deepest ‘champagne powder’ snow, attracting production companies to film top athletes there.
Besides skiing and snowboarding, you can snow-shoe around their private, frozen lake, cross-country ski in the forest (just watch out for moose) and plunge into their outdoor hot tubs before a warming massage. It’s the idyllic enchanted winter wonderland scene of snow coated Spruce and Douglas Fir trees. The staff arrive on snowmobiles or on the Cat. I worked here and can vouch for the owners being very lovely people indeed. You need to book well in advance to spend 4 nights in the cosy accommodation with included meals at their award-winning restaurant.
Explore the twinkling German Market, sip glühwein and dodge fireworks
Twinkling fairy lights, knitted socks and wafts of hot chocolate have made German Markets a legendary winter wonderland across the world. Berlin is no exception. Each neighbourhood of Berlin is studded with illuminating markets throughout the Christmas period – a directory can be found here. Alexanderplatz, Charlottenburg and (the largest) Spandau being the most popular. Some are still going on during the pandemic, with restrictions. So you can skip around like a chirpy elf, checking out the arts and crafts, munching on some Handbrot (warm filled, fresh bread) and warming yourself with a glühwein (mulled wine).
By New Year when you’re ready to come out of hibernation, you’ll be dodging fireworks as the locals set them off all over the street. Traditionally Berliners only head out after 12am. Before that it’s house parties to get your beer jackets, (and actual jackets) on. And at 4am, just when you think it’s all over, you stumble upon a mystery doorway and find yourself heading downstairs to an underground techno party, complete with decorated trees and world-class DJs. Festive Berlin is a hoot.
I want to go to all of them! But, the sun and sand seem most appealing to me! Let me get my credit card….
You’ve sold every single place to me. Even the ones I’ve already been!
But where’s Poland??? 🤣
Lovely stuff, Great tips here Sherbs. I’ll pass the psytrance and head to the Canadian slopes please.
Also, LOVE unsplash 🙂