Booking Your Winter Holiday: Fun in the Sun... or Winter Wonderland Adventure?

 

Winter Holidays - Escape Winter or Embrace it?

So you want to get away for the winter - or do you want to get away from the winter???

Although winter can be a dark, depressing time when all you want to do is hibernate, or pack your bags and get away from it, have you ever considered celebrating it? No - I mean a real winter. Not the rain, and certainly not the damp...

Winter Holidays in Scandinavia, Scotland, and The Alps

Stare up in awe at the Northern Lights, ski in fresh powder, experience the Polar Night and Northern Lights, see the skies littered with the brightest of stars, slide through the Nordic forest on a wooden dogsled, swim in the blue lagoon with thick snowflakes cascading all around you, visit or stay in an exquisite hotel made entirely of ice...

(For Northern Lights info, visit my page on How to find the Northern Lights)

Winter Holidays in Northern Sweden and Norway

In Northern Sweden and Norway the atmosphere is much more dry, and the cold is much more forgiving because of it. Think of the most 'crisp' and clear starry sky. The atmosphere is like this, even when it's overcast, and as a result the cold doesn't feel bracing. I have been outdoors in -27 degrees here and felt more comfortable than when it is 6 degrees at home in the UK. Of course I had my ski jacket and thermals, but honestly, with the right clothing, it is magical.

Car hire is the best option for getting around easily. Cars are equipped with winter tyres. There are also organised tours and expeditions through a whole load of different companies including Discover the World. Also ICEHOTEL arrange a good variety of tours as well as stays and visits to their wonderful hotel.

Think husky tours, snowmobile tours, ski resorts, Northern Lights, snowshoeing, dense Nordic forests, Norwegian fjords, and campfires! These are just some of the amazing things on offer on a holiday to Arctic Sweden and/or Norway...

For more info visit my Arctic Norway and Sweden page 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Holidays in Iceland

Iceland is a fantastc place for a winter holiday. Although slightly more damp than Sweden and Norway (at the coast), Iceland still has an extremely interesting and rugged landscape and frozen interior with amazing glaciers, icebergs, waterfalls, volcanic geysers, geothermal natural swimming, and possibilities of seeing the Northern Lights.

For shorter trips it is best to stay in one of Reykjavik's many hotels. There is a good choice of organised tours to attractions around the Reykjavik area including the hot springs (Geysir) and the blue lagoon.

For more info visit my Iceland page

Winter Holidays in the French Vosges Mountains and Alsace

The French Vosges mountains are an excellent place for affordable skiing holidays. There are also lots of things to do and see other than skiing, including beautiful frozen lakes and ice-skating, snowshoeing in the pristine forest-clad hills, streets lined with pretty little beamed buildings, quaint restaurants, and delcious food and wine.

For more info visit my Alsace page

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Holidays in the Swiss Alps

The Swiss Alps are the ultimate 'Gluwein' experience! Even if you don't ski, there are plenty of fantastic activities and sights. Aswell as the stunning scenery, expect awesome cable-car rides thorough enormous valleys, twinkling villages and snowy rooftops in the twilight, mulled wine and raclette, steaming and creamy hot chocolate, wooden cuckoo-clock-looking chalets, deep powder snow, and the most salmon-pink sunlight cast over the giant white-covered alps.

For more info visit my Swiss Alps page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Holidays in Scotland

The highlands are a beautiful and wild place to walk and to generally appreciate the outdoors. The interior can be very snowy and there are five ski resorts dotted around. The traffic and transport can be difficult, but with snow chains on your tyres driving is usually fine.

Winter Sun Holidays

If none of the above winter wonderland and skiing holidays are for you, then the below options are good for winter sun, and escaping from the cold...

Disneyworld Florida - Imagine the magic this place can produce, and then times it by 100 for the full Christmas effect! It is simply amazing and as a young girl and a teenager I went a few times at Christmas. My memories of it are incredible - so many lights, colours, music and of course Mickeys! The firework displays are stunning, explosive and full of non-stop sparkling colours in the sky. Florida is still fairly warm and sunny at this time of year, if a little cold at night.

There are some good winter sun deals to hot places like the South of Spain and Egypt, and even the tropical Carribbean. It is generally hot and sunny in the Carribbean year-round and this part of the world - near the equator and the Tropic of Cancer - don't have the four seasons like we are used to. Apart from hurricane seasons, and slightly more waves and cooler winds during 'winter' the weather pretty much stays the same! Aruba is an island with notoriously reliable sun - for more info visit my Aruba page


Text, Images and Videos Copyright © Lise Griffiths, 2012
All Rights Reserved