Christmas Vacation Ideas?

AdladUK

AdladUK

AdladUK

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Joined
6 Jan 2007
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1,509
Hey,

I wanted to at least make the necessary hotel reservation/s this month before everything gets fully booked. Problem is I'm not sure where to go.

Originally I thought it would be nice to spend Christmas in a Swiss ski resort and then New Year in a Swiss city. Having just been on booking.com now already hotels are 80%+ reserved in the major resorts and to be honest the remaining hotels don't look up to much.

So I thought what about going on a Ski holiday the week before Christmas here in Romania (there are actually a bunch of decent resorts here) and then perhaps going to somewhere like Venice to spend Christmas and New Year. Only problem with that is nice hotels in Venice are INSANELY expensive ($600+ a night).

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Ideally we're not looking to fly more than 2 or 3 hours, but any country within that range is considerable

Thanks!
 
How about Vienna for the city? From what I remember it's beautiful around that time of year.

Can't go wrong for skiing in Austria, either.
 
Bulgaria has some good and cheap ski resorts if you fancy somewhere close but with a change of scenery.

Not sure about Venice at Christmas.. seems like an odd choice but could be an attractive place to be if it's snowing. If it's raining however I can imagine it would be quite miserable. Which swiss cities did you look at? Zurich would be a nice place to be at Christmas.

How about Copenhagen?

Edit: Vienna is a good suggestion. Not too far from home, either.
 
Fulax said:
How about Vienna for the city? From what I remember it's beautiful around that time of year.

Can't go wrong for skiing in Austria, either.
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Went to Vienna last Christmas... It was okay, but to be honest a little bit miserable. Rained non stop the entire period we were there and didn't feel like Christmas at all. I suppose that could happen in any city though
 
yer_averagejoe said:
Not sure about Venice at Christmas.. seems like an odd choice but could be an attractive place to be if it's snowing. If it's raining however I can imagine it would be quite miserable. Which swiss cities did you look at? Zurich would be a nice place to be at Christmas.

How about Copenhagen?

Edit: Vienna is a good suggestion. Not too far from home, either.
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Thanks for the suggestions.

Good point about Venice. I guess I thought more for New Year it would be a cool place, but probably not.

Yeah Zurich is doable I suppose, although that still doesn't solve the skiing part. I could ski in Romania then go to Zurich for Christmas and New Year... Not sure
 
AdladUK said:
Went to Vienna last Christmas... It was okay, but to be honest a little bit miserable. Rained non stop the entire period we were there and didn't feel like Christmas at all. I suppose that could happen in any city though
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Always a risk in the Alpine winter: it's either snowing or raining, magical or miserable.

How about Prague? Or pretty much anywhere in Germany - they really know how to do Christmas.
 
Austria is usually a lot cheaper than Switzerland and just as pretty/if not moreso. Could have a look at one of the smaller resorts. Alternatively Finland or the Black forest? Not as big resorts but stunningly beautiful.

For example Levi, plenty of hotels still available on booking.com. Then you could do a few days in the wilds (they have an ice hotel* and glass igloos so you can sleep and see the sky - northern lights) and or head to Helsinki or another Scandinavian city. Levi is a pretty small resort with not much vertical height but the perpetual twighlight and never ending lakes and woods make it look magical. The skiing isn't up to Poiana Brasov standards but it has a couple of good runs.

*Romania has it's own ice hotel which is much cheaper but much smaller. Went there last year along with a couple of days in Poiana.

Otherwise a more off the wall choice, although a bit more interesting to get would be somewhere like Tunisia or Morocco. The benefit being they don't celebrate Christmas and the number of flights from europe are far fewer over winter so you'll be able to find a hotel easily. There are options like week long camel trecks and winter hiking in the Atlas mountains as well. We almost did a 2 week trip, one week camels and another hiking up Toubkal (hightst peak).
 
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Fulax said:
Always a risk in the Alpine winter: it's either snowing or raining, magical or miserable.

How about Prague? Or pretty much anywhere in Germany - they really know how to do Christmas.
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Yeah maybe somewhere in the South of Germany would be worth looking into?
 
New year in a Swiss ski resort will live long in the memory. They know how to party. Fireworks get set off up and down all the streets and everyone stays out till the morning.

Saas Fee or Ischgl are epic.
 
I think Andora would be a good shout, some reasonable prices for skiing season around Christmas, but I think Prague would be amazing at Christmas, full of traditional German markets and feels very festive.
 
I'd point out though that Christmas is generally one of the worst times to go Skiing/Snowboarding as other than Easter, its the busiest point of the entire season. If you are more interested in celebrating than the being on the snow and don't mind the queues, it may suit.
 
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