Where to holiday Dec-Jan?

killem

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I'm Heading off for 2 weeks in November. Doing Bangkok for 2 nights then Chiang Mai for 4 nights then Siem Riep for 4 nights to visit Angkor Wat, then back to bangkok for last 3 nights before flying home. Staying in a mix of hotels 3-5 star and including the 3 flights it comes to £2500 is for 2 of us sharing a room. Good thing about this part of the world is outside of the return flight from the UK you can pretty much do it on any budget. Hostels for £8 a night upto stupid money. Local transport options like busses and trains are very cheap but I would perfer to save time and fly. Food and drink is also the same. Street food for very cheap option.

Michael Marini said:
One place I'm willing to go is Tallinn, Estonia. But already going to Brazil in 2 weeks time.
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Had a weekend in Tallinn back in feb. Very nice place but very cold in the winter. Wind chill from the baltic sea makes it feel a lot colder.
 

killem

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Bounce said:
Went to Tenerife in January with the Mrs was fairly warm.
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It's warm all year round for us brits. Went in november years back and can sit out in just a t-shirt well into the evening and still be comfotable.

OP has plenty of choices.

Have a think of what kind of holiday you are after.

If you want close by warm beach and pool holiday then Canary Islands would be a good choice.
If you want an exotic adventure sight seeing holiday and you are on your own then I recommend Thailand. Spent 3 weeks last year travelling around on my own and had a great time. Plenty to see and do. Great food, both local and international choices are available.
 

Bounce

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killem said:
It's warm all year round for us brits. Went in november years back and can sit out in just a t-shirt well into the evening and still be comfotable.

OP has plenty of choices.

Have a think of what kind of holiday you are after.

If you want close by warm beach and pool holiday then Canary Islands would be a good choice.
If you want an exotic adventure sight seeing holiday and you are on your own then I recommend Thailand. Spent 3 weeks last year travelling around on my own and had a great time. Plenty to see and do. Great food, both local and international choices are available.
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OP just be careful, Pool was very cold in January it was that cold we never went in it so if your expecting to swim beware!
 

bsoltan

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Thanks for the ideas and discussion!

Those suggesting Iceland and Scandinavia; is it pratical to travel there at end of Dec and early Jan? Obviously people live there all year round but didn't know if weather would be potentially disruptive. Not that I'm against getting snowed in for a day in a cozy cabin.

Similarly wouldn't the weather in South East Asia isn't rather humid? I stopped in Singapore in early Jan on a previous trip (did NewZealand, Australia, Singapore) and the humidity was rather uncomfortable for wandering around the city.

Guess I'm going to explore the idea some more though. Thanks again.

edit: oh and just to clarify I'm looking for a sightseeing/culture/eating holiday rather than sitting on the beach.
 

Raymond Lin

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If you find Singapore too humid in January...you should try it in July lol probably die between exiting the airport terminal to the taxi tank!

I’ve been to Stockholm is the middle of December, it’s cold, like puddles are just ice blocks. If I pee on the ground it will be there until Valentines Day that kind of cold. We went to a lot of coffee shops to warm up, I distinctly remember going into one coffee shop just for that rather than I was looking for a coffee because I wanted one to drink. Although it was partly my fault as I didn’t have gloves.

But everything function as normal, and if you are in the city it’s not a problem getting around.
 

413x

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Cape Verde

If you don't want anything really cheap and just want sun your going to have to go at least to Cape Verde

Had holiday a couple of years back in December and decided canaries wasnt hot enough

Didn't want to go anywhere near Saudi And not as far as americas or Indonesia.

Cape Verde is safe, weather is a good 30c ever day with no rain.
It's windy so doesn't feel quite that hot.

7-10 days will give you a chance to do everything but also relax

You can also see baby turtles being released

We stayed here

FAU0nZum.jpg
 
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Zenduri

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bsoltan said:
Thanks for the ideas and discussion!

Those suggesting Iceland and Scandinavia; is it practical to travel there at end of Dec and early Jan? Obviously people live there all year round but didn't know if weather would be potentially disruptive. Not that I'm against getting snowed in for a day in a cozy cabin.

Similarly wouldn't the weather in South East Asia isn't rather humid? I stopped in Singapore in early Jan on a previous trip (did NewZealand, Australia, Singapore) and the humidity was rather uncomfortable for wandering around the city.

Guess I'm going to explore the idea some more though. Thanks again.

edit: oh and just to clarify I'm looking for a sightseeing/culture/eating holiday rather than sitting on the beach.
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I have a friend who lives in Vadso which is in the far far north east of Norway and they dont struggle at all with flights or getting about in December/ Jan and its rarely disruptive. Unlike the UK, they see 3 ft of snow and laugh and get on with it, where is we get 5 mm and the country stops.

Tromso is eastern Norway but fairly far north and its meant ot be a good spot for the northern lights. This was outside my back yard which about the same longitude as Tromso

5ICZdmb.png
 

malachi

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bsoltan said:
Thanks for the ideas and discussion!

Those suggesting Iceland and Scandinavia; is it pratical to travel there at end of Dec and early Jan? Obviously people live there all year round but didn't know if weather would be potentially disruptive. Not that I'm against getting snowed in for a day in a cozy cabin.

Similarly wouldn't the weather in South East Asia isn't rather humid? I stopped in Singapore in early Jan on a previous trip (did NewZealand, Australia, Singapore) and the humidity was rather uncomfortable for wandering around the city.

Guess I'm going to explore the idea some more though. Thanks again.

edit: oh and just to clarify I'm looking for a sightseeing/culture/eating holiday rather than sitting on the beach.
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I went to Stockholm last December and it was no colder than being in the UK. There wasn't any snow, only abit of cold breeze.

Also Iceland is amazing but at that time of the year, it will be dark most of the time. Sunrise is at 11am then sets at 3pm.
 

Psycho Sonny

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bsoltan said:
I have to take mandatory holiday over Christmas, it falls in such a way that adding 2 extra days means I finish work on the 20th Dec and don't go back until the 6th Jan (up to 16 days holiday).

I'd like to take a holiday somewhere but I'm not sure where to go so I'm asking the OcUK hivemind for some ideas. I'd to do some travelling about different places, visiting things and touristy bits as well as enjoy local food and drink. I have no language skills and would rather not go anywhere really hot/humid.
I also can't go to USA due to visa issues although I may look into it further.

New Zealand was an obvious choice but flights are £2k on their own which is rather prohibitive.
Japan comes in second, with flights around £1k, I've been before 12yrs ago for holiday and more recently for work.
I thought about Canada but going in the dead of winter may be a bad idea.
Another thought was Istanbul and then traveling through Eastern Europe on trains but may be too many different things + stuff might be shut over Christmas.

All in all just looking for some out of the box ideas for places I may not have considered to visit.
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Personally don'tsee the point in you spending £1K plus on flights if you have no real reason to go to any of those countries.

For example I got flights to vancouver for £325 this year. Last Year they were £650 so half price this year.

So spending £1K to go to Japan when you have no real reason to go there sounds like a bit of a waste. Unless you really want to go to Japan. Basically what I'm saying is you could go to pretty much anywhere else for less than half that price.

If you go to USA then internal flights are cheap. For example LA to Vegas is $19 then $30 for a bag, bit of a rip if you ask me to charge more for a bag than a person.

So you could visit all over the USA cheap like pick 2-5 destinations.

Same goes for Canada. Get flight over then internal flights to other destinations within Canada to see different parts of it.

You could even do Africa, Morocco, Kenya, South Africa, etc.

Spain and France are popular with British Tourists too. You could even go to Scotland during Christmas. Hogmany in Edinburgh is up there with the best places in the world. Visit distilleries, castles, highlands do the north coast 500.

Basically no need to spend huge amounts of money or time on flights. 16+ hours on planes is pretty much a waste of a day and the jet lag is horrendous.

You can go anywhere so why not just look where is cheap to get to? I imagine Christmas in Vegas would be amazing.
 
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