For many of us, Christmas really is the most wonderful time of year. We love spending time at home, sticking to age old family traditions and heading into hibernation mode. We enjoy layering up with coats, gloves and scarves. We turn the heating up. We hide under blankets on our sofas with hot cocoa. We go ice skating, Christmas markets and more. But for some of us, we’d find that we’d have a much better time if we went somewhere warmer, brighter and sunnier for the Christmas break. You can always break from tradition and take some time to plan a winter getaway instead of sticking to cold temperature, traditional decorations and turkey and gravy. Here are some top tips for getting away over the Christmas period this year.

Choose Your Destination

First, you need to choose your destination. It’s important that you do plenty of research into this. You may have a place already in mind, or you may be looking for some inspiration. Regardless, the more research you do, the more likely you will be to settle on the right place for you. This could be anywhere from hotel sukhumvit in Bangkok to Bondai Beach in Australia. Look into the predicted weather for the time you’re going. Check whether there are any adverse weather conditions likely in the location’s season – for example, you probably don’t want to visit places that are experiencing monsoon or rainy seasons, hurricane seasons or other potentially dangerous weather conditions. Also check weather, heat, humidity and more. A really popular holiday option over Christmas periods is skiing. You could have a look at Ski out of the Blue for your break this year.

Choose Your Length of Stay

How long will you be staying? Is a long weekend enough? This could allow you to spend some time away and some time back home. Do you want to take a full week, ten days or two weeks? Only you can know the answer to this. Bear in mind some workplaces only allow limited time off over the Christmas break, as it’s a busy period for shopping.

Choose Your Company

Who will you be spending time with? You may already have an eager travel companion or you may find that you struggle to find someone who is able to commit – and wants to – head away over the festive period. Remember that solo travel is possible and always fun. Just follow basic safety precautions to ensure you have a safe and fun time.

Travel Vaccinations

You need to check whether you require any vaccinations to safely enter and spend time in your chosen destination. This can include anything from Covid vaccines to be permitted to enter the country to rabies shots, tetanus, hepatitis A or B, cholera and more. Your healthcare professional will be able to provide you with guidance.

Planning an itinerary

Decide what you want to do on your trip and create an itinerary. Some attractions may require prebooking to guarantee entry and to help you skip long queues.

As you can see, planning a winter getaway isn’t complex. Hopefully, some of the guidance above should help you to secure the trip you have in mind!