8 Wintertime Getaway Places Our Travel Industry experts Adore

Whether you embrace the chilly or like to abscond to hotter locales, TravelAwaits has rounded up some fantastic wintertime places for you. Where by did we get these incredible wintertime journey suggestions? From our specialist journey writers, of training course! Locate their most loved spots to vacation throughout the colder months — from winter wonderlands to sunlight-drenched escapes — down below.

1. Bergen, Norway

“Bergen, on Norway’s southwest coast, is a chilly and snowy wonderland in winter,” TravelAwaits’ very own glamourous globetrotting granny, Inka Piegsa-Quischotte, tells us. She visitied Bergen, one particular of Northern Europe’s oldest port metropolitan areas, a handful of Christmases in the past. “Norway’s next-major city does not sense like a metropolis at all,” she says. “It’s substantially extra like a compact city, surrounded by mountains and seven fjords. Amid them is Sognefjord, the longest and deepest fjord in Norway.”

Bryggen, the historic harbor district in Bergen, is a UNESCO Planet Heritage Internet site which inspired the structure of the town of Arendelle in Disney’s Frozen. In Bergen, Piegsa-Quischotte implies viewing the Hanseatic Wharf, the fish industry, and Troldhaugen, the house of composer Edvard Grieg. “Enjoy the colorful picket homes,” she claims, “there is even a Viking village close by to evoke the past.”

“Take the Fløibanen funicular up the mountain of the very same title and strike the evidently indicated slopes,” Piegsa-Quischotte indicates. “Another wintertime experience is a journey with the Flåmsbana, a coach that operates through two tunnels, previous the snow-coated mountainsides and frozen waterfalls.”

2. Clearfield County, Pennsylvania

“Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, is the perfect option for a laidback winter season trip,” asserts our freelance writer Robin O’Neal Smith. The self-proclaimed “young Child Boomer” recommends taking pleasure in simple old-fashioned outside leisure activities such as snowshoeing and ice-skating at Parker Dam. “Or, consider some cross-region snowboarding or sledding,” she implies. “Remember how enjoyment that was as a kid?” Smith asks. She also indicates renting “snowmobiles for some fascinating outdoor fun at S.B. Elliott State Park in the heart of the Moshannon Condition Forest.

“Viewing the majestic elk in the snow is a gorgeous sight. Northern Clearfield County has a herd of all over 300 elk roaming the region,” suggests Smith. “Visit Clearfield County’s web-site to locate the ideal spots to watch elk in the county.

“Soak in a heat warm tub soon after your out of doors enjoyment at the Greatest Western Moreover in Clearfield or the Convenience Suites in Dubois,” Smith indicates. “If you do the job up an urge for food when outdoors, pay a visit to Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub. They have a big menu with anything to match every single flavor, even a two-pound burger large more than enough to feed numerous folks.

“While in the spot, make guaranteed you visit Doolittle Station,” advises Smith. “Tour a car from a circus practice, and one particular applied by President Teddy Roosevelt as he traveled across the region. Try to eat in an authentic eating car and far more. Verify out the animated creatures at Doolittles Dinosaurs. You can even experience a person of the animated beasts and come to feel like you are aspect of a Jurassic Park movie.”

3. Marana, Arizona

Primarily based in the Pacific Northwest, TravelAwaits writer Peggy Cleveland likes to hang out in Marana, Arizona, through the winter, exclusively at The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain. “This oasis in the desert is just spectacular, with lovely natural landscapes encompassing the resort and hiking trails accessed from the resort. Checking out the region in the morning and then spending the afternoon by the pool sipping a handcrafted cocktail is a fantastic day,” Cleveland tells us.

4. Santa Fe, New Mexico

“If you crave cold, snowy wintertime weather, but want to be able to go away it behind when you are done, then Santa Fe, New Mexico, is your winter season getaway destination!” exclaims expert contributor Sage Scott. “Ski Santa Fe delivers skiing and snowboarding just a 30-minute push up the mountain from the Santa Fe Plaza downtown. No matter if you tear down double-black-diamond trails like an Olympic athlete or choose to stick to the bunny slope, Santa Fe’s 283 times of sunshine per year and substantial-altitude locale make most days on the slopes feel like spring skiing, even all through the peak of wintertime. And when the ski lifts shut for the day, leave cooler temps and snow powering by heading back again down the mountain to the coronary heart of New Mexico’s capital town.”

Scott states Sante Fe usually sees no additional than two inches of snowfall a month for the duration of the winter and the days are approximately constantly previously mentioned freezing. Scheduling on browsing Santa Fe around the holidays? Really don’t miss out on these magical ordeals.

5. Oahu, Hawaii

Award-successful writer Vanessa Chiasson’s favourite winter season destination is Hawaii. “I know, not wildly initial, proper?” she quips. “But to realize why I appreciate it so substantially (it’s not just the mai tais!), it can help to know the context of my first take a look at,” she describes. “Way back again in 2010, I did a tiny favor for a good friend, a favor she appreciated even additional than I realized. She worked for an airline and she tucked a established of good friends-and-loved ones standby passes in a thank you card for me. By coincidence, my partner and I both equally experienced a 7 days of vacation coming up. There is no larger exhilaration than the minute you understand your function-cost-free week in February now arrives with some plane tickets! We selected the furthest location individuals tickets would consider us and the winner was the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

“To say that I fell head in excess of heels in enjoy would be an understatement. The minute I stepped off the plane and into the open-air terminal, I realized I was a goner. In the days that followed, I explored the island’s espresso farms, artwork galleries, museums, trails, and — of course — the seashores and the mai tais. It was just about every little bit as amazing as I dreamed it would be,” she recollects. “I’ve considering that returned several instances but almost nothing will evaluate to the comfortable sunny breeze I felt in those initial couple times.”

6. Cozumel, Mexico

Travel blogger Carol Colborn tells us how she and her spouse ended up spending their winters south of the border. “One December, our timeshare business wrote us that we experienced a stability of points we experienced to use prior to December 31,” says Colburn. “It was timely — the Phoenix region, exactly where we had just chosen to settle, was receiving far too cold for us, with highest temperatures of 65 degrees every single working day. Fortunately, there was a just one-bedroom unit offered at La Ceiba in Cozumel, Mexico, in which temperatures were 12 degrees warmer. We booked the required 3 weeks.

“Winter in the Caribbean turned out to be the most effective of our travel thoughts,” Colborn proclaims. “Those three months turned hrs at the shorelines and pools, Jeep tours about the island, excursions to Chankanaab (Cozumel´s Nationwide Reef Maritime Park) and tequila factories, day outings to San Miguel, the cash, and Playa del Carmen, Cancun, and Puerto Morelos reverse the Yucatan Channel, and beautiful sunsets at the finish of each individual working day. We ended up signing for the same Mexican winter practical experience, all-inclusive, each individual calendar year for the next 15 many years!” Colburn exclaims.

7. Mazatlan, Mexico

“Would you think that we, Phoenix people, normally go down to Mexico throughout winter season?” Colburn quips. “Yes, the desert continue to receives as well chilly for us with common highs at less than 70 degrees,” she claims. “Aside from the Yucatan Peninsula, we like driving to Mazatlan (15 hrs) and keeping there for 3 months, from January to March, in which it is 10 degrees hotter. We want to be capable to however get pleasure from soaking in the water, regardless of whether at the resort infinity swimming pools or the shorelines.

“It’s also the time to inventory up on household staples and they are all so a great deal additional reasonably priced there, so we fill the car or truck with the essentials we require. Eventually, this is our once-a-year break from cooking and cleaning,” she states. “We go all-inclusive (at an reasonably priced price) of favorite Mexican and international dishes, specially seafood. Right after all, Mazatlan is the ‘Shrimp Capital of the World’! Fish is also plentiful. We throw in tons of tropical fruits, too, like pineapples, avocados, and mangoes.”

8. Puerto Penasco (Rocky Position), Sonora, Mexico

“A wonderful Sea of Cortez location and a charming fishing-village ambiance have put together to make Puerto Penasco (aka Rocky Issue) in Sonora, Mexico a longtime favored getaway for my family members in the wintertime — and truly, in just about every period,” remarks Arizona-based newspaper reporter and vacation writer Cindy Barks. “The mid-sized seashore city is located about an hour previous the U.S./Sonora, Mexico border, creating it a rather brief push for a great deal of Arizona,” she tells us. “Over the several years, my family members has gathered in Puerto Penasco for enjoyment spring breaks, laidback drop holidays, and possibly my preferred — wintertime visits, when the beach locations are uncrowded, the times are sunny and warm, and the evenings are interesting.

“For me, the fantastic wintertime seaside day involves a taco lunch of new-from-the-sea shrimp at a single of Rocky Point’s street-side taco stands, an afternoon used searching the quirky retailers in the Outdated Port spot, and an evening stroll alongside Sandy Beach to take in an epic Sea of Cortez sunset,” Barks describes. “My visits have spanned about three a long time, and even although Puerto Penasco has developed from a smaller village recognized mostly for its fleet of shrimp boats to a regional tourist attract, I think it has retained its rustic attraction. It has now been almost 2 decades considering the fact that I have built it throughout the border, but the seaside outpost of Rocky Place is never significantly from my thoughts.”