HOT TRIPS FOR A COOL WINTER
From Icelandic ice caves to New York’s Central Park skating rink and the ‘world’s polar bear capital’, try these unmissable snowy adventures
WINTER holidays to cold places do not have to be all about skiing or snowboarding, if you know where to go for an icy adventure.
Here, we round up the northern hemisphere’s wondrous winter spectacles . . .
BEAUTIFUL BIG APPLE
CENTRAL Park in New York City is the Big Apple’s biggest. It’s extra-enchanting in the winter and the city will be now open to British tourists from November.
Thick snow covers the pines, the lake freezes over and a hush falls and your breath becomes visible.
At dusk, old-fashioned street lamps lend pockets of warm yellow; by day, visitors can hire snowshoes to explore the open meadows, skate on one of the park’s ice rinks or, if conditions permit, go sledging on Pilgrim Hill. The penguins and snow leopards at Central Park Zoo, which remains open in winter, are always delightful. WHAT ELSE IS GOOD? Winter Restaurant Week, involving reducedprice meals at top eateries, runs from January into February (nycinsiderguide.com). New York’s plethora of museums includes The Met — where you’ll find William James Glackens’ oil Central Park, Winter (metmuseum.org). HOW TO DO IT: Four nights’ roomonly at Manhattan’s cool Fifty Hotel & Suites from £1,298 pp with flights and private transfers (kirkerholidays.com). intense spearmint blue. Though they look different each year — and sometimes don’t materialise at all — the most reliable are inside the mighty Vatnajokull glacier, Europe’s largest.
Easy guided hikes begin from another natural wonder, the Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon, with equipment provided (from £115 pp, guidetoiceland.is). WHAT ELSE IS GOOD? You’ve a good chance of spying the northern lights, while popular attractions such as Gullfoss waterfall or Haukadalur’s geysers are likely to be far quieter than in summer. And amid decidedly Arctic temperatures, the Blue Lagoon’s warm, spring-fed waters will feel terrifically toasty. HOW TO DO IT: A four-night flydrive via Jokulsarlon is from £695 pp B&B, including flights and car hire (regent-holidays.co.uk).
NORTHERN DELIGHTS
LEVI in Finnish Lapland is one of the world’s best places for seeing the northern lights (or aurora borealis), green disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by solar winds.
The region supposedly has eight seasons, not four — a local Sami belief that illustrates this village’s close connection to nature. Ten miles outside Levi stands the Levi Northern Lights Village. All 40 snug cabins here have half-glass roofs, so guests can scan the skies from bed. December to March is the best time for sightings. WHAT ELSE IS GOOD? On an Aurora Cabin Escape trip, you’ll also go on a dedicated, expert-led northern lights search aboard heated sleighs. Snowshoeing, snowmobiling and riding on a husky-pulled sled on safaris are also part of the package, taking you into pristine, powder-white forests and across icy rivers. HOW TO DO IT: Four nights from £1,745pp full-board with flights, transfers and cold-weather clothing (theaurorazone.com).
JAPAN’S SNOW MONKEYS
WHO can blame them? During chilly winters, families of redfaced Japanese macaques (aka
snow monkeys) gather and socialise in hot springs at Jigokudani National Park, near the town of Yudanaka Onsen. It’s easy to hike in and watch this spectacle, which is surreal because of the human-like gestures. WHAT ELSE IS GOOD? Beginning in Tokyo and finishing amid Kyoto’s leafy Buddhist temples, a selfguided ‘Snow Country’ trip also combines guided monkey-viewing in Jigokudani with a soba noodlemaking lesson, a pause in the old samurai city matsumoto, with its Black Crow castle, and a sake-specialist bar in the snow-sloshed Japan Alps.
There’s a stay in an authentic ryokan, with tatami-mat bedding, and time set aside for snowshoeing. HOW TO DO IT: Eleven nights from £3,750 pp B&B with all transport, some guiding, a snowshoe tour and a geisha ceremony, but excluding flights (insidejapan tours.com).
ST PETERSBURG SKATING
HEADlINING several ice-skating options in Russia’s second city, the rink at Kirov Central Park is found on forested Yelagin Island, where it’s also possible to go skiing and sledding. The rink neighbours a Christmas tree, which endures long beyond the festive season. WHAT ELSE IS GOOD? Despite subzero temperatures and as little as four hours’ daylight, St Petersburg is a blast in winter.
The maslenitsa holiday, Russia’s take on Pancake Day, is celebrated for an entire, vodka-soaked week in February, and ballets such as Swan lake and The Nutcracker
are performed during the mariinsky and Hermitage Theatres’ winter seasons. You could even hire a local to teach you ice-fishing on the frozen Neva River. HOW TO DO IT: Four nights’ roomonly at the modern, central Ambassador Hotel from £868pp including flights and transfers (coxandkings.co.uk).
SWEDEN’S ICE HOTEL
THERE are multiple ice hotels across Scandinavia, but northern Sweden’s original one remains the most impressive.
Recreated each year and as much ‘art gallery’ as accommodation, Icehotel will open for the 32nd time from December to April. In 12 ‘art suites’ featuring wacky designs by global artists, and two dozen standard ‘ice rooms’, guests sleep inside sleeping bags atop snug reindeer furs. WHAT ELSE IS GOOD? Nearby Kiruna is full of hiking routes along which winter visitors can crosscountry ski and snowmobile, or enjoy reindeer sleigh and dog-sled rides. You could see the northern lights, too. HOW TO DO IT: Three nights from £359pp B&B with transfers and a night in an ‘ice room’, excluding flights (discover-the-world.com).
CHINESE SNOW FEST
WHAT do the Great Pyramids of Giza, Disneyland and giant Buddhas have in common? They’ve all been recreated as colossal-scale ice sculptures at north-eastern China’s remarkable Harbin International Ice & Snow Festival — some of them entire buildings that visitors can enter.
An expo displaying them is held annually from mid-December to late February in the eponymous city. The sculptures are magically illuminated after dark, and you can try out ice soccer or ice golf. WHAT ELSE IS GOOD? Harbin also has a conservation park containing Siberian tigers. Trips can be extended to take in the Terracotta Army or Great Wall of China. HOW TO DO IT: Six nights from
£2,250pp B&B, including flights, bullet train transfers, lunches, entry fees and visas (wendywutours. co.uk).