Take a look at our top 10 January holidays – we’ve picked them out because they’re some of the most popular places with our travellers. Choose from sunshine or snow, penguin peeping or sloth seeking, and festivals or Northern Lights displays.
We’ve picked out our top 10 January holidays. They run the full gamut, from full-on winter holidays in Lapland to seeing Cuba under cooler – but still sunny – skies. Activity-wise, there’s a theme: Northern Lights and Antarctic voyages are at their peak popularity and the Timkat Festival in Ethiopia is (understandably) perpetually popular – just make sure you fit in some trekking too. You’ll find some surprises in the shape of Australia’s little sister, Tasmania, too.
1. Chase the Northern Lights in Finland
Ditch tourist favourite Rovaniemi and choose a holiday that heads for a lakeside village like Menesjarvi, where light pollution is as mythical as the elf-like tonttu. These pitch-black skies are the best canvas for the Northern Lights. It’s a waiting game even here, so you can pack the rest of the day with ice fishing and show shoeing. The best holidays also give you the chance to dine with Finnish families and learn about the ups and downs of herding above the Arctic Circle.
One of the biggest regrets of travellers going to Australia is tagging on a trip to Tasmania as an afterthought. Even two weeks barely does this island of mountains, rainforests and jagged coastlines justice. Hop on a self drive holiday tailored to you: whether that’s wandering around the Tamar Valley vineyards or catching your breath at panoramic Adam’s Peak. The best holidays put you up in B&Bs run by Tasmanians who welcome you like long lost family.
Tigers ghost through Central India’s jungles, so you’ll need to travel with a tour guide who knows Bandhavgarh and Kanha national parks like the back of their hand to maximise your chance of seeing these elusive beasts. The cliffhanger is all part of the adventure – along with evening game safaris (this is also leopard and hyena country) and luxury safari camp lodgings.
Timkat is more than a Christian celebration of the Epiphany: it’s a community gathering of singing, dancing and feasting that includes water blessings and processions of the Ark of the Covenant. Most holidays include it on a two-week adventure, so you also get to explore the 42m-high Blue Nile Falls, trek the Simien Mountains, and check out the obelisks of the pre-Christian Aksumite kingdom.
Take two weeks out to set out for the White Continent. You'll usually get the infamously choppy Drake Passage over and done with first, before stopping off at the South Shetland Islands en route to the Antarctic Peninsula. Vast colonies of penguins rule the roost here, along with vanishing albatrosses and petrels. Best of all, naturalists and scientists are your guides.
January sunshine and cooler temperatures whip up excellent conditions for a Cuban adventure. Take your pick: self drive holidays, small group adventures, road trip the local way by bus, or travel with a holiday company that’ll match you up with a local driver (classic car optional). Along the way, you’ll meet the tobacco farmers of Vinale Valley and get the chance to dance the night away in Old Town Havana.
7. Visit temples, elephants & rock fortresses in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka packs a lot into a little package – which is great news for travellers. You could get lost in Portuguese port cities like Galle one day and seek out elephants in Udawalawe National Park the next. Bright blue trains run up to the mountainous Highlands, where you can meet the people behind your morning cuppa or hike mystical (and misty) Adam’s Peak.
Valencia in winter can be better than Valencia in summer – especially if you sign up to a January yoga retreat. The rain showers and chilly evenings won’t bother you when you’re busy practising Hatha and Vinyasa poses among the Valencian Mountains. Yoga studios are usually in centuries-old farmhouses with olive gardens.
January is summer on the south coast of South Africa, which means sunshine in the south and not-to-be-missed bird migrations in the north. The Garden Route is particularly lovely (although busier) in January; take your time hiking coastal Tsitsikamma National Park and keeping an eye out for whales belly-flopping on the ocean.
10. Cruise sloth, toucan & turtle country in Costa Rica
There’s no choice but to go all-in when watching for wildlife in Costa Rica. You can sail through Tortuguero National Park, where toucan calls and tree frog croaks echo through the rainforest canopies. High-altitude cloud forests shelter sloths and sea turtles nest on the sandy double coastline. January is sea turtle hatchling time, to it’s a good time for volunteering at a sanctuary.
If you’re tied to school holidays, keen to miss the monsoon season or hoping to snag an off-season bargain, read our month-by-month guide on where to go on holiday when.
Photo credits: [Page banner: Jakob Owens] [1. Chase the Northern Lights in Finland: BeHappyTravel]
[4. Celebrate the Timkat Festival in Ethiopia: Jean Rebiffe]
[7. Visit temples, elephants & rock fortresses in Sri Lanka: Wimukthi Bandara]
[9. Swoop along the Garden Route: South African Tourism]