5 Winter Wonderland Vacations That Are Better than the Beach
Winter is coming, and with it, our desire to flee to tropical places. But this year, why not embrace the singular travel experiences the season offers?
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Winter is coming, and with it, our desire to flee to tropical places. But this year, why not embrace the polar vortex and the singular travel experiences that the season offers? From spelunking through ice caves near Reykjavík to soaking in Japanese hot springs, here are five amazing winter vacation ideas that are better than the beach.
Photo: Courtesy of Jamie Sismey / @jamsis891/5Selfoss, Iceland
Average temperature in winter: 32° Go for: Polar twilightAn hour removed from Reykjavík, where more than half of Icelanders live, Selfoss lies in the shadow of Mount Hengill, one of more than forty active volcanoes on the island. From November through March, its lava fields and mossy heath are shrouded in snow and lit by the eerie purple dusk of polar twilight. Spend a week nesting at the ION, a spartan inn for local power plant workers turned 45-room “luxury adventure hotel,” where your bath water comes from geothermal hot springs and the furniture is all salvaged driftwood and corrugated cardboard. Floor-to-ceiling horse murals were likely inspired by the wild Icelandic ponies roaming outside; saddle up a domesticated version at the nearby Kerhestar horse farm for a ride around the Golden Circle, or explore the lands around Thingvellir, where Game of Thrones filmed “Beyond the Wall,” by snowmobile, instead. The crystal ice caves of Sólheimajökull are worth a spelunk, but ION’s heated outdoor cedar pool is for the lords of Winterfell.
Photo: Courtesy of Saunders Architecture / @saundersarchitecture2/5Fogo Island, Newfoundland
Average temperature in winter: 25° Go for: Snowshoeing—with dogsBracing North Atlantic winds batter the rugged shores of Fogo Island, just off the northeast coast of Newfoundland. Once a rest stop for migratory French fisherman in the sixteenth century, the island culture now crosses contemporary art and design with ancient English and Irish folk customs, particularly at the new Fogo Island Inn, a white wood building on stilts that juts over the Labrador Current. Strap on a pair of snowshoes and walk the ancient footpaths with Make and Break, the inn’s two fluffy Newfoundland dogs, then recover in the rooftop wood-fired sauna, surrounded by lichen-covered rock beds. There are bread-making and fish-smoking classes, and meals are made with traditional Inuit techniques and berries, caribou moss, and pine mushrooms, foraged from bogs. The inn holds regular cultural programs at its cinema and gallery, which recently featured a solo exhibition of **Silke Otto-Knapp’**s monochromatic watercolor-work.
Photo: Courtesy of @jtao3/5Noboribetsu, Hokkaido
Average temperature in winter: 30° Go for: Hot springsMore than 200 hot springs dot the Hokkaido countryside, powered by active volcanoes, and the island’s onsen villages flourish in winter, when travelers go seeking an outdoor steam bath in falling snow. In Noboribetsu, there are nine types of water—from ferruginous red-brown to sulfurous white—to soak in, and the Takinoya ryokan has five of those brought in directly from Jigokudan, the sulfurous Hell Valley nearby. An eight-course kaiseki dinner served en suite is locally-sourced—a scoop of cherry-blossom ice topped with a Japanese maple leaf, plucked from a tree outside—and guests can bathe in an in-room onsen, too. Change into one of Takinoya’s chrysanthemum-printed yukatas and a pair of wooden geta sandals, walk the village’s old-world streets to snack on sweet caramel torori pudding and wasabi-zuke, then take a trip to Oyunuma brook, a natural footbath with riverside, rough-hewn log benches. The season culminates in February with the annual hot spring festival, where locals pray for another year of plentiful bath water.
Photo: Courtesy of @ugnelka4/5Ilulissat, Greenland
Average temperature in winter: 16° Go for: GlaciersAbout 20 billion tons of arctic blue icebergs calve off Jakobshavn Isbrae each year to float down Ilulissat Icefjord, off Greenland’s west side. Although nearly 80 percent of the island is still covered in ice, Jakobshavn is one of the region’s last great glaciers. Ride in a red sailboat down the fjord to Disko Bay to see seals and whales along the coast, or go mushing in a wooden sledge pulled by a team of sled dogs with cream coats. Wrapped in a reindeer skin blanket with a thermos of hot tea, you’ll spot arctic foxes, musk ox, and even polar bears as you travel over mountains and sea ice. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Hotel Arctic in Ilulissat has housed Jared Leto and Ban Ki-moon in suites that overlook the ice floes. Dig into the Greenlandic dishes at Restaurant Ulo, where chefs forage for local herbs including sheep sorrel and knot weed, and experiment with winter-dried musk-ox (think Greenlandic Serrano ham) and lichen from the fells.
Photo: Courtesy of Molly Britt / @mollymoe5085/5Bergen, Norway
Average temperature in winter: 36° Go for: IcefallsAfter Disney’s Frozen became a global phenomenon, travelers were inevitably drawn to the ice-covered landscapes that inspired its animators. Surrounded by the Seven Mountains, Bergen is a modern-day Arendelle on the bay of Vagen. Though Oslo is more cosmopolitan, Bergen is an easy distance from the country’s fjords and icefalls: Eidfjord, a 650-foot frozen waterfall, is otherworldly, with dripping stalactites of ice and snow, and can only be seen this way in winter. The Radisson Blu Royal Hotel is newly renovated, but the Det Hanseatiske Hotel has a cozier and more eclectic aesthetic and sits among the city’s wharfside Hanseatic timber houses—just look for the pointed roofs. Head to Lysverket, a new restaurant in the city center near the Edvard Munch-filled KODE museums, for three-, five-, and nine-course tasting menus of neo-Nordic cuisine. Enjoy the langoustine with sunchokes and hazelnuts, the sea urchin and ginger panna cotta, and mind the Elsa wannabes.