cheap winter travel
 

My boyfriend is studying abroad in Rotterdam for Fall '07 and I am going to meet him after I finish my university exams in Philadelphia around the 22nd of December. I will be travelling with him for three weeks until the 13th of January when he goes off on his own for 6 months. We were looking to go somewhere warmer, maybe Southern Spain, and are on a very restricted budget. This is my first trip to Europe.
Does anybody have any reccommendations/ideas?
Thanks!!!!

At that time of year no place in europe is warm. While southern Spain is not as cold as more northern countries - it's definitely not beach weather - and can be quite chilly at night (Seville average is in the 50's and it rarely drops below freezing in Jan).

For real beach weather you really need the Carib or Asia.

From Holland you can find very cheap flights to Canary islands, or Tunisia.
Two nice winter "beach" destinations.

Though we always refer to the south of the peninsula when we talk about Southern Spain, Canary Islands is the part of Spain most meridional.

Thanks so much for all the advice. We realize we won't find somewhere necessarily beach warm but its better than a snowstorm! We're both Canadian so we've seen enough of that ;) I will definatley look into the Canary Islands and Tunisia

I have sunbathed on the beach in southern Spain and Porto Santo at Christmas, but it's not guaranteed.

My father and his girlfriend spent two weeks in Portugal last Christmas and they absolutely loved it. They went to Lisbon, Fatima, Porto and Sintra (possibly other places, that's all I remember). I saw their photos and video, and it was quite beautiful. They wore jackets, but it wasn't too cold...maybe about 50 to 60 degrees F during the day.