Looking For Warm Vacation Spot for December in US With 16 Months Old
 

Hello Friends,

Been to Florida (Key West, Miami, etc) and Hawaii. Looking for recommendations to go on a vacation (warm vacation) in December with our 16 months old baby boy. We love nature and outdoorsy things (no museums/pool sitting). Any places you recommend? Some recommendations are: California (Big Sur, LA, San Diego) or Arizona (Sedona). We love national parks as well. Very confused because we now have to think about our baby boy in the equation.

Thank you in advance!
Regards
Winnie

I'd eliminate CA & Sedona from the equation. Weather not reliably warm in CA, snow possible in Sedona. You'd probably best stick to Florida. Or how about Puerto Rico?

San Diego is pretty much pleasant year round - not beach weather but pleasant. Otherwise . . . Big Sur almost certainly won't be warm in December. Sedona can be downright cold -- average 50's during the day and 30's at night but could be colder.

In Arizona, I would focus on Phoenix and its immediate surroundings. Weather in Arizona depends more on elevation than location in the state, so even though Tucson is farther south, it's also much higher than Phoenix and will therefore be cooler.

Big Sur will not be warm in December, or really any time of the year. I think LA and San Diego would be good, but don't know enough to advise you for certain.

Must you remain in the continental US?

Hawaii will be warm almost without doubt; so will anything in Southeast Florida and south of that.

What is your question? You've already BEEN to the "guaranteed" places. Odd post IMO.

Belize. Ok, it's not USA, but it's the only country on the land mass of North to South America whose official language is English.

I think Puerto Rico is a good choice, obviously, as it will be the warmest. I used to live in LA, and that's not a bad idea. It wasn't always "warm" in December, though, weather can vary a lot. Occasionally it will be beach weather in December (although not the water) but I did use my heater there in the winter and had a winter coat. Mornings could be down to 45 or so. Typically it's very pleasant, maybe around 70 in afternoon, about 50 at night. So you could do plenty outdoors in that kind of weather. Of course Florida would be that warm, not just SE FLorida.

If the idea of Miami etc is implying you want beach weather, then not many places can give you that but Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Maybe San Diego, never been there inDecember. southern Texas like San Antonio is a bit colder than LA.

I think if you want guaranteed beach weather your choices are limited to Hawaii and Puerto Rico. (FL may well be warm enough - but perhaps not.)

If you just want warmish versus winter you can do San Diego, possibly LA - but do be aware that it can get fairly chilly at night and rain is a definite possibility. (We had a meeting in the suburbs of LA mid Dec last year and the hotel had automatic sprinklers set to water the grounds at night. When I went out for breakfast at 8 am the walkways in the grounds were slippery with ice.)

It depends what you mean by warm. If you want to run around in shorts and swim in the ocean, then Hawaii or Purrto Rico would work, as would most of the Caribbean and coastal Mexico.

If you just wanted somewhere warm enough to walk around comfortably, donning the occasional fleece, then I say California.

I would not recommend Florida. It isn't <I>that</I> warm and, without the beach (and you said you didn't want to lay out by the pool), it just isn't as rewarding as CA to my mind. The exception would be if you wanted to do Orlando.

"Warm" is relative. I live in an area with snow and frequent single digit temps, so what some consider "cold" in Florida or San Diego are tropical. :) Last December, the 60 degree temps in Hilton Head were downright balmy to me!!

From where are you traveling, Winnie? As janisj said, San Diego is pretty pleasant year round unless you're expecting mid-90 temps and bathwater ocean temps......

Why would anyone looking for a warm-weather vacation choose luke-warm San Diego over toasty-warm Puerto Rico? I realize there may be reasons that the OP hasn't shared, but consider much nicer beaches, a tropical rain forest and history as old as any post-Columbian in the New World. San Diego (Orlando?) may have it's charms, but not anywhere near the same league, IMO.

I think there are plenty of places more enjoyable in Florida than Orlando, even without going into the ocean. LIke St Augustine, Tampa, Sarasota, etc. This is a baby, so there is no purpose to going to Walt Disney World. But I won't lie, I do like California a whole lot more just in terms of scenery (desert, mountains, you name it).

It isn't an issue of bathwater ocean temps, you don't go into the ocean in the winter in California without a wetsuit, at least no one I knew did. The ocean there is never really bathwater temp, that's more FLorida and the Caribbean, I think. The ocean temps don't really vary much between LA and San Diego, it's about 60 in the winter. In summer, it's around 70 or so, it's never bathwater.

<i>Why would anyone looking for a warm-weather vacation choose luke-warm San Diego over toasty-warm Puerto Rico? I realize there may be reasons that the OP hasn't shared, but consider much nicer beaches, a tropical rain forest and history as old as any post-Columbian in the New World. San Diego (Orlando?) may have it's charms, but not anywhere near the same league, IMO.</i>

The OP noted they weren't interested in sitting by the pool, so the beach may similarly hold little appeal.

Personally, I think that California is far more interesting than Puerto Rico, once you subtract the beaches. Old San Juan is nice enough, but the city is kind of dumpy and the food isn't remotely as good as California.

As for "history", just how much are we talking about? The population of San Juan was below 10k into the 19th Century. Yes, there are some old buildings, but it is not a place of terrible historic significance.

It's all subjective, I know. As a San Francisco native who lived in Puerto Rico for 5 years, that's my opinion. I wouldn't say one is "more interesting" than the other, just very different. And all of PR is warmer in the winter than all of CA, beach or no beach.

Winter is rainy season in California( fingers crossed). I have been to SD in April, cold and rainy.

Fingers crossed, indeed!! Big fire down the road about 5 miles from me this weekend. Yikes!

MichelleY~several years ago, I went to Washington state to visit family in February. Two friends of mine were teasing me because they were going to San Diego at the same time. They'd packed swim suits, shorts, and flip flops, and had rented a convertible; they told me they were going to come back from San Diego all tanned while they were certain I would come back with webbed feet. I had 5 days of sunshine in Washington, while they had 5 days of rain and flash flood warnings in San Diego. :D

Does the baby have a passport? One isn't needed for Puerto Rico or U.S. Virgin Islands, but if you start thinking of other Caribbean or Central America destinations...

Puerto Rico may be warm in December, but isn't that the rainiest month there? And humid?

How long of a travel day do you want with a 13 month old? Depending on where you live, getting to Hawaii or Puerto Rico could be torture.

"Puerto Rico may be warm in December, but isn't that the rainiest month there? And humid?"

If you want the numbers for rain and humidity, look here:
http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/w...tes-of-America

Consider checking out beautiful Laguna Beach in Southern CA. We love The Montage there for lodging. Happy travels! :).

If I was flying with a 16 month old, I would put great emphasis on ease of travel to destination. In my opinion it is about the worst age to be cooped up in a plane. Most are newly mobile and wanting to race around most of the time. And too young to listen to any reason and attention span so short as to make efforts to distract them exhausting. From where would you be traveling?

I believe we've been abandoned. But we can chat among ourselves.

Thank you all for your suggestions, we been busy lately with the baby so hadn't had a chance to get back to all of you. Overall, by warm we meant not necessarily swimming in the ocean but good enough temps to do moderate hiking (2-3 miles) trails with the baby in a carrier. Just don't wont the baby to get sick.

The placed we mentioned in the original post (Florida, etc.) we have been there already so wanted to try something new. Also, we have been to PR and were not too impressed. We are leaning towards Sedona because we can hike during mid-day (hoping for temps in 50s) and spend rest of time mozy around the cities. What do you guys think?

Thank you very much

Sedona in December wouldn't be described as "warm", average high, 45. Could be snow for your walks.

http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/w...tes-of-America

"... and spend rest of time mozy around the cities." What cities? The only "city" nearby is Flagstaff, and that's an hour from Sedona, although the scenery on Hwy. 89 between the two is spectacular. (I have no idea what winter conditions on this road would be like, so you should do a little research on that.) In the other direction on 89, Prescott is more than an hour away. I don't think the scenery is very striking on this part of the road, and I personally wouldn't want to drive it twice/roundtrip.

FWIW, I don't find the town of Sedona very interesting. The scenery would be wonderful any time, but I don't know about hiking in December.

If you're thinking somewhere in the southwest U.S., how about Tucson?

You have to look at average temps/weather - considering altitude - much of the SW is mountainous and has winter in Dec. South doe not correlate with temps.

Maybe consider a few nights in sedona and then a few in Scottsdale/phoenix. Some hotels have heated outdoor pools and there's hiking around there too

Alternative would be southern Cal. San Diego. Walk the zoo, head up to la jolla and torry pines and hike around there! Also maybe Palm Springs.

Sedona gets snow in December.

Cold weather won't make the baby sick....viruses and bacteria do that. So pick where you want to go, dress appropriately, and have fun. The little one won't care where you choose.

December isn't warm on Tucson either , jeans and a fleece jacket weather. But OK for hiking.

You just never can predict the weather. In San Diego last Christmas, we had a picnic and fought over the shady spots as it was 82 degrees. We went bike riding that evening in t shirts.