Traveling for Christmas? Here’s What You Should Do When Things Are Closed for the Holidays

In London, afternoon tea can be enjoyed at any time of the year, lounging in the gilded tea rooms of posh hotels or reclining on plush furnishings of Edwardian tea parlors. During the holiday season, tea salons spread on the Christmas cheer as thick as clotted cream on a freshly baked raisin scone. The atmosphere is old world holiday jubilee—impeccably decorated Christmas trees tower over carolers crooning the classics; hand-crafted tea blends are served in delicate floral porcelain tea cups; and precious nibbles are stacked atop vintage tiered trays.

The menus consist of the typical British high tea fare—fluffy brioche, spiced mince pies, and shapely sarnies—but are created to reflect the time of year. Cucumbers are traded in for tart cranberries, tiny cakes take the shape of evergreen trees, and seasonal flavors like gingerbread and chestnut are featured in cookies and pastries. Supping warm beverages ensconced in the holiday cheer of a cozy tea salon is also a welcome respite from any frigid and dreary weather, and it is hard to imagine a more perfect way to pass a wintry London afternoon.

Dining at a Chinese food restaurant on Christmas Day is a tradition that has since transcended its American and Canadian Jewish origins and is now incorporated into the wider cultural landscape, having been adopted by those who prefer to disrupt the monotony of Anglophile holiday menus. On Christmas Day, the streets of Chinatown in Manhattan are lined with dazzling lights and colorful glowing lanterns that sway overhead, marking the path for diners to find their way into heaping bowls of chow mein and spicy platters of kung pao. In New York City, there is an opportunity to turn the tradition up a notch, moving beyond the familiar fare and into more particular iterations of Chinese cuisine—gathering around the revolving grill top at a Mongolian barbecue, huddling over a bubbling vat of mouth-numbing broth at a Sichuan hot pot, or sampling the snacks and small plates of a traditional dim sum.

There is no more opportune moment than the holiday season for leaning into the depths of winter, as the cold has not yet frozen into the marrow of the bones, and the snow is still regarded as a delightful novelty. Located in Quebec City, the high-speed sledding track was built over a century ago, as the name indicates. On this multi-track toboggan run, riders can race their friends to the bottom on a four-seater wooden sled at the blustery speed of 45 miles per hour.

Once the frozen streaks of velocity-generated tears have melted from the corners of the eyes, the frigid entertainment continues at the ice skating rink of Place d’Youville. Set in a cherished public square along the oldest avenue in the city, the rink is surrounded by historical buildings such as the illuminated archway of the St. Jean Gate and Old Quebec’s 17th-century ramparts, creating a fairy tale milieu that is prime for indulging any Québécois ice nymph fantasies.

The holiday season is not often regarded as a relaxing experience unless those holidays are taken in Istanbul. This capital city is awash in hammams, or Turkish-style bathhouses, where bathers can have their hair washed, muscles massaged, and bodies scrubbed from head to toe. The hammams range in quality and aesthetic, from modern, serene spa environments to Islamic architectural marvels like Hurrem Sultan Hammam, where light streams through intricate lattice windows, shining ancient geometric patterns atop gleaming white marble. When the relaxation phase is complete, the city outside of the hammam is festive and lively, and because Christmas is not an official holiday in Türkiye, the streets are devoid of high-season tourists.

No matter the time of year, Las Vegas can be relied on to deliver endless avenues of entertainment.  During the holidays, all the usual Vegas machinations are in full swing—casinos, clubs, shows, all-you-can-eat-buffets—but the newest and most exciting venues in this buzzing, electrified desert scene are technological. Recently opened in September 2023, the Sphere is a 270-degree, 30-story spherical screen displaying mind-blowing image quality on both the interior and exterior of the structure. Now showing is Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Postcard From Earth,’ a cinematic cross-planet voyage bringing to life some of Earth’s most magnificent landscapes in a whopping 18K of resolution. Beyond the Sphere, Area 15 is a sprawling entertainment complex that is jam-packed with immersive sensory experiences. From exploring mind-bending psychedelic art exhibits to traversing alternate dimensions in the virtual realm, Area 15 is the ultimate holiday escapism.

According to a Pew Research study conducted a few years ago, Czechia boasts the distinction of being one of the least religious countries in Europe, and in Prague, that designation is never more apparent than during the holidays. Instead of shutting themselves up at home or in church, the Czechs are out gallivanting in the streets—shopping at the holiday markets, taking in shows at the theater, strolling in the museums, or dining out with friends and family. The city’s main attractions are all open and busy, and restaurant reservations are required only if you have your heart set on a French escargot brunch or a traditional Czech Christmas dinner. Even Prague’s unique beer spas are inviting guests, and although these spas are mainly geared toward tourists, it is a novelty that is not only a chance to escape the cold with a soak in a 1,000-liter oak tub full of steaming, sudsy beer, but the visit also includes all the draft beer you can drink.

Traveling to Asia can be a strategy for sidestepping the typical holiday closures and avoiding any vestiges of Christmas entirely; however, there are locales that embrace the Christmas season, albeit with their own interpretation. In South Korea, Christmas is similar to Valentine’s Day, and is celebrated as a romantic holiday spent in the company of a significant other instead of extended family. Seoul is open and overloaded with holiday spirit, emphasizing the commercial and visual features of Christmas, such as the exchange of gifts and extravagant light displays. In the Garden of the Morning Calm, natural features are shrouded in multitudes of tiny lights, each bush and shrub outfitted in bright colors to create an eye-pleasing, illuminated garden scene. Petite France, a French-style theme park located outside of the city, becomes a sensory delight during the Christmas season, and lovers can stroll beneath leafy lighted canopies, re-enacting sentimental scenes from their favorite K-dramas.

Dubai offers the best of both worlds during the holiday season—Christmas festivals and holiday markets are heavy on holiday spirit, but the city’s sunny skies, summer temperatures, and desert periphery make it easy to forget what time of year it is. For those in the mood for Christmas aversion (and total desert immersion), a desert safari tour in Dubai includes a full day’s worth of dune-centric activities away from the city and enveloped in the vast expanse of the Arabian Desert. Tours offer a slew of mediums for navigating the dunes—sand boarding, camel treks, ATV tours, and dune bashing, an activity that entails riding along with an experienced driver in an SUV as they vigorously traverse the dunes at high speeds, sliding and skidding across the sand for a thrilling joyride. After the dunes have been thoroughly bashed, a barbecue with belly dancers and shisha pipes commences to fill the void of that turkey dinner.

The sand, sun, and Las Vegas-levels of entertainment in Miami make it a reliable action-packed getaway destination any time of year, but during the Christmas season, the city somehow manages to get even more extra. As the rest of the country is settling into a winter freeze, December is one of the busiest months to visit Miami—the hurricane season is a wrap, the weather is sunny and hot, and the holiday vibe is one of high energy. Not only are the parties and clubs in South Beach packed with revelers who prefer to gather around the DJ booth instead of the Christmas tree, but the city is also decked out with elaborate light installations.

In the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the Night Garden exhibits holographic technology, illuminated zones, and lighting effects coordinated with a soundtrack. Over one million lights are blazing at Zoo Lights Miami, and in Gulfstream Park Village, a ’symphony of lights’ plays every hour on the hour, when thousands of LED lights are synchronized with the sounds of Christmas classics. Santa’s Enchanted Forest claims to be the world’s largest holiday theme park, complete with thrill rides, light displays, and a holiday-themed carnival atmosphere.

Thoughts of New Mexico summon images of vast flatlands where light casts deep orange hues across distant desert mesas. Yet the mountains of northern New Mexico present a different landscape altogether, and in the winter, the region becomes a prime southwest skiing destination. Sixteen miles outside of Sante Fe in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains sits one of the highest ski areas in the country, with a base area elevation of over 10,000 feet. In addition to downhill ski runs, visitors can enjoy this mountainous terrain via cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, tubing, and sleigh rides. In the town of Sante Fe, local celebrations infuse Latin and Native American cultural traditions into the holiday. Farolitos, or candle-lit luminaria, line the sidewalks and decorate the walls of adobe houses, while chile ristras, bunches of dried chili peppers, are wrapped with Christmas lights and strung from the eaves. Las Posadas is a street festival that takes place in the main plaza, where a re-enactment of the Christian Christmas story is combined with Spanish folklore, complete with demons and all.