Where to travel in January

Updated November 22, 2024

Following the high highs (holidays! Family time!) and low lows (holidays! Family time!) of December, January can often be the month when we need a vacation the most. And luckily, the season provides an array of options: Ski towns see tons of powder but smaller crowds; the typically sweltering tropics and deserts finally enjoy pleasant temperatures; and big cities across Europe and the United States often welcome steep price drops in airfare and hotel rates. And remember, if you’re looking to escape the cold back home and want to experience summer, you can always cross the equator. Here, 12 spots we’re excited about for January.

Average temp: 48ºF high, 40ºF low

London’s weather often gets unfairly maligned, but in January, highs hover near 50ºF—considerably warmer than the northern U.S.—and post-holiday deals on flights and hotels are abundant. Sure, it rains about half of the month, but you’ll be spending your time inside at the theater.

In January, the city’s theater scene is filled with celebs: You can catch Rami Malek in Oedipus at The Old Vic, Daisy Edgar-Jones in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Almeida Theatre, Sigourney Weaver as a gender-swapped Prospero in The Tempest at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and Vanessa Williams in The Devil Wears Prada at the Dominion Theatre. Best of all, even the most in-demand West End shows tend to be much cheaper than those on Broadway. Stop by the TKTS booth in Leicester Square for deeply discounted day-of tickets.

If you want to see even more famous faces, drop into the National Portrait Gallery, which reopened recently after renovations. It’s free and near Soho’s theater district, so you can squeeze in a visit after a matinee or before a night show.

Average temp: 59ºF high, 48ºF low

While many celebrate the new year by trying out “dry January,” colder months can be a great time to cozy up in a slightly emptier cocktail lounge. In recent years, Barcelona has emerged as a mixology hotspot, boasting two of the top 10 entries on this year’s World’s 50 Best Bars list.

No. 10 is Paradiso, a Gaudí-inspired bar hidden behind a deli’s refrigerator door, where cocktails include ingredients like miso-infused chocolate and Brazilian “electric flowers,” which make your mouth tingle. And at No. 3, you’ll find Sips Barcelona, where your drink might come served with smoked-filled bubbles or in a pair of cupped metal hands. There’s even a 14-seat bar-within-a-bar called Esencia serving a drinks tasting menu. For something more classic, consider the Art Deco Boadas Cocktails, which was founded in 1933 by a Cuban-born barman Miguel Boadas, who cut his teeth at Havana’s iconic La Floridita bar.

Average temp: 58ºF high, 36ºF low

Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday with a visit to the Alabama capital, where the Nobel Peace Prize–winning activist lived, preached, and led his nonviolent revolution. Be sure to visit the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where he served as pastor from 1954 to 1960, and his adjacent residence, which was turned into the Dexter Parsonage Museum. Elsewhere, the Freedom Rides Museum occupies the city’s former bus station and tells the story of the fight for desegregation, while the Rosa Parks Library and Museum is located on the site of Parks's infamous arrest.

Among the newer additions to the city are the sobering National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which features 805 hanging steel rectangles—one for each of the counties around the U.S. where a lynching has been documented. To learn more context, pair the memorial with a visit to the thorough, moving Legacy Museum.

Average temp: 67ºF high, 36ºF low

Set within the Sonoran Desert, active-minded Scottsdale cools off a bit in the winter, with January highs hovering in the upper 60s. The weather is great for hiking among the saguaro-studded landscape (the Tom’s Thumb Trail is a switchback-filled local fave), but it’s an especially great time to explore the city’s underrated art scene.

While you’re in town, consider dropping into the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, where temporary exhibitions explore the intersection of queerness and desert landscapes. And at the nearby Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, you can catch an ongoing exhibit featuring paintings by female Southwestern artists. And January 18 marks the start of the Celebration of Fine Art, which runs through March and sees 100 artists create and exhibit works under giant white tents.

Just across the city line in Phoenix, the Desert Botanical Garden is also Light Bloom (through January 20), which features enormous light installations displayed among the succulents.

Average temp: 76ºF high, 57ºF low

After hurricane season in November, South Florida eases into a period of low humidity, lovely temps, and fewer mosquitoes—making it the perfect time to explore Everglades National Park. The park’s subtropical wetlands are home to more than 360 bird species, including herons, egrets, and the bright pink roseate spoonbill, in addition to manatees, sharks, alligators and crocodiles, and, if you’re especially lucky, the highly elusive Florida panther.

Make your first stop the recently rebuilt Guy Bradley Visitor Center in Flamingo. It’s very far south in Florida—almost two hours southwest of Miami—and is a great place to learn about area wildlife, chat with rangers about hiking and canoeing trails, and pick up backcountry permits. You can also sign up for a 90-minute boat tour through either Whitewater Bay or Florida Bay to explore the mangrove keys and seagrass.

Nearby, you’ll also find the reopened Flamingo Lodge, the national park’s only hotel, which features 24 rooms made of elevated shipping containers. (Be sure to take advantage of the on-site bike, kayak, and power-boat rentals to explore the park on the water.)

Average temp: 77ºF high, 55ºF low

Roughly the same size as New York’s Long Island, this spot off the coast of Adelaide is home to an outrageous assortment of fauna, including wallabies, koalas, echidnas, and of course its eponymous kangaroo. In fact, some even call it Australia’s Galápagos. Summer—December to February—is a particularly popular time to visit, when you can watch massive fur seals battling for territory from viewing platforms like Admirals Arch in Flinders Chase National Park.

Flinders Chase was in the news a few years back when bushfires raged during late 2019 and early 2020, destroying the iconic Southern Ocean Lodge After a roughly $35 million investment, the luxury property reopened last year on the island’s southern shore. The reborn lodge features a spa with Australian-made products, a heated infinity pool, and a sprawling great room centered around a suspended fireplace.

If you want to spend time on the beach, head to the island’s calmer northern shore. Here, you’ll find Stokes Bay, where you can explore peaceful rock pools and spot dolphins from the shore.

Average temp: 72ºF high, 54ºF low

Every year, from November to May, more than 10,000 humpback whales (or koholā) start migrating to the warm waters off Hawaii, where they mate and give birth to their one-ton calves. In Kauai, sightings tend to peak in January and February, when you can spot them from the shore. Keep your eyes peeled out toward the horizon for tail slapping and blowhole spouting from spots like Poʻipū Beach, the Kīlauea Lighthouse, the Kalalau Trail, or the Kapaʻa Overlook.

To get a little closer to the action, head out onto the water on a zodiac raft with Na Pali Riders or a sailboat with Holo Holo Charters. While out at sea, you might also see green sea turtles and playful spinner dolphins, which can be found in pods that number in the hundreds. By law, tour boats can’t get closer to 100 yards from a whale—that is, unless you get “mugged,” a term that refers to when a curious whale swims closer to the boat, giving you a front-row view of its gargantuan, barnacle-dotted beauty.

Average temp: 26ºF high, 8ºF low

Think of this cool Canadian Rockies town as the Boulder to Calgary’s Denver: a gateway to outdoor adventure that has grown up in recent years with its influx of microbreweries and trip-worthy restaurants. Located on the doorstep of Banff National Park about an hour west of the Calgary airport, Canmore comes alive in the winter, when the surrounding mountains and lakes attract cross-country skiers, snowshoers, and even ice climbers, who swarm to the Bow Valley to tackle frozen waterfalls. No matter your skill level, be sure to visit the Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park, which was built for the 1988 Olympics and now offers snowshoeing, fat biking, tobogganing, and winter disc golf, in addition to more than 40 miles of cross-country skiing trails—including some that are illuminated for night skiing.

Once you’ve worked up an appetite, plan a cozy dinner at Sauvage, where the tasting menu might include locally foraged spruce tips and hearty Canadian proteins like bison, elk, and steelhead trout. And, oh yeah, keep your eyes peeled for the Northern Lights. For the best chances of a sighting, you’ll want to get slightly outside of town, to spots like Quarry Lake or the Three Sisters Viewpoint, where light pollution is incredibly low.

Average temp: 31ºF high, 19ºF low

The new year is a great time to hit Colorado ski towns, when the powder is reliable and the holiday crowds have waned. If you visit this month, you can also watch artists hand-carve 25-ton blocks of snow into enormous artworks at the International Snow Sculpture Championships.

While you’re in town, embrace Breck’s environmentally-friendly ethos: Take one of the many shared shuttle services from Denver’s airport and then go car-free, using the free, reliable bus system. And even if there’s snow or ice on the ground, you can rent a fat bike from spots like the Gold Run Nordic Center, Elevation Ski & Bike, or Ridden, which offers guided cycling tours to Broken Compass Brewery & Tap House and Breckenridge Distillery. And be sure to save time to shop for new sustainable gear and cozy essentials at shops like Folcland and Outsider.

Average temp: 75ºF high, 58ºF low

Dubai’s scorching triple-digit temps cool off in winter, and the Persian Gulf follows suit: While it can be bathtub-warm in the summer, the water at the beach mellows out to the refreshing 70s by January. To best experience the beachfront vibes, don’t miss the new Delano Dubai, which nods to the brand’s original location in Miami Beach at every turn, and the neighboring Banyan Tree Dubai, which has a private beach and three pools.

If you want to combine Arabian culture with feet-in-the-sand time, consider the Jumeirah Mina A’Salam; it’s part of the waterfront 99-acre Madinat Jumeirah development, where architecture draws on the motifs of historic bazaars, forts, and fishing villages, and you can scoot around the network of canals and lagoons on stripe-topped abra boats. With the iconic Burj Al Arab as a backdrop, dine in style at Shimmers or Summersalt Beach Club, visit the rescued reptiles at the Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project (housed at neighboring Jumeirah Al Naseem), or get an adrenaline boost with water-powered hoverboards, jetpacks, and Jetovators, a.k.a. water-propelled flying bikes.

Average temp: 89ºF high, 76ºF low

Thanks to an airport that serves as a hub for travel between North and South America, Panama City has become an increasingly popular stopover point, and the weather is delightful during the winter dry season. The colonial-tinged Casco Viejo rewards aimless strolling with its charming rum bars (Pedro Mandinga Rum), experimental restaurants (A to Z Chef’s Table), and compact museums (Museo de la Mola).

Come January, jazz fans descend on the city for the Panama Jazz Festival, which was founded in 2003 by Grammy winner Danilo Pérez and features live performances at the Ciudad del Saber and the Panama Convention Center. While in town, consider staying at the American Trade Hotel, which occupies a former department store; it’s now home to its own intimate club where you can catch Latin jazz, funk, pop, and disco sets.

Average temp: 85ºF high, 66ºF low

If you’re one of those people who just can’t get enough of Christmas, plan a January trip to Puerto Rico. The holiday season lasts for nearly 50 days from Thanksgiving through mid-January, with islanders indulging in coquito (a rum-spiked coconut drink that’s like Caribbean eggnog) and joining in parrandas (like roving Christmas caroling, often late at night).

Visit on January 6, and you can experience El Día de Reyes, or Three Kings Day, with an annual festival in Parque Luis Muñoz Marín that involves food, live music, and gifts. To really get into the spirit, plan a day trip to Juana Díaz on the southern coast, which has a parade filled with bearded magis on horseback and even a museum dedicated to the festivities.

The next eight days continue with a period known as Las Octavitas, finally culminating in Las Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián, which involves street parties, concerts, and art-filled outdoor markets. The party, which regularly attracts 200,000 revelers, will fall January 16-19 this year.