Christmas Holiday

[CMPunk]

The family and I are deciding to spend Christmas somewhere warm this year. Saves on the whole present thing and me and the GF having to drive through the mountains. Anyone been anywhere they liked at Christmas? What kind of prices are we looking at?

[BuzzardsWife]

Alot of people I know love Hawaii for Xmas. The only thing is travel is so expensive that month. I guess it depends how far you want to go and how you want to get there. To me, anywhere warm with no family pressure would be great at Christmas. I'm getting really sick of the whole concept of Christmas, I think escaping it every year would be wonderful.

[SteveToms]

Go to St.Marteen, you get to see the planes land right over the beach

[Buff]

Did Christmas of '87 in Hawaii on the island of Maui. I quite enjoyed it. We had moved to Lethbridge from Calgary in the summer of '86 and we met up with our old neighbours in Hawaii and spent Christmas with them, and then we went to Waikiki for a couple of nights... can't remember if we spent New Years eve in Hawaii or Canada though.

[Sparks]

I went on holidays to the Yucatan in Mexico over this past Christmas and it was spectacular. If you avoid the touristy spots for most of your trip, you'll save a lotof money and probably have a better time anyway.

Merida is a great "home base" from which you can make day trips all over the Yucatan - to Campeche, ruins in Uxmal (much better than Chichen Itza) or elsewhere, you can visit some Cenotes, etc. The locals are very friendly. If you're avoiding tourist areas, though, some basic knowledge of Spanish would definitely be helpful because very few, if any, people can speak English.

If you do that, you might want to finish your trip off with a few days in Playa del Carmen or Cancun, despite how much more expensive it is. By that time, nothing but a beach and a few tequilas (not to mention food which is not tacos) will really hit the spot. It's a great way to finish the trip.

I can't reccommend the Yucatan enough for a Christmas holiday, but yeah, the cost is considerably more at that time of year. I think that's the case anywhere warm with beaches, though.

[redforever]

We have done Cozumel in Mexico, Ambergris Cay in Belize and Kihei in Hawaii, all over the XMAS holidays.

You do pay a premium for travelling and vacationing at that time of year, no doubt about it. But you can save some if you book early, especially if you consider Belize, just not as many flights there. But for us at that time, was the only time we could travel with our children and be together as a family vacationing. When your kids are in school or university, you are pretty well forced to follow the holiday times of the school schedule.

On the other hand, it can be very relaxing. We still took a very small present for everyone, max of $20, just so we had something to open on XMAS day.

Out of the three destinations, I would recommend Mexico. It is warm, relaxing, but at the same time, you can feel the XMAS spirit. Poinsettias everywhere, piniatas, XMAS Eve there is carol singing in the small churches on the plazas. Hawaii is very Americanized and Belize, while very laid back, just does not get into the XMAS spirit very much. Yeah, they have the normal lights on the tree trunks etc, but not much else.