It’s never too late to plan a Christmas trip, travel agents say, but if you’ve waited this long to think about this year’s excursion, you may have to accept all sorts of compromises. On the other hand, this is the right time to start thinking about Christmas 1994, and not a bit too early to make reservations for some places.
People travel at Christmas for all sorts of reasons. For some this is the slow time in their businesses; for others, such as teachers and families, it’s vacation time.
Most families are looking for sun or snow, though now most seem to go for one week, not 10 days or two weeks, says Helen Varri, sales manager for the Lake Forest Travel Bureau.
“Look for fun for the kids,” Varri says. “Club Meds have excellent programs and the Hyatt Hotels have the Camp Hyatts, which are programs for children.
“But plan as early as possible, especially for the Caribbean, Mexico and Hawaii, or if you want a condo in Aspen or Vail.”
If you are deciding late, you need to be flexible about dates and destinations, says Varri. “Grand Cayman sells out early, but maybe there’s space in Jamaica.”
Varri says clients may have to be a little adventurous. For instance: “The Chilean lakes are absolutely gorgeous. We have sent people there and they had a wonderful time.”
Leroy Johnson, a systems analyst in Chicago, says the Christmas holidays are the best time to travel for his family now that he has one daughter in college and one in high school.
“Their spring vacations don’t come at the same time any more and they often have other things to do during the summer,” he says. “We love to go cruising. There’s nothing like New Year’s Eve on a cruise ship. It’s very festive. You’re all dressed up and everybody has a good time. It’s a shipwide party.”
Towns, cities, resorts and cruise ships all over the world have special offerings for the holidays. Peggy Marc Kaz of Beale Travel Service in Chicago says, “The first thing I ask my client is, `How does the family want to celebrate?’ This is a highly personal issue. I need to get a sense from the clients as to what their priorities are before I can make any recommendations.”
Kaz says cruises are wonderful because the kids will have others to play with and Christmas or New Year’s Eve will be celebrated appropriately.
Nancy Kelly of Kelly Cruises in Oak Brook, which books only cruise vacations, says, “If you’re traveling with children, make your reservations as early as January or February. That’s how you get the best rates. There are a limited number of rooms on ships that can accommodate third and fourth persons and they get snapped up early.”
Here are some special holiday destinations. If you have procrastinated too long this year, start thinking about next year. But it’s not too late to book for many of the places listed here.
New Orleans
In New Orleans’ French Quarter, carolers can be heard in Jackson Square for several nights before Christmas and there are caroling cruises on the Steamboat Natchez. Papa Noel, the Creole version of Santa Claus, makes frequent appearances during the Crescent City’s annual “Creole Christmas” celebration.
Many of the restaurants in this city famous for its good food have special Christmas dinners, from the Reveillon, an adaptation of a traditional Creole dining custom served at 15 of New Orleans’ finest restaurants, to the Madrigal Dinner at O’Flaherty’s Irish Channel Pub.
For more information about holiday festivities in New Orleans, call 800-666-1996.
New England inns
Maupintour has put together a package for Dec. 20-26 that begins and ends in Boston and takes the traveler to several New England inns. There’s an overnight stay in Stowe, Vt., high tea at the Dartmouth Outing Club House in New Hampshire and a candlelight Christmas Eve dinner at the Hanover Inn in New Hampshire.
The trip includes a tour of Boston and shopping and sightseeing in the New England countryside. For more information, contact a travel agent.
Colonial Williamsburg
This Virginia town is the place to visit if you’re interested in Christmas as it was celebrated in Colonial times. The shops are decorated for Christmas, there are street carolers and the restaurants serve traditional holiday meals. The firing of the muskets, an 18th Century tradition welcoming Christmas, takes place at 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
All the homes are decorated for Christmas in the manner of the times, using 18th Century materials and methods. Call Colonial Williamsburg, 800-HISTORY.
New Mexico
For a Southwestern holiday, try Albuquerque, Santa Fe or Taos, N.M. Or visit all three. Each is approximately an hour’s drive of one of the others.
Santa Fe, famous for its luminarias (paperbags containing lighted candles and a Christmas tradition brought from Spain via Mexico), has numerous historic sites and enough art galleries to fill several days of browsing. Taos, which has the largest and oldest inhabited adobe structure in the United States, has a New Year’s Eve torchlight procession in the Taos Ski Valley. The skiing is great too.
Albuquerque’s historic Old Town is decorated for Christmas with touches of the three cultures-Hispanic, Native American and Anglo-that co-exist in New Mexico today. Call New Mexico tourism, 800-545-2040.
San Antonio
San Antonio celebrates the Christmas season with a flourish. Lights are the key here, with the famous River Walk lit with more than 50,000 lights and Sea World of Texas getting into the act with its own light show each evening except Christmas Eve and New Year’s Evethrough Jan. 2.
A Lone Star Christmas at Fiesta Texas, a 200-acre theme park, has family activities, a crafts fair and a musical dinner show through Dec. 30. Fiestas Navidenas, which weekends through Dec. 19, is a Christmas festival in Market Square with pinata parties, blessing of the animals and a visit from Pancho Claus. The Rivercenter Christmas Pageant runs weekends in December until the 19th as the traditional Christmas story is portrayed on barges. Call 800-447-3372.
Banff
The Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, surrounded by mountains and snow-covered evergreens, has a holiday festival through Jan. 1. Christmas parades and pageants, choirs of carolers, traditional holiday feasts, skating parties and moonlit hayrides are all part of the celebration.
The hotel offers several packages for adults and children, which include accommodations, some meals and the full program of activities. Call the hotel, 800-441-1414.
The Rockies
Colorado offers dozens of holiday events such as a Christmas walk in Denver on weekends through Dec. 25 and the New Year’s Eve fireworks and torchlight parade at Durango.
Skiing is the major attraction in this state. Many resorts have winter packages but this is one vacation that must be planned early if you want the best accommodations at the location of your choice. Call 800-COLORADO.
Israel
A trip to the Holy Land during the Christmas season is in the grand tradition of pilgrims since the 2nd Century. This is the ideal time to enjoy the beautiful landscape while visiting the roots of three major religions.
Several tour companies offer Christmas tours to holy sites in Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee. See Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus or sites where Roman cities are being uncovered.
The Israel Government Tourist Office can provide a list of Christmas services. Call 312-782-4306.
Zermatt and Vienna
William D. Buckman’s Travel Time agency in Chicago has been taking people to the Imperial Ball on New Year’s Eve in Vienna for 22 years. This excursion, which begins Dec. 19 and ends Jan. 4, includes caroling, horse-drawn sleigh rides, candlelight dinners in the Swiss Alps, Christmas in Zermatt and then a trip in a private rail car through the Alps on Dec. 26.
Prices (per person, double; air and ground transport included as well as most meals) start at $4,235 for Zermatt; Vienna, $5,715; and a combination of the two, $9,950.
Guests continue on to Vienna, where they enjoy the Imperial Ball in the exquisite and elegant Hofburg Palace on New Year’s Eve. Travelers can take either part of this trip separately if they don’t want to visit both places. Call the agency, 312-726-7197 or 800-621-4725.
London
London is a great place to combine a Christmas celebration with theater-going, shopping, museum and cathedral viewing and pub-hopping. Check out Harrods and the other stores decorated for Christmas. The Radisson Edwardian Hotels has several winter packages and a choice of nine hotels in London. Information is available at Radisson hotels, 800-233-4459.
Or enjoy Christmas or New Year’s aboard the Royal Scotsman historic train. The Christmas departure is from London on Dec. 23, arriving back on Dec. 28. The train visits Bath, Cranmore and Belvoir Castle, among other stops. Christmas Day service is at Winchester Cathedral in Winchester and there is a Boxing Day (Dec. 26) hunt meet.
The fare for the Christmas trip is $4,400 for six days and five nights, per person, double-occupancy accommodation with private shower and toilet facilities. This includes three meals a day and all beverages, including alcoholic. The package is arranged by Sterling, a California travel agency, 800-727-4359.
Club Med
Club Med offers Christmas and New Year’s Eve festivities for adults and children. Some Club Meds take children as young as 4 months old.
Get a Club Med catalog from travel agents to learn the activities and amenities available at each facility. One child is free per full-paying adult or guardian; discounts for seniors. Nightly and weekly packages are available. Call 800-CLUB-MED.
A Christmas cruise
Holiday cruises are always popular. Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Lines have special programs for holiday passengers. They report that repeat bookings are higher at this time of the year than any other, and suggest travelers book nine months to a year in advance for best availability and rates.
Crystal Cruises offers a 17-day transcanal holiday sailing, an Acapulco-to-Ft. Lauderdale cruise making stops in such places as Caldera, Aruba, Grand Cayman Island and Playa del Carmen. The fare can go as high as $12,915 (per person, double) for a penthouse suite with veranda.
Ahwanee Hotel, Yosemite
This pageant and dinner began shortly after The Ahwanee opened in 1927. The seven-course dinner is elegant and the ceremony is adapted from descriptions in Washington Irving’s “Sketch Book” of a Christmas Day in 1718 at Squire Bracebridge’s Old English Manor.
Some 1,600 guests are accommodated during five dinner seatings, two on Dec. 22, one on Christmas Eve and two on Christmas Day. But you have to be pretty lucky to get to go. Applications for a lottery, held in the spring, are accepted between Dec. 15 and Jan. 15 for dinner the next year. The hotel receives approximately 60,000 requests for seats each year; applicants can also request lodging accommodations at the same time.
The Ahwanee has 123 guest rooms with rates starting at $208 per night, double occupancy (children free).
Dinner this year is $185, including tax and gratuity, not including wine. Lottery winners will be notified of next year’s price if it changes.
Applications for the lottery may be obtained by writing to Yosemite Concession Services Corp., 5410 E. Home Ave., Fresno, Calif. 93727. Or call 209-372-1445.
FAMILY OF 5 TRAVELS FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Charlyn Slade, a nurse administrator, travels with her husband and three children every year over the Christmas holidays.
“We started traveling at holiday time,” she says, “when the kids were all in school. We usually go over New Year’s, but sometimes it’s Christmas.”
The Slades have been to Hawaii, the Caribbean, Acapulco, Disney World, Jamaica and, when their tastes run toward cold weather, Wisconsin. Every year on New Year’s Day, the five of them sit down and talk about the trip they’re on and throw out ideas for next year’s trip. Then they use the month of January to collect information and determine what they can afford. By the end of January to early February, they’ve made up their minds and have everything booked.
And what’s their favorite Christmas destination? “We’ve all liked different places,” says Slade, “but everyone enjoyed Hawaii and Disney World and the Princess Cruise we took three years ago. We’re going to Disney World again this year. We always have a good time just being together and that’s important.”
Slade, whose children are now 14, 17 and 19, says, “We’re delighted they still want to come with us.”
Her advice to people traveling at this time of year: “Be patient; everything’s crowded. Just focus on enjoying yourself and having a good time.”
SOME ESCAPE THE HOLIDAYS
Louise Sloan, director of marketing for Brookfield Zoo, says she travels at Christmas not because she’s looking for a special holiday experience, but to get away from all the Christmas hoopla.
“My son is out of town and I can’t always get to be with him at this time,” she says, “so rather than be faced with family celebrations that I can’t be a part of, I choose this time to get away.”
Sloan has visited Nepal, Belize and India over the Christmas holidays. Many of her fellow tour members were couples without children and a large number were school teachers.
On her trip to Nepal last year, Sloan says, her tour guide wanted to make sure Christmas was not overlooked. This trip was a vigorous 10-day trek, hiking up and down, seven or eight miles a day, in very cold weather.
“He really went overboard. He carried a little tree all day on Christmas because he knew there wouldn’t be one where we were going. Then he decorated it and placed it on the table at dinner. The cook baked a cake on an open fire. It was almost uneatable, but we ate it because they had tried so hard. We sang Christmas carols and each one of us was given a hand-made, Nepalese-designed, Christmas card. It was all very sweet and touching.”
Sloan, who this year is going to the Florida Keys, says she never misses Christmas at home.
“In India, three years ago, I spent Christmas day on the back of an elephant doing some of the most incredible wild-life viewing I’ve ever done. Why would I miss being home?”
HOLIDAYS PUT A TWIST ON TRIPS
Peter Freeman, a Chicago attorney, and his wife, Donna, like to travel in winter. Depending on whether they’re meeting family members for Christmas, they may take as long as a month, which they did two years ago in Africa, or as short as six days in Costa Rica over New Year’s last year. Plans for that trip weren’t nailed down until the beginning of December.
Three years ago the Freemans spent Christmas in Guatemala and New Year’s Eve in Belize.
“Christmas can be lonely and distracting when you’re not with your family,” says Freeman.
New Year’s Eve in a lodge in Belize was also unique for the Freemans. They were the only Americans in a very small group which included mostly people who lived in Belize.
“We had a radio for music, and champagne. It was a beautiful location, quiet and intimate.”
