If you don’t mind gambling on the weather, winter is a great time to go to Europe.
I took a train from Paris one winter day to get my first look at Burgundy’s wine country, and found it socked in with fog. When I took a short trip to London one February, it never stopped raining. On the other hand, I’ve also found sunshine and unseasonably mild weather in Europe in winter.
There are many pluses. All the performing arts offer their best in winter, so theater, ballet and opera evenings are memorable. Hotels and restaurants are not crowded with other tourists so you’re really living among residents, and there are plenty of bargains.
I found some examples:
Spain’s paradors and Portugal’s pousadas are on sale this winter. Miami-based World Dimensions offers rates beginning at $47 per person per night now through March at these government-regulated inns that include historic castles, convents and palaces. The program requires a minimum reservation of five-room nights, a $25 booking fee and a deposit. For a brochure, call 800-877-1525.
Savings on cars rented in the United Kingdom for use by March 31 are offered by the Kemwel group beginning at $99 in England, Scotland and Wales for category 1 (subcompacts). This rate is guaranteed in U.S. dollars and includes free unlimited mileage. Call 800-678-0678.
For $599 including round-trip airfare from New York to Finland, FinnWay Inc. offers a package called Helsinki Interlude that departs every day but Sundays. Participants get three nights’ accommodations, daily buffet breakfasts, airport transfers and optional add-ons that include a spa stay and even a trip to “Santa Claus Land” on the Arctic Circle outside Rovaniemi in Finnish Lappland. Another add-on option is a Baltic cruise to St. Petersburg or to Stockholm and back. Contact FinnWay at 800-526-4927.
For an upscale winter experience, Sabena, the Belgian airline, has one-week programs now through March that feature stays, including breakfasts and dinners, at one of 20 ancestral chateaux, as well as a stay in Brussels including breakfasts, a rental car and round-trip airfare to Brussels from four U.S. cities including Chicago from $975 per person double occupancy. Call Sabena at 800-955-2000.
Several European airlines flying from Chicago also offer weekend packages that include airfare and hotels for two or three nights, beginning at about $499 per person, double occupancy. Among them: Sabena to Brussels; SAS to Copenhagen, Stockholm or Oslo (800-221-2350); KLM to Amsterdam (800-374-7747); and British Air to London (800-AIRWAYS).
