The best places to visit in December 2025

There's still time to squeeze one last vacation into your year. Spend December huddled up by a fireplace with some hot cocoa or lounge on the beach in an endless summer. 

From shimmering northern lights and festive markets to action-packed safaris and underwater adventures, these are the best places to visit in December.

1. Puerto Rico

Best for fun-filled celebrations

Twelve days of Christmas? Pah! Sunny and spirited Puerto Rico stretches it to 60 days, starting with Thanksgiving (this is a US “unincorporated territory,” after all) and not finishing until mid-January. Visit in December and you’ll most likely come across shops stacked with festive trinkets, late-night parrandas (carol singing in the streets), church Masses filled with aguinaldos (Christmas songs) and the hearty consumption of festive feasts: lechón (suckling pig), arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), pork-and-potato pasteles (steamed plantain tamales) and coquet (sweet spiced coconut drink). Día de los Inocentes (December 28) is particularly fun, akin to April Fool’s Day, when people play tricks on each other – head to Hatillo for the best high jinks.

Season’s greetings aside, the weather is wonderful in December for exploring this proudly Latino Caribbean idyll. Wander the bright alleys of Old San Juan (founded 1521) and lively second city Ponce; venture into El Yunque for rainforest hikes; check out the surf at Rincón; and consider sailing over to the islands of Vieques and Culebra for quieter sands and dazzling after-dark kayaking in Bioluminescent Bay.

2. Palawan, Philippines

Best for an underwater wonderland

Dubbed “the Philippines’ last ecological frontier,” pristine Palawan – the country’s westernmost province – is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and a haven of biodiversity above and below the water line. There are over 1700 islands here, covered by virgin forest, edged by limestone cliffs and fringed by coral reefs. The diving is varied and spectacular. At El Nido, in the north, there are 20-plus dive sites where exciting sightings range from nudibranchs and seahorses to turtles and huge shoals of snapper.

Around Coron Island, there’s thrilling wreck diving, with numerous WWII remnants to explore. There’s also decent diving in easy reach of the capital, Puerto Princesa. Sites include walls and pinnacles, a variety of corals, plenty of unusual macro species, colorful reef fish, crustaceans, schooling barracuda and jacks, rays and reef sharks. Puerto Princesa is also the gateway to the Subterranean River National Park, a navigable underground waterway through incredible karst formations.

3. Slovenia

Best for winter sports adventures

While petite Slovenia can’t compete with Europe’s winter-sports titans, the country is still splendid when the snow starts to fall. There is good skiing, albeit on a smaller scale.

Resorts such as lively Kranjska Gora, reliable Krvavec and family-friendly Vogel aren’t huge but also aren’t as busy as other alpine hubs. But where the country really excels is in multi-activity winter breaks, combining downhilling and snowboarding with cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snow-hiking, ice-climbing or even igloo-building and night tobogganing. The landscapes are thrilling, too, with most resorts located in and around handsome Triglav National Park. Photographers will love the high peaks, frozen waterfalls, snowy forests, beautiful Lake Bohinj and magical Lake Bled, with its lake isle and castle shimmering in the frost.

4. Central Kalahari, Botswana

Best for an action-packed safari

In this immense wildlife reserve, covering 50,000 sq km and one of the largest in the world, rain does not stop play. Indeed, it positively encourages it. While December marks the start of the rainy season in Botswana, it’s the best time to visit the semi-arid Central Kalahari. In the northernmost areas, around Northern Deception Valley in particular, the flush of wildflowers and grasses attracts great gatherings of grazers, which in turn attract predators – large numbers of hyena, leopard and the reserve’s famed black-maned lions are all found here.

This is also the best time for birding, as many species are wearing their breeding plumage and migrants are around. Roads may become trickier to navigate but the payoff is excellent wildlife viewing and, at times, soul-stirringly stormy skies. 

5. San Diego, California

Best for sunshine and charming neighborhoods

Winter is relative in Southern California. In San Diego rain is more likely but days remain mild (average highs: 66°F/19°C). It’s certainly still warm enough to wander the city’s village-like neighborhoods – fancy La Jolla, surfy Encinitas, alternative Ocean Beach, foodie Little Italy, the lively and bar-packed Gaslamp Quarter. You can also lose yourself in enormous Balboa Park, with its museums (Air & Space, Art, Natural History) and world-famous zoo.

For further wildlife encounters, book a boat tour or head to the cliff-top trails of Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve in the hope of spotting dolphins and migrating gray whales, which pass along the coast here between December and March.

6. Arctic Sweden

Best for a perfect view of the northern lights

At the Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi, one degree of latitude north of the Arctic Circle, the sun never rises in the last three weeks of the year. In December, darkness is the dominant state – perfect for watching the aurora borealis. Jukkasjärvi is the home of the original Icehotel, where you can spend a night in a bed made of ice.

The area is also a base for cross-country skiing, husky sledding, snowmobiling, sleigh rides, meeting reindeer and learning about traditional Sámi culture – magical for kids and grown-ups alike. Some 100km to the northwest, Abisko National Park is even further removed from the light, an otherworldly landscape offering arguably the world’s best aurora-watching.

7. Chhattisgarh and Odisha, India

Best for learning about local culture

The neighboring states of Odisha (Orissa) and Chhattisgarh (a breakaway chunk of Madhya Pradesh) offer perhaps the most authentic insight into rural India. These regions are largely ignored by tourists, perhaps due to their lack of “big” sights. But the appeal here is in getting away from the cities and meeting the people, such as the majority Gond (known for their vibrant art), the tattooed Kutia Kondh, the Indigenous groups of the jungles around Jeypore and the bead-wearing Bonda.

Stop by the cultural melee of a haat bazaar (weekly market), where many tribal groups gather to haggle over everything from butter and salt to clothes and jewelry. The Bastar region of Chhattisgarh is a good place to start – visit markets, hike between village homestays and witness tribal festivals: the Madai Festival, which moves around the communities of Bastar, Kanker and Dantewada, is celebrated from December to March.

8. Martinique

Best for festive celebrations and culture

December doesn’t just mean Christmas in the French Caribbean. It also means Chanté Nwel. One of Martinique’s biggest annual festivities, held across the island from November to Christmas Day, it sees people gather to sing carols to Creole rhythms (a practice dating back to the days of enslavement) and feast on local favorites including yams, pâtés, boudin créole (blood sausage), yule logs and potent shrubb – a Christmas cocktail crafted from dried orange peel, sugarcane syrup and white rum. 

All that’s missing is the snow. With sunny skies and average highs of 28°C (82.4°F), this is perfect beach weather; chill out on the vast sweep of white sand at Les Salines or the black sand of Anse Noire.

9. Vancouver Island, Canada

Best for spectacular storms

As winter arrives, the restive region where Arctic and subtropical air collides shifts south, and low-pressure systems build in the Gulf of Alaska. This equals stupendous storms, which thwack the Pacific coast of Vancouver Island, stirring up gigantic swells, roaring winds and epic skies. It’s Mother Nature at her most marvelously cinematic – and it’s worth braving a bit of unsettled weather for front-row seats.

On the edge of Pacific Rim National Park, the little town of Ucluelet (meaning “people of the safe harbor”) is a great place to watch the action unfold.

10. Black Forest, Germany

Best for Christmas magic

The Black Forest is Germany’s most romantic, fairy-tale-laced region. And never more so than in December, when its rolling hills and densely packed evergreens might be sprinkled with snow and when everywhere is sprinkled with Christmas.

The lively university town of Freiburg is a fine festive choice. Its medieval center of cobbled lanes and gabled houses is lovely to wander at any time, but in December it smells of Glühwein (mulled wine) and gingerbread. Browse the Christmas market, make your own candles and cookies, ride the Ferris wheel and feast on raclette and wurst. Further afield, take the train or bus to nearby Hinterzarten for the striking Ravennaschlucht market, where traditional stalls cluster in a gorge beneath the Devil’s Valley Railway viaduct.