A family of four once reached out to me on December 22nd. They wanted to be in St Barths for Christmas Day, and every hotel on their list was sold out. Eden Rock was sold out. Le Toiny was sold out. Rosewood was sold out.
I was excited, because it was a challenge. I was also looking into other Caribbean islands because I wasn’t sure it was even possible. Over festive, some hotels on the island require a seven-night minimum, and I’ve seen them go up to 14, which made finding space for four people two days before Christmas really difficult. Two other resorts had a couple of nights each. Because it was so last minute, I was able to get the minimum stay down and work with both hotel teams, so the family split their time between the two resorts. They got two different parts of the island and two different beaches, and they were thrilled to spend a little bit of Christmas break with the kids on the sand.
I’ve spent most of my own Christmases away from home, because my mom’s birthday is December 26th and we would always take a trip over it. We spent it on the Great Barrier Reef, under the Northern Lights in Lapland and at the Aman Summer Palace in Beijing, so I was familiar with this season as the guest before I knew it as the person booking it.
In the travel industry, the holiday stretch from roughly December 20th to January 3rd has its own name. Hotels call it festive, and it runs from just before Christmas all the way through to just after New Year’s. It’s when everyone wants to be in the same handful of places at once, either somewhere warm, like the Caribbean, Mexico or the Maldives, or somewhere with snow, like Courchevel, Gstaad or the Austrian Alps. Hotels price it as its own season, so you can pay two to three times the usual rate for the same room. Most also set a minimum stay. That can be seven nights or more at a beach resort, while a city hotel might ask for two or three nights over New Year’s Eve so it isn’t hit with everyone checking in on the same night and checking out on January 1st. In return, many hotels put on special programming and special meals for the holidays. It’s one of the hardest times of year to find a room at the hotels everyone wants.
The festive trip I remember best is the one I planned myself, years before I worked in travel. It was nearly three weeks in Australia, moving between Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, with as much time as I could fit on different parts of the Great Barrier Reef. I was thrilled when some of the luxury lodges of Australia wrote back with rooms, because online they had shown as sold out, and I didn’t understand yet that a hotel showing sold out over festive can still have space. Piecing the dates together was its own puzzle, since one extra night anywhere pushed back the entire rest of the trip. I have much more efficient ways of doing that now, but I didn’t know them then.
Some hotels don’t show their festive availability online at all, though rooms can still be available when you inquire directly. It’s worth reaching out to the hotel directly, or having your advisor do it for you (hi, I’m Lex!).
Our trip to Lapland happened because something else sold out. We originally wanted an igloo in Finland, but we were not ahead of the game in terms of planning and only started looking in late September. Our dates were flexible, so we made it work another way. We stayed at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm and then went all the way up to the Treehotel in Swedish Lapland, which is truthfully a nightmare to reach but a really authentic and interesting experience. The hotel started as a bed and breakfast, and the founders bought the surrounding forest to protect it from logging, then invited leading Scandinavian architects to design rooms up in the trees. Every tree house hotel is different and they are scattered around the main house. We stayed in the UFO and in the Mirrorcube, which reflects the forest around it, and we saw the Northern Lights every one of our four nights. It isn’t five-star, and I wouldn’t recommend it for a lot of clients, but for the Northern Lights it was perfect. They offer snowmobiling experiences, a private, and traditional dinner in a tent on the snow with heaters inside. It wasn’t what we originally had in mind, and it only worked because our dates and location were flexible.
It’s also a good example of why choosing the right hotel matters so much over the holidays. In Stockholm, you need to check what’s open over Christmas in the city since much of it shuts down. Which hotel you’re in, location, and holiday hours at the shops and restaurants around it makes a real difference to what your days look like.
At the Aman Summer Palace, they went really above and beyond for Christmas. They left traditional Chinese sweets and pastries in the room, there were gifts every single night, and they gave us a place to open presents and left presents for us too. They made it feel like we had everything we wanted over Christmas. That said, there are newer hotels in Beijing I’d look at first now, unless access to the Summer Palace matters most to you, and I’m getting fresh feedback from partners on the ground there.
I’ve also stayed at hotels where it’s Christmas, everything is closed, and you feel stuck in your hotel room. That’s what I don’t want anyone to feel. In my experience it happens more in cold-weather destinations and in cities. I’ve done Christmas in both New York and London. One was a boutique stay, and it felt pretty flat, because the restaurants around it were closed and there wasn’t much space at the property. The other was a super nice hotel that was at capacity, so the service lacked a little, but we had a separate living room and bedroom, they set up a tree in our room, which was super cute, and they had multiple restaurants open, so there was always somewhere to go and something to do.
So if you’re going somewhere cold over festive and expect to spend a lot of time indoors, I’d splurge on the suite. Whether you’re skiing or in a city, you’ll most likely spend a lot of time in the room. At the beach you’ll be outside more, and in a resort where everything is open every day, it matters less. What you don’t want is a city hotel where everything is closed and you don’t have a separate living area. That kind of sucks.
I also tell clients to manage their expectations. I don’t think most resorts are at their best when they’re at absolute max capacity and putting on extra holiday programming at the same time. Only a few hotels do festive exceptionally well, and you’ll usually have a more magical stay at the same hotel when it isn’t full.
That family in St Barths worked out, but it was the exception. I start asking about festive nine months ahead depending on the destination. People who go back to the same place every year usually book next year’s festive while they’re still on property or right after they get home, and I’ve booked as far out as exactly a year ahead. If there are more than two of you, book ahead.
Some of my favorite festive picks are places people don’t think of for winter. Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco in Tuscany is a summer destination, and it’s very cold in December, but they have a Christmas market in the borgo, the mini “village” in the center of the property. It’s super fun for kids. A lot of people don’t know they have villas on property with their own pools, so you get that separate living space, and there’s golf if it’s warm enough.
Rosewood Hong Kong is another one. It was just named No. 1 on The World’s 50 Best Hotels list for the second year in a row, but it’s the butlers who make it one of my festive picks. They go absolutely above and beyond over the holidays, from helping with presents to coordinating gifts in advance. If you want a tree in your room or suite, ask ahead rather than assuming it comes with the room. One husband had the butlers wrap a present for her in her favorite color and ship it to their home, so it was waiting for them before they even got back from their flight. There is also afternoon tea at The Butterfly Room. If you’re coming from the States, you can bounce off Hong Kong and do a week on a beach in Thailand or elsewhere in Asia.
For New Year’s Eve, Estelle Manor throws an awesome party, and Skibo Castle in Scotland throws a fun members’ party. Rio for New Year’s Eve is also a top hit. I love the Emiliano and the Fasano there, and Copacabana Palace’s renovated Pool Wing suites are due to reopen this November.
If you haven’t booked festive yet, there’s still some availability if you’re flexible on budget and on where you stay. I’m in touch with the hotels on how it’s looking, so let me know.
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The hotels and experiences worth crossing the world for. Which room to ask for, and what’s worth it. From an advisor who was the client first.
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