Six ways to book dream winter holidays for less, from Lapland to tropical sun

With nights drawing in, temperatures falling and energy bills going in the opposite direction, you might be thinking about swapping the winter blues for blue skies. Recent data from Abta, the travel association, suggests that demand for holidays remains resilient in the UK despite disruptions caused by conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, weather events and European entry/exit checks, with 70 per cent of adults planning to travel abroad in the next 12 months. However, travellers are becoming more cost-conscious compared with last year. At the same time, airlines are responding to high jet fuel costs by cutting back winter capacity and raising prices to what Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has said will amount to the “biggest increase in history”, in 2027. At the same time, El Niño is predicted to make winter holiday hotspots such as Florida and the Bahamas wetter than usual. Finding an affordable getaway with reliable weather might take a little more research this winter. Travelbag reports that bookings are strongest for Thailand, the Maldives, Mauritius, the US and Australia in the coming months. But there are many ways to find great value this winter, whether you’re seeking snow or sand. Shorts Low-flying airfares Flight price comparison website Skyscanner has spotlighted five destinations as offering the best value short-haul flights between now and February 2027. On the shortlist was Tangier in Morocco, where temperatures can reach 21°C in January. Six nights B&B at the Fredj Hotel & Spa, 15 minutes’ walk from the city’s historic Kasbah, is available from £292pp with Tui, including Stansted flights departing 28 November. The list also includes Seville and Valencia in Spain, and Valletta in Malta. Four nights at Valletta’s five-star Grand Hotel Excelsior – which has an indoor pool for less clement days – costs from £485pp with Jet2holidays, including return flights from Gatwick departing 29 November. According to Skyscanner trends expert Laura Lindsay, flying out with one airline and returning with another can help cut the cost of flights. Considering an airport a little further from home can also help you find cheaper fares, as it widens your options. Homing in on the Christmas period, between 19 December and 9 January, travel search engine Kayak has identified Dublin, Barcelona, Milan, Prague and Madrid as the best-priced short-haul destinations. All five cities dress up for Christmas with trees, twinkling lights and multiple markets, while party-loving Dublin celebrates New Year for three full days between 30 December and 1 January. Try Tanger in Morocco for a winter bargain (Photo: Dora Dalton/Getty) Making the budget go further An emerging travel trend for 2027 is being dubbed “currency chasing”, as travellers deliberately seek out destinations where they get more bang for their buck, as opposed to focusing on the cheap deals that get them there. Skyscanner research indicates that 45 per cent of Gen Z travellers (aged 29 or under) have switched destinations to secure a better exchange rate. If numbers don’t come naturally to you, The Big Mac Index is a fun and intuitive tool to get your head around exchange rates. It lets you interpret how far your money might go in a country by comparing the cost of the McDonald’s burger with what you pay at home. Post Office Travel Money has also made holiday maths more manageable with its Winter Sun Report. By comparing the costs of eight common holiday items, like meals and suncream, in 24 popular winter sun destinations, it has curated a list of the 10 cheapest places to holiday this season. Cape Town takes top spot on the cheap break podium, with the total cost for the holiday items coming to £58.24, followed by Mombasa in Kenya, Tokyo in Japan, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Phuket in Thailand, the Algarve in Portugal, Costa del Sol in Spain, Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Penang in Malaysia and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Of all these destinations, there is a flurry of offers available for Tenerife. EasyJet holidays has seven nights’ B&B at five-star Iberostar Selection Sábila on the Costa Adeje for £819pp, with flights from Gatwick on 30 November. Or a seven-night, all-inclusive stay at Hotel Best Semiramis for £768pp leaving Manchester on 7 January. For those seeking more of a cultural break, without a long-haul flight, Sicily offers an escape from the gloom. November brings average highs of 20°C to Palermo, while it can reach 16°C in December. Direct flights from Stansted to Palermo start from under £50 over the next couple of months. Festive light displays spring up around Piazza Ruggero Settimo and Piazza Castelnuovo from 8 December, the date of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which marks the start of the Christmas holidays in Sicily. Pastry shops will be stocked with festive treats such as buccellato, a ring-shaped cake of dried figs, nuts, honey and citrus, to fuel strolls around the city’s dozens of galleries and museums. Four-star Hotel Politeama, in the city centre and well-rated, has doubles from around £100 in December, without breakfast. Dog sledding in Lapland (Photo: Subodh Agnihotri/Getty) Savvy swaps Bucket-list winter trips like Christmas shopping in New York or January in the Maldives might take some saving up for. However, you could swap to a lookalike destination to make a healthy saving. Just like New York City, Toronto has a Christmas tree of more than 50ft, which arrives at Nathan Phillips Square in front of the city hall in mid-November. The plaza is also the setting for the Cavalcade of Lights festival that runs from 28 November-7 January and features an ice rink for public skating sessions and figure skating performances, as well as concerts. The city is also more likely to have a white Christmas than New York, with a 44 per cent chance of at least 2cm of snow on the ground in Toronto. Air Canada has return economy flights from Heathrow to Toronto for less than £500 return in December, plus luggage costs. Four-star Chelsea Hotel Toronto, a 10-minute walk from Nathan Phillips Square, has doubles from £117 per night in December, without breakfast. Central, four-star hotels in New York City start at around £500 per night on the same dates. With cerulean seas and teeming coral reefs, Mexico is a viable alternative to the Maldives. Travelbag has seven nights, all-inclusive at five-star beachside Essence at The Fives Beach in Playa del Carmen, with its eight pools and 14 places to eat, for £1,899pp, including Gatwick flights, departing 19 November. While this isn’t exactly cheap, it’s comparable to the £2,399pp cost of seven nights at five-star Kandima Maldives, with flights departing Heathrow on 18 November. If the cost of a Lapland holiday leaves you colder than the Arctic climate, you could consider another type of Santa encounter in Europe. At Legoland in Billund, Denmark, for example, children can have indoor snowball fights, ride toboggans and meet Santa among the bricks. BA offers direct flights to Billund for £152pp. Day passes cost less than £40. Family rooms can be booked on site for £152 a night. But for the real deal, consider a DIY visit to Santa. Lapland packages can cost about £5,000 for a three or four-night break for a family of four. However, easyJet has Rovaniemi flights from Luton from £625 return in mid-December. If you stay outside Finland’s Christmas capital, a motel could cost about £100 per night, and you can pick activities as you wish. The botanical garden atop Monte in Funchal, Madreira (Photo: aroundtheworld.photography/Getty) Cutting costs with a cruise The upfront price of a cruise can sometimes look off-putting, but sailings usually include meals, and drinks packages can be booked that keep day-to-day costs in check. Certain types of cruises offer better value for money than others, too. Tony Andrews, managing director of cruise booking platform Seascanner said: “Repositioning cruises are one of the best-kept secrets when it comes to finding a great-value holiday. These sailings take place when cruise lines move their ships between regions for a new season, and because they typically feature more days at sea, fares can be particularly attractive. “We have a 14-night transatlantic sailing with Norwegian Cruise Line to the Caribbean and US available for just £36pp per night. That’s an incredibly competitive price for a holiday that includes accommodation, meals and onboard entertainment.” There are also deals on cruises that take in destinations that, while warm in winter, are more popular in summer, such as the southern Mediterranean and even the Canary Islands. Iglu cruise is offering a seven-night round trip from Tenerife, calling at Madeira, Gran Canaria, and Lanzarote on board P&O Azura, including flights, from £518pp on 15 January 2027. Chalets in the Bulgarian ski resort of Bansko (Photo: Kisa_Markiza/Getty) Ski savings According to holiday rental analytics company AirDNA, ski resorts accounted for all 10 of the most expensive regions to stay on a self-catering basis in winter last year. Courchevel was crowned the priciest, followed Cortina d’Ampezzo in northern Italy, Verbier and Zermatt in Switzerland, and Méribel in France. But there are affordable ski options. The same data revealed that daily rates in Puy-Saint-Vincent, Villard-de-Lans, Les Orres and Allos in the southern and western French Alps were around an eighth of Courchevel’s in winter 2025/26. A seven-night, self-catering package at Résidence Les Gentianes in Puy-Saint-Vincent, France starts from £737pp for a 20 December departure with Crystal Ski, including return flights from Manchester to Turin and coach transfers. For comparison, a week-long package with snow holiday specialist at La Maison Hôtel Les Peupliers in Courchevel, with flights, breakfast and transfers, starts from £1,574pp. Puy-Saint-Vincent has about 75km of quiet runs, ranging from greens to reds. The resort generally has good snow coverage from December to March. Bansko in Bulgaria and Zakopane in Poland were also earmarked by AirDNA as some of the most affordable ski resorts for self-catering stays. The former resort promises 75km of slopes up to 2,600m and a reliable snowfall record, although there are limited black slopes. The Zakopane area has 90km of runs, with some for advanced skiers.. Both regions are far smaller than mega resorts in the Alps, but repeat visitors rate the après scene and family friendliness of both lower-cost options. A seven-night stay at Pirina Club in Bansko costs from £295pp with We Ski, including flights leaving London Stansted on 19 February. To find further savings on ski holidays, Heidi suggests that shifting booking days can make a difference to price, advising that Sunday to Friday stays are often cheaper than Thursday to Tuesday for a five-night trip. The new Yotel Bangkok Sukhumvit (Photo: W Workspace Ditta Suthepprata/Yotel Bangkok Sukhumvit) Soft sleepers A sparkly new hotel can be even more tempting in its early days when soft opening rates are offered as it finds its feet. If you’re prepared to ride through a few bumps, then you can often find rates that are between a third and half as cheap as peak prices. In Marsa Alam, a resort town on Egypt’s Red Sea coast that offers access to Luxor and the Nile Valley, Jaz Elite Negma is a new resort opening next month, with rates starting at £157 per night until 23 December. A new winter sun option is Zanzibar – the Tanzanian archipelago will be connected to the UK by new direct Tui and BA routes in the next six months. Iberostar is opening a Selection resort here in November on Muyuni Beach. Rates are discounted by as much as 46 per cent in the opening weeks, with suites starting at €259 (£218) for up to three guests all-inclusive. Indian hotel group Leela is opening its first desert resort in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. Near the Unesco-listed Jaisalmer Fort in the Thar Desert, the luxury resort opens in December, when rates start at R40,500 (£320) for B&B. Bangkok is a fascinating destination in its own right, but if you’re passing through there’s an affordable new base in the form of Yotel, which has just opened in Sukhumvit with rooms from $79 (£60) per night.