In the travel world, the two weeks around Christmas and New Year’s have their own name: Festive.
As of today, we’re 91 days from Christmas. That might sound early, but for Festive it really isn’t. For the most sought-after hotels and room categories, booking nine to twelve months ahead isn’t unusual.
Hotels treat Festive like a season unto itself. There are special dinners, parties, children’s programs and events you won’t find the rest of the year. There are also eye-watering rates, minimum stays and rooms that were spoken for months ago.
Festive is expensive. If we’re paying the premium, the hotel needs to earn it.
Despite all of that, it’s one of my favorite times to travel. Work slows down. Coworkers are actually off at the same time you are. It’s the one time of year you can close the laptop without wondering what’s happening without you.
For warm weather, I want easy: a straightforward flight and a beautiful resort with enough going on that I don’t need an itinerary. I want to show up, unpack and immediately put my brain on vacation.
On My Radar
Three hotels for Festive
Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita
With children · Punta Mita, Mexico
Punta Mita sits on a peninsula north of Puerto Vallarta, with the Sierra Madre mountains behind it and the Pacific out front. December is warm and dry, and it’s the beginning of humpback whale season in the Bay of Banderas. This is Christmas week with sandy feet, sunsets over the Pacific and whales offshore.
But if you’re taking children somewhere warm for the holidays, there’s always the question: will it still feel like Christmas?
During Festive, Four Seasons goes all in. Santa arrives on the beach Christmas morning. There are gingerbread and chocolate workshops, movie and circus nights and holiday activities throughout the week. The children still get all the traditions and magic of Christmas. They just get to run outside in swimsuits afterward.
The rest of the week is easy. Children ages five to twelve have their own complimentary club, teenagers get a separate space, and there are two beaches, three pools, a lazy river, surfing, paddleboarding, golf, tennis and whale watching. Meanwhile, adults can disappear for a tequila tasting, dinner or the spa.
You get Mexico. The children still get Christmas. And nobody has to cook Christmas dinner.
Little Palm Island
Without children · Florida Keys
Little Palm Island is an adults-only private island with just 30 thatched-roof bungalows and Three MICHELIN Keys. The island has been a hideaway since the 1950s. There are no televisions in the rooms. You can’t drive there. You arrive by boat—or, if you really want to start vacation properly, seaplane.
This is where I’d go if what I wanted for Christmas was absolutely nothing expected of me.
Every bungalow faces the water. There’s a beach, a pool, a spa, outdoor soaking tubs and dinner under the palms. You can kayak through mangroves, sail, paddleboard, snorkel or dive Looe Key Reef, book a fishing charter or take a seaplane to Dry Tortugas. There’s enough to do when you want something to do, but doing absolutely nothing seems to be the point.
The one thing I’d consider before booking a full week is food. There’s essentially one main restaurant, so if you need seven nights of different dinner reservations, this probably isn’t your place.
If your idea of a holiday is a book, a bathing suit, dinner by the water and slowly losing track of what day it is: I found your Christmas.
Nekajui
With or without children · Costa Rica
Nekajui is a new Ritz-Carlton Reserve on Costa Rica’s Peninsula Papagayo, and it was just awarded Three MICHELIN Keys. The resort is built into the hillside above the Pacific, surrounded by tropical dry forest. Wake to howler monkeys, spot colorful birds on the walk to breakfast and perhaps see coatis wandering through the property. You’re very much in Costa Rica.
Rooms and suites open onto enormous terraces, many with private plunge pools and outdoor showers. There are even two-bedroom treetop tents tucked into the forest canopy.
What I like about Nekajui is that nobody has to have the same vacation. Children can spend the morning at Camp Nekajui while you go to the spa. Everyone can meet later to hike through the 250-acre nature preserve, zipline, surf or head out on the water. Or sit beside your plunge pool listening to the monkeys and participate in absolutely none of it.
Festive adds special dinners, live music, sunset DJ sessions, wellness programming and a New Year’s Eve celebration overlooking the Pacific, without making the entire resort feel overtaken by Christmas. Fly into Liberia and you’re about 40 minutes from the resort.
Everyone can come. Nobody has to have the same vacation.
Weekend Ideas
Healdsburg
From San Francisco
Healdsburg is about 90 minutes from San Francisco, close enough to drive up after work on Friday and still have a full weekend. October is harvest season: days in the mid-70s, cool nights, and vineyards and farms in one of their busiest moments.
There will, of course, be wine. But there are also farm stands, olive oil to bring home, a fantastic Saturday farmers market and a vineyard hike worth packing your walking shoes for.
Stay
The Madrona, an 1881 mansion turned 24-room hotel on eight acres outside downtown. Rooms are spread between the original mansion, carriage house and private bungalows, with gardens and a pool.
Saturday
Start at Quail & Condor for coffee and something from the pastry case. Walk to the Healdsburg Farmers’ Market, then head into Dry Creek Valley. At Preston Farm & Winery, pick up wine, estate olive oil and whatever is coming from the farm, then settle in for a picnic. For dinner, book Troubadour for the Michelin-starred tasting menu or Valette for something more relaxed.
Sunday
Get coffee at Black Oak Coffee Roasters, then take the 10:30 vineyard hike at Alexander Valley Vineyards. Stop at the SingleThread Farm Store for produce, flowers, pantry goods and pottery before pointing the car toward San Francisco.
Virginia Horse Country
From Washington, D.C.
Middleburg is about an hour outside Washington in the middle of Virginia horse country. It’s small, surrounded by beautiful farms and vineyards, and home to Salamander Middleburg, a 340-acre resort just outside town.
The reason I’d go in October is the Middleburg Film Festival. For four days, this tiny town becomes a stop on the fall film circuit, screening movies coming out of the major festivals alongside conversations with filmmakers and actors.
What I like is that the festival doesn’t have to consume the whole weekend. See a film, have lunch in town, spend a few hours at the spa, drive through the countryside, see another film. You’re getting a film festival and a fall weekend in Virginia at the same time.
Stay
Salamander Middleburg would be my pick. The resort is one of the festival venues and has a Forbes Five-Star hotel, spa and restaurant. The Red Fox Inn & Tavern puts you in town; Goodstone Inn is the more secluded option.
Don’t miss
Middleburg Books offers a private “book tasting.” Spend an hour with a bookseller talking about what you like to read, and they create a tasting flight of books just for you. Possibly my dream activity.
Three Things
Tastes like Europe
Fortnum & Mason Salted Hazelnut Shortbread
A friend brought these back from the UK, and I’ve been dreaming about them since. Made by a family-run bakery in Edinburgh with hazelnut praline, butter and sea salt. A great stocking stuffer, hostess gift or completely necessary Tuesday indulgence.
Ortiz Bonito del Norte Tuna
This is the best canned tuna. I daydream about traveling to Spain and filling an entire suitcase with it. I love it on a salad, in a sandwich or omelette, on crackers—basically anywhere.
Brillat-Savarin
My ultimate “I’m too lazy to cook, but why cook when you can eat this?” dinner. I put it on sourdough with scrambled eggs on the side and call it a night. Add a book and I’m basically unavailable.
Until next time. Use your vacation days.
Sara