My wife and I hope to spend a few days away from home in early January. Please help us choose a destination! Here are the criteria (in order of priority):
There must to be a Very Good chance that there will be snow. Obviously, there are no guarantees, but please don’t send us to Tahiti.
Local flavor is a big plus: winter festivals and events, etc.
We won’t have a lot of resources to work with, so affordability is a plus. That is to say, New York City would be a lot of fun, but would probably break the bank. Someplace about an hour from New York City that we could get ourselves to and from the Big Apple and enjoy everything there is to see would be a good suggestion.
New Mexico? Snow plus good culture. Although I don’t know of any certain festivals but I’ve been there before and had lots of fun. Although it was the only time I ever went skiing.
Denver has no guarantee of snow on Christmas. I remember more than one Christmas in the Denver area where we spent the day outside in shorts.
Same with New Mexico, unless you’re spending time in the mountains of New Mexico. Even then, there’s not necessarily a guarantee of snow. NM is pretty far south. I guess the ski areas would probably have made snow for Christmas if they didn’t have any, though.
Colorado will have snow in the mountains in December. So a mountain town would work. Places like Winter Park or Breckenridge won’t break the bank too badly (at least, not like Vail or Aspen will) and it’ll be pretty.
If you’re looking for a city-type vacation, what about Minneapolis? Chances are they’ll have snow at Christmas, and there’s quite a bit to do there. Great restaurants, good shopping, and they do nifty things like have ice skating on the lakes in the parks. There’s also decent theater and such there.