Ideas for a December surprise trip within six hours of the UK

[Stokefolk]

my DH has a significant birthday late this year, and I was going to surprise him with a trip to Jordan. He had previously expressed seeing Petra and the Dead Sea. This trip now looks as though it may not be able to take place.

Where else could I take him as a surprise for 4/5 days, in December, no more than 6 hour flight outside of the UK.

Where would you recommend and why?

Id prefer to have a different climate to the UK, so either sun and beaches or snow and cold.

i had been toying with the following ideas
svalbard
amsterdam
cape verde
egypt
morocco

throw your ideas my way!

The far north of Norway will be very very cold. There’s not enough to do in Tromso in my view. Does anyone go to Svalbard in December? We’ve been in July on an expedition cruise but they don’t run in December - it’s dark all day! It’s not sensible to go then. Iceland is f that great in winter either. It’s limited to short daylight hours and you don’t see the best of it.

You can get to North Africa so I’d look at Morocco or, preferably, Egypt. The Nile is wonderful and there’s the new museum of Egyptian antiquities in Cairo. If you can take a bit longer, flights are overnight both ways to South Africa. Yes, it’s further but it’s great for a week as no jet lag.

What about Christmas markets? Lots of good ones in Germany and our friends liked Vienna last year.