Christmas week in Europe with culture and a chance of blue skies - or other ideas

[Rinseandspin]

Older DD is away traveling over Christmas so we thought we'd go away with younger DD for Christmas.

I'm not looking to go further afield than Europe as it's just a week.

I originally thought of the canary islands. Where is good to aim for at Christmas to get a bit of culture too?

Other ideas..

Morocco, Madeira

Somewhere cold (we don't ski though)

Somewhere to enjoy the sights when it's not hot e.g. parts of southern Spain, Greece etc...Is southern Europe wet and grey in December? I don't need swimming and beaches but would like blue skies.

Any other ideas?

Athens?

Marakech divides opinion on here but I loved it.

Southern Spain/Portugal
Malta

We've been to Madeira at Xmas, it's lovely. It can rain - that's why the island is so green & beautiful. Plenty to see & do, a wide variety of hotels.
Daytime temps are do-I-need-a-jacket days

Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Malaga, Cadiz. Pick a couple of these depending on flight availability. You could fly into one, get a train, and then fly away from another. Christmas itself is quieter in Spain but the Christmas lights in Malaga at least are spectacular. If you're flexible on dates, you could plan to be there over 5/6 January as that's the biggest day in Spain with parades in the evening of the 5th.

Weather is variable and could be lovely or a bit cold in the evenings but quite decent in the day time, but storms are a possibility.

But if you went to Lanzarote there's all the Cesar Manrique arty sights, volcano park, boat trips, vineyards, inland villages to explore so enough to fill a week.

I'd love to go to Madeira, but the apparently high number of flights that get diverted puts me off. It must be windy there right now as you can see on Flight Radar that there's a good few flights circling above the island presumably waiting for it to be safe to attempt a landing.

We always go somewhere cold like Sweden/denmark/austria/krakow etc ( we don’t ski but plenty ski resorts nice enough without it). Reason I do this is if you get a load of rain in what is essentially a place geared up for warm weather and loads of outdoors stuff i actually find it a bit depressing, rather than somewhere geared up for it being cold - but that’s just me, others happy to take the risk

Athens is lovely at Xmas, 18/19 degrees when we went. Lots of it does shut though on Xmas day so be prepared for that - tourist sites, restaurants etc. But it is a really quiet time of year for tourism so it's excellent in that respect, you get lots of the highlights almost deserted.

I know Marrakech is controversial here but I've been several times at Xmas and I love it. Nothing closes so there's always something to do. Big temp swings though, daytime is really warm between 11-3. Gets very cold at night so you'll need a big coat.

I really enjoyed Marrakech too - some of the best food Ive had anywhere!! And pretty cheap too

Rome

Malaga. We're flying there on Boxing Day for a week.

Yes - me too. It happened to a friend a year ago and they spent 9 hours on a small plane as they couldn't land. 😟

Ooh - can you tell me more? How do you find accommodation and food areas to visit? What kind of things do you do?

Athens is tempting. We do t ind self catering on Christmas day so long as things are typically open the rest of the time.

I've done Málaga and Seville and Cordoba and Cadiz. Not been to Granada yet. Cordoba is amazing and one day I will go again. I've also been to Lanzarote. Quite fancy Feurtaventura but would that be worse weather with less to do?

No idea how frequently it happens, but I've been 4 times, & once we were diverted to Fuerteventura.
It was fine. We were transported to a resort hotel, very good accommodation, wined & dined - as much as you could eat & drink basically !
Then on to FNC the next day.

We had a great few days in Copenhagen one winter.

I lived in Venice for a couple of years, and in December there was often high pressure and blue skies. Not warm, but crisp and clear.

Loved Copenhagen in December.

We go away post Christmas with ds most years and we’ve spent Christmas away a few times. How old is dc? Malta is lovely. Food not great but blue skies and lots to see. I love Marrakesh.

I love Venice at that time of year. Days can be crisp and cold with super atmospheric early evenings. And there tends to be fewer tourists.

Vienna

Venice

Christmas Cruise?

Granada is nice but hilly, city centre is flat. The Alhambra is a once in a lifetime sight though.

You can apparently get buses around Granada. We just drove

We go to Spain every December, the week before Christmas. Seville is amazing. We did Malaga and Granada 2 years ago and Valencia last year. All were stunning with amazing lights and great sights. This year we are flying into Malaga but going to Ronda and Cordoba.

I recommend Seville. My dsis lives there and we have spent a few Christmas breaks there.

Agree, did Venice beginning of January. Still plenty of tourists but a great time to visit.