Where’s best for Christmas Day?

Have a question? Ask our expert Simon Calder

Varadero, Cuba: an idyllic spot to wake up on Christmas morning (Getty/iStock)

Q What is the best place you have ever woken up in on Christmas Day?

Charlotte H

A It’s a tie between Varadero in Cuba, at the start of an entrancing 10-day exploration of the island, and the appropriately named Christmas Pass in eastern Zimbabwe after an exhilarating hitching trip from the capital, Harare. 

But I find that 25 December (which also happens to be my birthday) is also a great day to begin an adventure, not least because long-haul flights tend to be emptier and cheaper than on other dates during the festive season. On Christmas Day most routes are operating but demand is light.

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I am particularly fond of spending the day with family and then taking an overnight flight to somewhere warm, so that Boxing Day begins in a sunny city. Cape Town and Buenos Aires are particularly rewarding.

My most memorable Christmas Day for travelling, though, was 25 December 1999, during a three-week journey along the Pan-American Highway from Texas to Panama. I woke up in the Costa Rican capital, San Jose, and set off to buy a bus ticket to the deep south of the country. It turned out not to be a great place to wake up, though, as someone tried to mug me on the way to the bus station. I managed to run away. But when I reached the bus station, scared and breathless, it turned out that all the buses were booked for days. So I hitched along the Pan-American Highway instead, and actually beat the bus to the turn-off, near Golfito, for the Esquinas Rainforest Lodge – a genuine eco-resort on the edge of Piedras Blancas National Park, which was a wonderful place to go to sleep on Christmas Day.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder