If your holiday season travel plans so far involve little more than a wish list, it’s not too late to turn your dreams into reality. With many Americans enjoying time off during the festive season, these cities make especially good getaways during the weeks surrounding Christmas.
1. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and surrounding region
Carriage rides in Bethlehem. (Photo courtesy of VisitPA)
Philadelphia’s historic Macy’s location features a Christmas display with a free light show. It runs multiple times daily during the holiday season and is accompanied by a Wanamaker Organ, which is the world’s largest playing pipe organ. There’s also a Dickens Village with a walk-through animatronic exhibit telling the story of “A Christmas Carol” inside the store.
Just outside the city, a handful of small towns make for festive day trips. Perhaps no city better embodies that than Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which is not coincidentally also known as “Christmas City, USA.” The quaint town goes all out with horse-drawn carriage rides and a European-style holiday market called the Christkindlmarkt.
And in the picturesque town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, just north of Bethlehem, there’s an Olde Time Christmas festival on certain weekends in December. The town’s historic Victorian buildings make a historic backdrop for the many activities, including caroling, carriage rides and a Santa train ride.
Both Bethlehem and Jim Thorpe are typically less than a two-hour drive from Philadelphia.
The Mr. Kringle Suite at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown. (Photo courtesy of Hilton)
For movie buffs, there might be no city more festive than Cleveland, Ohio. After all, one of its most famous tourist attractions is the home featured in the 1983 holiday film “A Christmas Story.”
You can book a tour of the home during the day for $20, or stay overnight (rates start at $545 a night). Though it’s booked on Christmas night, there was still availability for the following week at the time of writing.
Other festive Cleveland lodging includes the Hilton Cleveland Downtown, which offers a Mr. Kringle Suite that transforms the hotel room with Christmas trees, holiday-themed furniture and festive bedding. Rather than you leaving cookies and milk for Santa, Hilton leaves them for you in this particular room. Rates typically run more than $600 a night.
Neither of those festive options are cheap, but Cleveland does have affordable lodging. The Marriott-owned Hotel Cleveland just underwent a $90 million renovation and has many rates well under $200 or 20,000 points per night.
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(Photo courtesy of Walt Disney World)
That includes Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, held at Orlando’s crown jewel, Magic Kingdom Park. On select nights through Dec. 20, 2024, visitors can watch a holiday-themed parade, fireworks and artificial snowfall. Glittering “icicles” made of lights hang from Cinderella Castle. Tickets are around $200 per person in December.
You don’t necessarily need a theme park ticket to find holiday festivities. Travelers can visit the City of Winter Garden’s Main Street Holiday Stroll for free, which shuts down central streets from car traffic between Dec. 6 and Jan. 5 in favor of pedestrian-friendly festivities.
4. Branson, Missouri, and surrounding Ozarks
(Photo courtesy of Big Cedar Lodge)
During the holidays, Silver Dollar City, a theme park in Branson, Missouri, shines with its display of 6.5 million lights as part of its “An Old Time Christmas” festival. The entire theme park becomes a glowing spectacle, with synchronized shows and light tunnels. One-day tickets cost $92. The festivities run through Jan. 7, 2025.
If you’re into adventure but theme parks aren’t your thing, the surrounding Ozarks offer other activities. Over in Ridgedale, you can go spelunking in style. That’s by way of the Nature at Night at Lost Canyon Cave Tour (starting at $39 per adult), which sets visitors off on a private golf cart through a 2.5-mile trail past waterfalls and a cave that is decked out with holiday lights inside.
(Photo courtesy of Visit San Antonio)
The iconic San Antonio River Walk goes all out for Christmas. The long stretch of restaurants, shops and bars by the water transforms into a free-to-visit winter wonderland through Jan. 5, 2025. There, millions of lights draped over trees create a romantic ambiance as they reflect in the water. Boat rides down the river offer a more relaxing view of the shimmering displays.
6. San Francisco Bay Area
(Photo courtesy of Ritz-Carlton)
The towering Christmas tree and adjacent ice skating rink in Union Square is a centerpiece of San Francisco’s holiday season. While there, pop into the Westin St. Francis, which boasts an elaborate sugar castle display in its lobby that draws plenty of non-hotel guests to snap a picture.
Other high-end San Francisco hotels also offer over-the-top displays. The Fairmont San Francisco has a life-size gingerbread house in the lobby that you can actually walk through. The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco is famous for its holiday tradition, the Teddy Bear Tea. The afternoon tea sells out every year, despite its nearly-$200 per person price tag.
For more of a small town Christmas feel in Northern California, head over to nearby Napa Valley. The Napa Valley Wine Train usually takes riders on a scenic, railway tour past vineyards while serving elegant meals and of course, wine. During the holidays, trains pull out of the station to the tune of carolers, with Santa onboard. Spend the night at Napa’s Meritage Resort, which transforms into a winter village with an outdoor ice skating rink as part of the “Merry Meritage” festival.
