‘Crisp air and wildlife – fantastic’: readers’ top tips for UK winter outdoors activities

Vacation rentals appeal to many travelers, ranging from families who want more space and people on extended vacations to those who want a more local experience.

As 2023 draws to a close, there's a slew of new U.K. and European routes launching in December and the not-so-distant future of 2024.

Even during the height of winter ski season, you can still hear the rhythmic pop of a tennis ball hitting a racquet around Stanglwirt, a decades-old luxury resort in the Austrian Alps near the tony mountain town of Kitzbühel. While Stanglwirt is now known for its laundry list of world-class amenities (including a fantastic wellness program), tennis is in fact what put it on the map. Through tennis management firm Peter Burwash International, Stanglwirt expanded its entire tennis program in the 1970s and 1980s, including building more facilities to accommodate tennis camps—a novelty at the time.

In Britain, the Sunday roast is sacrosanct. Gathering together around a beautifully cooked joint of meat, with lashings of gravy, vegetables and billowing Yorkshire puddings, is, for many, the weekend’s social highlight. And where better to do to this than the pub? Not only do you avoid the washing-up but, centuries after the French dubbed Brits les rosbifs, you get to enjoy the roast at its most modern. In recent decades, Britain’s best pub chefs have, by focusing on seasonal ingredients, rare-breed meats and painstaking preparations of roast potatoes or root vegetables, brought a fresh glamour to this Sunday afternoon ritual.

Fireside lunches in cheerful pubs are one of the great pleasures of the UK winter, and this score of snug venues all come with somewhere to stay as well as cobweb-clearing walks from the door.

Last November, a group of us took a trip to the Peak District for my dad’s 60th. We booked the Packhorse Inn in Little Longstone for the celebratory dinner, just off the famous Monsal Trail. The pub sources all its produce locally and changes its menu monthly. When we arrived, we were welcomed with roaring fires and delights on the menu such as pork belly with black pudding and mustard mash, game pie, and a top tier sticky toffee pudding. It was worth it, although we ended up having to navigate a muddy walk home afterwards through cow fields in complete darkness.Eloise

Since its inception, Alpine’s vision has been and continues to be, to ensure students gain the specific skills, professional attitude, updated knowledge and practical experiences in the hospitality industry that employers want and need, now and in the future.

Ryanair operates over 440 routes and carrying over 52m passengers p.a. to/from the UK on its fleet of 107 UK-based aircraft ($10.7bn investment), driving year-round connectivity and inbound tourism which supports over 37,000 UK jobs.

This year marks the first time that the companies have operated scheduled services and trips to Christmas Market destinations from Bristol and London Stansted Airports. 

The Swiss have been mastering the mountains for centuries, with cable-cars, tunnels and high-elevation railways giving easy access to peaks and historic towns. Skiing here is simply part of life, and it’s world-class. Granted, the Swiss experience can be pricey, but it can be great value, spanning everything from the tasty rösti potato bake in a mountain restaurant to the friendly, efficient service in spotless family-run hotels — not to mention a transport network that run like clockwork.

For centuries, cultures from Scandinavia to Asia have recognized the year’s longest night as a marker for slowly extending days, the end of harvests, and even the potential activation of evil spirits.

Alaska Airlines gained a massive boost to its international partner portfolio when it joined the 13-airline Oneworld Alliance in 2021.