Hot Town Christmas in the City: Best Holiday Breaks for Travelers who want to be in the Action
There are people for whom the holidays mean ten days at a beach resort, and others who can’t imagine Christmas without snow. But we’d like to present a third option - what about a December vacation that doesn’t require a coat, skis, OR tennis lessons? The languorous days of the holiday season are a wonderful time to get to know a local culture, whether it’s one that goes all in on festivities, or a place where Christmas isn’t a focus at all. We’ve put together five of our favorite warm-weather cities that are at their best in December - because whether you’re looking for a surfing Santa Claus and a Christmas meal cooked on and outdoor grill, decorations and festivals steeped in local cultural traditions, or just some damn good shopping, the holidays are a wonderful time to put yourself in the middle of the action.
Marrakech, Morocco
While you won't find nativity scenes in the medina or carols drifting through the souks, what you will find in late December is Marrakech at its most agreeable. Daytime temperatures hover in the high 60s and low 70s, cool enough at night for a tagine by the fire but warm enough for lunch on a riad rooftop. This is a city you visit to settle into a new rhythm and to reset your senses - start your day with mint tea poured from an impressive height, a hospitality ritual that predates any Western calendar, and if you’re still in search of a perfect gift for that special someone, head into the souks of the medina, laden with copper lanterns, woven rugs, and vibrant pyramids of spices. Jemaa el-Fnaa, the sensory center of the city, fills at dusk with orange juice carts and storytellers, hazy with smoke from the grill carts and humming with energy. And if you need a little white Christmas, right this very minute, an hour’s drive into the Atlas Mountains will bring you to Berber villages dusted in snow. Hotels do dress up their own dining rooms for holiday meals for guests who want a taste of home, but the city itself stays wonderfully Moroccan.
Where to Stay:
Mandarin Oriental, Marrakech
Just minutes from the Medina, Mandarin Oriental, Marrakech feels like a world totally its own. The property unfolds across landscaped gardens dotted with bright, expansive villas. Floor-to-ceiling windows draw the Marrakech sun into every room, while private pools, Jacuzzis and plunge pools make each stay feel like a real escape. The architecture pays homage to Amazigh and Moroccan tradition, with horseshoe arches, carved cedar and shaded courtyards, while the spa's hammam, inspired by Andalusian architecture, turns a black-soap scrub and rose-water rinse into a cultural rite rather than a standard treatment. Salon Bèrbère serves Moroccan classics, while Ling Ling by Hakkasan offers Cantonese flavor; come December, the gardens glow with twinkling lights for seasonal dinners, stargazing, and festive family experiences. Built for slowing down, this is an oasis of calm at the heart of one of the world's most exhilarating cities — and an extraordinary place to spend the holidays.
Cartagena, Colombia
The Christmas spirit starts early in Cartagena, beginning December 7th with Día de las Velitas, or the Day of Little Candles. On this special evening, the whole country lights candles and paper lanterns, setting them on windowsills, balconies, and sidewalks, and the flickering wicks unofficially open the season. And that’s just the beginning of a very celebratory month - from December 16th through the 24th, families gather for La Novena, nine consecutive evenings of prayer, song, and shared meals that rotate from house to house, so that by Christmas Eve half the neighborhood has already celebrated together a dozen different times. Inside the walled city and in adjacent Getsemaní, colonial streets and wrought-iron balconies are strung with lights and the beats of vallenato and champeta drift from open doorways. On Christmas Eve, dinner traditionally centers around slow-roasted pork served alongside a mountain of tamales, and you can’t go to bed without having a heaping helping of natilla. And did we mention you can leave your coat at home? Evenings are in the mid-80s, with breezes blowing in from the Caribbean, making this a tropical holiday that’s absolutely buzzing with celebratory energy.
Where to Stay:
Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Cartagena
Four Seasons finally arrived in Cartagena in 2026, in a cluster of restored historic buildings in Getsemaní. 27 rooms sit inside the colonial structures themselves, with original architectural details intact, and 104 more contemporary rooms fill out the property. Of course you’ll want to explore the meandering streets of the city, but the hotel may tempt you back for dinner with its eight food and beverage outlets: the Grand Grill for steaks and seafood, Bar Lelarge for Cuban-inflected cocktails, a pizzeria in a former theater, and El Palmar on the roof, for South American plates and stellar sunsets. (And while you’re up there, don’t miss the two rooftop pools that look out over the old city's terracotta roofline.) Considering it’s the hotel’s first holiday season, it’s sure to feel festive - after all, its home is a city that throws its own excellent party every night in December.
Mexico City, Mexico
Mexico City's holiday season is incredibly festive. During the day, sunny afternoons with highs around seventy degrees are ideal for wandering Polanco's parks or Roma's tree-lined streets, but the fun really gets going in the evenings. Las Posadas run from December 16th to the 24th, nine nights that reenact Mary and Joseph's search for shelter, as a procession sings at a neighbor's door, is turned away, tries again, and is finally welcomed in for piñatas, tamales, and ponche navideño, a spiced fruit punch. The tradition amounts to a season-long open house across the city, spilling from churches into homes, schools, and offices, and as always, the Zócalo is the center of the action, its vast expanse spruced up with an outdoor ice rink, an enormous illuminated tree, and elaborate local nativity scenes. Noche Buena, or Christmas Eve, is the year's main event, when extended families gather for a late dinner of salt cod and tamales, often not sitting down to eat until after midnight mass. The season doesn't wrap on December 25th, either: it stretches to Día de Reyes on January 6th, when families cut into a colorful rosca de reyes, and whomever finds the baby figurine hidden inside is tasked with hosting the next family gathering.
Where to Stay:
Casa Polanco
Housed in an elegantly renovated 1930s Spanish Revival-style mansion in the posh Polanco neighborhood, a stay at Casa Polanco feels like a peek inside the lives of well-to-do chilangos. The owner of the hotel originally planned to rent out the mansion to an embassy, but realized Polanco is the perfect destination for travelers seeking a charming and walkable neighborhood - it’s located directly across from Parque Lincoln in Polanco, and the neighborhood is also home to culinary landmarks Pujol and Quintonil, along with the flagship boutiques of Avenida Presidente Masaryk. Design-wise, the lines are clean, neutrals take precedence, and there's a subtle prep-school flavor with houndstooth pillows and plaid napkins, which offsets the house art collection - the owners are serious art collectors, and the walls rotate through contemporary Mexican work from both emerging and established names. During the holidays, festive dinners are served in the outdoor courtyard under lights strung from surrounding trees, like a private party in your own 14-room mansion.
Sydney, Australia
Christmas in Sydney arrives smack in the middle of summer, complete with barbecues and surfing Santas. There’s cricket in the streets and shrimp on the grill, and the Sydney Fish Market is famous for its 36-hour seafood marathon, when the market stays open around the clock in the run up to Christmas Eve, and locals join hour-long lines (sometimes even overnight) for prawns, oysters, and salmon bound for the next day's table. On Christmas day itself, Bondi Beach is buzzing, so slip into your bikini and Santa hat for a holiday on the sand, and don’t miss the floating Christmas tree in the Icebergs pool. The season doesn't end on the 25th, though, as one of the biggest celebrations is still ahead: at promptly 1PM on Boxing Day, the Sydney to Hobart yacht race fleet starts the 630-mile course south to Tasmania, a tradition the city has looked forward to since its 1945 debut, and which locals treat with as much reverence as the holiday itself.
Where to Stay:
Capella Sydney
Capella changed the hotel game in Sydney when it opened in 2023. Housed in a stunning Edwardian Baroque heritage-listed former Department of Education building in the city's historic Sandstone Precinct, near the Opera House, and topped with a new glass addition, there’s a spa in a former art gallery, indoor-outdoor bars, and a fitness center, and the rooftop suites feature breathtaking views of the Sydney skyline. During December, guests can also join a Christmas wreath-making workshop with a fiber artist, an architect-led walk through the surrounding heritage precinct, or a lunar-phase-aligned treatment at Auriga Spa.
Cape Town, South Africa
Christmas in Cape Town falls in the height of summer, and December 25th is a beach day. Families spend the afternoon at Camps Bay or Clifton, swimming and surfing. But the city is festive all month long, with pop-up craft markets selling Christmas trees made from wood and glass beads, candlelit nights of carol singing in Kirstenbosch Gardens, and a festival of lights along Adderley Street, the central thoroughfare of downtown. Cape Town is always a city that eats well, and the feasting continues during the holidays, so save room for a braai - the South African barbecue, thick with steaks and lamb chops, that doubles as the country's default social occasion any time of year. If you’re someone who wants to spend the holidays outside, there are few places more beautiful than Cape Town - and combining the Mother City into a larger itinerary that incorporates the Winelands and some time in the African bush is the exact gift we’d like to find under the tree.
Where to Stay:
Ellerman House
When driving through Bantry Bay, the tony Cape Town neighborhood dubbed the "Cape Riviera," you wouldn't be remiss in thinking Ellerman House was just another private home – the real estate in this zip code the most expensive on the continent. And after being buzzed in the front door and greeted by a butler inside the relaxed, exquisitely decorated parlor, you'll begin to wonder if the hotel address in your itinerary was somehow replaced with that of some local art dealer's personal estate. But as staff members come to collect your luggage and escort you past the pool, and the palms, and the pitch perfect verandahs, you'll walk straight into your rose-colored reality: there's a room for you at this dazzling Edwardian mansion... and they've just given you the keys. If you want to spend Christmas at home but not, actually, at your own home, check into Ellerman for sundowners on the terrace and dinner al fresco.
