Winter is one of the best times to travel for adventure, culture, sunshine and relaxing beach holidays. These five countries offer excellent winter experiences — from Caribbean island life to Australian sunshine and Vietnamese heritage. Take your pick of our hotel gurus' recommended hotels and best places to stay for culture trips, barefoot chic holidays by the beach or a remote outback stay.

Antigua

Antigua in winter is the Caribbean at its most ideal: December through April is the dry season, with trade winds keeping temperatures comfortable in the high twenties, virtually no rain, and the island's 365 beaches, one for each day of the year, as the saying goes, all glittering under clear skies. English Harbour and Nelson's Dockyard (a UNESCO World Heritage Site where Nelson himself was stationed) give Antigua a historical dimension many Caribbean islands lack, and the sailing culture its harbours attract makes it one of the region's more nautically serious destinations.

• Hermitage Bay is one of the finest small hotels in the Caribbean: a 25-cottage resort in a secluded bay on the west coast of Antigua, with a beautiful beach, an excellent restaurant using local fish and produce, and the kind of genuine seclusion that larger resorts cannot offer. The service is impeccable, the beach is almost always uncrowded, and the overall experience feels like a hotel that has figured out exactly what it is and delivers it with great consistency.
• Admiral's Inn is a historic hotel in the heart of Nelson's Dockyard at English Harbour, in the original 1788 naval engineer's building, with views over the yachts at anchor. The atmosphere is of a hotel genuinely rooted in place — there are few places to stay in the Caribbean that feel as organically connected to their location — and the restaurant and bar are the social centre of the Dockyard.
• Curtain Bluff is a long-established all-inclusive resort on a headland with beaches on both sides — the Caribbean Sea on one side, the Atlantic on the other — that has maintained its quality and personal character over decades. The wine cellar, the tennis programme, the diving, and the staff's warmth have made it one of the most consistently praised hotels in the Caribbean.

Belize

Belize in winter is the dry season: January through April brings clear skies, warm temperatures, and the best conditions for diving and snorkelling on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef — the second-longest barrier reef in the world. The extraordinary concentration of Mayan archaeological sites (Caracol, Lamanai, Xunantunich, Tikal in adjacent Guatemala), the jaguar preserve of Cockscomb Basin, the howler monkeys of the Community Baboon Sanctuary, and the extraordinary Blue Hole marine reserve all give Belize a natural and cultural richness that makes it one of the most exciting small countries in Central America to visit.

• Coral Caye is a private island retreat in the Belize Barrier Reef with a limited number of cottages, extraordinary diving and snorkelling directly from the island, and the privacy and exclusivity of a property that takes seriously its role as a reef conservation partner. The coral reef immediately surrounding the island is in exceptional condition.
• Blancaneaux Lodge is the second of Francis Ford Coppola's Belize properties (alongside Turtle Inn), set in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve in the Cayo District of western Belize, near the Mayan ruins of Caracol. The lodge blends Mayan and Belizean aesthetics with the director's characteristic attention to quality and detail, and the river, waterfalls, and surrounding jungle make it one of the finest eco-lodge experiences in Central America.
• Gaia River Lodge is an eco-lodge in the Maya Mountains of western Belize, in primary rainforest, with exceptional birding, jaguar-tracking opportunities, and access to some of the most remote Mayan sites in the country. The lodge's commitment to sustainability and conservation is genuine, and the natural environment it protects is extraordinary.
• Alaia Resort is a luxury resort on Ambergris Caye, Belize's largest island and the most developed part of the barrier reef. The resort brings a sophisticated approach to the island experience and sits directly on the lagoon, with excellent access to the reef diving and snorkelling that draws most visitors to this part of Belize.

Australia

In the Northern Hemisphere winter (December through February) it is midsummer in Australia, and the country offers remarkable diversity in what that summer looks like. There's Sydney's beaches and cultural life, the tropical north of Queensland and the Northern Territory, the wine regions of South Australia and Western Australia, and the remote outback landscapes that are most comfortably visited in the cooler months. Australia is one of the world's great travel destinations, and summer coinciding with Northern Hemisphere winter makes it an excellent escape.

• Islington Hotel is a beautiful boutique hotel in Hobart, Tasmania, in a restored Regency mansion with 11 individually designed rooms, a stunning garden, and the warmth and personal service of an owner-operated property. Hobart in summer is excellent — MONA (the Museum of Old and New Art), the waterfront, the produce markets, and the Huon Valley wineries are all at their best — and the Islington is consistently rated among the finest small hotels in Australia.
• Gilgara Retreat is a small eco-friendly retreat in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, in the wine country southwest of Sydney, with rooms in a beautifully restored property and access to the region's excellent cellar doors, local produce, and the Fitzroy Falls of the Morton National Park.
• Heron Island is a small coral cay island off the coast of Queensland, accessible by helicopter or catamaran from Gladstone, that sits directly on the Great Barrier Reef. The marine life — turtles nesting from November to March, manta rays, sharks, extraordinary reef fish — makes it one of the finest diving and snorkelling destinations in Australia, and the island's protected status means the reef is in excellent condition.
• The Bower is a luxury boutique property in the Noosa Hinterland of Queensland, in the Sunshine Coast region, combining Noosa's beach culture (one of Australia's finest beach towns) with a more secluded, nature-focused retreat experience. The hinterland's national parks, the Noosa River, and the excellent local food scene make the area very rewarding.

Vietnam

Vietnam in winter (November through April on the central and southern coast) is at its most accessible and beautiful: Hoi An's ancient town is dry and quiet after the flood season, the waters off the beaches of Da Nang and Phu Quoc are warm and clear, and the food markets and street life that define Vietnamese daily life are at their most vivid. The north (Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Sapa) has a different winter character — cool and misty in Hanoi, cold in the north — but is equally rewarding for those who want to experience Vietnam's full diversity.

• Maia Resort is a luxury eco-resort on the central highlands near Da Lat, the "city of eternal spring" in the Vietnamese highlands, with a cool climate, extraordinary scenery, and access to the coffee plantations, silk villages, and minority communities of the surrounding region. Da Lat is one of Vietnam's most underrated destinations, and the resort provides an excellent base for exploring it.
• Topas EcoLodge is an award-winning eco-lodge in the Hoang Lien Son mountains near Sapa in northern Vietnam, with 33 stone-and-thatch bungalows on a hillside, offering extraordinary views over the rice terraces and minority villages in the valley below. The Sapa region in December and January can be cold and misty, an atmospheric rather than sunny experience, and the lodge's design and conservation commitment make it one of Vietnam's most genuinely responsible properties.
• Ana Mandara Villas Dalat is a collection of colonial-era French villas in the centre of Da Lat, restored into a boutique hotel of considerable charm, with the architecture and atmosphere of 1920s French Indochina preserved with genuine care. Da Lat in winter is mild (around 20 degrees) and very pleasant, and the town's French architectural legacy gives it a character unique in Southeast Asia.
• Azerai Can Tho is a luxury hotel in Can Tho, the largest city in the Mekong Delta, on the banks of the Can Tho River with epic views over the delta waterways and access to the floating markets (Cai Rang, Phong Dien) that make the Mekong Delta one of the most extraordinary river landscapes in Asia. The Mekong in the dry season (December to May) is at its most beautiful, and the hotel's quality and the city's genuine character make it a very rewarding winter destination.

Costa Rica

Costa Rica in the dry season (December through April) is one of the world's finest nature destinations at its most accessible: the Pacific coast beaches are warm and calm, the cloud forests of Monteverde are spectacular, the Arenal volcano can be seen clearly on dry-season mornings, and the extraordinary biodiversity — Costa Rica holds five percent of the world's species in a country the size of West Virginia — is visible across the national parks. The country's commitment to sustainable tourism and conservation (25 per cent of the country is protected) gives it a responsibility that makes visiting feel worthwhile.

• Vayu Retreat Villas is a collection of private villas in the Guanacaste region of the northern Pacific coast, in one of Costa Rica's driest and most reliable weather areas, with access to the extraordinary beaches of Santa Rosa National Park and the Papagayo Peninsula. The combination of private villa luxury and easy beach access makes it an excellent choice for families. One of our gurus' favourite places to stay in Costa Rica.
• Hotel Aguas Claras is a small, charming boutique hotel in Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica — which has a different weather pattern from the Pacific coast and receives more rain — but the Caribbean's extraordinary reef, the Bribri indigenous community, and the wild Gandoca-Manzanillo wildlife refuge are all compelling. The hotel's Victorian Caribbean architecture and the quality of the local Caribbean Creole cuisine make it a distinctive choice.
• Rio Celeste Hideaway Hotel is a boutique hotel adjacent to Tenorio Volcano National Park, home to the Rio Celeste — a river whose extraordinary turquoise-blue colour comes from volcanic minerals and is one of Costa Rica's most photographed natural phenomena. The dry season makes the park easy to walk, and the hotel's garden and pool offer excellent wildlife viewing.
• Corcovado Wilderness Lodge is a remote eco-lodge adjacent to Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula — considered by National Geographic as the most biologically intense place on earth — accessible only by plane or boat. Jaguar, tapir, scarlet macaw, and the last significant Pacific lowland rainforest in Central America are all present in the park, and the lodge's access to ranger-guided experiences in this extraordinary ecosystem makes it one of the most remarkable natural experiences available in the Americas.

Still not sure? 

• Browse through our full list of accommodation options in Costa Rica,
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