10 of the Best Places to Travel to in January and February

Be right back , hi , and welcome back to the Traveling Fool , and in this episode we are talking about 10 of the best places to travel to in January and February , and I know every time you get one of these little lists , it's always somebody's opinion , and this is my opinion , but there's a little bit of backing to it .

First of all , I looked at places in the United States that were popular to go to in January and February , that had something going on that attracted a lot of people . And then I looked at destinations that may have been in the low season , places to go that less touristy , and , of course , I do not like cold weather .

So I looked at places that were nice and warm so you could get away from that cold winter weather , and I narrowed it down to 10 places . So let's get started . The first ones are going to be in the United States Park City , utah . Now why in the world would you want to go to Park City , utah , in January and February Because it is going to be cold .

But that's the reason it is a winter destination for everything that you would want in a snowy destination . They have great , world-class skiing , but they have a whole lot more . And there's all kinds of places that you can rent snowmobiles so that you can get out on the trails . You can go paddle boarding on a geothermal crater with water that's 90 degrees .

You can visit Olympic Park , take your turn on the bobsled track , they have sleigh rides and horseback ridings and lots of live music venues . But they have something else that happens every January the Sundance Film Festival .

Now it runs between January 23rd and February the 2nd and it draws filmmakers and enthusiasts from all over the world for screenings for the year's upcoming indie flicks . So , who knows , you might be able to snap a photo of some celebrity or , if you can get tickets , maybe attend the screening .

Just know that it is a very popular time to visit , so book a place early and expect lots of people visiting , but you can enjoy the winter activities and have a blast . Park City , utah , is definitely a place to go in January and February . Now I'll give you another one .

This one is often overlooked , but since I'm from Texas , I know all about it Galveston , texas . Now why in the world would you want to visit Galveston ? Well , first of all , it makes for a great winter getaway . The island itself is a little over 50 miles south of Houston .

Average temperatures in January and February are in the low 50s to the mid 60s , and it even you know if it might be a little too cold to take a swim . There's still a lot you can do and you can avoid the summer crowds . First of all , they have a couple of festivals in January , including the Art Festival and the Chili Quest and Beer Fest .

That's my kind of festival Eat chili , drink beer . Plus , they also have Restaurant Week and Mardi Gras . Those are the big events in February . Restaurant Week is great . I mean , all the restaurants open up their doors or a lot of them do and you get to go around and sample food from all these high-end restaurants . It's a great place to go .

And , of course , mardi Gras . Galveston is a big Mardi Gras destination , but Galveston also has several museums , historic homes . There's an old paddle wheel excursion in the bay that you can take . There's fishing charters . You can even tour an 1877 schooner ship called the Tall Ship , the Alyssa . I visited it years ago . It's fascinating .

It's a museum ship based out of Galveston Bay and there's a lot to see and do in Galveston . I would recommend , if you go , stay at the Grand Galvez Hotel . This hotel was built in 1911 , just after the 1900 hurricane pretty much wiped out everything on the island . The hotel is listed as one of the historic hotels of America .

It's located right across the street from the beach and it is said to be haunted . Now I've stayed at the Galvest and there was nothing that haunted me , but a lot of people have reported being disturbed by the spirits there . So if you want to get to Galveston , just fly into Houston . Now Houston has two airports .

The big one is George Bush Intercontinental , which is on the north side of Houston , and then they have Hobby Airport on the south side of Houston . If you can fly into Hobby , just a whole lot easier than driving an extra hour and a half just to go across Houston . But if you ever get to Galveston you will have a blast .

There's just a ton of things to see and do there . The food is fabulous . They got some great restaurants in Galveston and during the winter the weather's great and you miss all those summer crowds so you can actually enjoy the town . Now number three on our list National Parks in the United States .

Now I'm just putting National Parks as a whole on there , but there are several that you really want to hit in the winter time . And why visit national parks in the winter ? Well , during January and February it is their low season , so it's a great time to visit .

You'll find that a lot of the hotels , the Airbnbs , everything else that surround these national parks during January and February they don't have as many guests as they do June , july , august , september , may , time frame , things like that , so they're willing to drop their rates down so you can find really nice accommodations at half the price a lot of times than

what you would normally get during the summer months . And , of course , you get to visit a national park without the loads and loads of tourists that you would normally see during the summer months . Plus , during the winter you just get dramatic scenery . Those snowy landscapes can transform the crowded trails into nice peaceful pathways .

I mean , there's something about seeing a national park in the summer , when it's spring or springtime , when it's all beautiful and the animals are starting to come out . But wintertime has its advantages too , because it is a totally different atmosphere atmosphere and you still see a lot of the animals out there .

Some of the best ones to visit during the winter are Yellowstone , because the wildlife is still running around . In the wintertime you got the geysers erupting . Contrasting with the cool weather makes for this big , huge , dramatic sights , and there's a whole lot less tourists than in the summertime . Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado is another place .

It's just made a lot more beautiful by the snowy landscape there . You can try someone like Glacier National Park in Montana , although January and February there may be parts of the park that are closed .

So check with these national parks and find out whether their roads are closed or what the accommodations are like , but you can find a lot of really good ones . The Everglades in Florida is beautiful in the wintertime One .

You got a whole lot less tourists and you have all the amenities that you would normally have at every other time of the year , so you get to enjoy it with just a whole lot less people and you don't have to worry about the scorching heat .

And talking about the scorching heat , death Valley National Park or Big Bend in Texas those are fabulous places to visit in January and February . You don't have to worry about 110 , 120 degree heat . You don't have to worry about the crowds that visit during the summer months . National parks make fantastic vacations and getaways during January and February time frame .

Now this next one I'm going to give you . You're going to say oh you're nuts . Why in the world would you want to put that on the list ? I'm going to tell you why . London , that's right . Go visit London in January and February . Why ? Well , because it is the cheapest time of year to visit London .

Hotel prices are the cheapest of the year in January and February . Flights to and from London are not bad during January and February . Now , although the days are shorter , there are far fewer tourists and the lines at all the major attractions are a lot less and sometimes non-existent at all . I actually went to London in February one time .

I spent a week here and I had a blast . Yeah , it was kind of cold . It wasn't that bad . I just threw a coat on and I walked around London . A lot , saw a whole lot of stuff , didn't have to worry about tons and tons of people being around .

Now , january in London is also a time where they have their big sales going on in their stores , so it's a great time for shopping . Now here's a tip . Before you travel to London . You can do this online Order yourself an Oyster card . Now , for those of you who don't understand my Texan accent , I'll spell it for you O-Y-S-T-E-R .

Oyster , oyster , well , whatever Oyster card , which is a prepaid travel card used for buses , the Underground or the London Tube , they call it , and the rail lines . Now you can also load a travel card to your Oyster card and that gets you good for anywhere from one day to one week . That's the way you want to travel when you get to London .

It's far more convenient to buy this online and have it shipped to you , so you have it when you arrive . You can get one there , but it's a lot easier to do it before you go . I used one when I visited . It was well worth it . Now I loaded mine up daily because , well , I wasn't that smart .

I should have done it for the whole week , but every day I would just load that sucker up . I'd go down to the London tube and I would get on the tube and it took me wherever I wanted to go .

I'd get off , go see whatever I wanted to see , jump back on the tube , go somewhere else , get off , see what I wanted to see , and that's how I traveled throughout the entire town the whole seven days I was there , and it's really not that expensive , and the London Underground will get you almost everywhere you want to travel to , or within a couple of blocks ,

and you just walk it . It's not that bad , but you can always take a bus too . So , and of course , while you're there , you got to get one of the iconic little London taxis . I did take one one time , just so I could say I rode in a London taxi and they're kind of cool .

But London in January and February fantastic time to visit , even though it is a little cooler , just because it's a whole lot cheaper and a whole lot less people . Here's another one Barcelona . Now tourism in Spain is just record-breaking , which unfortunately means Barcelona is choked with tourists .

There's just way too many tourists , getting to the point that they're getting sick of all the tourists . They've started implementing measures to curb tourism there . But that makes January the perfect time to go , because winters are mild and you'll enjoy the city's popular attractions without all the people .

In January you go to Barcelona , you're going to enjoy about a 42% savings over the most popular time of year to visit , and flights and hotels are a lot more affordable . So you always want to visit Spain . You want to go to Barcelona . January is the time to do it . The weather's not that bad . It's a little chilly , might get down in the 50s or 60s .

In fact , the temperature in January in Barcelona is around 59 during the day and around 48 at nighttime , and it can occasionally get below freezing , but that's rare . So you still enjoy milder weather . Just throw a coat or a jacket on . I mean , it's not that bad .

It is the low season , so you don't have to deal with crowds and all the popular attractions and you don't need to book ahead a week or two just to get into a museum somewhere and they do have a lot of museums in Barcelona With all less tourists , there's a whole lot of great places to stop , little bars or tapas bars for lunch , and there's some festivals

going on as well . Three Kings Day is one of the most celebrated festivals in Barcelona Now . It occurs on the evening of January the 5th and on the day of January the 6th . Huge parade , lots of floats , lots of people turn out , and there's also festivals in February and it is the beginning of Carnival , or Carnival as they call it .

I don't know , it's Carnival , I'm from Texas , so Carnival is beginning in February . There's lots of things to do . It's just a great time to visit . Now here's another one , still in Europe Dublin . Why go to Dublin ? Well , it's Ireland . Who doesn't want to go to Ireland . The weather in January and February in Dublin ranges from the mid-30s to the mid-40s .

You're saying , well , it's a little cold . You know , I'd rather go down to Florida or someplace where it's nice and warm . But if you ever want to visit Ireland and visit Dublin , it's a great time to go , because January in Dublin you'll save 35% on your hotel rooms and the average flight price from all US origins is around $650 .

Most of the major attractions are open and very few visitors . You can wander around the castles without the crowds . It does rain , but not that much . It's the best time of year to sample that famous Irish comfort food , like Irish stew . They've got a dish called coddle , which is a dish of sausages and potatoes .

I mean , that stuff is just good old country food . It's a great time to relax in the pubs , get to know the locals . So yeah , it's a little bit colder , but you're going there with hardly any tourists there . They just don't go there in January and February .

It's not the tourist season , so you save on your accommodations , you save on your flights , you get to wander around town with a whole lot less crowds . You can still visit the Jameson Distillery and get a bottle personalized with your name on it . Go to the Guinness Storehouse , which is a big thing .

There , though , lines in the summertime are terrible , but they're going to be a whole lot shorter in January . And they also have a couple of festivals . They've got one called the Temple Bar Tradfest .

It celebrates traditional Irish music , and if you're a big David Bowie fan , they've got the Dublin Bowie Festival Celebrates all things Bowie , with music , film screenings and a whole lot more .

Now you might have to bundle up , like I said , for the cold weather , but January and February great times to visit Dublin for a whole lot less money and a lot fewer crowds . Here's another place that you may want to visit in January and February Greece . Now , I've been there . I went to northern Greece one time . I spent three or four days there .

I traveled down there from Kosovo , me and a couple other guys . We rented a car in Macedonia and drove down to Greece . It was fantastic and , if I'm not mistaken , I believe it was maybe March time frame . There still wasn't hardly any tourists there , but January and February are some of the best times to go to Greece , why ?

Well , it's the coldest time of the year in Greece , but the temperatures are still between 50 and 60 degrees . The hotels are cheaper and though some resorts and bars you know the big ones , the all-inclusives and things like that they might be closed during that time , there's a whole lot of hotels that are open and the prices are the cheapest .

It is the time of the year when very few tourists visit , but life goes on for the majority of the locals and the islands return to their authentic little self .

January offers you the opportunity to explore some of the iconic sites like the Acropolis and Delphi , without the intense summer heat and all the large tourist crowds that congregate there in the summertime , and places like Santorini , which is a tourist madhouse well , it's open , has very few visitors , which gives you time to actually enjoy the island and the culture

and the people I'm telling you , greek people were fantastic . We went out and met a whole lot on the week I was there , or the four or five days I was there . It's just a fantastic place . And January and February it's not that cold , I'm telling you 50 to 60 degrees .

Hardly any tourists at all visit during that time frame and you really get to enjoy the country a lot better . Now , if you want to go someplace where the very best time to go to this place is in January , february is the second best and that is Prague . And , oh Lord , I don't know what they call their country now .

It used to be called the Czech Republic . I'm not sure what they call it now Czechia or something but Prague is a fantastic little place to visit and if you enjoy winter weather , prague makes for a great place to visit in January and February . It is the quietest month of the year is January . They have the very fewest tourists .

They have extremely cheap hotel rates , easy entry into the museums and no wait time at all for the restaurants . You actually get to feel more like a local . This is an ideal time to visit , but it is cold . Prague in January can be cold , so bundle up , but you get to experience winter in Prague . Everything is still open .

You get a great hotel drastically reduced rates . Prague is a walkable city . I know because I walk the entire town . It has great little bars and restaurants everywhere you look . The food is great the soups and the goulashes and the stuffed dumplings and roast pork .

You know it's the kind of food you want on a cold day and you can still visit places like the Prague Castle , the Charles Bridge . They just have a whole lot less tourists and in January you'd be hard-pressed to find a whole bunch of them . There's just not a lot of tourists in January and a whole lot less traffic . The museums and concert halls are open .

If you always wanted to experience Prague , but without the high prices and insane amount of tourists that go there , well here's your chance Now . Another thing about Prague is they have great train systems over there . You can go down to the train station . You're just a very short trip from places like Pilsen , and Pilsen's a great little town .

It's home to the original brewery of Pilsner beer . It's where they invented Pilsner beer . I mean , when I heard that , I had to go . It's a fantastic little town to visit and you're not very far from the German town of Dresden . You can catch a train and be in Dresden and come .

I did it Went down early in the morning , went to Dresden , spent the day in Dresden and came back and was back in Prague by seven o'clock that evening . And it's just , there's all these little towns around there that you're just so close to , but with everything to see and do in Prague , you'll be just happy spending your time there .

So there's another place that you can visit January and February the cheapest time of year and have a blast . Okay , now , this one may surprise you , because I'm going to tell you about a place that is probably the busiest time of year for her Belize . Why would you want to go to Belize during the busiest time of year , with the most tourists available ?

Well , even though it is the busiest time of year to visit Belize , january and February are the high seasons . As such , it's also the most expensive time to visit .

You can still get really nice hotels and even all-inclusives for under $200 a night , but with a lot of people visiting , you need to make reservations for tours and such , you know , maybe a few days ahead of time or even a week ahead of time . So why go and visit during the high season , when all the tourists are going to be there ?

Well , because it is the absolute best time to visit . It is the dry season . You don't have to worry about daily torrential rain showers raining in your trip . You can go during the low season . But when you've got torrential rain showers two , three to four hours every single day what are you going to do ? Just sit in your hotel room .

If you want to see Belize and actually enjoy the country , january and February are the times to go , and it averages anywhere from the low 70s to the mid 80s in January and February .

So it's a nice way to escape the cold in the US , see the country at its absolute peak time for beauty and the driest time of the year when you can actually enjoy the country . So yeah , it might be the high season , but it's still relatively affordable to get there during January and February .

The hotels are not that bad , they're not that expensive and you can actually enjoy something while you're there . So you might want to check out Belize . And that brings us to number 10

. Where in the world is he going to tell us to go now ? My well , I don't know if it's . Yeah , I would say it's one of my one of my favorite , if not my absolute favorite destination to travel . To Been there a bunch of times . Let's just put it that way the Philippines . Why go to the Philippines ?

I'm going to give you a whole bunch of reasons here in a minute . It is one of my all-time favorite destinations . Now , the best time to go to the Philippines is between December and February , so January and February are some of the best times . Why ? Because it is the coolest time of year to visit the Philippines and it's not the rainy season .

Kind of like Belize . You want to go when you can actually enjoy the country and when it's not scorchingly hot . Now the Philippines is a beautiful year around . I've been there many times and I've been there at different times of the year , but January and February are great times because it is a lot more bearable as far as the heat goes and the humidity .

Now , I can stand humid weather . I'm from South Texas . It gets hot and humid here , but if you're out walking around all day and seeing sights and doing things , less heat and less humidity is always better . January is the absolute coldest month of the year . I'm going to tell you how cold it gets in Manila .

You can get a high around 83 degrees and a low around 73 degrees . That's their cold time of year . That's perfect weather for me . And the good news the water is warm and nice and you can hit the beach and go swimming , no problem . Now there's a bunch of reasons why you might want to visit the Philippines .

I love Asia altogether , but Philippines is a little unique . Here's why the weather's beautiful , the islands are beautiful , they have fantastic beaches , lots of historic sites in Manila and Cebu and Palawan . Easy to get from one island to another . There's multiple cheap flights daily . You can go from Manila to any of the other islands .

They'll have four or five flights a day and we're talking extremely cheap . Most everyone I'm talking probably 90% of the people speak English and all of the signs are in English . Now , I love Thailand . I went to Thailand once and I can't read anything there . It's just a bunch of squiggly little lines for me and I don't understand a word .

They're saying you go to the Philippines . You can read the signs . You can read the bus signs . You can read everything at the airport . You can walk down the street and see pharmacy , grocery stores , you know doctor's office . You can see what each sign says . You can read the street signs . Everything's in English .

That makes it just a whole lot easier to get around and find places . Plus , your dollar goes a long way . So food and accommodations are very reasonable and the people , well , they're just extremely friendly and helpful . Oh , and did I mention the beaches ? My God , they're gorgeous . I love the beaches in the Philippines . A lot of the islands are fantastic .

Manila , for one of the big cities . Cebu for the big city , if you like the big city life and seeing a lot of the sites and things there . A lot of historic sites in Manila and seeing a lot of the sites and things there . A lot of historic sites in Manila , from Fort Santiago to Corregidor , right across the bay , you take a trip there .

There's all kinds of stuff . Cebu has a lot of historic sites . You can go to the island of Bohol Beautiful beaches there , see the Chocolate Mountains and the place where Magellan landed and did his blood compact .

You can go to Palawan where where the beaches , and go up north at the island of Palawan , where there's El Nido and gorgeous , gorgeous beaches , rock formations , everything . It's just a beautiful country . In January and February are the best times to go , for the best weather .

The prices are fantastic and you'll enjoy yourself and have a blast . So that is the end of my list for 10 places to visit in January and February .

Whether you like cold weather and snow , whether you like sunny beaches , whether you like European history and old world charm something , or whether you like nature and hit the national parks , there's something for everyone , depending on what you want to do .

They're all great ideas , all great destinations and I am sure that if you look hard enough , you will find a fantastic place to get away from the winter weather , or just get away and take off for a week or so and go somewhere and enjoy yourself .

So before I leave , if I haven't told you lately , you get a chance to sign up for the newsletter I put one out about once a month . This month it'll be coming out probably next week or the week after . Just travel news , travel contests , things like that , to keep you up to date on what's happening in the travel industry .

And until next time , safe travels , thank you you .