Warm Winter Getaways: 7 Sun-Filled Destinations to Beat the Cold

And before we get started , let me just tell you something . I hate cold weather . Yes , I live in the South , but I spent 20 years in the military , most of it overseas and a lot of it in really cold weather , and then , 10 years after I retired , I went to work overseas as a military contractor for about , oh , eight and a half years , and it was cold .

I don't like cold weather and I've lived in the States in cold weather and I don't like it . It's not fun , I hate it . So that's why I like to spend as much time as I can in the winter someplace nice and warm , and I know I can't be alone out there .

I mean some of you people that live in the north where it gets bitterly cold and shoveling snow all the time . I know you're sick and tired of it . You say , oh , it's beautiful , the snow's so pretty and it's just so nice and peaceful . Come on about January , you're like you know what this sucks , I need to get out of here .

So let me tell you about seven places that you can go this winter and get out of the cold . Now everybody thinks about going to Hawaii , california and Florida , because they're always crowded in the wintertime , with everybody escaping the cold weather , and the weather's great there and the beaches are beautiful and everybody knows about it .

So let's just skip those three and we're going to talk about places that you can go where the weather's nice and , although there might be some tourists , it probably will not be overrun with them .

Now , not everybody has a passport , although I think you should get one , just because it opens up the door to just a lot more travel opportunities , just a lot more travel opportunities . But , having said that , we're going to talk about places where US citizens can travel this winter without having a passport .

Now the first word we're going to talk about is Mississippi .

Yeah , I know a lot of people don't think about Mississippi when it comes to beach travel , but coastal Mississippi has 62 miles of shoreline and a bunch of stuff to see and do and , believe it or not , there's like 10 or 12 towns along that stretch of coast that range from a little town called Waveland on the western part , where you can enjoy not only the

beach but fishing , charter cruises , great food and tons of outdoor activities , to Pascagoula , on the eastern stretch of the coastline . And Pascagoula has a lot of history , great outdoor activities and , of course , the beaches . And it's hard to pick just one city or town , since you can drive the entire stretch in about an hour and a half or two hours .

But whether you visit Biloxi , gulfport or one of the others , you can rest assured that there's great dining , fishing , boating , shopping , history and outdoor activities and just a few miles in any direction you travel . And oh yeah , I forgot to mention the casinos . There's a bunch of casinos .

There's like 13 casinos located in coastal Mississippi where you can try your luck , see a show and a whole lot more . And it's nice and warm there . You can fly into Gulfport , rent a car and explore the area and the average temperature in January , the coldest month of the year , is 50 degrees . Now , to me , 50 degrees is a little chilly . I don't like it .

It's starting to get a little nippy Time to get out to Winter's Goats . But if you're from somewhere up north where you've got four feet of snow , 50 degrees isn't bad , and it's often a lot more warmer than that . Now , the second place is in my home state of Texas , and when you think of Texas beaches , what comes to mind ?

Well , galveston might come to mind , but South Padre Island Now . I grew up in Corpus Christi , which is down on the Gulf Coast , and spent many a day on Padre Island . Now , where I used to go on Padre Island is now called Padre Island , national Seashore , and vehicle traffic is limited to just certain areas and certain things you can do and cannot do .

However , padre Island is a barrier island and it's part of the barrier islands that stretch all the way from Houston and Galveston area to just a few miles from Mexico . And while Corpus Christi is a great destination with a lot to do and Padre Island is a fun destination , jersey's a great destination with a lot to do and Padre Island is a fun destination .

South Padre Island is home to hotels , resorts , beaches , nightlife and just a whole lot more . Now , south Padre Island is separated from Padre Island by the Mansfield Channel and driving between the two is not possible , and driving between the two is not possible . So to access South Padre Island .

You have to go down to the Queen Isabella Causeway , which is from Port Isabel a little further south , and you drive over to the island . It's about 287 miles from San Antonio to Port Isabel and about 400 miles from Houston , depending on which route you take .

And you can always fly into Brownsville and rent a car and drive the 40 miles to the island if you want to . Now , once there , you can expect a lot of fishing charters for hire . There's live music venues . They have festivals all the time . They've got dolphin watching cruises , themed cruises , wildlife and nature excursions .

There's some nature areas around there where you can do all kinds of stuff . There's tons of nightlife and great beaches and if you're there at the right time , you can watch a SpaceX launch from Boca Chica , which is just across the bay from Port Isabel .

Just don't go during spring break if you want to avoid the crowds , because spring break it is a nightmare . You got thousands of people coming for spring break , but for winter . That's the time to go Now . Another place you can take off to this winter , guaranteed to have nice , beautiful weather Puerto Rico .

That's right , puerto Rico is a great destination and it's easily reachable from the US , depending on what your interests are . There are three places that you can spenda warm winter vacation in Puerto Rico . The capital of San Juan holds a lot of history , culture , nightlife , lots of stuff to see and do .

You can explore old San Juan and visit the Castillo , one of the big forts . In El Morro , another one of the big forts , spanish built . They were built to guard the city . There's two of them there , beautiful . You can also explore the museums and historic sites , enjoy the nightlife . Maybe do a tour of one of the rum factories .

Now , if a beach is more your thing , head out to one of the islands , the island of I know I'm going to screw this up Viquez and Culebra . Both are accessible from a short flight from San Juan , or you can just drive the hour and a half to Ceiba , near the town of Fajardo , and take the ferry to either island .

Now Vicas you can go horseback riding , sailing , diving , visit the last fort built by the Spaniards in the Americas , or that 1890s lighthouse that's a big tourist attraction . It's now a maritime museum . Actually , 60% of the island is covered by a National Wildlife Refuge and the island's home to Mosquito Bay . Why would you want to go see Mosquito Bay ?

Well , it's one of three bioluminescent bays in Puerto Rico . There's only five of these in the world and Mosquito Bay is probably the best and brightest of the one to view . Puerto Rico's got three of the five in the world . It's a sight to see at nighttime . Now Calibra Island has one of the best beaches anywhere .

Calibra Island has one of the best beaches anywhere . Flamenco Beach is a mile long with a wooden boardwalk , got a little food kiosk and vendors along the way . It's located in a sheltered bay which makes for calm , nice turquoise blue waters . The island has a coral reef which makes it great for snorkeling .

You can rent a jeep or a golf cart and take a drive around the island . You can go kayaking , hiking or book a fishing charter . There is just a lot of things to do there , and there's a wide variety of hotels , guest houses and rentals available to make for a nice , relaxing tropical vacation . Now here's one you don't hear very often .

I actually had the opportunity to go there two years ago . Why I waited so long , I'll never know . The United States Virgin Islands , the USA's Caribbean paradise that very few people ever visit , and I was guilty myself . Like I said just a couple of years ago when I went there and I was just blown away .

It's a little over 100 miles east of Puerto Rico and chances are , if you ever have visited there or know someone that has , it was because your cruise ship probably stopped there for the day . Now I had the opportunity to visit all three of the main islands that make up the US Virgin Islands , and all three are different . They each have their own little vibe .

They're all totally type different islands . The Virgin Islands is a territory of the United States and , as such , you don't need a passport in order to travel there , as long as you don't stop in another country somewhere along the way .

Now you do have to go through Customs and Immigration because it's out of the US Customs zone , but you don't have to have a passport . Now , when you get there , chances are you'll go to St Thomas , the largest of the islands , and it's the territorial capital and it's where a lot of the cruise lines dock .

Territorial capital and it's where a lot of the cruise lines dock , and that island is primed for tourism , with tour buses taking people all over the island to see the sights . There's lots of things to see , and do they have some really nice beaches as well ?

I mean there's all kinds of museums there , there's lookout points , and when I say all three islands are different , they are because St Thomas is kind of hilly .

You go up and down the hills , the little roads and you can get up on top of these hills and see out to a lot of the other islands out there and the ocean and see a lot of the beautiful beaches from a lot of tops of these hills . It is absolutely gorgeous . You'll have a blast on St Thomas , but you need to check out the other two islands as well .

Now , st John Island is a smaller island and this is accessible from St Thomas by ferry . I think it took us like 30 or 40 minutes to get there by ferry . It wasn't very long and it wasn't very costly . It was , I don't know , $5 , ten dollars and you take the ferry over and when you get to St John you will see it is just totally different .

It's a lot more laid back , a lot calmer , a lot less people actually , and two-thirds of that island is a US National Park . But it's different than national parks on the mainland where you pull up , you pay an entry fee , you go into the National Park , they have campgrounds and all that stuff Over there .

You're just driving down a road and you see a sign that says welcome to the US National Park , and the reason it's different is because there's actually private property within the National Park that people own and there's houses there and some others .

There's hotels in the National Park and there's a lot of the beaches are on the National Park grounds , but all of the beaches are public beaches and as long as you can get to them , you can visit them , even if it's even if somebody owns that land next to the beach and it's private property with a house there .

If you can take a boat and go up to that beach , you can go visit the beach . And the National Park is pretty cool . There's a lot of old ruins there from the sugar plantations that they had years ago and it's just beautiful , beautiful area . But the main attraction on St Thomas is the beaches . That little bitty island has over 20 beaches .

Some of them have been continually voted the most beautiful beaches in the world and once you see them you will understand why they are absolutely gorgeous . I went to one beach and it was kind of it had little pebbles Instead of sand . There were little pebbles all along the beach Shiny little pebbles , beautiful waters , and it was gorgeous .

Then I went to another beach and it was white sand beach . So they're all a little bit different and they're just stunningly beautiful . And there's some shopping there . There's a big shopping center there . That's kind of an open-air shopping center , but it's not totally closed . You have to kind of experience it .

I mean , you go up steps and there'll be three or four shops . You go up some other steps , there's a few more shops and then there's a courtyard that's open outside and across the way there's a half a dozen more shops and restaurants and it's a great shopping area . There's a lot of stuff to do there . There's eating places , there's bars , there's restaurants .

There's just all kinds of things to do there . Then there's another little section where the ferry comes in , where there's some shopping and a couple of bars and restaurants there , and then the resorts are all around there and it is absolutely stunningly beautiful .

You'll also see some really nice , magnificent beach estates that very rich people own and you're sitting there wondering where did I go wrong ? How come I don't own one of those things ? Some people go to St John and spend three or four days . I just went over there for the day , had a blast and then took the ferry back over to St Thomas .

Now the other main island is St Croix and they get a lot of cruise lines coming in there as well . But to get to St Croix I believe there's a ferry you can take , but it's like two or three hours long and , depending on the weather , you may not want to be out on the water if the weather's bad , so most people just take a flight .

You can either take there's two kinds of flights . You can take a regular flight out of the airport . It's pretty small , I mean it holds like eight or nine passengers and it takes , I don't know , 45 minutes maybe and you're there .

Or you can take a seaplane , which a lot of people do , and the seaplane you get on it and it lands right on the water when you get over to St Croix .

And St Croix is totally different from the other islands because it's mainly flat and there are two main towns in St Croix , a lot of history there , because these islands used to belong to Denmark , so there's a lot of Danish forts in St Croix , a lot of old Danish houses and customs houses and things of this nature , so you can learn a lot about the history

of the Virgin Islands . The people are fantastic and there's a lot of great shopping to do there and there's some beautiful beaches on St Croix as well , but there's just a lot of things to see and do there . They've got some fabulous hotels there .

One is a big historic hotel that I stayed at Absolutely gorgeous Private beach , which I'm sure if you could take a boat and get there you could go to it , but nobody does I mean it's the hotel that uses it . Had a big golf course and just all kinds of stuff . It was gorgeous property and you really should at least once go visit the US Virgin Islands .

Oh , I'll tell you another little thing . When you get to St John , the little island with all the beautiful beaches , your cell phone will switch over to Roman because it picks up the British Virgin Islands towers . And the British Virgin Islands are just a very short distance away .

In fact you can see one of the islands from the hilltops on St John if it's a nice clear day . And you can take a ferry and go to the British Virgin Islands , but you need a passport to do that . But if you ever get a chance , go visit the US Virgin Islands . You will have a blast and you will definitely want to return .

Oh , and when I say it's warm , well , mid-january it's temperatures are anywhere from like the mid-70s to the mid-80s . Now I went there in , I want to say late October and it was mid to high 80s when I was there and it was nice and cool at night . It wasn't a lot of humidity , it was gorgeous .

Now I'm going to mention some other places that no one ever thinks of , but you don't need a passport to get there . How about the South Pacific ? You can go to Guam , and Guam has a tropical climate in the South Pacific , and I looked up flights from Houston and Houston in January to Guam . They're around $1,900 round trip .

Well , you pay that a lot of times just going to Europe or going to Hawaii , depending on where you're flying out . Of . Now , once you're in Guam , you can take a four-hour boat tour into the jungle where you can learn all about the island and the Chamorro Islanders .

You can visit their Chamorro Village , experience all kinds of culture , the lively street market where the food and produce and native handicrafts are sold , and , of course , they have absolutely gorgeous beaches . You can just relax , soak up the sun in the South Pacific , not that expensive to get there and the prices for hotels are not that bad either .

Oh , and did I mention the average temperature on Guam in January 80 degrees . You're in a tropical climate . Back when your buddy at home was shoveling snow . You can send him a little postcard or take a picture on your phone and text it to him . Say , hey , man , I may have to stay here a couple more days .

Flights are bad , but do me a favor and shovel off that snow . Now I'm a big history buff . Flights are bad , but do me a favor and shovel off that stool . Now I'm a big history buff . So these other two well , guam also , but these other two especially are just full of history .

But another place you can go which is also in the South Pacific , the Northern Marianas , which is a US territory about 180 miles north of Guam . The Northern Marianas consists of 14 islands , of which Saipan is the largest , and the islands are great for snorkeling and scuba diving and just a treasure trove of history . And of course , the beaches .

Now the Marianas . They were the site of some of the fiercest fighting during World War II and it has a lot of historic sites you can visit fighting during World War II , and it has a lot of historic sites you can visit .

As well as a very well-preserved World War II buildings and posts , there's an old Japanese lighthouse , the jails and the Banzai and suicide cliffs . If you know anything about World War II history , that's where the Japanese soldiers and civilians leapt to their death instead of being captured by Allied forces .

So if you like history and military history and things like this , the Northern Marianas is full of it . But it's also full of absolutely stunning beaches , friendly people . Hotel prices are nice and cheap . Well , not cheap , but not overly expensive . You can have a gorgeous South Pacific tropical vacation in the dead of winter .

You can take a bike tour , do an off-road 4x4 tour to some of the secluded areas and just spend time exploring the islands and taking in the beauty of the South Pacific . Oh , and the temperature in January Well , it's in the mid-80s , which I would much rather enjoy instead of bitter cold winds and four or five feet of snow .

I tell you , man , I just hate cold weather . Now this last one . You've heard of it , but I doubt very seriously if you've ever been there or even know of anybody that's been there , if you've ever been there or even know of anybody that's been there . American Samoa it's another territory but it is the southernmost territory of the United States .

It's actually 2,200 miles southwest of the state of Hawaii and it's one of two territories southwest of the or south of the equator . The other is a little island called Jarvis Island , which is not even populated . No one's ever heard of . It's just a little bitty rock island . I think the National Fish Service or something like that has , or I don't know .

It's a bird sanctuary or something , but nobody lives there . Nobody can even visit it . So if you want to go to the southern most populated territory of the United States , american Samoa is the place . You want to go to the southernmost populated territory of the United States , american Samoa is the place you want to go . And it is kind of far to get to .

I mean , flights from LA take you about 14 hours .

But once you get there gorgeous beaches , national parks , there's a national marine sanctuary , there's a big cultural museum that's housed in the old World War II era Navy Commissary building , there are several World War II historic locations and fortifications , along with just really friendly people and very few tourists .

Now , I was in the military for 20 years and I was stationed with and knew a couple of Samoans who were in the military and they were friendly as all get out . A couple of Samoans who were in the military and they were friendly as all get out .

But I mean , if I knew then what I know now , how beautiful that island was , I would have went back with them on vacation . But it's just another tropical destination that people have heard of but very few ever visit .

And anytime you can enjoy a year round temperature , yearround temperatures in the mid-80s , and combine it with beaches , nightlife , culture and very few tourists , well , that's a win . I mean , imagine hanging out in the South Pacific on a beautiful island and there's hardly any tourists there . I mean that's worth it all in itself .

For me it's like you have the island all to yourself . I'm telling you it's gorgeous , it's a great place to visit . So there you have it Seven places that you can visit in the dead of winter . Instead of shoveling the snow and freezing your butt off , you can go and enjoy the sand and the sun and get away from it all , all without a passport .

Now , I know a lot of people love the snow and the winter , but a whole lot more just want to escape it for a while , especially if you live in a place where it just gets bitterly cold and you have to shovel that snow every day just to go outside .

Those are seven places that you can definitely get away , enjoy the sand , enjoy the sun , the beautiful temperatures and not have to worry about it . So I hope you enjoyed it .

I hope you got some tips out of it and book one of these flights and go to one of those places and if you haven't done it already , check out last week's podcast on how to save some serious money on traveling and snag some cheap flights and hotel rooms . That'll help you determining on where you want to go .

So next time we're going to delve into a place I went to a couple of years ago . This place at one time was home to a Wild West legend , the birthplace of an Oscar-winning actress and the home to the founding of an iconic food restaurant in the United States . I went there a couple of years ago . It had more than I could ever imagine .

It surprised the heck out of me . So next time we'll go there and I'll tell you all about it . So until then , safe travels , thank you .