12 spectacular frozen escapes to book right now

Hopping between two diverging tectonic plates in Iceland’s Thingvellir National Park is one of many primeval highlights on Audley Travel’s tailor-made Northern Lights Winter Break in Iceland. You might also be lucky enough to admire the aurora shimmering above bubbling mud pools and black-sand beaches on the Reykjanes Peninsula. As well as driving the highlights of the Golden Circle (including Gulfoss waterfall and Geysir’s hot-water spouts) and dropping in on the Blue Lagoon in the quieter winter months, you’ll don crampons to trek on the Sólheimajökull glacier surrounded by white-capped volcanoes. Afterwards, return to your hotel’s astronomical observatory to gaze at starlight that began its journey across the cosmos some 2.5 million years ago.

More information: Audley Travel. Flexible dates; six days from £5,495pp, including international flights.

The UK doesn’t get much wilder than the Cairngorms in winter, when snowbound hills and icy lochs conjure images of Scandinavia and beyond. Wilderness Scotland’s Winter Highlands retreat explores Cairngorms National Park from your base in a lodge tucked away in beautiful Glen Feshie. The focus here is on slow adventures and wellness, with travellers joining a wilderness guide to talk about the unique biodiversity of the Highlands, going on hikes around hidden lochs, taking ‘sound baths’, joining yoga classes and enjoying wild swims in ice-fresh waters before reheating in a mobile sauna. Then, as night draws an impossibly black blanket across the sky, be regaled by tales of folk legends beneath the starry skies – whisky in hand.

More information: Wilderness Scotland. 5 Feb & 4 Mar 2024; four nights from £1,495pp, excluding travel to Aviemore.

At the peak of the Antarctic summer, melting ice opens up intriguing routes below the 66th parallel south. For expedition ships such as the MS Roald Amundsen, it’s an invitation to explore further. The Antarctic Circle Expedition cruise with HX (formerly Hurtigruten Expeditions), departing Ushuaia, sets its compass for remote Marguerite Bay on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, where the ship will hop between islands, allowing you to venture onto land and kayak among giant icebergs (conditions permitting). In between spotting krill-gulping whales and Adélie penguins huddled on the floes, on-board lectures broaden your knowledge of science and geography, while trips to research stations reveal the region’s rich history.

More information: HX. 7 & 23 Jan, 8 Feb 2024; 18 days from £9,404pp, excluding international flights.

The lonely expanses of the tundra inspire true wonder. That sense of awe infuses Not in the Guidebooks’ Searching for the Northern Lights in Levi escape, which explores the Finnish portion of Sápmi (the Sámi word for Lapland). Between snowmobile safaris through boreal forests, sledding with husky dogs so energetic that they practically fizz across the snow, and nights spent in a glass-roofed cabin (hopefully) watching the aurora ripple overhead, there are plenty of showstopping moments. But it’s the time you spend with your Sámi guide, learning about the culture of the semi-nomadic reindeer herders who have roamed this swathe of Arctic wilderness for generations, that is unforgettable.

More information: Not in the Guidebooks. Flexible dates; 3 nights from £3,116 per couple, excluding international flights.

Read next: Finding happiness in Finnish lapland

Norway’s Arctic expanses take on a frost-glittered glamour during the winter months, when husky-sledding trips open up the wilderness inland and the fjords look even more dramatic from the water. Sunvil’s Arctic Fjords, Northern Lights and Huskies Expedition cruise aboard the MV Quest squeezes in various seasonal highlights as you wend your way along the coast from aurora capital Tromsø to the Lofoten Islands, where bright-red rorbuer (cod fishermen’s cabins) gleam in stark contrast against the ghostly white hillsides. Along the way, scan the seas for whales in Andøy, visit a Viking longhouse and ride the tracks of the Arctic Train from Narvik before the shimmering northern lights bid you farewell.

More information: Sunvil. 2, 12 & 22 Feb, 13 Mar 2024, plus reverse northward departures; six nights from £3,561pp, including international flights.

Off the west coast of Iceland, where the Snaefellsnes Peninsula juts into the Denmark Strait, vast herring shoals arrive every year to overwinter – providing bountiful fare for other hungry marine creatures. On Discover the World’s Orcas and Aurora tour, you’ll depart from your base in the fishing town of Stykkishólmur on expert-guided boat trips into the strait for sightings of the orcas, dolphins and seabirds that throng the area in winter to feast on the herring. This spot isn’t just an ideal jumping-off point for wildlife watching, it also offers fine opportunities for admiring the northern lights and for roaming a primeval landscape of black-sand beaches, blowholes and basalt sea stacks under the gaze of the glacier-capped Snæfellsjökull volcano.

More information: Discover the World. 14 & 28 Feb 2024; four nights from £1,866pp, excluding international flights.

Poland’s Białowieża Forest is one of the last remaining primeval woodland expanses in lowland Europe, stretching some 1,500 sq km. Coupled with the lush wetlands of the Biebrza Marshes, it’s like travelling back in time over thousands of years. The Wildlife Worldwide Poland’s Winter Wildlife trip plunges you deep into this epic landscape where bison were reintroduced in the 1950s, decades after the last wild individual had been shot. You’ll venture into the forest depths to look for the free-ranging bison herd – the world’s largest – and there is plenty more to get wildlife enthusiasts excited, too: scan the snow for the tracks of wolves (protected here for 15 years), spy white-tailed eagles hunting on the ice and watch beavers gather branches for their lodges.

More information: Wildlife Worldwide.19 Feb 2024; 7 days from £1,795pp, excluding international flights.

If you’d prefer to break new ground, KE Adventure’s Ski Nomad: Yurt to Yurt Ski Touring in Kyrgyzstan tour traces not just lines in fresh snow but a pioneering route across a remote corner of Central Asia, gliding across the wilderness in the ski-tracks of nomadic peoples. You will need some ski-touring experience, although the first few days will be spent at Karakol Ski Resort brushing up on the basics. From there you’ll strike out with local guides into the foothills of the Terskey Ala-Tau Mountains east of lake Issyk-Kul. Your experienced guide will plot the best route, according to weather conditions, as you ski between simple stove-heated yurts without showers or electricity, soaking up the thrills of off-grid winter travel.

More information: KE Adventure Travel. 2 Mar; 14 nights from £4,645pp, including international flights.

There are few sights more delightful in the Japanese winter than that of a snow monkey slipping into the hot-spring pools around Yudanaka Onsen, its eyes closed in sheer contentment. InsideAsia’s Snow Country tour of Japan roams the northern reaches of Honshu island, where the mountains of Nagano loom over reclining macaques. You’ll discover plenty of other highlights besides, from exploring the hillside shrines and Meiji-era inns of Takayama, surrounded by the Japanese Alps, to wandering the temples and gardens of Kyoto, luminous when dusted with snow. These treats are all linked by bullet-train rides through mountain landscapes as you shuttle in and out of Tokyo, where you can join a food safari around the city.

More information: InsideJapan. Self-guided, best Dec–Mar; 11 nights from £3,880pp, excluding international flights.

When you think of snowy winter escapes, your mind is unlikely to turn to North Africa, but Morocco’s High Atlas mountains offer challenges to test anyone’s mettle. Intrepid Travel’s Mount Toubkal Winter Trek not only summits that 4,167m peak – the region’s loftiest – but also explores the surrounding highlands in more depth than typical up-and-back itineraries. With a night for altitude acclimatisation, it’s a manageable ascent for anyone with decent fitness – especially when accompanied by a pack of mules to lug your gear, staying in mountain gites and sampling local hospitality. Best of all, money from this trip goes back into the area’s communities, helping local girls through secondary school.

More information: Intrepid Travel. 10 Dec 2023, 18 Feb, 3 Mar, 7 Apr 2024; seven days from £566pp, excluding international flights.

There’s no denying just how spectacular the landscape of Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland is, dominated by peaks topping 4,000m. It’s a setting that takes the breath away in every sense – little wonder this region styles itself as the birthplace of skiing. The base for Exodus Adventure Travels’ Cross-Country Skiing in Kandersteg break is a picture-postcard village from which a cobweb of high trails spiders across slopes and plateaus. On this self-guided trip, you can explore the surrounding area with the included travel pass; plus, if you time your visit for late January, you can immerse yourself in Kandersteg’s gloriously retro Belle Époque week, when locals don 19th-century clothing while events and markets recreate life during the fin de siècle period.

More information: Exodus Adventure Travels. Jan–Mar; eight days from £1,429pp, including international flights.

India’s Ladakh region is one of just a few places where you might spot a wild snow leopard – a creature that rarely descends below 3,000m. On Transindus’ Snow Leopard Safari Through Ladakh tour, you’ll join a team of conservationists in Leh before heading for the stark slopes of Hemis National Park, where temperatures plummet below -20ºC at night – thankfully, evenings are spent in the warmth of the Snow Leopard Lodge. Sightings can’t be guaranteed, but guides work closely with the Snow Leopard Conservancy to track and chart the predators’ movements in the region. And it’s not just big cats; if you’re lucky, you could spot Tibetan wolves, Eurasian brown bears or Asiatic ibex.

More information: Transindus. Best Nov–Mar; 14 days from £4,495pp, excluding international flights.

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