Seven Sensational Places for New Years

By Mary Gostelow | Editor-in-chief of WOW.travel, the online magazine of kiwicollection.com

Call 1800 017 849 or enquire online to contact your Travel Associates consultant for the latest
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1. Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, Quebec City, Canada

This late-19th century fairytale castle, on Cap Diamond high above the St-Lawrence river, offers a myriad of winter wonderlands. Try ice-skating on one of the Old City's rinks, or dog sledding, tobogganing and climbing nearby frozen Montmorency Falls. We love the Fairmont Gold bedrooms here.

2. Boca Raton Resort & Club, Florida, USA

This massive 356-acre resort has, excluding snow and ice, every activity for every age. Golfers, sailors and spa-goers are all in their element, as are those who want to shop in Mizner Mall a few minutes' drive away. The many restaurants include an Old Homestead Steakhouse and La Goulue, with Christian Delouvrier cooking. Alexandra Champalimaud has designed the hotel's bungalow villas.

3. The Gleneagles Hotel, Perthshire, Scotland

Scotland also celebrates Hogmanay (New Year) with great aplomb, and here, on December 31st, the evening starts with cocktails hosted by the management, followed by a military Beating of the Retreat. Black tie dinner leads to kilted bagpipers heralding in the New Year, with much dancing. Day-time, there are kids' treasure hunts, country dance lessons and fortune telling.

4. Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin, Germany

Dinner on New Year's Eve can be a seven-course Lorenz Adlon Gourmet Dream by Thomas Neeser, or a mere five courses in Restaurant Quarré, after which there will be hours of dancing to the Dirk Jecht Orchestra, with a midnight buffet. Fortunately the hotel has a classical-style columned swimming pool and new day-spa to help you recover, and you are within a few minutes' walk of many of Berlin's famous landmarks.

5. Park Hyatt Dubai, United Arab Emirates

After a seven-course dinner in the two-floor Traiteur restaurant, with Laurent-Perrier and Pol Roger champagnes, expect dancing, and the hotel's midnight fireworks lighting up the adjacent Dubai Creek. Wake up in the morning to look out at the soothing greenery of Dubai Golf and Yacht Club, which, with the Creek, encircles this urban resort. Relax on New Year's Day in the lovely multi-area outdoor pool, with integral living palm trees.

6. Hilton Sanya Resort & Spa, China

Bring in New Year at a tropical paradise (imagine sipping a favorite cocktail under your own coconut-thatched shade on a private beach of pristine white sand gently washed by a crystal clear blue sea). If you are in a lagoon suite you can literally swim from your private terrace straight into the massive inland network of outdoor pools. Celebrate with a Pevonia Botanica treatment in the spa village.

7. Four Seasons Sydney, Australia

At 9pm on December 31st the city's synchronized Family Fireworks show kicks off from six barges in the harbor (listen to its soundtrack through your hotel room's entertainment system). After this, over 50 illuminated vessels convoy through the harbor. At midnight more fireworks erupt from the top of Sydney Harbour Bridge. The hotel, which is 25 years young in January, has just had a complete Joseph Pang renovation.

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