As temperatures plummet in the Northern Hemisphere,
why not enjoy some of the great travel experiences that only a big chill can
bring. We look at the world’s top seven winterland marvels, as chosen by Lonely Planet authors.
1. The northern lights of Canada
It’s the middle of night, in the
middle of nowhere. It’s so dark that you can hold your hand three
inches from your face and not see it. The silence is so complete that
the low thud of snow falling from a nearby tree makes you jump. Your
eyelashes are close to frozen and it’s a struggle to separate
them when you blink. And yet you’d happily sit there all night, for
many nights to come, for the chance to see nature’s most mysterious sight:
The northern lights.
With little light pollution, optimum weather conditions (very cold, with plenty of clear nights) and its position directly beneath the prime-viewing zone of the auroral oval, Churchill in Canada is one of the best places in the world to see the northern lights. The Arctic tundra and boreal forest surrounding the town see over 300 nights of auroral activity each year. Displays might last hours, or be gone in a minute. Flashing neon pink, turquoise and green, the lights swirl across the sky in myriad imagined shapes (is that a walrus, a witch, a whale?) before whipping back on themselves and disappearing. In the presence of such a spectacle, it’s easy to believe local Inuit myth that the aurora borealis are signals from the afterlife, particularly if you hear the sky crackle and swoosh as some claim. What is in no doubt during those moments when the lights whirl above your head is that you’re part of the greatest show on earth.
2. Icebound St Petersburg
January in St Petersburg. The city’s residents,
long used to the cold, don fur hats and heavy coats to stand in line.
Nowadays, they wait not for bread, but for art: frozen art. Every
winter, sculptors transform blocks of ice into elaborate models
of people, animals and objects. It’s a tradition that dates back to
1740, when an entire ice palace was constructed to celebrate
the birthday of the Empress Anna. Set against a backdrop of golden
domes sparkling in the light of the low sun, the exhibit embodies the
magic of St Petersburg
in winter.
Locals bypass the city’s bridges,
slithering over the ice-covered rivers and canals to make their way
across town. The Neva River is frozen solid, except for one
large hole in front of the Peter Paul Fortress. This is the plunge
pool for the Walrus Club, a group of swimmers who exhort the
health benefits of a daily dip. When the cold finally seeps in,
Petersburgers warm up with a vodka, served in an ice glass, from the
ice bar. ‘At least we can do something with all this ice other than
slipping and falling on it!’ observes one happy patron.
3. Sweden’s reindeer migration
One of the world’s greatest
migrations takes place each year just over a thousand miles north of Britain. As
snow thickens on every surface, lakes freeze over and the temperature
drops below -25˚C, tens of thousands of reindeer make their
way across northern Sweden.
Descending from summer pastures in the mountains to the west, the
herds travel east to spend the long winter foraging in the forests.
Accompanying them on a journey
that can take ten days or more are their seminomadic Sami owners.
While herding methods may have modernised over the centuries
(snowmobiles – and even helicopters – have replaced snowshoes), reindeer
husbandry is still a cornerstone of their culture. To fall in with the
Sami and their herds is to be part of a heritage that stretches back
millennia – one of days dictated by the pace of the reindeers’ steady trot,
and of nights sharing stories round the fire under a chill, star-filled
sky.
4. Italy’s sunken bell
Head to Italy’s
South Tyrol this winter and you’re likely to come across one of Europe’s most bizarre sights – an
apparently amputated church spire poking out from the frozen waters
of Lago di Resia. The 14th-century bell tower, pointing like an arrow
to the blustery skies above, is a forlorn monument to an entire
village drowned beneath the waters of an artificial lake created as
part of a hydroelectricity project in the 1950s.
Locals will tell you that the
tolling of its church bell can still be heard on a cold night – even
though the bell was removed when the valley was flooded. Tall tales
may have sprung up around it, but the church and the lake are very much
part of local life, particularly in winter. Snow-kiters twirl across
the ice, leaping high into the air as their kites catch a gust of
wind, keeping an eye out for ice-skaters gliding around the lake’s
perimeter. Families slip and slide their way to the base of the
tower, eager to slap their gloved hands on a piece of history that’s
out of reach most of the year.
5. Yellowstone’s boiling waters
There are few places as beguiling
as Yellowstone
National Park. It is
a landscape created by grinding glaciers and volcanic eruptions, a
place of fire and brimstone where the very earth breathes, belches
and bubbles like a giant kettle on the boil. Here, in a land roamed by
moose, bears and wolves, geysers and hot springs seethe and simmer
and finally blow, capturing the imagination as they have done since
the park’s inception in 1872. It is America made wild and primaeval.
As the temperature drops and
the snow piles high, the park takes on a special drama and grace. The
tourist crowds thin, replaced by cross-country skiers silently swooshing along
marked trails. Shaggy-coated bison pick their way through the deep snow
to warm themselves in geyser basins, waiting for a waft of hot stream
from shimmering thermal pools. They retreat a few paces as a hot spring
suddenly erupts, sending an arc of boiling water high into the frigid air.
6. South Korea’s ice festivals
For much of the year, the
sancheoneo – a species of trout – leads a blameless life in the
rivers around Hwacheon, a town that lies in the mountains northeast of Seoul. When the
cold, dry Korean winter arrives, the rivers freeze over and the
sancheoneo disappear under 40cm of ice. And then the trouble starts.
Every January, the Hwacheon
Sancheoneo Ice Festival brings a sudden energy to this quiet corner
of the country. Hundreds of thousands of thickly clad visitors
swarm over every frozen surface to try their hand at ice-fishing.
Barbecues come as naturally to Koreans as baguettes to the French,
and the smell of charcoal fires wafts along the banks, ready for the
latest catch. For a few visitors, dropping a line through a hole
in the ice to catch their fish is just not enough of an experience.
Dressed in T-shirts and shorts, they plunge into a pool of near
freezing water and learn just what slippery customers trout can be.
7. Snowbound London
Ten o’clock on a Monday morning in
central London.
No buses steam down Piccadilly, belching passengers at every stop.
There are no crowds jostling for space on the pavements of Oxford Street and
the doors of its department stores remain locked. The tubes stand
empty in their tunnels, planes are grounded at Heathrow. The few
people who’ve made it into work in the City turn back when they find
their offices closed. This is not the scene from an apocalyptic Day
of the Triffids-style film, but the reality of life in the capital on the
rare occasion it lies under a thick blanket of snow.
The streets empty and all
activity migrates to the parks. On Hampstead Heath, a running club
has given up shuffling through the snow and is rolling a giant snowball
down to the banks of the pond. In Richmond Park,
the resident deer paw at the frozen earth, looking for twigs and shrubs.
Far to the east in Greenwich, a borough’s
worth of schoolchildren celebrate their unexpected day off by
tobogganing down from the Royal Observatory, the distant
skyscrapers of Canary
Wharf barely visible
through the grey murk. Back in the centre, snow falls steadily on a
deserted London, bestowing
on anyone who ventures onto its streets the unimaginable
magic of having a city all to themselves.
Words by: Mara Vorhees, Bradley
Mayhew, Amanda Canning and Rory Goulding.
This article originally appeared in Lonely
Planet magazine, on sale now across the UK.
