Europe in Winter: 35 Reasons to Visit Off-Season

Finding pleasure in the months of January and February is another matter entirely. The decorations come down and reality sets in. For most of Europe, that means rain. It rains in Rome, it drizzles in Berlin, it showers in Paris and London. Escaping above the clouds to the (sometimes) sunny Alps helps, but ski holidays are a temporary balm on a deep wound.

For visitors, however, the down season brings opportunity. You can find cheaper flights, easily book hotels and wander museums practically alone. Restaurants are still filled, but with locals as opposed to annoying tourists. Spontaneity becomes an option. I once spent a week in the South of France in January driving between Aix en Provence, Avignon and Arles. I ate in tiny restaurants in tiny villages, slept in any hotel I wanted and received discounts without even asking for them. I didn’t make a single reservation.

Later I moved to Paris, where I lived for 10 years with a busy husband and small children. Some winters, I was blue. Eventually, I found that I needed to lean into the season. I went to see the Winged Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre and stood before the sculpture, just me and her, for an eyebrow-raising amount of time. I blew off my gym membership for months at a time. I shopped the markets with real purpose and no thought at all to my waistline. Mont d’Or cheese for dinner three nights a week. Fresh hazelnuts in a bowl in the living room for anyone to crack. I still remember the excitement that came when oranges from Egypt arrived in January. The entire neighborhood was abuzz.

I sat for hours on trains racing across gray and frosty countryside and thought about the arc of my life in deep and philosophical terms. I skied in the French Alps, in the Austrian Alps. I learned to avoid the difficult runs and stop in cafes by wooded trails and eat my body weight in fondue. I ate dinner outside while my children sledded down mountainsides lit only by bonfires and tiki torches. I began to see the late winter as a time to think, be with my family, enjoy all that was dark and quiet.

For pointers on how to spend the off season, as well as the Christmas holidays—and how not to spend them—in some favorite European cities, we asked eight insiders for winter highlights and lowlights.

Vienna

Lilli Hollein

Director of Vienna Design Week

WINTER PERK: If a city could be a season, Vienna would be winter. It can be covered in glamorous white that makes the gold on buildings like Kirche am Steinhof even shinier. It can be grumpy and gray. It is cold. You always have an excuse to go to the next kaffeehaus. I love Café Prückel in winter . You can eat heavy food at Gasthaus Wolf—they serve mostly intestines and take “nose to tail“ seriously You need something substantial to eat because you spend your nights waltzing, as it is the ball season. I absolutely recommend the annual Vienna Philharmonic Ball (if you can get tickets).

WINTER GRIPE: Between November and Christmas you’ll find dozens of little huts in front of many of my favorite Vienna museums, like the Mumok or the Kunsthistorisches Museum. These huts smell of disgusting alcoholic drinks, wurst and sweaty winter coats. They are loud, overcrowded, tasteless. Leaving a museum often calls for a moment of contemplation. Not at this time of the year.

FAVORITE GETAWAY: Altaussee, Austria. It only takes about 90 minutes to walk around the lake. When it is really, really cold you can skate on the lake. Models and other celebrities go to Viva Mayr wellness resort for a detox holiday (vivamayr.com).

London

Asma Khan

Chef and owner of London’s Darjeeling Express. Next spring she’ll be profiled on the sixth season of “Chefs Table” on Netflix.

WINTER PERK: My first winter in London I went to Fortnum & Mason because people told me that was the place to go. I had taken the bus to see the city at Christmas and I bought an apple-shaped marzipan. It’s become a ritual now to buy marzipan at Fortnum & Mason every winter.

WINTER GRIPE: Riding the tube is the worst thing about London in winter. Everybody expands with their coats and hats and umbrellas.

FAVORITE GETAWAY: Paris. I love the romance of walking across the bridges there in winter. I’m just so mad that you can’t put locks on the Pont des Arts anymore.

Paris

Wendell Steavenson

Paris-based novelist, food writer, war correspondent

WINTER PERK: December is easily my favorite month in Paris. The night draws in and the leaves rustle. Particularly around 6:00 in the evening when you are a little sore from Christmas shopping, you stop in to have a glass of red wine or grog, maybe at Le Nemrod (51 rue du Cherche Midi). Every once in a while, if you are very lucky you can turn a corner and there is the Eiffel tower shimmering and glittering—better than a Christmas tree.

WINTER GRIPE: I once went to Strasbourg for the winter fair and it was, like, I don’t want to spend huge amounts of money on baskets of decorated gingerbread.

FAVORITE GETAWAY: I went to Venice one February and it was genius. We sat al fresco and it was a complete joy to have no tourists, to feel a little bit the old Venice. You don’t have to queue to get on the vaporetto in February. There aren’t hordes of people going over the Accademia. You can linger at the fish market without looking like a complete idiot.

Rome

Keith Christiansen

John Pope-Hennessy chairman, European Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art

WINTER PERK: An ideal time for visiting Rome is late February or March. Tourism is still at its low point, but the weather can be amazingly mild and even if it’s chilly, the skies are marvelous and many cafes have space heaters so you can sit outside.

WINTER GRIPE: The short days mean you have to plan your days. The Christmas fairs are kind of a waste and spoil entirely the Piazza Navona. But Christmas mass at Santa Maria in Aracoeli is pretty wonderful.

FAVORITE GETAWAY: Andalusia—Seville, Cordoba, Granada. The smell of oranges, the sun, the mild weather and the freedom from the tourist crush. Naples in winter can be fabulous, and the crazy New Year’s is something to be experienced.

Berlin

Anna Winger

Berlin-based writer and creator of TV series Deutschland 83/86

WINTER PERK: A few years ago friends started this December tradition called the Gänsemarch—Goose Walk. We take a ferry out to the Pfaueninsel, an island in Wannsee with roaming peacocks and an 18th-century castle We walk the perimeter of the island in the cold to work up an appetite then head to the local pub for gluhwein, red cabbage and roasted goose.

WINTER GRIPE: Don’t bother waiting in the long line to get into world-famous techno club Berghain, unless you want to go home with a serious cold. Instead, go see a concert at the new Frank Gehry-designed Pierre Boulez Saal concert hall

FAVORITE GETAWAY: Hotel Post, Susanne Kaufmann’s family hotel in Bezau, Austria. Kaufmann is well known in Europe for her organic skin care products and spas. This hotel was started by her grandmother in an old post office. The skiing nearby is fantastic and the hotel balances traditional coziness (big fireplaces, great food, saunas) with modern design. The spa is beautiful—and there are indoor tennis courts

Madrid

Barbara Lennie

Actress appearing in the upcoming film “Everybody Knows” (Feb. 2019)

WINTER PERK: I love buying roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes from the street vendors, or having hot chocolate and churros in a cafe like San Ginés and escaping the cold for a few hours with a movie at the Cine Doré (Calle de Santa Isabel, 3).

WINTER GRIPE: Night comes way too early in Madrid, and at Christmastime the sidewalks of the city center become impossible to navigate due to the crowds.

FAVORITE GETAWAY: Porto in Portugal. It’s home to one of my favorite museums in the world, the Serralves Foundation. It’s set in a garden and has artfully placed windows so no matter how nasty the weather you feel like you’re surrounded by nature (serralves.pt).

Istanbul

Engin Akin

Food historian, author of “Essential Turkish Cuisine”

WINTER PERK: Istanbul isn’t usually too cold in winter and there are lots of sunny days. Some of the restaurants along the Bosporus have heated terraces or big windows so you can enjoy the view, and you’ll be surrounded by locals, very few tourists. Two of my favorites are Park Fora and Yeniköy YaliEr (Koybasi Caddesi 145)—both serve fantastically fresh fish.

WINTER GRIPE: The meyhanes [taverns] along İstiklal Caddesi used to be very lively in winter. Now they’re a little sad-looking.

FAVORITE GETAWAY: Florence. In summer, it’s too crowded, but in winter, there’s this special coziness and you can really absorb the city. And all that hearty Florentine food at places like Il Latino (illatino.com) and the Mercato Centrale just tastes better in winter. And the service is much better too.

Stockholm

Sune Malmström

Hotel developer

WINTER PERK: After ice skating at the Kungsträdgården (the Kings Garden), where the ice rink overlooks the Royal Palace, finish off with some glögg, similar to mulled wine. Of all the winter festivities in Stockholm, my favorite is the celebration of Sankta Lucia at Seglora church. During the peak of winter darkness [in mid December], choirs dressed in white, with candles in their hands, sing winter carols.

WINTER GRIPE: We Swedes indulge in numerous Christmas buffets during the month of December. Overall they tend to be delicious, but it’s super easy to overindulge, so my recommendations to all first timers would be to skip the lutfisk (this dry tasteless overcooked fish) and instead focus on the yummy Swedish meatballs and gravlax.

FAVORITE GETAWAY: Lech am Arlberg in the Austrian alps has amazing skiing conditions set in a very gemütlich alpine environment. After a full day on the slopes, stop by the Hotel Montana in Oberlech for goulash soup. Sit outside on the spacious deck and wrap yourself in plaid blankets

—Edited from interviews by Nina Sovich, Andrew Ferren, Jay Cheshes and Deborah Dunn

Cold Calling

Chernobyl in January and four other European trip ideas for travelers who actually relish the chill.

HELSINKI Tourists don’t just pack mittens and scarves for winter trips to the Finnish capital, they pack swimsuits for a visit to one of the city’s 13 talviuintipaikat, or winter swimming places—often just holes cut into the ice atop a lake or the Baltic itself. hel.fi/helsinki/en/culture/sports/outdoor/winter-swimming

CHERNOBYL is, admittedly, not your typical bucket-list destination. But it’s a favorite place for writer and guide Darmon Richter, who is leading two weeklong tours of Kiev, the abandoned nuclear reactors and their surroundings in northern Ukraine this winter. “The fact that we’re doing it in the snow at around minus 15 Fahrenheit is quite unusual,” said Mr. Richter, “but the place looks otherworldly in winter.” Jan. 28-Feb. 3, $1,454, thebohemianblog.com

TROMSØ, NORWAY After the sun sets on Tromsø on Nov. 27 (at 11:45 a.m.), it won’t peek above the horizon again until mid-January. But this Arctic Circle city doesn’t use winter darkness as an excuse to sleep in; if anything, its cultural and sporting opportunities only increase in the depths of winter. Under a sky frequently illuminated by aurora borealis, visitors can set off by sea to watch whales, or across the tundra to visit the indigenous Sami people and attempt to endear themselves to reindeer. Within the city, the Northern Lights cultural festival and the Tromsø International Film Festival are two bright spots. visittromso.no

EASTERN POLAND The Białowieża Forest, which straddles the Polish-Belarusian border, is one of the last remaining stands of primeval woods in Europe. Visiting it with tour company Wild Poland during their weeklong Winter Wildlife Festival (Jan. 19-26) affords travelers the opportunity to see the continent’s largest population of wild bison, along with more elusive fauna like wolves and lynx. Winter makes for an ideal spotting season because thinner foliage and snow- covered ground makes these animals easier to spy. From about $700 per person, wildpoland.com

SWISS ALPS The Hospice du Grand-Saint-Bernard, a monastically run refuge for travelers, is located high on a snowbound mountain pass near the Swiss-Italian border. To visit (and stay the night) at the ancestral home to the great mountain rescue dog of the same name, requires a hike of roughly 3 hours on skis or snowshoes. (From $32 per night, per person, gsbernard.com). The dogs, however, take their winters in the nearby town of Martigny. For a 45-minute snowy hike with a pair of them (weekends only), visit the Barryland museum, dedicated to the breed (barryland.ch).

—Matthew Kronsberg