Sandalwood horses will run along Nihiwatu Beach on New Year’s Eve at NIHI Sumba, while Ballyfin’s Christmas celebrations will unfold around carols, candlelit dinners and carriage rides through County Laois parkland. Perowne International has announced festive programmes across its hotel portfolio.
These 12 luxury escapes cover Christmas and New Year 2026–27, with an Austrian Advent stay for those travelling earlier. There are private-pool villas for winter sun, country houses for a fully hosted Christmas, and European hotels where the seasonal food is reason enough to go.
1. NIHI Sumba, Indonesia: New Year with horses on the beach
NIHI Sumba’s celebrations run from 22 December to 1 January, with the island’s Sandalwood horses at the centre of several gatherings. Christmas Eve brings a Mini Pasola inspired by Sumba’s traditional horseback festival, followed by carols, a blessing and the lighting of the Christmas tree.
New Year’s Eve begins with sunset cocktails and a wishes bonfire as horses run along Nihiwatu Beach. Dinner at Menara leads into fire performances, live music and dancing, then Champagne and fireworks over the Indian Ocean at midnight.
NIHI’s Spa Safari at Nihioka offers a quieter day between celebrations. Guests can arrive by coastal trek, horseback or open-air vehicle, have breakfast on a treehouse platform and spend hours having treatments in private bales above a secluded cove.
Stay: Festive villa rates start from £1,550 per night, including full board but excluding alcohol. Sumba is a one-hour flight from Bali; explore the Christmas and New Year programme.
2. Ballyfin, Ireland: a hosted country-house Christmas
Ballyfin’s three-night Christmas stay gives the house and its County Laois grounds equal attention. Christmas Eve starts with lunch in the State Dining Room, followed by carols, mulled wine and a candlelit dinner accompanied by the resident pianist.
Father Christmas visits on Christmas Day, before a Champagne reception with a harpist and a long celebratory lunch. Afternoon games and fireside gatherings lead into an informal evening buffet, giving the day a relaxed, domestic rhythm within the historic house.
St Stephen’s Day brings horse-drawn carriage rides through winter parkland, falconry, archery and estate walks. Bespoke illustrated portraits offer a more personal keepsake, while the evenings continue with seasonal menus and traditional Irish music in the Saloon.
Stay: The country-house Christmas package starts from €1,580 per room per night, with a minimum three-night stay. Meals, drinks and the programme’s seasonal activities are included, alongside daily homemade treats.
3. Casana, Brazil: Christmas during kite season
Ceará’s trade winds blow from July through January, putting Christmas firmly within kitesurfing season on Praia do Preá. Casana has just seven beachfront bungalows, with thatched roofs, open-air living and outdoor bathrooms; several have private infinity pools and sea views.
Brazilian-Swedish founders Natalia and Jimmy Furland built the retreat around their shared love of kitesurfing. Guests can take one-to-one lessons, try heli-kiting from the hotel’s helipad, or explore the freshwater lagoons around Jericoacoara by 4×4 and dune buggy.
Chef Renato Machado builds menus around the day’s catch and produce from the hotel gardens. Yoga at daybreak or dusk, spa treatments, a steam room and cold immersion therapy give the days a gentler balance alongside time on the water.
Plan it: Jericoacoara Airport is around 20 minutes away by car. Casana can arrange transfers, including helicopter journeys from Fortaleza.
4. Gleneagles, Scotland: woodland decorations and Hogmanay
Gleneagles is bringing the folklore and wildlife of the Ochil Hills indoors this festive season. Squirrels, deer, pine martens, robins and geese appear in the decorations, alongside Scotland’s national animal, the unicorn.
Christmas activities include ice skating beneath the Perthshire skies, a family pantomime, arts and crafts, and a Christmas Eve meeting with Father Christmas’s reindeer. Adults have whisky tastings and fortune telling, with food and entertainment included in the festive packages.
Hogmanay centres on New Year’s Eve in The Strathearn and a display on the front lawn. The children’s programme includes a Talent Academy with vocal coaches and choreographers, as well as a disco, making this a particularly strong choice for families seeking celebrations across generations.
Stay: The four-night Christmas package starts from £11,935; the three-night Hogmanay break from £11,460. Selected dishes and dinner at Andrew Fairlie carry supplements, and service charges are discretionary.
5. Raffles Seychelles: private-pool villas and a helicopter arrival
Raffles Seychelles occupies hillside and beachfront settings on Praslin, with 87 private-pool villas. Elevated accommodation looks across palm forest and ocean, while beachfront villas have their own gardens.
Santa is due to arrive by helicopter on Christmas Day to deliver gifts. The dining programme includes Chef Zaw’s whole-tuna presentation followed by the Omakase Champagne Table at Makase. Noël Blanc brings a white-dressed table and a menu featuring foie gras, white caviar and roasted goose.
A beach party with Moutya dancing and The Grand Soirée, a white-and-gold gala at Curieuse Restaurant, complete the seasonal programme. The combination of private villa space and larger gatherings suits travellers who want both time alone and an organised festive celebration.
Stay: Rates start from approximately £797 per night, including breakfast. Seasonal rates apply to festive dates.
6. DAS EDELWEISS, Austria: Advent in the Grossarl Valley
DAS EDELWEISS’s AdventMOMENTS package is a pre-Christmas escape, available from 22 November to 17 December. Illuminated trees, open firepits and warming drinks bring the season into the Grossarl Valley, with four nights to enjoy the mountain setting.
Children can bake Christmas cookies, while carriage rides and sledding provide outings through the valley. The hotel’s Advent programme also includes an aperitif reception with the Hettegger family and harp music, plus a torchlight walk through Grossarl accompanied by brass players.
The family has developed the property over three generations, from a small guesthouse into a 136-room-and-suite resort. Its 7,000-square-metre Mountain Spa has adults-only areas and private spa spaces, while ski-in, ski-out access connects guests to the Ski Amadé network. Evenings can finish at Kork & Gloria wine bar.
Stay: AdventMOMENTS starts from €1,120 per person for four nights.
7. Lone Mountain Ranch, Montana: log cabins and sleigh-ride dinners
Lone Mountain Ranch’s 26 private log cabins come with wood-burning fireplaces, front porches and vintage record players. Guests have access to 85 kilometres of groomed Nordic ski and snowshoe trails, with trail passes, Nordic skis and snowshoes included.
The Sleigh Ride Dinner takes guests along snowy trails to an oil-lantern-lit cabin for family-style prime rib and singer-storytellers. Back at the ranch, Horn & Cantle pairs its kitchen with live country music, while Trapper’s Den offers whiskey and Cowboy Après-Ski.
This season introduces the six-bedroom Bison Lodge, a former owners’ residence overlooking Lone Mountain. Several lounges, fireplaces, a heated infinity pool, sauna and speakeasy make it worth considering for a larger gathering. Ski Butler transport takes guests to their preferred downhill mountain base.
Stay: Winter cabin rates start from $1,250 per night, including accommodation, transportation and meals. Bison Lodge is priced separately.
8. Finca Cortesin, Spain: Andalusian courtyards and midnight grapes
Finca Cortesin’s 532-acre estate sits minutes from the whitewashed village of Casares. Its 67 suites occupy a traditional finca-style setting of patios, courtyards and gardens, with a championship golf course and extensive spa for time between meals.
The festive programme runs from 24 December to 1 January. El Jardín de Lutz serves a four-course menu featuring wild turbot in gazpachuelo with black truffle, followed by English Christmas pudding with Pedro Ximénez ice cream. REI offers a Japanese tasting menu with tempura Gillardeau oysters and Spanish lobster gyoza with paprika and yuzu.
A winter golf tournament fills the interval between Christmas and New Year. Gala dinners on 31 December lead to the Spanish tradition of twelve grapes at midnight, followed by brunch on New Year’s Day.
Stay: Junior Suite stays start from €695 plus VAT per night, including breakfast.
9. Hôtel du Couvent, Nice: a courtyard market and convent baking
Hôtel du Couvent’s Christmas Market takes place on Saturday 19 December in La Cour des Orangers. Artisans, producers and the hotel’s own bakers gather in the central courtyard, making this a good choice for a festive break rooted in regional food and craft.
The hotel’s bakery mills its own flour from locally sourced ancient grains and makes its dough and yeast on site. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day menus at Le 1604 feature truffled foie gras, scallops and a chestnut-and-citrus yule log. In January, the centuries-old bakehouse turns to Epiphany brioches and frangipane galettes.
The Roman Baths provide a quieter interlude, with a tepidarium, caldarium and frigidarium circuit. Access is available to hotel guests and members aged 16 and over, and to non-members aged 16 and over who book a treatment of at least 60 minutes.
Stay: Rooms start from €390 per night, room only.
10. Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp, Belgium: Ruinart on the terrace
Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp’s Wintergarden by Ruinart opens from mid-November to mid-January. The terrace lodge serves festive bites and Champagne by the glass, with walk-in access daily from 10am to 11pm.
The restored hotel has 108 rooms and suites across its historic buildings, six restaurants and a 1,000-square-metre spa with an 18-metre pool. Roger van Damme’s festive afternoon tea overlooks the monastery gardens, while Antwerp’s Christmas market spreads across the historic centre from 4 December to 3 January.
Travel from London becomes simpler on 14 December, when direct Eurostar services to Antwerpen-Centraal are scheduled to launch. Four daily departures will take 2 hours 41 minutes; the return journey still connects through Brussels-Midi. Our festive weekend guide to Antwerp has more on planning the city break.
Stay: Rooms start from $445 per night, including breakfast. Festive afternoon tea costs €110 per person and runs from 25 November to 23 December.
11. Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa, France: Christmas above the vineyards
Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa’s terrace will become a forest of Christmas trees, overlooking the vineyards around Champillon, Hautvillers and Épernay. The vineyard-facing Junior Suites make the landscape part of the stay, including during the hotel’s Christmas Eve and New Year celebrations.
The two-night Christmas package includes Champagne in the room, breakfast each morning at Le Bellevue and dinner on 24 December. The New Year’s Eve offer includes the same suite setting, arrival Champagne and daily breakfast, with dinner on 31 December.
The spa’s indoor and outdoor pools, sauna, steam room and nine treatment rooms give guests plenty to do between meals. For travellers driving towards the Alps, the hotel also offers a festive stop among the vines before continuing to the slopes.
Stay: Christmas is offered as a two-night package; choose the New Year offer for the 31 December dinner.
12. Cape Grace, South Africa: Christmas on the waterfront
Cape Grace stands on a private quay at the V&A Waterfront, with Table Mountain behind it. Cape Town’s summer gives this Christmas stay a different daily rhythm: time by the heated outdoor pool, marina-side meals and outings to Clifton, Camps Bay or Boulders Beach.
Heirloom’s Christmas Eve dinner has live piano accompaniment, while Christmas Day lunch comes with a classical trio. Children have storytelling, biscuit decorating and a visit from Santa.
The New Year’s Eve White Marina Soirée moves from canapés and Blanc de Blanc in the Library Lounge to dinner at Heirloom and desserts on the Pool Deck. Guests then have exclusive bridge access to watch the Waterfront fireworks. Bascule Bar offers a livelier alternative, with jazz, a DJ and cocktails overlooking the marina.
Stay: Fairmont Harbour View Rooms start from £756 per night.
