We’ve fielded queries recently from travelers based in London and the UK, about popular places to travel this time of year.

So we’ve done some research and compiled a list of Top Getaways from London & the UK. We wanted to see where Brits in general, and Londoners in particular, were traveling to this time of year. London’s wintry weather is not a drawback for visitors to the city. But if you happen to live in London, you’re probably dreaming of sandy beaches and sunshine right about now.

At least that’s what we assumed, until we started digging into the data. It turns out that Londoners have more than just hot weather on their minds this time of year. We noticed three big trends.

1. The weekend getaway is very much alive and well, largely thanks to amazingly cheap airfares from the likes of Ryanair, Monarch, easyJet, Air Berlin, Myair and a host of other European discount airlines. Airfares can be as low as £10 or £20 for one-way flights from London’s Luton, Stansted and Gatwick airports to destinations across Europe. As a result we’re seeing increased interest in off-the-beaten-path destinations such as Bulgaria, Cyprus, Budapest, Lithuania and Slovenia. That said, the destinations that made it onto our Top 10 list are the more traditional (and popular) weekend getaway destinations: Amsterdam, Prague, Paris and Barcelona.
2. The second trend we noticed a big jump in ’sunshine’ destinations above and beyond the usual suspects of Spain’s Costa del Sol, Greece and Turkey. These places are still popular, but the real growth we see is in the Canary Islands, Dubai and Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh. In retrospect we should not have been too surprised about Dubai, since it occupied the #1 and #2 spots on our recent list of Top 25 things to do in Africa & the Middle East.
3. The last big trend we noticed was a jump in the number of Brits having far-flung adventures in Africa and Asia. Thailand has fully recovered as a popular travel destination, and we’re seeing strong traffic to newcomer Vietnam and perpetually popular Hong Kong. But the real news — and topping our list — are Singapore, Sydney and Cape Town. Don’t let anyone tell you the Brits are not well traveled!

You can read the complete list (along with our sightseeing recommendations) of getaways from London & the UK on the Viator.com website. If you live in the UK and have recently visited any of the destinations listed, leave us a note below with any of your own travel tips or suggestions.

–Scott McNeely

Postscript: I strongly suspect that when we revisit the top 10 list of UK getaways in a month, we will see an explosion of interest in the Caribbean as a result of the upcoming Cricket World Cup. I don’t want to cause an international incident, but one of our Australian colleagues rates the England team as “There is some talent there, if they only had heart…” If you care to respond, read our 2007 Cricket World Cup blog post and tell us what you think. Like I said, I don’t want to cause any trouble. Go Ireland!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Destinations, Europe, Travel Inspiration, Travel Wishlists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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