What are the canary islands like?
If you are wiling to fly the Atlantic then a cheap flight into Cancun followed by an exploration of the Yucatan peninsular might fit the bill. You will absolutely hate Cancun but you have a range of Mayan ruins and interesting towns (like Merida) nearby. So might a visit to Bahia in Brazil. The bonus is that your visit co-incides with the festival of Iemanga – the goddess of the sea. I mention this because it is somewhere that they celebrate new year – but in a way totally different from most other places. Carribbean islands tend to be interesting in inverse proportion to the number of people flying into them each day. The most enticing often don’t have airports that take wide-bodied jets. So this might create problems given your timescales. A culturally interesting Southern European city – somewhere like Montpelier say – might also be worth checking out. It will not have the warmth of the canaries but you h
The Canary Islands are absolutely beautiful. However, recently they’ve been having a lot of problems with immigrant control, which has lead to less than savory encounters on the beach when a large boat comes up, full of “illegals” and are immediately detained. Not a very pretty sight. But that aside, the “wilderness” of the Canary Islands is breathtaking, just absolutely wonderful. I have never been there for new year, so I wouldn’t be able to give advice as to that, but I know that when I was there for a random week in the summer it was wonderful.
