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What is the cheapest destination for a white Christmas, starting from Sydney?

To narrow this down:

  • we should be reasonably assured of snow on or around Christmas (say 90% chance)
  • it should be in a country that celebrates Christmas (doesn't need to be a fully Christian country, so long as there are some decorations, etc and it feels Christmasy)
  • any costs should be based on usual prices for flights from Sydney
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  • 3
    'reasonably assured of snow'. How do you define that? Does there have to be snowfall exactly on Christmas, or is it okay if it's old snow lying around?
    – drat
    Commented Jan 12, 2016 at 5:13
  • I don't want to get too bogged down definitions of "snowy", but it wouldn't have to snow on the very day. So some snow lying around or cold enough to snow on the few days either side would be good.
    – WW.
    Commented Jan 12, 2016 at 5:20
  • Since prices for many travel-related services can vary widely, I'm not sure it's possible to find the cheapest option in a meaningful sense.
    – fkraiem
    Commented Jan 12, 2016 at 5:50
  • 7
    If the weather is right, you wouldn't have to travel far at all, such as on the 25th December 2006. "One of the most severe December cold outbreaks of the last 50 years affected the southeast over the Christmas period. There was substantial snow (up to 20 centimetres in places) above 800 metres in Tasmania and above 1,000-1,200 metres in Victoria and southern New South Wales. Snow fell (but did not settle) on the morning of the 25th in the Dandenong Ranges, on the outer fringe of Melbourne."
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Jan 12, 2016 at 6:01
  • 3
    Are there settlements (or anyway habitable buildings) above the snow line in New Zealand?
    – Steve Jessop
    Commented Jan 12, 2016 at 20:16

3 Answers 3

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There are two options, both roughly equidistant and neither an obvious winner:

  • Japan is about 10 hours from Sydney, with direct flights to Tokyo. While snow is rare in Tokyo itself, there is tons of the white stuff anywhere in the Japan Alps (eg. Nagano), on the Japan Sea coast (eg. Kanazawa) and up in Hokkaido, where ski haven Niseko has become a virtual Aussie enclave. Japan is obviously not Christian, but Christmas is celebrated as a consumer holiday along the lines of Valentine's Day, with plenty of Christmas displays in shopping malls, Colonel Sanders decked out as Santa at KFC, etc.

  • Korea is only a smidgen further away, with direct Sydney-Seoul flights also lasting around 10 hours. Snow in Seoul is more likely than in Tokyo, albeit far from guaranteed, and there's lots of it in the mountains, eg. 2018 Winter Olympics host Pyeongchang. What's more, a solid 30% of Korea is Christian and Christmas Day is a public holiday.

Direct flights to both hover around A$1000 return, with cheaper options to both available if you're willing to route through a third country and/or use LCCs. Jetstar offers one-hop flights to Japan via Melbourne, Cairns and the Gold Coast, while Air Asia flies to various destinations in both Japan and Korea via Kuala Lumpur.

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Low-cost airline Jetstar offers inexpensive flights from Australia to Japan, which certainly ticks all your boxes. A northern city such as Sapporo normally has snow around Christmas and will have many Christmas-related festivities and decorations. There are also some Christian churches, if you are so inclined. Citizens of Australia and New Zealand can enter Japan visa-free for 90 days.

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Snow and ice can be found all year round in New Zealand:

The Fox glacier is a year round ice spectacular and one of the must do when visiting the South Island of New Zealand. Snow falls at the very top of the glacier all year round, which feeds the river of ice we know as the glacier. So even in summer you are able to experience this frozen beauty.

NZ glacier

Matrix ITA shows flights to Dunedin (return 10 days later) in December (2017) from A$626 at the moment.

There is also Australia:

While the sun shines on beaches in the north, it’s snow time down south.

At the moment (early January 2017) there is snow in New Zealand. There happens also to be quite a lot of snow in UK just at present but here the odds round Christmas are a lot less than 90% and an air ticket likely around twice A$626.

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