The Last Great Trips Of The Year

Browse the holiday windows on Fifth Avenue
Lord & Taylor was the first, installing festive displays in the windows of its flagship store in 1937. Today Fifth Avenue is a glorious, glittering tableau of Big Apple extravagance, from the wild creativity of Bergdorf to the façade-filling theatricality of Saks or the elegant minimalism of Tiffany, 15 minutes’ walk from Mandarin Oriental, New York. Strolls off Fifth to Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s are worthwhile. Each madly ambitious, wildly expensive display will have been obsessed over for months yet will survive just six weeks. What matters is the glory of the moment, and what could be more New York than that?

Hike the Dragon’s Back
The thing to understand about Hong Kong Island’s Dragon’s Back hike is that there’s little shade. That’s why you’re tackling the region’s most celebrated trail in December, when daytime temperatures ease to around 20°C and the chance of rain is at its lowest all year. The five-mile ridge walk is easily doable in three hours from a start on Shek O Road, 30 minutes by taxi from Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong and The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong. Allow longer. That way there’s time to take in wraparound views of islets and sea from Shek O Peak plus more beach time at Big Wave Bay, before a street food lunch in Shau Kei Wan.

Sail the Daymaniyat Islands by dhow
From May to October, the Daymaniyat Islands – nine rocky islets 40 miles off Muscat, home to Oman’s beachfront Mandarin Oriental – are reserved for nesting sea turtles and breeding seabirds. The archipelago is on Unesco’s Tentative List for World Heritage status, and visitors are prohibited from landing in these months. From November, its beaches reopen for the annual migration of humans, a species attracted by white beaches, superb diving and pure escapism. Day trips by speedboat are best for snorkelling, offering more time in water that is almost surreally clear. For romance, you can’t beat a trip by traditional wooden dhow, perhaps with the chance of 50-strong pods of dolphins riding the bow wave.

See the first snows fall in the Alps
Let others hurry to ski resorts with winter’s first snowfalls. We’ll be in Lucerne. Always pretty, one of Switzerland’s finest mediaeval old towns transforms for Christmas into somewhere film director Wes Anderson might invent. It is a romantic confection of pastel houses on pretty squares, church spires and fortified towers, with the bonus of a Christmas market twinkling on Franziskanerplatz from early December. From the outside, historic Mandarin Oriental Palace, Lucerne looks as if it might be one of Anderson’s quirky sets. Then you step inside. Nope: it’s far too luxurious.

Surf the Desaru Coast
Received wisdom tells you to swerve Malaysia’s east coast when winds rise in December. Local surfers say otherwise. When beaches become too rough for swimmers, the Desaru Coast reveals a surf scene few people outside Malaysia have heard of. Wildboar Bay, seven miles north of Mandarin Oriental, Desaru Coast, has small, friendly waves over a gently shelving beach. It’s a fine spot for first attempts before you graduate to Tanjung Balau Beach, a wellspring of the Malaysian surf scene yet one where the vibe in the water is friendly. Local watersports operator Dash Outdoors offers lessons.

Escape to the Caribbean before Christmas
By early December, the world will have worked itself into a festive frenzy and it will be impossible to escape Mariah Carey insisting that all she wants for Christmas is you. What you need is Canouan. This small island in St Vincent and the Grenadines offers a winter-sun escape where the clack of palms in tropical breezes replaces incessant muzak, there’s always space on white-sand Godahl Beach and calm elegance reigns supreme at Mandarin Oriental, Canouan, with its 26 suites and eight villas. You can see why George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio are fans. Factor in a serene spa and you have the best pre-festivities restorative we know.