A Traveller’s Ode To January; The - ‘Worst’- Best Month of the Year

Thomas in Oslo

My phone sends an alert: the outside temperature will soon be -6 degrees Celsius. I don’t even want to look up how bad that is in Fahrenheit. With the windchill, we will hit -15. But it truly doesn’t matter. I am in a typical Copenhagen cellar restaurant and I am surrounded by hygge. In fact the cold outside is almost a necessary ingredient - accentuating the cosiness of the real candles, the checked table cloths, the meal served family style for us all to share and the Christmas decorations left up an extra week. Well, why not?

Nyhavn, Copenhagen

This time I’m on a tour beyond that of my native land, Denmark - one to three Scandinavian capitals in 12 days; Copenhagen, Stockholm in Sweden and finally Oslo, the capital of Norway. We’re linking them via fast, smooth and comfortable high speed trains through the beautiful snow clad landscape; a personal favourite when it comes to means of travel. It’s very unusual for me to be leading a tour in January - I normally prefer to save my favourite month, the only remaining of the twelve that is truly off-season, for my personal wanderings. But Scandinavia as a destination was too hard to resist.

Skansen, Stockholm

January? Really? But isn’t it cold? (Yes, very). Isn’t it dark? (Yup, every rare ray of sunshine truly feels like a blessing). Aren’t a lot of things closed? Well, closed earlier perhaps. So why January? Easy. To paraphrase Hardy ‘it’s the crowds, stupid’. There are none. Yesterday I strolled through one of my top five museums in the world, the Vasa Ship Museum in Stockholm. I had the wonderful 17th shipwreck virtually to myself. In Copenhagen the Round Tower was so free of ‘traffic’ they switched the one way lights off and tomorrow in Oslo, we’ve been told we can come to dinner anytime we like after 6 p.m as the restaurant is virtually empty.

Stortorget, Stockholm

If you’ve travelled with me before and I was in possession of a microphone - you’ll probably have heard me say something along the lines of how as tourists at least we certainly didn’t descend from apes, but sheep. I probably told you this as I tried to take us clockwise round a city where everyone goes anticlockwise or shift a walking tour to the afternoon as all the cruise ships hordes go in the morning, you get the idea. This is in fact no different to what we strive to do with our Diamond Skies itineraries.

Thomas at the Folk Museum in Oslo

January has become my escape from the flock. Strolling empty streets, meeting restaurant and shop owners with time to chat, finding easy upgrades in hotel rooms and altogether a different pace, I truly feel as far from the madding crowd as I can get. Another bonus of January travel, not to be sneezed at (despite the temperatures) are the prices; in the world of the tourist sheep - is it the only month left where one is constantly not getting fleeced? Traditionally, January is often described as the worst month of the year, in sharp contrast to the best that has preceded it. I couldn’t disagree more, sitting with 6 other people as I am on Fjord cruise in Oslo, on a boat that holds 120. 

I read recently that in the original Julian Calendar, January actually had 65 days, because that’s how long Roman mathematicians thought the month lasted. I know it can feel like, but the travel in me still says; if only. So, perhaps it is time to…

See January with new eyes, 

Perhaps through travel with Diamond Skies, 

Do this and have no fear,

Yours will be a wonderful year.

Happy Travels in 2025.

Hope to see you out there soon!