Is it recommended to fly on Christmas Day?

Simon Calder answers your questions on Christmas Day flights, visiting Miami and Indonesia’s laws on unmarried sex

Air fares will be lower on Christmas Day (AP)

Q Would you recommend flying on Christmas Day?

Rachel C

A Yes. Reaching an airport on Christmas Day is challenging: public transport is largely reduced to National Express and Megabus coach services from larger cities to major airports – especially London Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton, and Manchester.

At these and many smaller airports the number of flights on offer is sharply reduced: short-haul trips are unpopular with passengers and staff. Ryanair and Jet2 will operate no flights on 25 December, while easyJet’s offering will be sharply reduced.

Long haul, though, many operations continue more or less as normal. Airlines such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, American Airlines, Singapore Airlines, United and Air Canada and many others offer a 365-day service from and to their connecting hubs, while British Airways has a mix of short- and long-haul services (the former feed the latter).

If there is a flight to your destination on Christmas Day, I strongly recommend that you take it – especially compared with other days during the festive season. Passenger numbers are much lower at airports, and sometimes on the flights too.

The cabin crew are in remarkable spirits considering, and there is usually some festive sparkle. Furthermore, if you are heading south on an overnight flight (as I have done several times) then your reward is sunshine on Boxing Day morning. Going west, the length of Christmas Day is extended – by eight hours on a trip to California.

And if that were not enough benefit, fares are lower, too. On KLM from Heathrow via Amsterdam to Johannesburg, for example, 25 December is £50 cheaper than Christmas Eve and £80 less than on Boxing Day. Clearly, though, if you have to spend a fortune on a Christmas Day taxi to the airport, the saving is reduced. But do give it a try if you can.

Catch the marvellous Art Deco Weekend on Ocean Drive in January (Getty)

Q We are going on a Caribbean cruise in January with a week in Miami South Beach. What shouldn’t we miss?

Allan B

A Miami Beach is at its most rewarding in January, when the sub-tropical resort laughs in the face of winter. The name applies to a narrow barrier island between the ocean and Biscayne Bay, beyond which rises the core of Miami. South Beach (or SoBe) is the most interesting chunk: a two-mile stretch between 5th and 17th Streets, encompassing the Art Deco National Historic District.

Unless you are there by 15 January 2023 you will miss the marvellous Art Deco Weekend, featuring street markets and classic car parades along Ocean Drive. But you can still explore the spiritual home of Art Deco. Check in at the Art Deco Welcome Centre at 1001 Ocean Drive, run by the Miami Design Preservation League and open 9am-5pm daily. It is a fascinating repository of social history as well as architectural intelligence. Take the Official Art Deco District Walking Tour (10.30am daily), a 90-minute exploration of Art Deco as well as 1920s Mediterranean Revival and 1950s MiMo (Miami Modern).

Lunch at the 11th Street Diner will be a joy. Then visit the Wolfsonian, a South Beach landmark and museum featuring the astute collection of local businessman Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson Jr.

Downtown Miami – a big, high-rise US city – feels rather less special. But a great way to get your bearings and have a free thrill ride to boot is to take the Metromover, a free elevated shuttle that whizzes around a mesmerising four-mile circuit. Then venture three miles southwest of downtown Miami to Calle Ocho (officially South West 8th Street), the heart of Little Havana – a hub of anti-communist rhetoric against the government of the Caribbean’s largest island, but also a great place to enjoy Cuban cuisine.

The Brightline train system makes a couple of day trips from Miami easy and feasible. Fort Lauderdale has an excellent art museum, good restaurants and a yachting vibe, while West Palm Beach is a convivial city with a wide range of attractions – just across the water from the island of Palm Beach and Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property.

The circumstances specified in the proposed legislation seem unlikely to arise for a couple on a typical holiday to Bali (Getty/iStock)

Q If Indonesia decides to outlaw sex outside marriage, will cohabiting couples be jailed? This could have huge ramifications for tourists. Bali is especially popular with Australians too. Thoughts please?

Victoria C

A The Indonesian “special province” of Aceh in northern Sumatra already enforces sharia law, with extramarital sex and homosexuality banned – along with alcohol. This month, the Indonesian parliament in Jakarta is expected to make sex outside marriage illegal nationwide, punished by imprisonment of up to a year.

For the hundreds of thousands of Western visitors to Indonesia, in particular to the island of Bali, this prospect is alarming. Many unmarried heterosexual couples holiday in Indonesia, and currently I am unaware of any discrimination against them – though gay travellers should note a warning from the US state department about travel to Indonesia: “Local authorities sometimes take legal action against, or tolerate harassment of, people engaging in LGBTI relationships or openly expressing LGBTI identity.”

From what I have read about the proposed law banning sex outside marriage, it appears to be targeted specifically at people who live in Indonesia. Prosecutions will take place only if a formal complaint is made by the parents of an unmarried person (or, in the case of extramarital sex, by the spouse of the perpetrator). These circumstances seem unlikely to arise for a couple on a typical holiday to Bali or elsewhere.

A very similar law is in effect in the United Arab Emirates. The Foreign Office says: “In the case of an extramarital consensual sexual relationship, if either person’s spouse or parent/guardian files a criminal complaint, then both parties of an extramarital consensual relationship shall be liable to a jail sentence for a period not less than six months.” I am unaware of any Western tourists (as opposed to expatriates living in the UAE) ever having been penalised in this way, and I am sure that the same will prevail in Indonesia if and when such a law is passed.

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