Forget snow, winter breaks should be totally tropical

Around a third of holidays are taken in winter, which is hardly surprising given the bleak prospect of dark skies, rain, and cold at home

Holidays in warmer climes are more popular than ski trips (Getty)

When the clocks go back and the central heating goes on, do you yearn for sun-soaked beaches or snow-blanketed mountains? While there will be those of you in the fortunate (or fanatical) position to satisfy both urges, I can see only one option – and that is sunshine.

I long to feel the sun's warmth on my skin and to sense that vitamin D supplies are being replenished and vitality restored. Around a third of holidays are taken in winter, which is hardly surprising given the bleak prospect of dark skies, rain, and cold at home. Abta, the travel association, reports that around a million of us will head off to ski resorts this season, but winter sun remains the most popular option.

There are existential factors at play in the mountains. Alain de Botton examines the way in which big landscapes – including mountains – make us feel small in his essay on the sublime in The Art of Travel. He concludes that the sublime positively reinforces in us a sense of our feeble place in the world. And yet, I can't help feeling that in the depths of winter, with perhaps only a week to spare, this just isn't the time to be evaluating my sense of being.

Certainly, the mountains offer the immediate thrills of whooshing down pistes in an environment engineered to satisfy childish inclinations for play. But there's the cold to consider. Where's the liberation in a suitcase heavy with clothing and paraphernalia required for coping with a polar environment? For the tropics, all you really need are the four Ss: swimsuit, sarong, sandals and sun cream. Five, if you insist on the suitcase.

I don't mind which plot of the tropics you give me, so long as there's a beach with sea water warm enough for swimming, perhaps a few trees and that optimal, night-time temperature – barely discernible, other than on the occasional waft of a breeze. That's not to say that I'd stay rooted to the beach for a week – culture is all the more compelling under a hot, blue sky.

I'm not alone in feeling the benefit of such a life-affirming climate, either. Take food, for example. With long sunny days comes a cornucopia of colourful produce: juicy mango, papaya, lychee, melon, orange juice sweeter than you could ever imagine … and that's before guanabana, soursop, custard apple or jackfruit. You start to feel revitalised just saying them out loud. Snow, on the other hand, delivers cheese and chocolate. Not that there's anything wrong with cheese and chocolate, but they don't make you feel quite so self-satisfied, no matter how much “exercise” you've done in order to work up that appetite.

I'll let you have your white Christmas, since I don't imagine reindeer are particularly fond of sand, but once the tree lights are switched off, I'll be heading south. Or dreaming of it, anyway.