Did you know…?

In South Africa, some people eat caterpillars as a delicacy on Christmas.

In Greenland, one Christmas recipe includes raw whale skin and blubber.

In New Zealand, they decorate Pohutukawa trees rather than traditional pine trees.

In Iceland, they have a “Yule Cat” that stalks the hills, and children leave a shoe on their windowsills that is filled with candy at night.

In Italy, children are visited by the friendly witch Befana – not Santa Claus.

In Ireland, the tradition is to leave Santa mince pies and a bottle of Guinness for a snack.

Here at Esplanade, our favorite Christmas tradition is gathering around with loved ones and sharing our favorite travel stories.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all from the Esplanade Travel team!

From left to right: Diane, Kit, Harvey, Ksusha, Tess, Jacky and Sarah. Not pictured: Jill

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We traveled to New Zealand this year for a great adventure exploring the country. This trip was 4 years in the making due to the Covid pandemic. We booked in 2019 with Esplanade and they planned a fantastic trip. The Esplanade team worked with us seamlessly over the years as we booked and Covid cancelled our trip at least 3 times. When we finally were able to travel in 2023, they had everything perfect. We were really expecting a lot of confusion due to the multiple bookings and cancellations, but Esplanade had everything perfect at every turn. The accommodations, excursions, transfers, etc. were all planned even better than we could have imagined. We highly recommend Esplanade Travel and will be using them again on our next adventure.

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