Candyce H. Stapen

Movies, sentimental Christmas cards and television specials capture our holiday-with-extended-family fantasies. Thoughtful relatives, cheerful décor, cozy spare bedrooms and interesting elders populate those scenes. But 

, a company whose app makes it easy to book last-minute hotel rooms, knows the truth.

HotelTonight’s survey of 2,000 adults conducted by Harris Poll, found out what exactly annoys adult children about their parents and vice versa. Think nosey questions and comments about appearance on one side versus being glued to their smartphones and not cleaning up on the other.

“I love my family, but over the years, I’ve had to endure a great aunt who insists on kissing me on the lips with bright red lipstick, and singing Bible hymns by the piano in an alcohol-free home, which is a challenge for me as I only sing loud after a few glasses of wine,” says Sam Shank, HotelTonight co-founder and CEO. “Inspired by our own holiday family grievances, we came up with the idea to Visit, not Stay.”

Obviously, a hotel booking site would promote hotel stays. But, if your budget can handle a hotel room, then what you lose in holiday decor and easy access to leftovers, just might be exceeded by the gains in peace of mind and happier time- limited encounters at the homestead.

Whether or not there’s a hotel room for the holidays in your future, adult kids and their parents can use this list (post on the refrigerator?) to avoid sore topics and sloppy behavior.

HotelTonight’s Home for the Holidays Pet Peeves

Adult kids rank their parents’ most annoying behaviors

3. Ask personal questions about my love life.

Click to the next page for parents' opinions on their children's annoying behaviors

Parents rank their adult kids’ most annoying behaviors

1. Spend too much time on their smartphones.

3. Don’t pitch in with chores and cooking.

5. Don’t share information about their personal lives.

Do parents allow adult children to sleep in the same room as their significant other? Adult children responded:

66 percent said parents would allow this if they were married (So 34 percent of parents won’t let their married children sleep together when visiting?)

29 percent said parents would allow if the visiting adult children were not married, but were living together

28 percent said parents would allow if the visiting adult children were not married or living together

7 percent say their parents would never let them sleep in same room with significant other

It’s weird if your old bedroom has morphed into a man cave or your mom’s craft center, and maybe weirder still if your bedroom remains a shrine to your high school years, complete with prom photos, rock posters and hockey sticks.

19 percent of parents say they have converted their adult kids’ bedrooms into a new space.

22 percent of parents have left the rooms mostly the same.

Adult children may have outgrown home-cooking, but don’t like to admit it.

64 percent said they liked their parents’ cooking, but 36 percent wouldn’t commit to liking it, even in an anonymous survey. 

Articles

A HotelTonight survey reveals the grating behaviors that aggravate parents and their adult children while visiting for the holidays. Use this information as a method of keeping the peace this holiday season.

The Most Annoying Home-for-the-Holidays Behaviors

Turks and Caicos. Image Source: Candyce H. Stapen

Among the many glorious Caribbean beaches, three stand out. All deliver the classic island fantasy of sugar-white sands and turquoise waters, but each stretch of idyllic coast delivers a different vibe. In Puerto Rico, Culebra’s best beach is Flamenco, part of a public park. Jamaica’s Negril offers Seven Mile Beach, home to adult and family resorts as well as nightlife, and Turks and Caicos’ Grace Bay Beach, recently rated the number one beach in the world, has a marine park offshore. Follow this primer for a prime Caribbean beach getaway.

Caribbean Getaways: Great Places to Stay in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands

, one of Puerto Rico’s offshore islands is a jewel. The nearly mile-long, horseshoe curve of wide sands takes its name from the pink flamingos that once nested in the nearby lagoon. The beach frequently rates as one of the Caribbean’s and the U.S.’s top strands. Sea grape trees and mangroves frame the beach and the modest waves lap the shore. This is the place for splashing, building sandcastles and strolling. Concessionaires sell soft drinks and snacks and also rent chairs and shade umbrellas. Part of a public park, Flamenco Beach has overnight camping, a rarity in the Caribbean.  Best of all, the sites are so close to the sea that you can fall asleep to the sound of breaking surf. Small, boutique properties prevail on Culebra, which can be reached by commuter flights from San Juan or by flights or ferry from Fajardo.

, on Jamaica’s west end, lures visitors with calm, clear waters and seven miles of golden sand, aptly called Seven Mile Beach.  More laid back than Montego Bay or Coho Rios, Negril still has plenty to do. Concessionaires offer jet skiing, parasailing, snorkeling and other watersports. Strolling along the water’s edge is fun, but be aware that in Negril family resorts are interspersed with clothing-optional beaches so that if you take a beach stroll with your kids they may get to see more than you’d like them to. 

, a popular all-inclusive family resort, is a bustling property with a mega-waterpark and supervised children’s programs. 

 rates high for understated luxury and good food, but the property, overlooking the Negril Cliffs, lacks a good beach.

Image Source: Beach Resorts Turks and Caicos

Providenciales, affectionately called “Provo,” is the main tourist island of the Turks and Caicos chain. Grace Bay Beach with its 12 miles of white sands is the big draw. In TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards 2016, Grace Bay Beach rated as the number-one beach in the world.  Despite development in recent years, Provo still charms. Provo is also noted for its restaurants as well as for the Princess Alexandra Marine National Park. Off-shore from Grace Bay Beach, divers and snorkelers find teeming reefs. 

 offers condos (villas) for rent and also hotel rooms. All-inclusive 

, a sprawling resort, features children’s and teens programs, a waterpark, and multiple restaurants.  

Each of these beaches checks the boxes of sprawling sands, turquoise waters and a peaceful setting. Use this overview to pick the Caribbean getaway that suits you best.

Find Relaxation on these 3 Fabulous Caribbean Beaches

You won’t go wrong with the gift of a trip this holiday season. The promise of a vacation in the New Year is one of the few presents that won’t get returned or shoved in the back of a closet. To inspire us, travel companies such as 

 issue best-of lists that showcase destinations to consider for 2017. Think about venturing to the last Inca stronghold in Peru, a remote New Zealand beach, or a spot in Chilean Patagonia that combines glaciers and craft beer.

Those places are just some of the off-beat, top regions selected for 2017 by the editors and authors of Lonely Planet, a publishing company and website. The regions are “offbeat destinations demanding our attention.” The reasons include a boom in creative restaurants, a special mix of outdoor activities, a new attraction, or better access in 2017 that caught the attention of the site. Gorgeous scenery too adds to the allure. Consider these interesting places when dreaming of travel in 2017.

TripAdvisor’s Top 5 Travel Destinations for 2017

Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2017 Top Regions 

Choquequirao, the last Inca refuge from the conquistadors, is Peru’s lesser-known “lost city.” A cable car that cuts access to the site to 15 minutes is planned to open in 2017. The hardy can arrive after a four-day trek.

Remote Taranaki lies halfway between Auckland and Wellington. Black-sand beaches, good surfing and a “magnificent” one-day hiking trail in Egmont National Park add to the allure.

With a 31 percent increase in tourism in the last year, the Azores are on the rise.  The destination features volcanoes, medieval villages, hot springs and cliffs.

The former mining area reinvents itself by turning factories and quarries into soft adventure sites. You can surf the world’s longest man-made waves; glide on the fastest zip line and bounce on trampolines in caverns.

The region blooms with vineyards, outback countryside, and crowd-free beaches. The Queen Mary 2 will be docking in Adelaide and Kangaroo Island in 2017.

Fjords, rainforests, plains and glaciers delight outdoor enthusiasts as does the burgeoning craft beer scene.

Coral islets, sandbars and some of the best diving anywhere mark the Tuamotus, where live-aboard diving is launching in 2017.

Georgia’s barrier islands combine beaches with saltwater marshes. Kayaking, paddle-boarding and beachcombing are popular.

Nature tour operators lead tours to the region’s cliffs, beaches, mangrove swamps and jungles plus interesting cafes and shops are bubbling up.

Waves pound the Skellig Ring, a stretch of wild coastline in Ireland. Skellig Michael appeared in the Star Wars’ movie The Force Awakens and plays a bigger part in the upcoming sequel.   

Think about venturing to the last Inca stronghold in Peru, a remote New Zealand beach, or a spot in Chilean Patagonia that combines glaciers and craft beer.

Lonely Planet's Top Travel Regions for 2017

Image Source: Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort

A voucher for a vacation in the New Year is always a welcome present. To feed your wanderlust and inspire your travel gift-giving this holiday season, travel magazines and sites post “best of” lists, crowning select destinations as the hot places to visit in 2017. 

 recently rolled out their choices for worldwide destinations on the rise.

The lists get you thinking about places as diverse as South Australia; North Wales, UK; San Jose del Cabo, Mexico; and Whistler, Canada. Later this week, we’ll detail Lonely Planet’s top up-and-coming destinations. But for now, here are TripAdvisor’s top five recommendations.

Destinations on the Rise: TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards 

TripAdvisor uses empirical data to pick its Travelers’ Choice awards. The locales chosen are “the places around the globe that have seen the biggest year-over-year increase in positive TripAdvisor traveler review ratings for accommodations, restaurants, and attractions, as well as an increase in booking interest.”

More low-key than its bustling spring break destination Cabo San Lucas to the south, San Jose del Cabo is a traditional Spanish colonial city of on the Sea of Cortes. The town, easy to visit on a day trip from Cabo San Lucas, features artists’ shops, boutiques, galleries and some restaurants and hotels.

Whistler Blackcomb is big. The two mountains joined by a gondola feature a whopping 8,171-acres, making the resort North America’s largest. The destination features excellent snow sports instruction, a variety of lodging, and if you want an active mountain summer spot, Whistler Blackcomb offers hiking, mountain biking, whitewater rafting and ziplining. 

Located about 186 miles west of Fortaleza, Jericoacoara, or “Jeri,” draws windsurfers and kitesurfers as well as beach lovers. Crowds stay away since access to the area requires driving over unpaved roads through a national park.

Kihei, on Maui’s South Shore, is more laid back than Wailea. Along with smaller hotels than those in Wailea, the town has condominium properties and three terrific beach parks a few blocks from each other: Kamaole I, Kamaole II, and Kamaole III. All feature bathrooms, lifeguards, good swimming and grassy areas shaded by trees.

TripAdvisor’s travelers praise Baku’s vibrant arts and cultural activities as well as its old city. Mosques, shops and two UNESCO World Heritage sites—the Palace of the Shirvanshas and the Maiden Tower--line the ancient, winding streets. 

Vacation locales across the globe that rank among TripAdvisor's top choices for the New Year. Later this week, we'll take a look at Lonely Planet's top picks.

TripAdvisor's Top 5 Travel Destinations for 2017

Food is an essential part of any vacation. More and more trips, including adventure tours, are adding special food events. Some 71% of adventure travel itineraries have an experiential food focus, according to a recent survey of the Adventure Travel Trade Association. Many sightseeing tours now deliver a region’s highlights while also delving into the region’s soul by featuring the area’s food and drink.  

Bike through Belgium and pedal your way to pubs and breweries; enjoy the Andean scenery and its culture by sipping wines in Mendoza; discover the iconic settings of Moscow and St. Petersburg plus Russian cuisine; tour Peru’s treasures and sample its food; and get a taste of Thailand’s temples and its markets. These 5 trips not only deliver a destination’s sites but its flavors as well.

Pedal Belgium’s flatlands and rolling hills, pausing to tour breweries and sample some of the country’s 1,130 beers at local pubs, breweries, and ancient abbeys. Cycle an average of 41 miles daily on the Ciclismo Classico trip. Van support is available. 9 days/8 nights.

Argentina is the fifth largest wine producer in the world. This trip focuses on the Mendoza region, home to 80% of Argentina’s wine production. Along with fine wine, Mendoza, in the foothills of the Andes, delivers spectacular scenery. You lunch in vineyards, tour towns, and visit wineries. Frontiers Elegant Journeys.

Chronicle of Russian Cuisine and Culture 

Eat your way through Moscow and St. Petersburg as you take in the sites. Discover Russian cuisine that goes beyond borscht and blinis. Enjoy a tour and tasting at the Cristall Vodka Museum, browse food stores, sip tea at a tea house, take a cooking class taught by a noted St. Petersburg chef, and dine at a dacha. Mir Corporation. 10 days/9 nights.

Visit Lima, Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu while savoring the region’s traditional as well as Novoandina cuisine that presents traditional ingredients using modern techniques and food concepts. Browse local markets, participate in cooking classes, and dine in foodie restaurants as well as explore cities and the famous ruins. Adventure Life. 8 days/7 nights.

Explore Bangkok and Chiang Mai by visiting temples, palaces and mountain villages as well as restaurants and markets. Browse the large Mahachai fish market, learn Thai cooking techniques at a hands-on class at a cooking school, and shop for vegetables, meat and fish at a local market so that you can prepare your own meal. Adventure Life. 7 days/8 nights.

More and more trips, including adventure tours, are adding special food events. Here are 5 that are sure to please.

Trips That Come With a Taste of Adventure

No US airlines made it into the list of the 10 best world airlines compiled by Skytrax, a respected researcher and tracker of airline and airport performance. I am sure that didn’t surprise anyone. Emirates ranked as the number one airline in the world and Qatar Airways came in at number two.

To determine rankings in diverse categories as well as to compile overall ratings, Skytrax analyzed 13.25 million airport survey questionnaires completed by 106 different nationalities of airline customers.

The ratings prove most useful when you have a choice of carriers and airports. Most of the time, I confess, I focus on cost, booking the best deal, and sometimes enduring a long layover to save many hundreds of dollars. Still, it’s wise to know the highly rated carriers so that when you have a choice, you can make a good decision. And if anyone is gifting you airline tickets, the following are the top carriers to book.

Skytrax’s World’s Best Economy Class Airlines 2016

Skytrax’s World’s Best Economy Class Airline Seats 2016

Yet again, no US airlines made this list.

Skytrax’s World’s Best Premium Economy Class Airlines 2016

Skytrax’s World’s Best Premium Economy Class Seats 2016

The best seats overwhelmingly belong to the best carriers. Some move up or down a notch. For example, Lufthansa, number three overall for premium economy service, ranked as number two for airline seats and Qantas, number two for overall for premium economy, rated number four for premium economy seats.

Skytrax’s World’s Best Business Class Airlines 2016

You won’t be sitting in a US carrier’s plane if you want a top 10 ranked business class seat, unless the US airline has a code share arrangement with one of the following best airlines. When applicable, check out the code share arrangement for the flight you are considering.

Look Before You Book: The World's Best Airlines

More than 100.5 million people plan to travel at least 30 miles from home for New Year’s Eve, according to 

, the personal finance website. If you’re wondering where to celebrate 2017, WalletHub rates Orlando, FLA, as the best destination, and North Las Vegas, NV, as the worst.

Some of the other top picks might surprise you: Buffalo, NY, ranks at number 5, and Pittsburgh, PA, comes in at number 9, narrowly beating Las Vegas, which holds the number 10 spot.

WalletHub’s study analyzed the 100 most populated cities in the US according to 20 criteria, including the legality of fireworks, number of nightlife options, restaurant meal costs, lowest price for a three-star hotel, walkability, and traffic congestion.

Toasting 2017 doesn’t have to break the budget. The vast majority of consumers—83 percent&mdash;spend $200 or less on festivities. WalletHub’s findings and fun facts may help you pick a place for your New Year’s getaway or the list may convince you to celebrate at home.

Click to the next page to see the Best US Cities for New Year's Eve in 2016

1. Orlando, FL, ranks as the top spot with a 76.96 score out of a possible 100.

Click to the next page to see the Worst US Cities for New Year's Eve in 2016

WalletHub’s Worst US Cities for New Year’s Eve 2016 

1. North Las Vegas, NV, ranks worst with a 27.94 out of a 100

2. Newark, NJ, ranks second worst with a 38.46

WalletHub’s Cities with the Lowest Average Wine Price

4. Phoenix, Mesa and Chandler, AZ, tied for fourth place.       

WalletHub’s Cities with the Highest Average Wine Price

1. North Las Vegas, Henderson and Las Vegas, NV, tied for first place

 plus is the average cost for a couple to enjoy a New Year’s Eve dinner and show in New York City, the most expensive city for the dinner and show combination.

 is the dinner plus show average in Washington, DC, the least costly city for a dinner and show.

 of all charitable donations are made in the final 48 hours of the year.

 of Americans plan to kiss someone at midnight.

 are the average number of births on September 23, 9 months after New Year’s Eve, compared to 7,792 average births on New Year’s Day.

WalletHub used several indicators, including the nightlife options, legality of fireworks, and restaurant meal costs to come up with this ranking of US cities. Some might surprise you.

America's Best and Worst Places for New Year's Eve Celebrations

Eye candy for the Christmas season makes December merry and bright. At Oglebay, West Virginia, the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain, near Tucson, the Fairmont Scottsdale Resort, Scottsdale, and at 4 Gaylord Hotels, take in the festivities by admiring elaborately decorated trees, driving through landscapes popping with animated light displays, walking through ice sculpture wonderlands, and by dining in a real gingerbread house.

Dazzling Light Displays Deliver Holiday Spirit

The hillsides bloom with millions of lights at Oglebay Resort, Wheeling. During the Festival of Lights, drive through 6 miles of fanciful displays, many of them animated. Enter light tunnels, see marching toy soldiers, rocking horses, fierce dinosaurs, a leaping frog at the lake, and at the Good Zoo, watch 40,000 lights choreographed to music. The display, now celebrating its 30

 season, rates as one of the US’s top holiday light events.

This may be the only place you can dine inside a real gingerbread house. Constructed around a wooden frame covered with thousands of ginger bricks, the 20-foot tall house set in the lobby comes with a working fireplace and a table for 6 that can be booked for $250 for lunch, $300 for dinner, and $400 per seating for December 24 and 25, plus the cost of the meal. If that feels like too much dough, then just admire the structure, whose recipe calls for 350 pounds of flour, 250 eggs, 856 pounds of sugar, 100 pounds of ginger powder, 10 pounds of nutmeg, 50 pounds of cinnamon, and 400 pounds of honey.

Larger-than-life ice sculptures fashion whimsical wonderlands at ICE! the holiday extravaganza at 4 Gaylord Hotels. Crafted by artisans from Harbin, China, where ice sculpting is a long tradition, the roomfuls of glistening scenes create a holiday fantasy you walk through. You and your kids can also glide down the ice slides and ice skate at most ICE! locations. Gaylord National Resort, National Harbor, Maryland, presents Christmas Around the World; Gaylord Opryland Resort, Nashville, Tennessee, stages Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer; Gaylord Palms, Kissimmee, Florida, features A Charlie Brown Christmas; and the Gaylord Texan, Grapevine, Texas, showcases Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town. 

Image Source: Fairmont Scottsdale Princess

Three million lights add dazzle to the upscale Fairmont Scottsdale Resort & Spa, an AAA Five Diamond resort. The Princess Express train carries guests to Lagoon Lights, displays of pirate ships, mermaids and the Loch Ness monster mounted in the resort’s lagoon. The property’s Christmas tree, strung with 70,000 lights, “dances” to musical tunes and you can glide across the resort’s 6,000-square foot ice skating rink. To celebrate Hanukah, the resort will add a 25-foot menorah.

Admire elaborately decorated trees, drive through landscapes popping with animated light displays and walk through ice sculpture wonderlands.

Resorts to Light Up the Season

There’s nothing like millions of twinkling lights to add sparkle to December, a month known to be cold and dreary in much of the US. Dancing tress, laser light shows, prancing reindeer (mechanical and real), musical performances, plus hot chocolate and hand-crafted trinkets go a long way to engendering a good-will-to-all spirit, even if you don’t celebrate Christmas. These easy-to-navigate theme parks and zoos provide plenty of holiday dazzle for you and your family.

Explore Yellowstone National Park in Winter

Four million twinkling lights, and rides on 5 coasters at Hersheypark’s Christmas Candylane make the season merry and bright. Add 9 real reindeer to pet, Santa Claus, and his misses to chat with (at breakfast or lunch), ice skating, a nightly light show plus 2 miles of illuminated animal displays to drive through at nearby Hershey Sweet Lights, and you have a holiday outing as satisfyingly pleasing as a chocolate kiss. Through January 1, 2017.

Christmas trees decked out with lights that “dance” to original compositions composed by University of North Carolina School of the Arts’ Music Technology students are just one of the highlights of Tanglewood’s million-light program. You can hop aboard a tractor-pulled hayride or sit Cinderella-like in a white carriage drawn by a Percheron horse. To get a fast start to the New Year, run a midnight race through the Festival of Lights on December 31. Tanglewood Park is about 12 miles from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Through January 1, 2017.

You never know what animals will “appear” at the National Zoo’s annual holiday party. Bears, anteaters, horses, toucans, elephants, and a wolf howling at the moon took shape in lights at previous festivals. You can also see real apes, reptiles and other critters at the animal houses that remain open during the evening celebrations. Powered by Pepco, ZooLights blazes with 500,000 lights. Families can dance to live music, get photos with Panda Claws and slide down Lion/Tiger Hill on 150-foot long faux snow slide. Free. Through January 1, 2017.

Christmas Town, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, comes alive with 8 million lights, making it one of the largest light displays in North America. Rudolph appears this year for photos and world-champion figure skater Elvis Stojko takes center stage in the ice show. Thrill rides Verbolten, an indoor/outdoor coaster, and Tempesto, which inverts riders 154-feet, elicit happy screams from big kids while Prince Elmo’s Spire, a small drop ride, and Grover’s Alpine Express, a mini-coaster, make little ones yell for joy. Admire the 50-foot Christmas and take time to pet the postcard-pretty Clydesdales. Select days through January 2, 2017.

Ride the Toyland Express train, stroll by the gingerbread village, watch a puppet show, eat stickfuls of marshmallows and chocolate at S’Mores-N-More and admire the park’s 2 million synchronized lights reflected in the lakeside light show. On Dec. 31, you can take part in the zoo’s kid-friendly Happy ZOO Year celebration, complete with puppet shows, fireworks and an early 8:55 pm countdown. Through January 1, 2017.

These easy-to-navigate theme parks and zoos provide plenty of holiday dazzle for you and your family.

Blanketed by snow, Yellowstone National Park exudes a mythical beauty. In winter, the crowds that make Yellowstone the fourth most visited National Park are gone, but the wildlife and the world-famous geysers, as well as the bubbling mudpots, hissing fumaroles (steam vents), and hot springs remain. Minus summer’s visitor throngs, Yellowstone’s canyon, woods, wildlife, and hydrothermal forces seem even more wondrous. In winter, it’s also easier to spot animals because they gather in the lower elevations where the conditions are less harsh.

The contrast between the snow and the gray-white steam of the geysers creates a heightened sense of the Earth’s powerful forces, especially when you are among the relatively few visitors.  In winter when Old Faithful, the geyser that regularly shoots sprays of water more than 100 feet in the air, erupts, the near-boiling water hits the chilly air forming “geyser rain.” Watch as these small, ice-like pellets fall to the ground.

Yellowstone offers miles of trails that lead past icicle-laced woods, steaming hot springs and snow-packed meadows. You won’t soon forget gliding within sight of a bison herd or striding near elk tracks. You can learn about the wildlife and the winter ecology on naturalist guided snowshoe and cross-country tours. These are available through most of February.

In winter, balls of snow dangle from the bison’s shaggy coats and the beasts’ breath hangs in the frigid air like fire, making the formidable animals look even more impressive.

Yellowstone, with at least 99 wolves living in 10 packs, rates as one of best places in the world to see these animals. Although wolves roam throughout Yellowstone, Lamar Valley and the Northern Range’s open vistas provide good viewing. The contrast between the wolves’ thick gray or black coats and the snow-covered meadows and hillsides make spotting the wolves easier than in summer.

On this Snowcoach tour, look for birds as well as bison and other mammals along the 7-mile route near the Madison River. Dates: Dec. 17, 2016-Feb. 26, 2017.

:  Stay warm in your Snowcoach as you follow the Firestone River in search of bison, mule deer, and trumpeter swans. Dates: Dec. 17, 2016-Feb. 26, 2017.

: The driver takes you to some great spots for animal viewing and scenic photographs while the guide offers tips on getting the best winter images. Dates: Dec. 19, 2016-Feb. 24, 2017.

: Ski or snowshoe a 5-mile loop on a guided tour that follows the Firehole River through woods and meadows to Lone Star Geyser. You might see trumpeter swans and bison. Dates: Dec. 19, 2016-Feb. 24, 2017.

: From Old Faithful Snow Lodge, snowshoe through forests and along the Firehole River. Look for owls and other birds as well as bison and elk as you explore the backcountry. Dates: Dec. 16, 2016-Feb. 26, 2017.

Spend 4 days looking at and learning about wolves with this program operated by Yellowstone Forever. Dates: Dec. 26, 2016-Feb. 20, 2017.

Wildlife Watching on the Northern Range: 

Hike, snowshoe, or ski through the northern range as Yellowstone Forever’s naturalists teach you about and search for elk, bison, fox, and moose. Dates: Through March 31, 2017.

Mush your own dog sled team across frozen expanses near Yellowstone National Park. Several private outfitters provide trips, including West Yellowstone Dog Sledding and Klondike Dreams.

Winter is a fantastic time to visit Yellowstone National Park. The snow makes for a great backdrop for wildlife and landscape photography. You also won't have to compete with crowds for the vistas.