Lake Bled, Slovenia
Perhaps you wouldn’t think it at first, but Slovenia is a great getaway, ideal for New Year with superb scenery, many excellent restaurants and hotels, as well as a brilliant and bizarre street-party at midnight on December 31st.
The town of Bled lies on the shore of its namesake lake, with epic views of the medieval castle perched on a cliff high above, just like something out of a fairytale. Although Bled itself has a hideous 1970’s reinforced concrete shopping centre deposited right at its heart (a monument to its Yugoslav past), if you stick close by the lakeside, you would think nothing could spoil the pristine surroundings.
Hotels are mainly cheap and excellent value, with my personal recommendation going to the Garni Hotel Berc, run by the charming Luka and his family, which is just a short walk from the centre of town. There are several brilliant nearby restaurants, including the old favourite haunts of both Linda and Paul McCartney. Slightly further afield, it is only a relatively brief drive to the town of Kranjska Gora, nestled at the foot of the Julian Alps, which offers several opportunities for skiing, coupled with the majestic beauty of the Triglav National Park.
But the highlight must be New Year itself, when the entire population of Bled traipses down to the lakeside Christmas market, and begin to spontaneously set off mountains of fireworks in every direction, dance to the music and generally be merry. When New Year did arrive, there was no "Auld Lang Syne", but instead the "Blue Danube Waltz", where everyone suddenly broke into partners and began a giant ballroom-style dance along the shore. It was genuinely quite surreal.
Therefore it was with some curiosity afterward that the locals examined our party holding hands and singing "should auld acquaintance be forgot…"