Ten winter-magic trips for families who love the cold

Some families are solar-powered; others come alive when the thermometer drops. For the second sort, winter is the main event — a season of huskies and headtorches, thermal suits and hot chocolate with actual purpose. Cold-weather trips also carry a particular sort of enchantment for children: snow rearranges the world into something new, and darkness at 3pm means the northern lights become a bedtime possibility. These ten trips run from the Arctic Circle to the Alps to French Canada, and each earns every layer of the packing list.

Rovaniemi sits directly on the Arctic Circle and takes its Santa responsibilities with Finnish seriousness: the man himself receives visitors daily in his village office, and the meeting — unhurried, multilingual, faintly magical — holds up even for sceptical eight-year-olds. Go in early December before the peak-week crush and prices, and book the Santa meeting photo package but skip the pricier extras. Reindeer sleigh rides and the Ranua wildlife park fill the daylight hours.

The moment the anchor lifts and the dogs fall silent and pull, most adults grin as helplessly as their children. Multi-hour husky safaris through frozen forest are the best single activity in Lapland — far better than the ten-minute taster loops sold as add-ons, which disappoint everyone including the dogs. Book a half-day trip from Levi, Saariselkä or Harriniva where children ride in the sled and adults take turns driving. Kennel visits afterwards seal it.

Tromsø sits under the auroral oval, which means the lights appear on most clear nights between September and March — the best odds a family can reasonably buy. Book at least three nights to hedge against cloud, and choose a small-group chase tour with a photographer guide who will produce the pictures your phone cannot. Daytimes fill themselves: the Fjellheisen cable car, the Arctic cathedral and Polaria's bearded seals at feeding time.

A postcard town on a frozen lake with a proper ski mountain rising straight behind it, Zell am See does alpine winter for the whole spectrum: gentle nursery slopes and superb ski schools, the Kitzsteinhorn glacier for snow-sure teenagers, plus tobogganing, ice skating on the lake in cold winters and horse-drawn sleigh rides for anyone opting out. Non-skiing days are the secret strength — few resorts offer this much to do off the piste.

The Dolomites do the most beautiful skiing in Europe, and Alta Badia's wide, sunny, confidence-building blues make it the ideal place for children to learn — while the Sellaronda circuit gives stronger skiers a legendary day out from the same lift pass. This is also the region where mountain lunch becomes the point of the sport: rifugios serve proper South Tyrolean cooking at sensible prices. Book ski school for the morning only and spend afternoons together.

Bled out of season is a different, quieter fairytale: mist on the water, snow on the island church and the castle floodlit above it all, at a fraction of summer prices. The traditional pletna boats still row to the island on fair days, there's sledging at Straža hill directly above town and the Vintgar Gorge's winter closure is the excuse to walk the lake perimeter instead — an easy, flat six kilometres with cream cake as the finish line.

For two-and-a-bit weeks from late January, Quebec City throws the world's biggest winter carnival: ice palaces, night parades, canoe races across the half-frozen St Lawrence and a giant snow bath undertaken by locals in swimwear. The old walled city looks like a snow globe year-round in winter, and the toboggan run beside the Château Frontenac has been terrifying families since 1884. Book accommodation months ahead — carnival weekends sell the city out.

In Jukkasjärvi, two hundred kilometres above the Arctic Circle, artists rebuild an entire hotel out of river ice every winter — and children can wander the sculpted art suites by day even if nobody fancies the minus-five bedrooms. The sensible family move is one night on ice and the rest in the warm chalets, with days filled by husky sleds, snowmobile trips and aurora hunts. December to March; the ice bar serves lingonberry juice in glasses made of ice.

Car-free Zermatt runs on electric taxis, horse-drawn sleighs and the most photographed mountain on Earth — the Matterhorn photobombs every family picture. The dedicated children's slopes at Wolli Park sit right by the Sunnegga funicular, the Gornergrat railway hauls non-skiers up to 3,089 metres for the view of a lifetime, and the igloo village above town does fondue evenings. It's Switzerland, so brace the budget — but January weekdays cost far less than the festive weeks.

Hallstatt under snow is the picture the word winter was coined for: pastel houses stacked between mountain and lake, a church spire, woodsmoke. Make it the show-stopping day trip of a Salzkammergut week — the funicular climbs to the Skywalk viewing platform, and the ancient salt-mine tours, wooden miners' slides included, delight over-fours when open. Base in nearby Obertraun or Bad Goisern for family apartments and gentler prices, and go midweek to dodge the coach crowds.