<\/p>\n

Is there any worse feeling in the world than coming up to the end of the year and realizing the number of vacation days\/personal days you have left outnumbers the number of days left in the year? These are days your employer is literally paying you not to come into work and to instead enjoy life and capitalize on the very reason you spend all those days in the office in the first place. This is not something you want to treat casually.<\/p>\n

Do not make this mistake, and before it gets too late to do anything about it and you realize that you may end up\u00a0spending a couple of those free days in late December in a Ben and Jerry’s-induced Netflix binge of The Killing<\/em> (always an uplifting way to ring in the new year), start exploring the idea of hitting the road for the holidays.<\/p>\n

Not only are there festivals and celebrations around the world, especially on New Year’s, but it’s a great time to reward yourself for a year of hard work and to reflect on where you want things to go in the future, and nothing is better for this than travel.<\/p>\n

For a few ideas on where to jet off to at the end of 2014, check our Contiki’s offerings of “End of Year”\/Holiday trips<\/a>\u00a0which are sure to make you reconsider staying at home around the holidays, including a trip to Sydney to experience one of the largest New Year’s celebrations in the world, a 14-day offering around Spain (literally) or a visit to Edinburgh’s famed Hogmanay celebration (Hogmanay, a Scots word meaning, “The Last Day of the Year”).<\/p>\n

Not that Australia in the middle of their summer, or Spain any time of the year, aren’t both appealing options, but\u00a0Hogmanay<\/a> has always been of particular interest to me, and not because it sounds suspiciously close to Hogsmeade.<\/p>\n

It’s actually one of the largest New Year’s celebrations in the world, and one of the most unique.\u00a0Beginning on December 30, this Scottish city kicks things off with a torchlight procession, an event involving over 35,000 people, open flames and what appears to be bearded men dressed as vikings. What better way to get your New Year’s festivities under way?<\/p>\n

Then the next day, on\u00a0the 31st, the action moves to the center of the city where 80,000 people party it up at the Concert in the Gardens (featuring Lily Allen this year<\/a>), along with other live music performances, DJ’s, outdoor bars and one of the world’s largest fireworks shows flanked by the city’s castle ramparts. Of course, everyone then wakes up the next morning and runs into the river<\/a>, because, why not?<\/p>\n

Can you think of a better succession of activities to enjoy New Year’s than these?<\/p>\n