With Blue Monday landing next week and the festive season firmly behind us, Britons are hunting for holiday bookings to lift their spirits.
New data has pinpointed the best European city breaks for shaking off that winter exhaustion, with Valletta, Málaga and Valencia coming out on top.
To help travellers find restorative getaways, Viva Holidays scored popular destinations across six wellbeing factors: daylight hours, average temperature, walkability, happiness scores, population size and air quality.
Malta's capital Valletta claimed the top spot, offering nearly 10 and a half hours of daylight daily and temperatures hovering around 13°C. With a population of just 6,001, it's ideal for anyone seeking an intimate, crowd-free atmosphere. Visitors can wander through stunning baroque streets, take in St John's Co-Cathedral and soak up panoramic harbour views from the Upper Barrakka Gardens.
Valletta in Malta is great for some winter sun, with pleasant temperatures in January | GETTYTop 10 city breaks to beat the January blues
- Valletta
- Málaga
- Valencia
- Nice
- Seville
- Funchal
- Bordeaux
- Amsterdam
- Lisbon
- Ghent
Málaga landed second place, boasting over 10 hours of daylight and achieving a perfect walkability score of 100. Exploring the Alcazaba, popping into the Picasso Museum and finishing with tapas in the old town couldn't be easier.
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Valencia rounded out the top three, scoring highly for walkability and air quality. The city's Turia Gardens, City of Arts and Sciences and vibrant food scene around Ruzafa make it ideal for a relaxed reset.
Nice offers close to 10 hours of daylight and gentle winter sunshine, making it ideal for leisurely strolls along the Promenade des Anglais. Seville delivers that "escaped winter" feeling with over 10 hours of daylight and a perfect walkability score, plus the Alcázar and a sunset wander through Plaza de España.
For those chasing warmth above all else, Funchal in Madeira stands out with the highest average January temperature at 17°C, along with excellent air quality and plenty of coastal scenery.
Valencia rounded out the top three, scoring well for walkability and air quality
| GETTYBordeaux appeals to food lovers who'd rather savour simple pleasures than tick off tourist attractions, while Amsterdam proves you don't need warm weather for a winter reset – its near-perfect walkability and cosy café culture make it a year-round favourite.
Lisbon offers over 10 hours of daylight and some of the cleanest air on the list, while Ghent boasts the lowest air pollution reading of all 10 destinations at just 2.6 µg/m³.
Director at Viva Holidays, Shubhang Gupta, said: "January in the UK can feel like a slog of a month - it's cold, daylight is limited, and many people feel mentally and physically drained after the Christmas period. A short city break can work as a genuine reset because it changes your environment, gets you moving, and for many destinations, gives you more daylight than you're getting at home."
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