Best places to visit in January: 5 warm trips from the US
Five warm places to visit in January from the US, with one-way fares from $144 (Miami to Costa Rica), departure dates, January holidays and travel advice.
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Best places to visit in January by lowest fare from US hubsWhat holidays fall in January 2027 at these destinations?What about January weather?What do official sources say about travel advice and health notices?How we checkedAmong the best places to visit in January from the US, Costa Rica had the lowest cached fare we found: $144 one-way from Miami to San Jose on January 9, 2027. San Juan, Honolulu and Cancun all came in under $180 one-way, and Bangkok was $320 from Los Angeles.
Every price here is a one-way cached traveler fare in US dollars, per person, for departures in January 2027. We checked them on October 31, 2026, from three US airports: JFK for the East Coast, Miami for Florida and the Caribbean, and LAX for the West Coast. "Price last seen" is the day a traveler's search found that fare. It is not a live quote, and the price at checkout is the one that counts.
Best places to visit in January by lowest fare from US hubs
Costa Rica from Miami was cheapest at $144 on avianca, with one stop, departing Saturday, January 9, 2027. New York to San Juan on jetBlue was next at $167 for Saturday, January 2.
Cached traveler fares, checked October 31, 2026
| Destination | Route | Departs | One-way | Airline | Stops | Price last seen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Rica (San Jose) | MIA to SJO | Sat, Jan 9, 2027 | $144 | avianca | 1 stop | October 28, 2026 |
| Puerto Rico (San Juan) | JFK to SJU | Sat, Jan 2, 2027 | $167 | jetBlue | 1 stop | October 28, 2026 |
| Hawaii (Honolulu) | LAX to HNL | Tue, Jan 12, 2027 | $176 | Alaska Airlines | Nonstop | October 31, 2026 |
| Mexico (Cancun) | JFK to CUN | Sat, Jan 23, 2027 | $179 | American Airlines | 1 stop | October 28, 2026 |
| Thailand (Bangkok) | LAX to BKK | Wed, Jan 20, 2027 | $320 | Air Premia | 1 stop | October 30, 2026 |
The second cheapest date on each route was close behind. Miami to San Jose was $150 on Frontier for Friday, January 1. Los Angeles to Honolulu was $187 on American for Tuesday, January 5. New York to Cancun was $194 for Saturday, January 2, and Los Angeles to Bangkok was $362 on China Southern for January 3.
Traveler threads on Reddit keep asking the same things about January: which warm trip is cheap, which needs the shortest flight, and whether Thailand's dry season is worth the longer haul. On these fares, Thailand costs about twice as much one-way as the other four. Entry rules depend on your passport, so check the destination's official entry page before you book.
For how fares moved a month earlier on some of the same routes, see our post on cheap flights in November.
What holidays fall in January 2027 at these destinations?
Puerto Rico has the most public holidays in January 2027 of the five, with four. The national calendars list these:
- Puerto Rico: New Year's Day (Friday, January 1), Three Kings Day or Epiphany (January 6), the Birthday of Eugenio María de Hostos (Monday, January 11) and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Monday, January 18).
- Hawaii (United States): New Year's Day (Friday, January 1) and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Monday, January 18).
- Mexico and Costa Rica: New Year's Day (Friday, January 1) only.
- Thailand: no public holiday listed for January 2027.
If you fly to San Juan on January 2, you land between New Year's Day and Three Kings Day.
What about January weather?
We could not check it yet. The weather forecast we use runs about 10 days ahead, so on October 31 it only reached early November. Check the forecast for your city a week or so before you leave.
What do official sources say about travel advice and health notices?
For US travelers, the CDC has two notices that touch this list, checked October 31, 2026. It has a level 1 notice for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in Mexico and a level 2 notice for Chikungunya in Costa Rica. The US State Department advisory did not answer when we checked.
The UK and Canada write their advice for their own citizens, and it does not apply to travelers from the US. For reference, the UK Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to parts of Mexico (updated October 20, 2026) and to parts of Thailand (updated October 12, 2026). Canada says to exercise a high degree of caution, with regional advisories, in Mexico (updated October 23, 2026) and Thailand (updated October 13, 2026), and a high degree of caution in Costa Rica (updated October 14, 2026). For Puerto Rico and the United States, Canada says to exercise normal security precautions, and the UK has no advice against travel for the US or for Costa Rica.
UK advice contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Canadian advice contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence, Canada.
How we checked
On October 31, 2026, Divux searched its cache of fares that travelers found on booking sites, for one-way departures in January 2027 from JFK, Miami and Los Angeles. We kept the cheapest fare per route, plus the next cheapest date. Holidays come from public holiday calendars for January 2027, and the advice and health notices from the UK, Canadian and CDC pages linked above, all checked the same day. The flights page has booking links for these routes.
To compare January fares from your own airport, add mcp.divux.si to any AI agent that supports MCP, like Claude, ChatGPT, Grok or Muse.
