One of my bucket list items is to celebrate New Year’s Eve twice in once night, a feat that may sound impossible. However, if you are strategic, you can travel between time zones and relive New Years. The trick is picking two places with a large time zone difference but a short geographical distance between them. Surprisingly, there are many different options and below I will discuss a few.
New Zealand to Hawaii
Auckland, New Zealand is 23 hours ahead of Honolulu, Hawaii and the shortest flight time between them is 8.5 hours. This means you can celebrate New Years in Auckland and then on January 1st, fly 8.5 hours to Honolulu and due to the time difference could land back on 31st December.
Australia to USA
Similarly with the example above, using the large time difference between the Northern and Southern hemisphere. In this case, Sydney is 19 hours ahead of LA and with the quickest flight time of 13 hours. This gives 6 hours spare to use to celebrate NYE twice.
Japan to USA
This next one again involves the United States, this time Anchorage, Alaska. Tokyo is 18 hours ahead of Anchorage with the shortest flight time of 14 hours. This once is a twice squeeze as leaves only 4 hours spare.
Samoa to American Samoa
Samoa and American Samoa are only a 40-minute flight apart but have a large 24-hour time difference. This gives plenty of time to travel and allows for variables out of your control like flight delays.
Japan to Hawaii
Honolulu is a great place to celebrate New Year’s for a second time due to them being on the last to celebrate New Years. Honolulu is 19 hours behind Japan and only a 7-hour flight giving 11 hours spare to get to your next NYE celebration.
Spain to Portugal
This one is very convenient and doesn’t involve flying at all, in fact it is only a 20-minute drive between border towns Extremadura, Spain and Alentejo, Portugal. Spain is an hour ahead of Portugal giving you time to cross the border and celebrate again.
Sweden to Finland
Another short distance away is the border towns of Tornio, Finland and Haparanda, Sweden which are only a 20-minute walk away or a 5-minute drive. Finland is an hour ahead of Sweden making it a simple risk-free place to celebrate NYE twice. These places are both very northern so likely to be very cold and possibly snowy.
Australia to Australia
This last one you don’t have to even change countries due to Australia having different time zones. For most of the year these Coolangatta and Tweed Heads have the same time zone, however, due to Tweed Heads clocks going forward due to daylight saving and Coolangatta not changing, during winter months, Tweed Heads is one hour ahead. These two places are only a 26-minute walk or 4-minute drive apart so an easy way to spend NYE twice.