On the last day of 2019 I was looking through Couchsurfing events in Milan… and here’s a weird idea from a crazy guy: to leave from Milan, celebrate New Year’s Eve in Spain, then cross the border and to celebrate once again in Portugal, that is an hour before! Here it is how to party New Year’s Eve twice.

I don’t know what these guys did in the end – hopefully twice drunk! 🙂 – but this is another thing I never thought about before, but quite juicy for travellers… Therefore, I decided to find out these interesting “New Year’s party twins”…

1. Badajoz (Spain) -> Elvas (Portugal)

If you are strolling in the streets of Badajoz, nice city between Madrid and Seville with Roman and Islamic heritage, you can celebrate New Year’s Eve counting your 12 grapes according to Spanish tradition, take your car, and in half an hour you reach Elvas, the closest city in Portugal. Here you are one hour before and you can celebrate once again, remember not to miss to visit the Walls and the Fortress, built to protect Elvas from nasty people coming from Spain like you!

2. Karesuvanto (Finland) -> Karesuando (Sweden)

Here’s an option only for brave travellers who love cold temperatures! It is very easy to party twice if you are close to the border between Finland and Sweden, that in one point in the Northern part are divided only by a bridge on a river. So, you can toast at Karesuvanto, see your future in the form of a tin melted on a stove (a Finnish tradition that seems to have become illegal!), then cross the bridge and look for a warm bar in Karesuando, where to continue drinking as a Swedish can do. If you love foreign languages, here you can have fun: here there is a real “frontier feel” and people speak Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and Northern Sami. See more Finnish borders.

3. Apalachicola -> Port St. Joe (Florida)

Now let’s go outside Europe. In Florida the new year starts twice on the beach, in the same State. You can party at Apalachicola, nice fishing town where you can drink your champagne eating oysters, then in half an hour by car you reach the white sand dunes of Port St. Joe, in the Central Standard Time. Try to do it swimming, and time will be lost… 🙂

4. Langkawi (Malesia) -> Koh Lipe (Thai)

If you love exotic island, this is the perfect option for you: a New Year’s Eve between two island in Thailand and Malesia, divided by one time zone and the strait of Malacca. You can leave Langkawi, Malesian paradise for tourists with its amazing white beaches and deep forests but also for shoppers (it’s completely duty-free), and sail towards Koh Lipe, small Thai island where to party n the beach again. Maybe the trip will last more than one hour, but sometimes you can just ignore time 🙂

5. Auckland (NZ) -> Rarotonga (Cook)

Then, the ultimate trip: fly to Auckland, New Zeland, one of the first cities to celebrate the new year, enjoy the amazing fireworks in the city and then have another 4-hours flight to Rarotonga, one of the Cook Island, that is exactly on the opposite side of the time zones scheme… That means, almost the day before, so you have plenty of time to prepare yourself between a Pina Colada and a Long Island.

Do you know other places to party New Year’s Eve twice? Or have you already done it? Let me know in the comments!