Money's tight and traveling around the holidays can make it even tighter. So if you're planning a holiday vacation, you want to be sure to do it right.

But where to go? You could try one extreme and head north to Alaska. North Pole, Alaska, to be exact.

The town, which celebrates Christmas year-round, offers a great winter festival and the chance to get an exclusive North Pole postmark on your Christmas cards … and an average Christmas Day temperature of 0 degrees.

If that just made you shiver, maybe San Juan, Puerto Rico, is more your speed. The American territory offers a passport-free Caribbean vacation and San Juan's Paseo de la Princesa comes alive with lights and holiday festivities around Christmas.

But that's just two extremes. If you want something in between, we've gathered some top travel destinations for this -- or any -- holiday season. Eggnog and beloved, if sometimes annoying, relatives not included.

Holiday Travel Spot No. 5: A Country Christmas >>