So where do you go for a sunny vacation?

[Tall Traveler]

I like leaving in February for Phoenix or Mexico. If I have enough time, I love going to Thailand in winter.

[Salmonista]

If you're just looking for sun, I agree with the other posters who said to drive over the pass. Eastern WA gets waaaaay more sun than the west side.

If you'd like warmer temperatures to go along with your sunshine, Arizona and Southern California are usually reliable. Alaska Airlines will sometimes have last-minute sales and they have lots of non-stop flights to these destinations. If you have flexible travel plans, subscribe to their newsletter and jump on one of their deals. By late January, you'll be ready to escape the winter chill/gray skies. But try to hold off on a vacation until February so hopefully you'll have less winter to deal with after returning.

[Arushan]

Surprisingly, Ashland, OR can be a nice and easy getaway destination.

[usernametaken]

Get Chase Southwest airlines credit cards that offer 50k miles sign-up promos plus get a free companion passe for 2 years if you use certain strategies:

southwest 50000 points companion pass | Million Mile Secrets

Then use those miles to fly to California many many times for free along with a companion. I got Southwest tickets for just 4k-8k miles each way last year and went to California 3 times.

Bali sounds much more fun though.

[Blondebaerde]

Originally Posted by Arushan

Surprisingly, Ashland, OR can be a nice and easy getaway destination.

Ashland, interesting. It comes up sometimes in "best places to retire" type of articles. I've been through it many times to and from CA (former home), but could not for the life of me say I've stopped there for more than a pit stop. If that. I've retreated to central Oregon a few times in January-February, and it is indeed nice. Hoping to retire in 15 years, I'm going to check it out assuming the economy doesn't collapse first (I'm assuming it won't )

As for WA, Wenatchee and Chelan are a freezing high desert hell in February, gorgeous in spring and fall, and warm to boiling (like most American deserts) in the summer. Las Vegas is a commoditized !@#$hole designed to remove you from your money: cannot walk anywhere or do anything at all on the strip without being routed past casinos and the tables or slots. It is all excruciatingly engineered to part you from your money, and most things that used to be free (twenty years ago) now cost money. Including shuttle from the airport to the casinos. I even watched the knucklehead shuttle driver skim from his employer by under-reporting number of passengers by one (ten vs. actual eleven), to pocket an extra few bucks cash fare. The whole thing is a fraud. I was there for a show (Rush, @MGM Grand) and wish in retrospect I'd flown in that day and out that same night vs. staying a weekend.

But the weather was good (Thanksgiving 2012).

Personally, I'm escaping the "drearies" which means both overcast and (somewhat) cold typical of western WA from c. November through April, by putting as much distance between me and people as humanly possible AND enjoying warm weather, on the cheap, primarily in Los Angeles or Santa Barbara. I've got pals in both places.

February of 2012, it was Barstow and Victorville on a semi-guided old Route 66 photography tour, flying Seattle into Ontario airport (near San Bernardino). Point being Ontario was having airfare specials, as airports sometimes do, to increase traffic. Nothing like Barstow and Victorville at 80 degrees and sunny in February to rejuvenate attitude, without spending much money (only a weekend, about $800 total in course fees, airline ticket, and lodging).