Hotwire.com has released a list of the top ten most popular destinations for revellers ahead of the upcoming New Year’s Eve celebrations.

This year, in addition to visiting popular festive cities like New York, Las Vegas and New Orleans, travellers are running from the winter weather and setting their sights on warmer, southern destinations, like Orlando, San Diego and Miami, which make up more than half of this year’s list.

Orlando is a popular New Year’s Eve getaway for families because many of its theme parks have big seasonal celebrations, so it’s no surprise that it returns to the top of the list again in 2012.

Chicago, on the other hand, follows at second and has moved up two spots since last year.

With a huge fireworks display over Lake Michigan, the Windy City has pushed perennial favourites Las Vegas and New York down a spot to third and fourth place, followed by international hot spot Miami, which is a newcomer to the list at fifth.

San Francisco – where people will line up along the Embarcadero to watch fireworks launched from barges in the bay – moved up one spot to sixth place, and is followed by another newcomer to the list, London, at seventh.

Meanwhile, San Diego moved up one spot to number eight, followed by Los Angeles and New Orleans, which respectively fell from sixth and fifth place last year.

Both LA and NOLA have nightlife scenes as good as, or better than, any other destination on the list, and combined with the warm weather that folks seem to be looking for this year, both can also prove especially enticing for New Year’s Eve travel.

The ten most popular New Year’s destinations by hotel bookings, along with average nightly prices for each are as follows:

• Orlando, Florida.
• Chicago, Illinois.
• Las Vegas, Nevada.
• New York City, New York.
• Miami, Florida.
• San Francisco, California.
• London, England.
• San Diego, California.
• Los Angeles, California.
• New Orleans, Louisiana.

“Booking trends show that travellers are opting for warm weather backdrops for their New Year’s Eve celebrations alongside the bigger, more traditional celebration cities,” said Clem Bason, president of the Hotwire Group.

“Although travellers can never go wrong ringing in the New Year in iconic places like New York or Las Vegas, some of the best deals and great experiences can be found in cities like Orlando, Chicago and San Diego, where you can stay over the holiday for under $100 per night.”