About Borrowed Winter

Borrowed Winter is an editorial publication built for one specific reader: a Singaporean about to spend serious money flying somewhere cold, and trying to figure out what to wear.

We started this site because we kept watching the same conversation play out — in family WhatsApp groups, on Reddit, in our own DMs. Someone is going to Hokkaido, or Seoul, or the Christmas markets, or taking the kids skiing in Queenstown, and the questions are always the same. How cold is it really? Do I need a $1,200 jacket? Will my Uniqlo Heattech be enough? What about my mum, what about the kids, what about the baby?

The advice they were getting was either lazy ("just buy The North Face") or useless ("I wore a hoodie and was fine"). Almost nobody was writing for a tropical adult who has never owned thermal underwear, has nowhere to store ski gear in their HDB, and is trying to decide whether buying or renting actually makes sense.

So we wrote it down ourselves. Honestly, opinionatedly, with prices and weather data and gear that real people use.

How we work

Every guide is written by someone who has actually made the trip in question. We don't run AI-generated listicles. We don't take affiliate kickbacks from gear brands. Every recommendation is something we'd send our own parents to.

• Honest weather data. We use historical averages from the destination's own meteorological service, not "feels like" guesswork.
• Honest gear talk. When a $1,800 jacket isn't worth it, we say so. When a $40 base layer outperforms a $200 one, we say that too.
• Honest about money. We tell you when buying makes sense, when renting makes sense, and when borrowing from a friend makes sense.
• Honest about who we are. See how we're funded.

Who writes this

Our editorial team is small and based in Singapore. We are people who have spent enough time in cold weather — for work, for family, for fun — to know what's nonsense. We update guides whenever weather, prices or gear lines materially change.

Got something to add?

If you've made one of these trips and want to push back on something we wrote — or contribute a destination we haven't covered — we'd love to hear from you. The best version of this site has more voices in it than ours.