- There, they plan to celebrate New Year's Eve and the New Year with the rest of their family and four members of the cabinet.

Joe Biden before leaving Washington.

Biden leaves the freezing cold of Washington and goes on vacation to the Virgin Islands

The US president, Joe Biden, and the first lady, Jill, left the cold of Washington last Tuesday and headed for the warm US Virgin Islands, where they will celebrate the arrival of the new year with the rest of their family.

Biden and his wife left the White House after 6:30 p.m. local time (23:30 GMT) and boarded the "Marine One" presidential helicopter, in which they will travel to the Andrews military base, in the state of Maryland and on the outskirts of Washington.

From there, they will travel directly to Saint Croix, the largest territory of the US Virgin Islands, in the Caribbean.

Also traveling with Biden and the first lady were four members of the presidential cabinet, including Jake Sullivan, adviser for Homeland Security affairs, and Annie Tomasini, director for Oval Office affairs.

According to the White House, the Bidens plan to celebrate New Year's Eve and the New Year with the rest of their family in the Virgin Islands and will return to the White House on January 2.

The Bidens have gone to the Virgin Islands for vacations during the Christmas holidays almost every year since 2008, including the period in which the current president served as vice president with Barack Obama (2009-2017).

One of the president's brothers, James, has a home on Water Island, one of the territories of the Virgin Islands, and Biden has spent several Christmas vacations there or on the island of Saint Croix.

Despite the fact that traveling to the Virgin Islands is customary in the family, the president and the first lady broke with that tradition last year and spent their vacations in Delaware, the state in which Biden grew up and which he represented in the United States Senate. for 36 years.

Both last year and this year, the Bidens have gone on vacation after Christmas Eve and Christmas, holidays that have happened in the White House.