Holiday destination ideas around Sept / Oct

[davek_964]

We want a 2 week holiday around this time - partly a relaxing beach holiday but there needs to be plenty of other things to do, since neither of us wants to spend a full 2 weeks lying on a beach. G/f can scuba dive, and likes "watersports" so those are a big plus, but probably not enough on their own to keep us busy.

Currently considered :

Maldives : I went once, and liked it - but although there is diving etc. I don't think it's enough to keep the g/f entertained and I don't remember there being anything else other than lounging around and eating / drinking.

Japan : I've been on business several times, but we both want to go there at some point. But we don't really want a city break this year even if it's just for half of it

Hawaii (Oahu) : This is probably the current favourite - neither of us has been, and it seems that there is a bit more to do there than just lie on a beach. There also seem to be several holidays where you spend a couple of nights in San Francisco or similar on the way out which would be nice.

Jamaica / Bahamas : Never been, but it's a possible - depending on what else there is to do there.

Any other ideas? Or recommendations for the above / decent places to stay etc?

Edited by davek_964 on Monday 22 January 08:12

[GT03ROB]

• Costa Rica
• Zanzibar followed by safari in Tanzania.

Caribbean weather is changeable at that time of year bear in mind. Can also cloud the water so not greatest time for diving.

[gamefreaks]

Thought about Okinawa?

Never been but it's on my list and looks like an intersting mix of things to do...

[davek_964]

GT03ROB said:

* Costa Rica

• Zanzibar followed by safari in Tanzania.

Caribbean weather is changeable at that time of year bear in mind. Can also cloud the water so not greatest time for diving.

Thanks - we'll look them up.

Yeah - it's not the best time of year for beach holidays and we did consider moving it to June. But it's for a honeymoon and although the wedding will be very simple it would be a bit rushed trying to sort it all before June.

[durbster]

How about southern Africa - somewhere like Tanzania / Zanzibar?

Edit: Oops, got distracted before posting and GT03ROB beat me to it

Edited by durbster on Monday 22 January 08:48

[davek_964]

gamefreaks said:

Thought about Okinawa?

Never been but it's on my list and looks like an intersting mix of things to do...

Yes, we did consider it, but decided that if / when we go to Japan, it wouldn't be for this type of holiday.

[a311]

The world must your oyster. Of the places I've visited I'd take a look at South Africa loads to do and see and you'll get highs of mid 20s in Cape Town and warmer in the Indian ocean coast. One trip we also did a week in Mauritius as it was May/June I.e. Southern hemisphere winter but didn't really rate it.

Negligible time difference so no jet lag either.


Thailand is the other obvious option to combine cities, activities and a relaxing beach destination.

[davek_964]

a311 said:

The world must your oyster. Of the places I've visited I'd take a look at South Africa loads to do and see and you'll get highs of mid 20s in Cape Town and warmer in the Indian ocean coast. One trip we also did a week in Mauritius as it was May/June I.e. Southern hemisphere winter but didn't really rate it.

Negligible time difference so no jet lag either.


Thailand is the other obvious option to combine cities, activities and a relaxing beach destination.

Cape Town I've done (plus Botswana with a few days in a safari park type thing) so wouldn't rush back. Also have done Mauritius and although I liked it, I'm not sure I'd go back a second time.

We did toy with the idea of Thailand - I know people who did half city / half beach there, and said the beaches etc. were excellent. But I don't think either of us were that interested in Thailand as a place to go for some reason. We might look at it some more though.

[a311]

davek_964 said:

a311 said:

The world must your oyster. Of the places I've visited I'd take a look at South Africa loads to do and see and you'll get highs of mid 20s in Cape Town and warmer in the Indian ocean coast. One trip we also did a week in Mauritius as it was May/June I.e. Southern hemisphere winter but didn't really rate it.

Negligible time difference so no jet lag either.


Thailand is the other obvious option to combine cities, activities and a relaxing beach destination.

Cape Town I've done (plus Botswana with a few days in a safari park type thing) so wouldn't rush back. Also have done Mauritius and although I liked it, I'm not sure I'd go back a second time.

We did toy with the idea of Thailand - I know people who did half city / half beach there, and said the beaches etc. were excellent. But I don't think either of us were that interested in Thailand as a place to go for some reason. We might look at it some more though.

There's loads to do it Thailand. I will say I did have similar apprehensions about not having enough to do in the Maldives but took all of a bout 10 mins to sink in to doing next to nothing. We hadn't long moved house at the time so the relaxation was probably needed more than usual. It's hard to beat as a beach destination, we stayed in a beach villa step out of the front door onto a veranda with day bed, another couple of steps on the beach, few more and into the ocean. I spent my days reading and swimming and evening eating and drinking.

On Thailand it has something for everyone IMO we started off in the north at Chang Mai, did white-water rafting, and loads of other activities. Paid a guy about £10 to drive us around all day to things we fancied seeing. Then flew to Khao Lak (cheap to fly internally) spent a week doing not a whole lot other than a Thai cooking class, then finished in Bangkok. Found it slightly difficult to transition from a relaxing beach destination to a busy city but it made sense due to connecting flights to either start or end with time in Bangkok. It's a huge city.

[durbster]

Thailand is a fantastic country. I love Thai food, the people are great and because it's such a well trodden path for travellers and tourists, there's loads of stuff to do beyond the beaches.

[bristolbaron]

Aruba?
Jamaica?
Bermuda?
Bahama?
Key Largo?
Montego?
Kokomo?

[R33FAL]

Great choice of options... out of your list we have only done Maldives and always considered Hawaii but what puts me off is the proximity to the US... does it not suffer from the Cancun curse ie. its the Benidorm equivalent for the Yanks?

[Sport_Turismo_GTS]

Hawaii is great - I’d recommend visiting Oahu, Big Island and Kauai.
Some big contrasts between the islands and there are plenty of things to do, but there are also plenty of places to relax too.

[davek_964]

Thanks for the suggestions.

We had a chat last night, and looked up some of these options and I think we have decided that Hawaii is (probably) the winner. We will need to look at options of where exactly, and we may well stop on the way there for a few days. We'd like to see the Grand Canyon so could stop in Las Vegas - but neither of us is remotely interested in Las Vegas so we'll see.

[Sport_Turismo_GTS]

davek_964 said:

Thanks for the suggestions.

We had a chat last night, and looked up some of these options and I think we have decided that Hawaii is (probably) the winner. We will need to look at options of where exactly, and we may well stop on the way there for a few days. We'd like to see the Grand Canyon so could stop in Las Vegas - but neither of us is remotely interested in Las Vegas so we'll see.

We stopped in San Francisco on our way to Hawaii. However, even if you’re not into the gambling, Las Vegas is probably worth a stop over for the food / shows / atmosphere etc and you can obviously do trips to the Grand Canyon from there.

[ffc]

Mauritius starts to warm up in late October. As stated above safari in Tanzania followed by beach in Zanzibar is good. Or somewhere like Langkawi where the weather and beaches are good along with touristy things to do.

[abzmike]

We generally holiday in mid September to October and have been to most of those mentioned above. Mauritius I really liked but it wa spoiled a little by weather. Thailand wa very sticky, we have got fortunate with weaheR in the Maldives twice. Almost went to Zanzibar couple of years ago, but a cancelled flight kiboshed it.
This year looking at Bali and Lombok - I’ve been put off previously by knowing it’s Benidorm for Aussies, to trying to be careful where we go, but there seem to be some decent deals around just now:

[davek_964]

We browsed flights / hotels last night for Hawaii for some of the dates we were considering, to get an idea of price.

Seems we won't be flying BA. I don't want to fly economy - but with BA, even if you pay for premium / business - the second part of the journey on partner airline will be economy. If it was an hour - fine - but it's about 1/3 of the total flight time / ~6 hours.
Virgin upgrades the second part too, so you still get additional legroom etc. so looks like Virgin will get our business.

We haven't decided yet if we'll stop for a few days on the way - in which case, I guess they'd be separate flights anyway - but I suspect we'll take the simple option and just fly straight there.

Edited by davek_964 on Wednesday 24th January 13:53

[seefarr]

bristolbaron said:

Aruba?
Jamaica?
Bermuda?
Bahama?
Key Largo?
Montego?
Kokomo?

See what you did there and I like it.

Caribbean is so much closer than Hawaii - I can't imagine flying an extra 10 hours to get there and still being in America!!! If you're going all that way, at least go to Australia where you have so many more options. But don't go there either because it's full of my family.

We went to Guadeloupe (a department of France in the EU that happens to be in the Caribbean) last year and we loved it. The missus is already planning our retirement there, looking at houses to buy! It's France, so amazing food, bread and the rum is ridiculous. The local cuisine has an interesting Cajun flavour. And it's cheaper than the other Caribbean islands we've visited, especially for accom or if you're buying champagne or foui grois.

None other than Jacque Cousteau called "the best diving in the world" (apparently) and it was great diving - we got buzzed by dolphins under water in amongst loads of coral and fishies. We dove out of Deshaies which is the village from "Death in Paradise" with Tropicalsub Diving and they were great - the newest gear we've ever had with lovely stuff like integrated weights and adjustable regs.

As previously stated, the rum is ridiculous - there are 10 distilleries doing rhum agricole (fresh sugar cane juice, not molasses), many of which are >100 years old and have only just moved from steam power so do a couple of tours. It does not taste like rum as you know it with loads more grass and tropical fruit notes. Because it's a fresh product it's impacted by climate, soil and different cane varietals - rum has terroir now! The local way to drink it is 'ti punch where they leave a bottle of 50%+ rum with some sugar and lime at your table and you choose how your afternoon will go. This cost between €3 for plastic chairs to €4.50 in the fanciest restaurants. The local punch planteur is also delicious and always made with loads of fresh fruit juice if you're not up to the 'ti punch commitment.

They have lovely beaches, a volcano and rainforests to hike around, and actually a really good zoo and botanic garden. We did a day trip to the smaller island of Marie Galante which was like island life squared - laid-back laid-back.

€4.50 well spent:



Having said all that.... we normally do our driving holiday to Europe in October. You could go drive the Pyrenees for 2 weeks when it's both not freezing and basically empty if you still have a nice car?

[djc206]

davek_964 said:

We browsed flights / hotels last night for Hawaii for some of the dates we were considering, to get an idea of price.

Seems we won't be flying BA. I don't want to fly economy - but with BA, even if you pay for premium / business - the second part of the journey on partner airline will be economy. If it was an hour - fine - but it's about 1/3 of the total flight time / ~6 hours.
Virgin upgrades the second part too, so you still get additional legroom etc. so looks like Virgin will get our business.

We haven't decided yet if we'll stop for a few days on the way - in which case, I guess they'd be separate flights anyway - but I suspect we'll take the simple option and just fly straight there.

Edited by davek_964 on Wednesday 24th January 13:53

I know loads of people who’ve done BA to Hawaii and the last leg has always been business. I think if you’ve selected a connection onto Alaska airlines you get economy but AA definitely shows business out of LAX on the BA website.

You can do layovers using a multi city booking. Very easy to do on Google flights/skyscanner or the BA website.