Help me plan a lifetime holiday

[NigellaWannabe1]

Hi, I would like to go on a big holiday to celebrate a few good things that have happened recently. Also, because my eldest is 15 and will fly the nest too soon.

It's five of us: two adults and three kids aged 15, 13 and 11. Our budget is 10,000 GBP (sorry, my pound sign doesn't work). It is a huge amount compared to what we usually spend on holidays and I hope it can work for a long-haul holiday. I am thinking perhaps one week to ten days overall.

Idea 1: Somewhere urban like New York, but not New York. The kids will like it and I guess that is part of the challenge, as they don't seem to want to go anywhere...

Idea 2: A beach holiday somewhere where we can snorkel and perhaps our money will stretch to more luxury accommodation? Ideally, I'd like to treat the kids to amazing accommodation and food.

It is unlikely we will ever be able to afford this kind of holiday again. I know this kind of money will seem obscene to some for a holiday but I imagine many of you will come and say that is actually not that much. That's all I have though! There are so many things I'd like to celebrate and I want to make a fuss of them.

We might go during one of the half terms in 2024 but leaving earlier/returning later, so perhaps we might save on flights a little that way.

Thanks!

Really not sure why you're asking the Internet this?

Just go to trailfinders with what you'd like

I'm looking for recommendations. 🙂

Because it's a chat forum, assume the op was hoping to have a nice chat.

FFS.

Not sure why you posted this when you could just be grumpy to your own family members

Stealth boast?

Or I'm just

Go to trailfinders

How much time do you have?

I would go to a few European cities on the train, because I think a journey around is very exciting.

You could combine the two perhaps?

Depends on what you can find for your budget, but somewhere like Chicago for a few nights (boat tours, amazing museums, beautiful city, incredible pizza!) then fly on to somewhere like south Florida to stay in a lovely villa near the sea could work?

I've heard from a colleague that Hays travel are amazing for fancy holidays on a budget - she's got two booked this year and another next, so that might be worth a look?

Rio de Janeiro! You can combine the city break with the beach life, and if you go in February you can coincide with Carnival too! We went for our honeymoon 15 years ago, it was incredible!!

Thanks. I didn't think about combining two destinations... that's something to think about! I've heard Chicago is beautiful.

Perfectly sensible question, ignore rude PP!

How about Singapore plus time in (cheeper) Malaysia or Indonesia? I don’t know what the snorkelling is like there, but the beaches and wildlife are amazing.

Thailand? Fly to Bangkok, up to the north then finish off snorkelling on the islands near Phuket.
Enjoy the planning!

Tel Aviv for urban, then down to Eilat for snorkelling https://traveltriangle.com/blog/snorkeling-in-israel/

You could add in a visit to the Dead Sea, or go across to Jordan for a couple of days.

Another one suggesting Singapore for a few days (it has a bit of everything and is a very cool city with amazing food and culture) then you could do a beach island and/or a bit of highland jungle in Malaysia.

This is what I was going to suggest.

or Florida, so much to do there, a bonus if you like theme parks.

ignore moody poster above, I like to chat about holidays and is this the perfect place for it.

The Malasya idea sounds wonderful! Do you think the budget would stretch to some amazing hotels? We are not wealthy but want to feel wealthy for a few days, if that makes sense! Also, I want to wow my kids as we've never have this kind of money before.

Tick the 'must-do' boxes for the DC.

It's a cliche but a few days in New York followed by an internal flight to Orlando for the theme parks is a great holiday with teenagers.

Also love the thought of Rio! Why did I never think of Latin America...? And a safari, I bet that is something the kids would love.

Washington is beautiful and amazing. I’d highly recommend.

I would combine city and beach...so like NYC then Cape Cod or South East Coast somewhere
Or east Coast- seattle then californian beaches
Or a European version of that, City then beach!

This would be my suggestion. Thailand has everything you could want .

Costa Rica

Nice holidays I’ve had:

a really nice hotel called Xcaret Occidental in Mexico just outside Playa del Carmen. Mexico has some great “theme parks”…..not rollercoasters. Think zip wires and boat trips and amazing underground lazy rivers. We also hired a car and went to places like Tulum and Coba. Swimming in various cenotes. You can do quad bike safaris, swim with turtles, whale trips. I will say I found Mexico expensive. We had to be happy to hire a car and take ourselves places, doing organised trips would have cost a fortune. The resort was amazing and AI but we had some lunches out and it was expensive,,,,we found a Starbucks and that was twice the price of the U.K. Xcaret park was expensive.

Thailand. It’s some years since I went but great culture, somewhere very different and cheap once you got there. I stayed in Koh Samui but various options and you could do the beach for a week and then go to Chang Mai for a week for something different?

Id love to go to Costa Rica. Cloud forests, volcanoes, walking safaris, sloth rescue, hot springs, Caribbean beaches. A friend went and said it was expensive so I guess similar to Mexico?

Thailand. A few days in Bangkok and then head south to a beach somewhere.
Ah, I see someone has beaten me to it. But Thailand is fab for kids. A few things to do there: hire bicycles, boat trips, night markets, floating markets, elephant sanctuaries, monkeys (lots of monkeys), waterfalls, snorkelling, monasteries on hilltops, temples, butterfly farms, gibbon sanctuaries, Songkran (huge waterfights), and loads of fab food, not all of it spicy.

I came here to recommend Singapore and Malaysia but I see a couple of others have already suggested the same! As for a lovely hotel in Malaysia, we stayed at the Berjaya in Langkawi and it was fantastic. Rainforest merges with the private beach and there are monkeys playing on the edge of the sand. We stayed in one of their bungalows on stilts in the rainforest. Our kids loved it and it was great value - definitely within your budget.

We went to California for 10 days at Feb half term - San Diego and LA. Good combination of city, beach and theme parks. Feb was a bit cold for the beach admittedly, it would probably be better later in the year (but the flights would have cost more).

Tanzania for safari then Zanzibar for beach?