Once in a lifetime holiday ideas

[Starclocks]

DH and I have been saving for a once in a lifetime holiday for years. It'll be for us and our two DDs who will be 16 and 14 when we go next summer.
We've been lucky enough to have been able to save £250 for this every month for five years, so will have £15k. I can maybe add another £2k on top if I save a bit more each month between now and then.

Originally the plan was Disney Florida. We could do a fortnight there without compromising on anything. All the parks, good food, nice hotel. But the closer we get to it, the more I wonder whether it would be a waste when there is so much more of the world to see.

The kids do like theme parks, and we went to Eurodisney when they were 6 and 8, and had a blast. And I went and was amazed by Orlando as an adult 20 years ago, so I know it's not just for kids. But it's all so fake, and there is the Trump factor and America being such a weird place right now. As a family we have had some amazing city breaks in Amsterdam, Belfast, London, Edinburgh over the years. So we could go to an amazing g city like Singapore or Sydney (or both!). We also love animals and nature, and for this kind of money we could do something amazing in that space - Costa Rica, Borneo, places in Africa.

I am just overwhelmed by the choice and conscious that wherever we pick it will mean not picking all the other places! But this is a big deal for me as I have consciously saved to give us this one big family trip that we will never be able to afford again.

I realise that we are extremely lucky to have this problem. I dont mean to sound goady at all, and we really don't have a luxury lifestyle other than this one thing. It will be our first long haul trip anywhere. And I know that whatever we pick will be great, as all our holidays have been, whether they have been little trips in the UK or France, or slightly bigger ones like our week in Crete last year. But I wonder what gems the Mumsnet give mind can come up with as options.

We planned everything ourselves

Japan is extremely cheap once there! Especially at the moment as the Yen is very weak

Japan is great but it is a lot of cities and nowhere near as special as a wonderful safari I don’t think. I’d chose a luxury safari combined with a city break and pools etc. so memorable

Walt Disney World. If you need tips then send me a PM, I can work that out in far less than 15k and you’ll have EVERYTHING you could possibly need.

Disney is fab but a full on holiday, if your budget allows I would do a week in a villa outside of Disney to chill.

Japan is on my list!

I am pretty sure the Trans-Siberian would be very difficult these days. It starts and involves a lot of Russia and I would imagine that a Russian visa is now even harder to get than it used to be... I've done it. It's great, but I wouldn't do for a holiday (presuming OP is taking 2 weeks and not several months). There's a lot of sitting around on trains for extremely long journeys (like 30 hours).

My suggestion would be Japan or Argentina. I am reasonably well travelled and those are my favourite places so far. I also really liked Costa Rica.

I would do animals and nature - either Borneo, Costa Rica, around Great Barrier Reef / Atherton Tablelands / Daintree in Australia, or Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has monsoon seasons so need to plan trip on when going.

Yes it would be max 16 days and would need to be in school holidays.
I know that automatically makes things more expensive but even if I could pull the kids out of school I am a teacher myself.

Great ideas. The thing with Australia is that I will probably only be able to go there once in my life. So surely I should see Sydney right? Great Barrier Reef would be so wonderful but I doubt I could afford the time or money to do both. Could I...?

Oh and I’ve just remembered the Riviera Maya in Mexico - Tulum, Chichen Itza etc - but avoid Cancun unless you want a Florida-in-the-sun experience

No . Usually circa £11k for one .

Im a fan of Japan . There’s something for everyone but avoid the summer . I went end Oct beg Nov and the weather was perfect .

We did Australia in 2018 those areas plus Sydney / Blue Mountains quickly as its their winter (it was about 25C-27C in areas by Great Barrier Reef / Atherton / Daintree) but 10C in Blue Mountains and 14 and windy in Sydney. It was £11k for 4 of us in 2018 for 3 weeks but I don't know how much it would be now. Flights went up quite a bit with lockdown. We also stayed in nice places but ate quite cheaply.

We did the multi flight option with BA so flights London to Sydney and back and up to Cairns and back. £11,000 in 2018 is £14,758 in today's money according to Bank of England inflation calculator.

If you like outdoorsy things then New Zealand has a lot to offer. You could go via Singapore, and have a couple of days there too. There is so much variety. Would be happy to share suggestions.

The other option which is a proper travel experience could be interrailing in Europe. It’s pretty good value, family friendly, and you could pick two or three countries which are less expensive so your money goes further.

We did a participatory camping safari in Botswana. It makes safari much more affordable and means that you are in the park rather than a lodge so can do an early morning safari when others are still waiting to come in!
We have done a lot of the other holidays mentioned and this was our favourite by a long way. No artificial light meant our sleep was amazing too!

Last 2 weeks of August for Disney then, thats the quietest time in our school holidays.

2 weeks in somewhere like port Orleans riverside with free dining will be £6k ish including tickets. £2400ish for flights (if you book as soon as they come out). Set aside £1k for passes (to go to the front of the lines)

then £2k for universal (full 2 week pass for all parks). Car hire £500-600, keep cancelling and rebooking as the price drops.

total costs - £12k and you have 3k left for spends. And if you decided to, you could upgrade your dining to full DDP instead of just the quick service so you have table meals as well as quick service.

We did fly to Sydney
Breakfast with koalas that morning at Featherdale
Then went to Port Stephens where did whale watching tour and saw about 150 whales and dolphins, accommodation was very cheap about £40 a night for a nice place, stayed 2 nights. Can also do whale watching tours from Sydney. Went to coast.
Flew up to Cairns, stayed in airbnb 3 nights which had tropical gardens and was nice.
Went on Seastar for Great Barrier Reef, its a small boat tour, did scuba diving and snorkelling
Went to Kuranda train and koalas
Drove along coast to Daintree rainforest via Port Douglas, crocodile boat trip
Stayed in Atherton Tablelands at Lumholtz Lodge 2 nights (highly recommend), lady is a former vet and rescues tree kangaroos etc and does all home cooking, there are tree kangaroos with you and other wildlife (bettong, possums etc) - she also told us where to find platypus and cassowary which we found
Stayed in treehouse in area 2 nights and they had wallabies, possum etc on site the possum came up to the treehouses. Went to a lake.
Back to Sydney flight
Stayed in Sofitel in Blue Mountains and toured Blue Mountains and went to Glenbrook? and saw kangaroos. 1 night
Then 2 nights in Sydney and went in to see opera house, bridge etc.
We did hire a car for parts of it.

I'm surprised that it would be so expensive.

I guess the main expenses with going to the US would be the flights and the insurance.

Then they'd need to hire a car and then seek out budget motels on the route.
I've done road trips in the US myself, but a long time ago, in the 1980s and 90s. Back then, petrol was cheap and you could get a motel room for $25 or $30 a night.

@Starclocks Japan ! @Postpartumhelp beat me to it. Esp with teens that age as they will be fascinated by the technology which is so advanced. Plus there are AMAZING theme parks. And although not my thing at all my son (a long way past teenage years) insisted we go to one because of a certain ride, and I actually enjoyed it - felt really safe with Japanese engineering. You don't have to stay in Tokyo, there is so much lovely country / islands etc to visit and it's so easy to get around. Plus it's a great out of culture experience. (Please observe cultural norms in Japan, if you go). What a great dilemma to have !

Our once-in=a-lifetime holiday was Japan. DC adored it, so did we. DS told me he thought about it every day for about three years afterwards.

It's very clean, very safe. The food is popular with DC: noodles, chicken & beef skewers, mild curries.

There is something for everyone. I loved the medieval palaces and temples, the onsen baths and gorgeous wildlife. DC loved all the cute stuff, crazy fashions, Ghibli museum. And as PP have said, they have great theme parks there too.

I’ve done a very reasonable, very amazing South African safari (on a private game reserve) where we saw all the big 5, and then some. It was amazing. Happy to send you details if you wanted Op.

Thailand or Costa Rica

Theres clearly treads and guessing Japan is the current fave. Nepal seems to have gone completely.

If you want a “big” holiday but still want the ease of English speaking and a holiday vibe ( beaches, nice things to drink and eat) South Africa is great. Tabletop. Mountain, Boulder beach with penguins, shark cage diving etc. But also good exchange rate, lots of good eating and wine etc.

I'd go on a 2 week train tour of Italy. Naples and Pompeii, Rome, Venice, Bologna, Tuscany and a few smaller places along the way.

If you want to do Australia, start with sydney but look into Heron island or Lady elliot island to do the great barrier reef. You can snorkel off the beach so is very flexible rather than taking a boat 2 hours out to sea. Its impossible to get in the water there without seeing a turtle. You could add on the outback and go to uluru too.