Tell me somewhere thats better than Bali

[VogueVVague]

I want to go away for 2 weeks over new year, somewhere that ISNT in europe.

I basically want to go on a bit of a dream holiday.

Views, chilling on a beach, mindblowing setting, fascinating culture and weird and wonderful wildlife.

Ive become obsessed with Bali but just thought id ask MN for your recommendations of amazing long haul destinations youve been to, bearing in mind as i say it will be in january.

Im open to the idea of africa too but just dont know where.

I dont want to go anywhere posery or glam so please dont recommend the non-European version of st tropez.

Bali is overdeveloped and the traffic can be horrific at that time of year which is peak season owing to it being the Australian school holidays. Maldives is postcard beautiful but it is just a bunch of beach resorts and how nice/ desert island escapey it is completely depends on the resort. A week is long enough on all but the largest. I feel like Sri Lanka is calling you!

Otherwise I love Margaret River and South Africa.

@Getabloominmoveon
OMG so it seems like you've been to all 3 of my shortlist! (If we imagine that sri lanka isnt dissimilar to kerala).

So if you could only go back to one, which would it be?

@Johnnycomelately1
😂 yes me too, who knows why it is that some places speak to you more than others. I think its because im just imagining sri Lanka as a very happy, peaceful, colourful place. Im imagining beaches and trains past tea fields and beautiful saris. Im imagining it like india but more tropical and less scary.

Mauritius/St Lucia/Grenada/Seychelles.
All beautiful, have mountainous rainforested interiors and great beaches.
Seychelles a day trip to La Digue is fantastic

My parents were quite disappointed in Bali, they much preferred Australia.

Hawaii is my dream holiday location.

Vogue I think I'd go back to Costa Rica as the wildlife was amazing. I'd go back to India too (and have been there also for work) but next time up North, so it'd be a different holiday. Borneo - really glad we went and LOVED the jungle trip, but wouldn't be in a rush to get back there.

I'm half Jamaican, I agree with PP, it's not the type of holiday you want. I suggest island hopping the smaller, southern islands. Although, I'm loving Barbados the more I travel there.

I don't get the Bali hype. Really don't understand it. What has it got that South America doesn't have more of?

I also suggest Japan. Travelling around the country you'd get to see and experience a wealth of things. It is safe, but can be quite expensive if you don't plan ahead.

Vietnam! It’s the best holiday I’ve ever been on. Amazing food, really interesting culturally, cheap but fantastic hotels, incredible scenery and beautiful beaches. Not sure about the weather in January. I went at Easter and it was very high 20s with some occasional downpours.

We went to Bali on our honeymoon and it was amazing. However, we paid top whack for the best hotels/private pools etc (& to whack isn’t really that much in Bali- you get a lot for your money). We booked through Kuoni and did Singapore/Bali-Seminyak/Bali-Ubud. I think that if we hadn’t done it through them & paid that bit more, we would have been disappointed as parts were very touristy/busy/full of Australians.

How about Bintan Island? Fly to Singapore then get a ferry.

Goa- cheap and beautiful

Maybe do Sri Lanka and Maldives that way you get the best of both worlds
I did Thailand and the Maldives a few years ago which was fantastic
Mexico & Cuba are lovely

Sri Lanka - definitely work researching this one.

Combination of Belize and Guatemala. Great balance of culture, scenery and beaches

I wouldnt go for Bali (I have been) although there are aome nice quieter parts.

I wiyld puck a Barbados West coast probably the house child free or the Tamarind with children.

Heaven on earth. Great levels of education and less poverty than a lot of Caribean islands.

Thanks OP and everyone, some amazing recommendations here!

Loads to do in Mauritius! You could literally fill your days doing stuff. We went in July so the weather was a bit hit & miss but we still had a fab 2 weeks. We stayed in a fab hotel which was the best all inclusive I've ever been to. So much stuff to do (horse riding, snorkelling, glass bottom boats, banana boats, underwater walks, parasailing, PADI schools, etc) but the taxi drivers at the hotel were more than happy to take you all over the island & wait(!) while you did whatever you were doing. That seemed to be a common thing as wherever we went there were taxi drivers with packed lunches hanging around chatting to other taxi drivers. They didn't charge much for this service. We went to the nature reserve island with the rare pink pigeons, quad biking in the mountains, walking round the different towns, a crocodile park, a meal on a nature reserve that seemed to be at a hunting lodge in the mountains, great seafood restaurants, shopping, deep sea fishing, beautiful beaches & you can practice your school French. And they drive on the same side of the road to us so I guess hiring a car & driving yourself wouldn't be too much trauma (unless you can't drive)
And if you have kids, their kids clubs are amazing!

Mauritius is the best holiday I've ever been on , stayed at the Heritage Awali spa and golf resort
and it was paradise. Although AI the food was top quality with branded drinks including champagne plus a daily spa treatment included too. The people were very friendly and beautiful beaches

Bali sounds exotic when you live in the UK but the reality is that its the equivalent of your costa del sol to Aussies who can holiday there cheaper than they can in OZ. No doubt there are some lovely places there but also some 'Magaluf' style resorts too and its a very long journey to find yourself in Magaluf! Also the volcano has rumbled on and off for a while with flights often being cancelled and the Australian consulate is advising caution after a few recent terrorist attacks in Indonesia. The Maldives, on the other hand, sounds bliss.......xxx

Imsosceptical is spot on with her description. On a flight back from Hong Kong I got talking to an Australian girl who was travelling to the UK to live with her boyfriend. I happened to tell her that we were on our way back from Bali, and she said "why on earth would you want to go there? Aussie guys go there for stag weeks". Basically, Bali is Australia's Majorca as it is the nearest "abroad".

The resort we stayed in was not a stag week destination, and I did enjoy it, but was a little underwhelmed by the parts of the island we did see. There is an awful lot of ribbon development, and the constant pesering by hawkers was really irritating.

The beautiful paddy field with all the rice terraces that you see in loads of photographs is in one small area, and not typical of the scenerey in Bali.

We took a mini cruise while we were there and visited Sumbawa and Komodo, both of which were brilliant.

Having said that, I did enjoy Bali, but felt it was a bit oversold.

I would highly recommend Malaysian Borneo but if you are going to go on a trip into the rainforest like the Kinabantangan River and Danum valley it can be quite expensive,. I would research this more before you book flights just so you have an idea of costs as it might be more expensive than you think for that part of the trip. This is where you will see orangutans in the wild. Also pygmy elephants, all types of monkeys, crocodiles, hornbills etc.

Beaches and snorkelling are better in Sri Lanka.

Personally I wouldn't go to Borneo just to go on a beach holiday as the beaches can be nice but also can be quite dirty. Borneo is more expensive than Sri Lanka too.

There are lots of Indonesian islands that are really nice, you just need to do your research. There's a lot more to Indonesia than Bali.

Someone from work back from Maldives. Said lovely but could walk it in a day.

That made me laugh, it must have been a fair sized island! The ones we've stayed on were quite small, you could have walked them umpteen times in a day. Agree with PP, there's not much in the way of wildlife, lots of fruitbats flying around day and night, not much else but the underwater life is amazing, especially if you're a diver and you chose the right atoll. We just love the no shoes, no traffic, nothing but sand underfoot, beautiful starry skies and not having to glam up to go to dinner.

How about Malaysia. Penang is lovely and could be contrasted with a trip to the Cameron highlands tea plantation.

Goa, India.
Beautiful beaches with warm sea.
Amazing food. Lots of interesting things to see and do.
You can stay 4-5 star very cheaply.

Another vote for sunny Western Australia here. We spent 5 weeks there in Jan/Feb this year for our 25th Wedding Anniversary. It really is 'Gods own earth' (to quote Monty Python). I second a trip down to Margaret River - the beaches (not to mention the wines) are fabulous. I also recommend Busselton, with it's longest Jetty in the southern hemisphere, and also Mandurah. Then there's Perth, with it's glorious Kings Park (and more lovely beaches), and the Pinnacle Desert made famous by a naked Billy Connolly skipping round the stones during his World Tour of Australia way back in the 90's. I'm already planning my next (5th) Ozzie Adventure soon as funds allow.