Celebration holiday with 6 year old

[indyandlara]

Next year DH and I both turn 40 and will have been married for 10 years. We would like to take a special holiday with our daughter who will be 6. We can take up to 3 weeks but it will have to be in school holidays as I'm a teacher. Budget up to about £8k.

We had fancied a Kenyan Safari but probably with one of the independents who take younger kids. However I am now beginning to wonder if this is such a good idea and if our daughter may get game drive fatigue after a few days. We have been to Florida as a family before and DH and I have been to Australia. Any suggestions of good special holiday destinations?

Would you consider going on a cruise?

I'm biased because it was my holiday of a lifetime last year but we went to California and did a road trip from San Francisco to LA and then Laguna Beach, we loved it and so did our boys!

I may consider a cruise. I've never fancied one before but most of our long haul travel was done before children. Can you recommend a cruise line?

I drove across the USA almost 20 years ago now but redoing California sounds great actually. How long did you go for Tinkerball? That sounds like a realistic amount of driving too, rather than going all the way to San Diego.

I've cruised with Royal Caribbean, NCL, Carnival and Disney and apart from Disney they are pretty similar. Disney was in a different league and I'm not a huge Disney fan but loved the balance it provided for adults, families and children. I haven't travelled with P&O but have heard only good things about them. Your six year old would be a good age to cruise.
Another suggestion is Cape Town and some sort of mini safari. Cape town offers amazing days out, I'm sure your DD would love the penguins at Boulders Beach, the Two Oceans Aquarium and the Cheetha outreach centre and you would enjoy the scenery, food and wine.

I went on Safari at about 6 and remember it.... really special. We stayed in Nairobi for a few days, took a small plane to a reserve and also up kilimanjaro. With your budget and time scale, would also add Lamu or Tanzania for safari then on to Zanzibar / Pemba...
(if you don't mind a really long flight, a few weeks in Peru or Ecuador and the Galapagos would be magical)

We did a few nights in New York first Indy and then 2 weeks in California which involved 3 main stays. First we had 4 nights in San Francisco and then got a car to drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping at Monterey for a night. The next day was the biggest drive onto Santa Barbara, about 6 hours but it was worth it for the scenery! One night in SB and then we stayed in Hollywood for 4 nights and then Laguna Beach for some relaxation at the end, our room looked right out onto Pacific Ocean. Last drive was back up to LAX to fly sadly home!

We've done a few:

Australia and Singapore (the best of the best - Singapore is fab for littlies)
San Fran, Yosemite, Death Valley, Las Vegas (poss too much driving for your DD though)
Dubai and Thailand is a good combo

Maldives come to mind too although not tried - yet!

We're leaving safari for a couple of years yet - our DC slightly older than yours.

If I could I'd go to bora bora. It just looks amazing.

We did Mexico when DD was 5. She still talks about it 2 years later.