Ideas for special family holiday next year?

[Schulte]

It's our 10th wedding anniversary next year. DDs will be 7 and 9 and we fancy taking them somewhere special, hot, think sandy beaches, clear waters and ideally palm trees. However, we're not package holiday types and the idea of a big all inclusive hotel with evening entertainment freaks me out (a small hotel is fine though, I don't want to go self catering if I can avoid it). DH insists he'll get bored somewhere like the Maldives so there needs to be something to do other than lying on the beach. I don't want to go anywhere where we need lots of jabs, malaria prophylaxis etc and the kids are scared of sharks. And of course we haven't got unlimited budget.

Impossible? Or does anyone have any recommendations?

Place marking but ill try and be helpful while I'm here...
Los Angeles
Sri Lanka
Thailand

How about some sort of two centre thing with South Africa - Cape Town/garden route then Mauritius best of both worlds, or combine with safari?

Is Mauritius actually nice? I had a friend who was so disappointed - said he'd never go there again. Can't remember why though.

Ditto Superhero - Safari and maybe Victoria Falls - lots to do there, combined with Cape Town. Our DC were older, but we had an amazing holiday.

We didn't love Mauritius - absolutely adored the Maldives though.

So out of interest - what is it about Mauritius that isn't right? It doesn't sound like the place to go for us but just want to understand why.

What about the Caribbean - anyone have any thoughts on that?

We stayed in a beach bungalow at Le Tousrok (sp?) and couldn't swim due to the stones/pebbles/seaweed/sea urchins immediately by the beach. Supposed to be a fantastic hotel, but we just didn't feel it. We didn't 'warm' to the island, and didn't like the outlet centres selling knock-off type goods promoted on tours.

The Maldives I absolutely loved - desert island as you imagine but with wonderful service, fantastic sealife - just loved it!

But with children I'd do the South Africa/Safari trip - I'm just disappointed that we can never have the experience again of doing it for the first time - if that doesn't sound stupid!

What time of year and what do you like doing? E.g. diving/snorkelling, cultural sights, jungles, safaris?

La Reunion. Google it. Best place in the world...

Barbados.lots of things for kids to do and sun and sea and water sports too.

Grenada is lovely too...

What time of year are you going to go?

Will have to be school holidays - so Easter or summer hols...

I like snorkelling, swimming, water sports in general. But also just bumming around on the beach. DH enjoys a bit of trekking, but realistically with the children we won't be able to do that much especially if it's hot.

Not sure about safari - it's never really appealed to me... I was wondering about Grenada, or St Lucia. Honeymoon was to Thailand and was absolutely amazing, with three days in the jungle thrown in. Could see the children enjoy that but we did have to take Malaria tablets in the jungle.

Somewhere where you can do a bit of light sightseeing at your own leisure would be good - you know, visit a local market / plantation / garden / waterfall.

We've travelled round southern Thailand a few times with younger children and had a fab time. The weather is great (though hot) at Easter. We've tended to stay in villas so have had more privacy and space (and they were all well serviced with restaurants on site or next door). We took the children to the jungle at Khao Sok and that's not malarial. Lots of fantastic snorkelling/diving, nice beaches, island hopping etc. Very easy to drive around too if you like to have freedom to explore.

What about Zanzibar? I have not been but friends have. The advantage of somewhere close to Southern Africa is the lack of significant time difference.

New York and Caribbean two centre
South Africa
Malaysia
Australia
New Zealand
California Coast and Grand Canyon, San francisco
Florida keys, beaches and theme parks
Canadian Rockies

There is more to do on St Lucia than Granada, St Lucia has the rainforest and various trekking things. We also went whale watching there and also flew to Grenadines and did the most fabulous catamaran boat trip around those islands.

Super ideas here - thanks everyone. Would anyone like to recommend a particular hotel?

Canada - west coast around Vancouver and the rockies. Florida keys - Islamorada in particular. Belize - we had our holiday of a lifetime here pm me if you fancy the adventure of it! we cant travel where we need jabs or malaria so this is why I haven't picked more adventurous destinations because we cant go there. Loads of lodge and hotel info for Belize.

St Lucia is lovely. We stayed at Windjammer Landing 8 years ago (no idea if still good) NOT on an AI basis; hired a car and travelled round. Hiked, visited rainforest - did everything independently (because I hate everything about organised trips). But staying at nice accommodation meant easy access to beach, pools etc. There were some lovely small independent places that I might go to if I ever went again. Lovely island!

How about Mexico. Lots of fab hotels and great things to see and do in the Riviera Maya region.

Not been but on the basis of friends' reports really want to go to Cuba. There are options other than big AI and my plan includes a few days in Havana.

I keep hearing that the food in Cuba isn't great and we really like nice food on holiday.

A lot of the hotls in Mexico are massive but you can find smaller boutique ones eg around tulum.