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?

St Lucia is fab

Cape Town also great - hire a car and travel around

Oman is beautiful and very under-developed.

New York and a Caribbean island

We had fabulous food and branded drinks in Cuba. We stayed at the paradisus rio del oro which I believe is now adult only (but wasn't when we went).

Abu Dhabi - the Park Hyatt on Saadiyat island

Agree with whoever said Oman but it's no longer under developed at all - since people got the fear over going to Egypt, they've been going to Oman instead and the hotels are very high quality and very busy.

both of those would only work for Easter - too hot for summer

Watching with interest as we would like to do the same for our 10th anniversary next year. Our DC will be 4 & 7 though so potentially ours will be a tamer holiday than you can do.

Hersetta that's where we went for our honeymoon and we always planned to go back for our 10th anniversary - adults only threw a teeny tiny spanner in the works on that one!

We went to the Maldives for our 10th Wedding anniversary (although didn't turn out too well as we were evacuated after the boxing day Tsunami) - we have been back another 4 times though including taking DD when she was 3.

This year we are celebrating our 20th anniversary and now have DD and DS (7 & 3) and are hoping to go away for 1 night by ourselves. How times change!

In the Caribbean, we hired a yacht with a captain and hostess in the British Virgin Islands. This is the best holiday with children. Always something new to see and do and short sails between the islands. All food is included! Failing that, a hotel or villa on Virgin Gorda works well, or indeed anywhere in the BVI. You can go over to St Thomas in the USVI if you want retail therapy!

Sri Lanka is amazing.
We had our 1st wedding anniversary there.
We had a private car and driver with fuel for 3 weeks for just over £300 for the 3 weeks and that was also the drivers accommodation. We did the sights like Sigiriya, safaris in Yala and Wilpattu (saw 2 leopards) and beaches (watching baby turtles hatch and trying and get to the sea).
For our anniversary we stayed at a place called Turtle Bay Hotel near Tangalle. They have only 8 rooms, a pool and on our anniversary had a candle lit bbq on the beach for us. The staff made a cake and all signed a card which was lovely. It is near a bird sanctuary were you can take a small boat trip and have a go at fishing on the way. We spent the day there helping! to pull in the fishermen/women nets. They gave us a share of the catch which we took back to the hotel which they cooked for our dinner.
www.booking.com/hotel/lk/turtle-bay.en-gb.html
P.M if you would like to know our drivers details.

I've been to Mauritius too, my experience of Le Tousserok was different from previous poster - I thought it was wonderful. But having travelled more widely since, there are many nicer places in the world.

Haven't read all the thread but what is your idea of special? Where do you normally holiday?

We're normally somewhere in Europe. I've been all over Europe - from Spain to Greece to Sweden. We usually hire a cottage somewhere and spend our time swimming, visiting local markets and having BBQs. So, special I think would mean a) hot, b) at least a bit more exotic / tropical c) a beautiful, small hotel right on the beach, d) the freedom to spend a grand or so more that we normally do. I don't need hotel staff to fuss over me, in fact I would find that annoying. But, it's important to me that the setting is beautiful, you know, tropical garden, palm trees, small buildings rather than a high rise hotel.

I don't necessarily need to go to the other side of the world - think with children a shorter flight would be easier. But I do fancy the Carribean.

What about a sailing holiday? You'd get your beaches when you moor up, you'd get a bit of sightseeing and doing more than sun worshipping. You can get a boat for the four of you but sail in a flotilla.

This would be my perfect holiday if I came into some money. I think the ages of your kids would suit it as well.

I've looked at this company before.

I loved Barbados - I haven't been elsewhere in the Caribbean - but it does seem to fit the bill of requirements. We stayed at the Tamarind - a lovely small hotel on the west coast. Very easy to hire a car and get around. Snorkelling is pretty good - rays, turtles etc - and lovely tropical gardens on Barbados where you can see hummingbirds, 'green' monkeys etc. Great place for children, no jabs, very family friendly.

I liked Mexico but it had a very different feel from an island, with larger hotels etc. Thailand has great variety but obviously a much longer flight. Florida is a great destination but not sure if that is tropical enough for you.

Main consideration is the time of travel though with tropical destinations. When are you looking to travel?