Good longhaul destination for special birthday

[crazymumofthree]

It's mine and my partners significant birthday in Feb next year. We are looking to do a long haul holiday to celebrate probably without the children (would love to take them but too expensive) for about 10 days. We are looking to spend £3500 maximum excluding spending money but ideally as under this as possible but for a nice place. I've always fancied Hawaii but everyone keeps telling me I'll be disappointed. Just somewhere where we can go for some R&R, maybe some snorkelling and wildlife.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Belize. honestly I go on and on about it but it is fantastic. snorkelling the reef, swimming with sharks and rays, mayan temple ruins, howler monkey walks through the rainforest, zip lines, river floats. its fabulous.

Caribbean cruise, from Miami, with a few days before in Miami/Everglades or the Florida Keys

We've just booked for next Feb (also a significant birthday for me) and the cost is almost exactly £3500, for flights, 3 nights in Miami, and a 7 night cruise with meals, drinks and tips included on the ship.

Can't wait !

For me it would be Thailand or Mexico non all inclusive loads to do great food and very reasonable we are going to Mexico this year for 17 night flight hotel and transfers and ferry €3100.We are going for. Ireland do flights would be a good bit more expensive.have also done Thailand for 3400

Right now I'm into Sri Lanka.

Belize though is growing on me -every time mummy bangs on about it--

Bugger. Cross out fail

Agree with Sri Lanka suggestion. Don’t know about snorkelling, but amazing wildlife- beautiful tropical birds, elephants, leopards... wonderful beaches, ancient cultural sites, beautiful beautiful country! In Feb, much of SE Asia would be hood. I find the weather section on Selective Asia website very helpful for trip planning. They also have very good suggested itineraries.

Ooh Thailand! I'd definitely look into that. I travelled round for a month and it was incredible!

Thailand definatley flights around £550 each hotels start from £4 but you’ll get a good ones for £30 a night internal travel cheap food cheap drink cheap and the people are lovely. don’t bother with package holidays or all inclusive. In Chiang Mai right now and there having there new year party which is the biggest water fight in the world!

Pack light and buy over here.

I hear good things about Costa Rica for wildlife etc though haven't been. Don't know how it sits price wise.

Otherwise I'd recommend Cancun, Mexico (but get out of Cancun itself). Also check you're avoiding American spring break is if you're going in Feb.

Agree about not bothering with Hawaii. It's not bad but its a long way and there's much nicer, less overpriced, less busy places on the planet.

Thailand or Vietnam. Don't do the 5 star holiday thing though.

Don’t do Hawaii from UK it’s massively expensive - Caribbean, Mexico, Cambodia

dontcallmethat - I have been thinking about both Sri Lanka and Madagascar but we have to try and go somewhere that is a non malaria area due to health issues with one of my DC. I have also taken anti malarials in the past BC (before children!) and felt absolutely awful on them so keen to avoid them also.

It was the reason I looked at Belize in the first place. We wanted exotic and hot in December but had done florida. so I did a list of all the non malarial places to pick from with the right temperature.

I have also been thinking of a safari with a sleep out under the stars but again takes a lot of planning to avoid the tablets!

Agree with Belize. Better than Cancun by miles.

Madagascar is my DH ultimate dream - I had written it off for our price though!

Thanks all for the recommendations! Will be researching them all now!!

mummy I've not doubled checked, but in 2016 Sri Lanka was declared malaria free... it isn't without dengue though so bug spray and good precautions still essential.

There are malaria free safari areas in South Africa. They are more like huge game farms but give a similar experience to the National Parks. Many of the best safari areas have waterways involved somewhere, eg Okavango, Mara River, Zambezi, Luwangwa etc. so finding malaria free is challenging. Not sure if Kruger might have malaria free areas.

South Africa makes for a good holiday anyway, because although the flights are pricey it’s inexpensive when you get there. The drought in Cape Town is challenging at the moment though which is a huge shame for holiday plans.

I tend to think special holidays should be more than a beach and a bit of r & r. We like to experience different things. India is appealing for this reason. Also anywhere in South America!

One of the best holidays we have had was a small ship cruise around the Spitsbergen archipelago. It was fantastic fun, trips off the boat on zodiacs and polar bears!

Sorry - just noticed the birthdays are Feb! North Pole is obviously a summer destination!

Sri Lanka is free of malaria.

Sri Lanka with a couple of nights in the Maldives. 1.5 hr flight from Colombo to Male. Trailfinders are pretty good at pricing.

We were going to add a few nights in the Maldives to our Sri Lanka trip, but in the end it felt like a compromise, but we only had 15 days due to my inability to bunk off school If time wasn't an issue, or cost, I'd def do that.

Mummy - try south Africa.

The orange River is malaria free. We went canoeing down it and then x slept under the stars (Croc and hippo free river). Went to a smashing place called the Growcery. Not fancy but very eco friendly. Also February is not school holidays in South Africa so not busy. And then of course there are safaris....
Someone else recommended Travel Butlers for organising safari previously.

Loved Costa Rica, lots of wildlife, sloth, raccoons, monkeys, gecko, coati etc all very close up, held the sloth, rainforest, zipline, watersports etc. Not sure about budget as we went for 4 and everything was £8,800 for 2 weeks in August, flights, 4 star hotel AI, all trips etc, went with TUI and 5 excursions.

Hawaii is incredible, especially if you can do some of the smaller islands. However 10 days and 3.5k won't do it justice. I'd go for SE Asia - Thailand, Vietnam, Bali.

You just won't see anything much of the real Hawaii in 10 days, you need to get to the smaller, less touristy places as the main areas I think are very devoid of character. Budget also a problem.