Can anyone suggest an exciting holiday for us?

[PinguPengo]

DH and I are looking for ideas for holidays for next year, but struggling slightly as we are TTC and lots of the destinations on our wish list carry risk of Zika transmission. So we are looking for somewhere beautiful, with lots to do (outdoors / exploring - night life not important). We love interesting landscapes and/or architecture, and good food. We usually travel round a bit and take in a few different destinations, on a trip, but don’t have to if you have a great single venue suggestion.

If we weren’t TTC, we’d be looking at Costa Rica or Vietnam. Current leader is New Zealand, but the timing of that is not ideal as we’d need to go pretty soon to get good weather, and we’d ideally like to go away in about May or June. Previous trips we’ve loved include West Coast USA, Japan, Thailand and Chile.

Any suggestions from wise travellers here please?

Hi Pingupengo
If you'd like two startling contrasts, may I suggest a 7 day trip in the Rocky Mountains in Western Canada followed by a week on the West Coast of California? Either the wine growing region and the Pacific Highway route or a week in San Diego or San Francisco?
You'd get adventure, nature, the vineyards, sunshine and nightlife all in one! I did this with my 3 children who are the same age as yours but this doesn't seem to stop them thinking of me as a walking ATM / Uber driver. If you're looking for other options:

1. A luxury train journey from St Petersburg to Beijing
2. Tigers and Reefs : A (hot) week in Rajasthan and a week in the Maldives, but expect variable weather due ot monsoon season
3. A luxury tour of Iceland and Greenland - an extraordinary world of polar adventure, snowmobiling on glaciers, active volcanoes and geysers,
4. A tour of Cuba - a stunning country with so much to see / do. Go before the Americans change it! smile
5. If you like history, you could do a multi city tour of Jordan (Petra, ancient Christian, roman and Muslim architecture) followed by a week in Tela Aviv or Eilat in Israel.
6. You could also do a safari in Kenya, Botswana, South Africa for a week followed by a beach holiday in Zanzibar, Mombasa or Seychelles.
7. A tour of either Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos
8. A cultural, historical and beach tour of Sri Lanka.
9. You could also tour Nepal, Burma or Mynamar.

10. A more relaxing option may be a luxury Baltic or Mediterranean cruise where you experience incredible history, culture and food / wine both on board and on the ship. I think it depends on how much time you want to spend together vs doing your own thing and what your interests are. Let me know if I can help and best of luck with what sounds like a great experience together that everyone will remember. Chris

Oregon or western Canada all around the rockies. great roadtrip territory

We took the Trans Siberian railway and it was amazing. We did it as a wider trip from Manchester to Hong Kong but you could just do the Russian portion.

For something more relaxing, we loved Cuba.

Or Iceland has some beautiful scenery and you can see the northern lights in winter.

Thanks everyone! Some really good suggestions Chris, though a few of them I think I might need to check the Zika status for - I really like the idea of Vietnam but thought it was on the don’t travel list. Petra and Iceland both going onto my list of places to research though!

Mummymeister we have been to the rockies before and did love it. Oregon would be new - what do you recommend there?

Transsiberian worth a look too, thanks Nomad.