40th birthday trip

[Chooseafuckingbigtelevision]

My husband and I both turn 40 next year. Prior to having kids we were pretty adventurous with our holidays- Inca trail, Galápagos Islands, African Safaris, Kilimanjaro etc.

Since then we’ve become bogged down in family friendly locations. Next year we both turn 40 and the kids are finally old enough to leave with grandparents for a week.

The problem is I can’t decide what I want to do! We want a mixture of action and relaxation. We’re not lounging by the pool people but equally no where near as fit as when we did Everest base camp 15 years ago!

I’ve been thinking about Marrakesh or may be Italy. Probably looking around September/ October time and reasonably warm.

Scuba diving in the Red Sea?

I went to Iceland for my 40th it was fab

Ooh, I was going to suggest diving before I saw the first reply.

You can learn to do it just about anywhere that suits your budget, near or far, but not all locations are suited to beginners due to currents etc, but the Red Sea or somewhere in the Med would be perfect. Or the Caribbean if you have a larger budget.

Diving can be great for a holiday as you generally do the diving in the morning or until mid afternoon at the latest, leaving plenty of time for relaxing in the afternoons or perhaps a siesta before going out for dinner.

I think a week in Marrakech would be too long.
We'd seen & done everything worth doing in 4-5 days - only stayed for a week because of flight timetables.

A river cruise? The Nile is fascinating.
There are some river cruises that are more active, e.g. cycling, canoeing included in a range of activities.

We’ve done a lot of scuba diving and I’d like to do something new.

Iceland looks amazing but very expensive and cold! Would love to hear more about it though. It’s on the short list.

Georgyporky, did you also spend time in the Atlas Mountains etc? I thought it looked like a weeks worth of activities if you went further afield

If you can stretch to a little extra time away then I would head to Japan. So much to see and do and like no other place in Asia. September can be a bit wet but by October it has died down a bit and temperatures in the low 20s. We spent nine days visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Hiroshima and then flew to Ishigaki-Jima in the Okinawa Islands for some (R&R) at the end. We felt like we didn’t even scratch the surface and would love to go back.

Closer to home then I would recommend a “double bubble” Venice and Lake Bled trip. We stayed at Vila Bled which was the summer home of Tito and was like nowhere I have ever stayed before. Slovenia is beautiful and often overlooked as somewhere to visit. Venice speaks for itself.

We had thought about going to the mountains when we realised we had spare time, but DH had the most horrendous food poisoning & couldn't leave the hotel room for 2 days.
BTW, he caught it from a v. expensive French resto - not street food!

If I had a whole week, I'd stay here:
www.youthhostel.ch/en/hostels/saas-fee-wellness-hostel-4000/

It might seem odd staying in a youth hostel but this one has a proper spa with views of the mountains. You can pay extra for spa board. There's lots of good walking routes around Saas-Fee and nice restaurants.

@Chooseafuckingbigtelevision Iceland is wonderful. If you're accomplished divers you can dive between the Eurasia and American tectonic plates there in crystal clear water, there's a lot to see and do on the 'beaten path' areas around Reykjavik (whale watching, geysers, waterfalls, blue lagoon etc) and if you're more adventurous you could hire a 4x4 and explore further afield, loads of interesting foods to try.

If you aim for October there's also a chance of the Northern Lights! I've been at that time of year and while obviously it's not a warm beach holiday it's not uncomfortably freezing either.

Iceland is cheap to get to we got two flights with easyJet for £80

We stayed in a nice hotel which was central Reykjavík for £60 a night with breakfast

You can book excursions in advance so know what you can afford. Cost wise it wasn't as bad as we thought

Go in the summer if you don't want it cold

We loved it there, the landscape is absolutely amazing and i would say it's definitely a trip if a life time

Icelandic ponies
Snow mobile
Diving at the plates
Ice caves

Fantastic place

Sicily? Has everything from beautiful beaches, mountains to climb, historical/cultural places, ancient architecture... have taken a risk to book a flight there myself! If you're going next year hopefully travel will be more risk-free..

I have no budget for travel at the moment, but have been enjoying looking at Jordan for some random point in the future...