Wow ish holiday with teens next summer

[SB1971]

Next summer hols my DD will have just done her A levels so we would like to do something a bit different holiday wise with her DH and DS 13.
We have always done all inc apart from a
trip to NYC this year.
We can only go in school hols and not till summer cos of exams.
Budget around £8k.
Any ideas?

@Afterfire
Tui over-sold holidays they could not fulfill. They didn’t have the staff or the planes. I suggest you read up a bit more about what happened. The chaos was not all down to baggage handling! That didn’t cause chaos with flights being cancelled snd no check in staff. It was poor planning at airports too but huge German TUI were one of the worst having boasted of massive sales this summer to alleviate their huge debt crisis.

If you book separately, you are not covered by the package holiday regulations and you might end up having to pay for the hotel if the flight doesn’t go. Holidays will cost more due to wages, aviation fuel and other costs going up. If you want better protection, a package might be best.

Currently in Mexico with similar ages. Booked through Tui. They're so happy.

I would do a big splurge in Ibiza. Fancy accomodation, hire a car, do some fuck-off boat trips, hit the clubs. Easy to spend 8k.

Iceland!
Or a tour of Italy taking in Rome, Pompeii and mt etna.

I would do a Cruise - something for everyone and a different place every day. Fab food - whatever you fancy whenever you fancy. - It ticks alot of boxes for our holidays.

I wouldn’t do a road trip with two teenagers. They’ll be sleeping or glued to screens - and sitting still for hours.

Neither would I expect them to share a 4-berth family cruise cabin. I’m in my 60s and cringe at the thought!

I'd say Canada, Iceland or a safari. If you all love beaches, go for a fab resort hotel in Ibiza.

We are planning to go to Mexico and experience Xcaret, several parks all offering different things have a look here and scroll down to the "Discover our parks and tours" www.xcaret.com/en/?langRedirect=1

"Xcaret is a water park, theme, amusement, eco-archaeological and more, in one place"

I will be honest and say I don't know about price because it is a massive celebration year for us in 2 years so we have no budget and we will be staying at Xcaret Hotel all inclusive which includes access to the parks plus food and drink inside most parks. Here are the hotels www.xcaret.com/en/hoteles-xcaret/

You can do the parks without the hotel, there are lots of videos on YouTube about it all.

It just looks absolutely amazing, it will also be at the end of Ds2's A levels and Ds1's degree

We went with anywhere.com to Costa Rica, a more local travel agent. Send them an enquire form with budget, times, interests for example wildlife (when and where to see nesting turtles, whale watching, sloths for example), activities (cloud forests, zip lining, surfing, fishing). They could put together a nice mix of all inclusive if that is what you are used to and some stuff that’s a bit different. Would second exodus travel and g adventures, their vietnam trip looks great if you like history. Railbookers keep sending me some really interesting trips such as west coast USA with choices of a more northerly route through Chicago/Yellowstone/Seattle or more southern Los Angeles/San Fran route. Trailfinders and kuoni might also be worth a look. What do you all usually like to do, or what are you interested
in?

Which travel agent are you using for this holiday please?
I've been looking for next year and I don't really want to book separately with all the problems going on, but can't seem to find an agent that is going there.
It looks amazing

I would go into trailfinders, talk through your interests and budget and they will direct you to some suitable options
Summer limits you regarding long haul but a Mexican adventure sounds good

Fly to Canada, then board a cruise ship and cruise Alaska. Something for everyone. Glaciers, bears, whales, eagles, hiking and back to all inclusive on board.
Use Trailfinders for recommendations.

Safari?

Thanks all so much! So many ideas and am going to spend part of Saturday investigating.

We did an Exodus small group families-with-teenagers holiday in Cuba which was excellent - I think my now-adult DC agree it was their best ever holiday. Exodus do lots of other destinations for various budgets, and I always rather fancied Costa Rica.

My DCs also really enjoyed various city-hopping rail trips around Europe, with or without an interrail pass: we have done a lot of Central Europe, and the trip through Belgium and Germany to Copenhagen was great too.

The holiday they liked least was a cruise.

The holidays my teens enjoyed the best were a Disney cruise around the Med, various cruises followed by a week in an all inclusive hotel particularly in Turkey, Cape Town, Rio and Iguaza Falls, Disney in California followed by a Mexican Riveria cruise, Centre Parcs with their cousins.

We’re doing costa rica this summer (2 weeks for family of 4 in August) for about £4000.

Australia or New Zealand ?
if can do 3-4 weeks

I think a lot of these suggestions would be over budget.

thj Gd like accommodation type will adjust cost up/ down.

i agree with pp who suggested trail finders.

I agree! It’s completely confusing me!

Having just come back from a similarly aimed family “wow” holiday to Southern Africa, I would definitely suggest adding Go2Africa to your list of people to contact. They are an incredible local travel agent and unbelievably proactive and helpful (we had cancelled flights -thanks BA —and an airline going bust), and they still made it all happen seamlessly despite having to change everything for us at the last minute. They’re also amazing at knowing where to suggest for a particular budget.

Presumably that doesn't include flights, DisneyDisneyDisney? I've been trying to cost a similar trip for next year and the only flights currently available are £££. Can I ask who you are flying with?

We’re flying to Costa Rica with Spirit Airlines (direct from Orlando for $1400 total return). Combining it with a few days in Orlando as cheaper to fly there first. We always go via somewhere else in USA first to keep costs down.

Japan. Everyone says it’s a place like no other.

We’re currently in Bali (Ubud) and loving it, as are our kids 14 and 10. If you avoid places like Kuta you could have an incredible trip and it’s really cheap!