First holiday for empty nesters

[OrangeSofa1]

Next Summer will be the first holiday as a couple ( both 50) and we would like to do something quite special. Ideally a lovely beach resort for a few days, then a city/safari/ boat trip or something for a few days. My husband is keen to go 3 weeks, I’m happy with 1 so maybe something in the middle!
I’d try a cruise but he isn’t keen. I want something a bit different so I’m not missing my children too much! Europe or further afield, probably early July after A Level season has finished!
Any suggestions gratefully received!

You will have a lovely time. Our first alone holiday we went to Majorca and hired a car driving around the island and loved it. The freedom to explore and go where we wanted was lovely. Since then we always do a city for a few days then a beach holiday for 2 weeks. We have done Dubrovnik/ Lisbon/ Florence. We love the mixture of city and beach. Ye have so much to look forward to. Spend time dreaming first.

Greek island hopping maybe?

I second Majorca - short flight - why spend ages on an aeroplane? There are beautiful places to visit and great food - did the same hired a car and dotted about - maybe a week a few days if different part of an island highly recommend.

It’s winter in South Africa but prices would be lower. Plenty to see and do but not really beach. September is better for whales in Hermanus. Alaska or Canada? Earlyish for bears but whales are around. Again, early September is great. I agree a cruise is ?? However small expedition ships are fab! Arctic comes to mind. Norway or Iceland are great in July.

Beaches? Could be 40 degrees in traditional resorts. Not for me.

What's your budget? We are looking at Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, not cheap but halved the cost by putting it together myself

Vietnam/Cambodia

Sri Lanka

Thailand/Laos

Difficult to get a cheap safari in Botswana! They don’t do cheap safari camps. July is high season there.

We’ve done fly drive western Canada Calgary Rockies Vancouver and a 1 week cruise to Alaska plus an organised trip to Vietnam and Cambodia since kids left home. Going to Crete this year but looking at safari to Tanzania/Costa Rica/Sri Lanka next year. Can’t decide. My friend is doing a tour of Malaysia at the moment and the photos she is sending look awesome so that may go on our list as well

Zanzibar or Oman and then on to safari

Safari first! Relax afterwards

Some fabulous ideas, thanks all.
Lots of food for thought… yes, temperatures on the beach in July could be too high for us in many places now. I haven’t been to Majorca since my clubbing all night days so thanks for recommendations.
I definitely had a flicker of excitement at the mention of Vietnam, one to look in to.
Husband used to work in South Africa so wouldn’t be exciting for him….we have been to Canada but not seen all of it and we did love it.
Norway etc could be lovely with the fjords ( would that mean a cruise though!?)

Budget fairly flexible as it feels like a half price holiday to me, not paying for the children!
Off to research, and yes, enjoy the dreaming!

My youngest moved into his own house last Saturday. DH will be helping him to DIY for lots of weekends but we've just booked a 12 day cruise for the end of October. We've booked flights separately so we can add 2 extra days to start and end of holiday. It's starting in Venice so we are going to spend 2 days in Venice before joining the ship. It stops at Slovenia, Malta, 2 different ports in Italy, Sicily, a Greek island, France, and a couple more I've forgotten. We will get off ship every day after breakfast in a different country and get back on board in the evening for dinner and entertainment. It will still be warm in these countries at the end of October. We depart ship in Rome so then spend 2 days in Rome before coming home. It was not expensive so we upgraded to a balcony and top deck for the views. The ship is called Norwegian Epic and it's with the Norwegian line.

Often the cruise ports are not where you want to be. Most cruisers take organised expensive tours off the ships. These ships are humungous and of course you don’t get to know anywhere. Most cruisers eat on the ship to get full value.

As for Norway, you do not need to cruise. You might like Hurtigruten though. Plus Discover the World has driving holidays. Cruising would cost you far less though but we don’t want to be with 2000 people. I’ve done a Fjord cruise with my mum and again, you don’t spend much time off the ship but it is scenically wonderful. We value seeing what we went to see at our pace.

You might like Eastern Canada. We haven’t been but intend to.

If you delayed until Spring, Italy has wonderful places to see, eg Puglia and around Bologna. Plus - the food!