Holiday of a lifetime ideas

[wildwestpioneer]

If you had two weeks and a reasonable amount to spend on a holiday, where would you go?

We have a big anniversary coming up in 2025 and I've decided to have a holiday of a lifetime, we're mid 50s, fit-ish and have a good budget to work with.

No cruises or winter sports. It'll be hotels all the way so no back packing either don't mind things like rain forest trekking or horse riding in America so it's not all about the sun and beach.

Hurtigruten are pretty good up the Norwegian coast. We are doing an expedition cruise around Iceland in 2025. Special birthday for me.

It's hard to know without knowing where you've been. I wouldn't consider Thailand a holiday of a lifetime destination and I don't enjoy the USA, but would go there for theme parks with the teens.

My trips of a lifetime were gorilla trekking in Uganda, a Hurtigruten trip to Svalbard and same company again to Antartica/Falklands/South Georgia.

Also recommend: Iceland - you can easily drive around the whole island by yourself. Kenyan safari. Japan. Brazil, Bolivia, Peru (the Pantanal in Brazil is fantastic for wildlife, preferred it to the amazon). Namibia - another one you can self drive (I went but wasn't self driving).

Haven't done but want: polar bears in Churchill; Canada (but earlier in the season than Churchill), Alaska, Chile inc Easter Island, Galapagos, Mongolia, Tanzania, Botswana, Greenland, New Zealand...

I don't enjoy beaches and am not capable of relaxing, so haven't been to Maldives/Seychelles/Caribbean, aside from Tulum in Mexico and Cuba. Did not like Cuba. Mexico was good but not lifetime.

Unless I've missed a newsflash, you most certainly cannot drink in Saudi - I live here. We're still dry, but it will probably change with the Neom resorts opening, cos we need that tourist dollar.

Adults only
5 ⭐️
Maldives
Seychelles
Mauritius

My favourite long haul trip by far has been Canada - BC and Alberta specifically. We travelled for 3 weeks, saw grizzlies, black bears and orcas, along with the most astonishing scenery ever.

Several people who had done the Rocky Mountaineer train journey told us not to do it, as they would all have preferred to drive and stop as and when they wanted. I'm glad we didn't bother, you can see so much more stopping to take in the scenery. If we could, we'd go back again next year, so much to see and do, the vastness of the country blew us away.

I have a problem with the concept of “a holiday of a lifetime”. When I first went to Kenya in the 80s, it was my holiday of my lifetime at that point. Since then I’ve had lots of them. They don’t necessarily top each other because they are different. However some rank above others. I think if you only want a beach holiday, it’s easy to find great beach hotels. I’ve been to some. If you want culture and experiences, it’s more difficult. Then you need to assess what you really like. For me, it’s not Las Vegas (I’ve been) or anywhere I can access by flying 2/3 hours. I can do that on repeat trips pretty easily. I loved Iceland and I’m going back but does it top Canada? Not sure. The Great Bear Rainforest doesn’t have many visitors and on that basis is pretty exclusive and special.

Therefore the best holidays mean finding a bit of yourself in them. So evaluating what makes you tick pays off. I’ve been to Thailand and it has a lot to recommend it. It didn’t really come close to Japan for me culturally. However if you’ve only been to Thailand and nowhere else, how do you know it’s the best holiday? At the time I still definitely preferred safaris in Africa over Thailand. Still would. Someone not interested in wildlife and photography might think the opposite.

Exploring the USA is full of surprises. It had stupendous national parks and cultural historic sights. It’s like nowhere else. We don’t go to theme parks but we like exploring off the beaten track and the USA has many hidden delights.

By now we know what makes us tick and the “holiday of a lifetime” should make you excited and have a big dose of wonder and awe thrown in. Otherwise it’s another beautiful beach and another beautiful hotel. There’s much more to see and do.

Has anyone been to Tulum, Mexico, recently, my finger was on the button to book, mentioned to someone, who said they are having real issues with seaweed, Sargassum, they’d been and it had taken enjoyment out of going to the beach, having googled, the beaches don’t look like the brochure pics. Thanks to this thread I’m now looking at Costa Rica!

If money and time was no object, I would love to explore the Pacific Islands.

I really enjoyed Borneo when I went. Nice hotels, lots of culture, nice beaches, jungle, orangutans etc. I only spent 3 days there but would definitely go back.

Japan

Vegas- New Orelans- Riviera Maya

Borneo

Holidays I'd like to do for big occasions:

• the Great Migration in Kenya/Tanzania and then to Zanzibar for some relaxation
• Galápagos Islands
• Japan

Borneo is on the top of the list at the moment, closely followed by the seashells and Mauritius.

Thailand and Vietnam we've been told that June isn't a great time to visit, as it's the rainy season with only about 9 hours of daylight.

June isn’t too bad in Thailand as long as you avoid the west coast - Koh Samui and nearby islands are reasonably dry. But you might not want to be limited in where you can go.

It’s the right time of year for Borneo definitely. Mauritius is not at its warmest then but still nice. Lots more to see and do in Borneo IME - and it’s fairly easy to combine with Malaysia, Singapore or Java if you wanted to, although plenty for 2 weeks just in Borneo.

California road trip.

land in San Francisco. Visit Alcatraz, ride a cable car, drive down zig zaggy Lombard Street, go and see the sea lions at Pier 39. See the giant redwoods at Muir Woods. Visit the place which inspired Otis Redding to sing about Sitting on the dock of the Bay, cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge. Visit China town. Loads of stuff. Enough for minimum 2 full days at least. Drive across to Yosemite. No words to describe how spectacular that is.

back to the coast to go from north to south on the spectacularly scenic pacific coast highway stopping at Monterey for whale watching, see sea otters, Big Little Lies cafe 😆,aquarium, John Steinbeck stuff (Cannery Row).

down the highway stopping off at Pebble Beach golf course, Carmel by the Sea (Clint Eastwood was mayor for a while), Hearst Castle, Elephant seal beach (like something from David Attenborough documentary).

atop at a Danish town, Solvang, for lunch. Then a couple of days in Santa Barbara. Ride a bike along the bike path which goes all the way along the beach front to Montecito (Harry & Megan’s area).

Onto LA where you can pass through or stop over and see the sights or do some theme parks if you like that. Or just pass straight through like we did.

leave it there ir carry on further south to San Diego which is a FABULOUS city. So much to see and do. Lots of naval activity. USS Midway is so interesting. You can go to the Top Gun Bar and pretend he’s singing You’ve lost that Loving Feeling to you 😁. Head over to Coronado Island and pretend to be Marilyn Monroe in some like it Hot. Visit all the museums and the zoo in Balboa Park. Eat all the tacos you can manage.

it’s just such a varied holiday. It truly is a bit of everything. Our best holiday ever.

Just realised the significance of your username! 😆 perhaps you’ve been to the US west coast before?

As others have said, in SE Asia be very careful of the seasons.

conversely, ignore any advice on Singapore seasons - it’s varies from very hot, wet and humid to sometimes slightly more or less of those things. But for Thailand, Indonesia, etc etc it really does matter.

I backpacked around central and South America. Tulum (hated Cancun) was amazing but over 30 years ago. Iguazu is still my favourite place on earth. Agree about the Pantanal I preferred it to the Amazon.

Driven through the Rockies - amazing. Don’t bother with Niagara and go straight to Iguazu instead.

Been to Australia loved it but 2 weeks isn’t long enough

Norway fjords cruise was spectacular (I know you said no to a cruise ) beat all expectations

Travelled China Thailand Hong Kong Bali and Singapore that was a great trip - 3 weeks

Have driven through several US states but wouldn’t necessarily do it again

Lapland was also amazing in a different way (a fair few adults without kids as well)

My big birthday in a couple of years and toying between Panama Canal cruise (bucket list for me) Alaska cruise and then Costa Rica.

Or Antarctica but unlikely.

Most likely will be South Africa then Botswana safari and Victoria falls.

Borneo was amazing @wildwestpioneer we stayed on the Indonesian side and had a house boat along a river into an orangutan reserve in the Tanjung Puting National park.

Isn’t the Panama Canal slightly boring?

Also don’t understand why anyone would not sample a bit of LA. There’s Mulholland Drive, Getty Museum and various other museums worth looking at. We bypassed the tat but the Getty is outstanding.

To me, "holiday of a lifetime" means one that you'll maybe never spend that much on again, or that you'll go in circumstances that you'll never go again. eg our US west coast road trip with teens was perfect. It was post GCSE and A-levels and celebrate 50th birthdays. We spent a fortune, booked business class on the way back as a one off. We'll never have that set of circumstances again now the kids are off doing their own thing. And doubt we'd spend as much on a holiday ever again. DH and I may go back at some point, but it would be done in a cheaper way, and it wouldn't be the same experience as it would be just the 2 of us, so completely different dynamic. It wouldn't be the same.

We have continued to spend on holidays now Dc have gone. Quite nice not having to think about them. Agree 4 x business flights costs but DCs had great holidays with us. Loads of them too so never just did one “once in a lifetime” trip. My life has continued. We have had quite a few events to celebrate. The Falklands/South Georgia/ Antarctic was for our 40th wedding anniversary. We’ve found friends don’t have celebratory parties (we always did but found no one else bothered) so we decided not to bother and went on a big holiday. Definitely won’t spend that amount again! I’m not going back either so maybe that’s my “once in a lifetime”?

If anyone reading this seriously wants the Antarctic and maybe Falklands /South Georgia for a big trip, one huge piece of advice: Go on a ship with stabilizers. They retract them when you are near whales snd you notice the difference. Use an expedition ship with no more than 150 passengers. Getting into zodiacs can be slow if there’s too many passengers. These “luxuries” cost but the Drake Passage is rough. Seriously rough. So go on the best modern expedition ship you can.

I know what you're saying about LA but for us, it was a choice between taking our time down the pacific coast highway or speeding through and spending a couple of days in LA just to see the Getty, the Griffiths observatory and the Hollywood sign. We don't regret our decision to just pass through on that holiday and do intend to go back another time and do those LA things we want to do some other time.

Safari.

Argentina! It's so diverse, feels like your in a different country with each area you visit.

Buenos Aires - Tango and Gauchos
El Calafate - Perito Moreno Glacier
Iguazu - Amazing waterfalls

It's an incredible country which offers unforgettable experiences.

Who did you do Ant/Falk/S Georgia with? We went with Hurtigruten on the Fram and it was fab. We specifically went on that voyage as we'd been on the same vessel for Svalbard and wanted the smaller capacity.

We'd booked one of the bigger window cabins, but we had a chat with the lovely crew when we boarded and they gave us a really good discount on the super suite, which was lush. Right at the back of the boat with a balcony. Our Drake was rough as fuck for the first day - I think we peaked with a few 10-12m waves. It was nervewracking at times, but the boat was comfortable.

Out finances aren't the same as they were any more so don't do anything quite so fancy these days, but it was a great trip.