Couple late 50’s - relaxing holiday pottering about MayJune or SeptOct

[ToothFairy2023]

Wondering about a couples holiday now the DC are at Independent. Either early to mid May before half term or Early to mid Sept or early to mid Oct. Done Algarve and Majorca to death when the kids were younger and we holidayed in Greece and Italy separately and together when younger.

We don’t want anywhere too hot, or very hilly/high intensity and don’t want to hire a car. Just want to chill and potter about gently wandering around relaxing and reading in the shade, exploring and going out for nice meals of an evening.

Can fly from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle or Leeds for 5 to 10 days flight under 4 hours (the shorter the better).

Wondering about Italy, Sicily (but don’t know much about Sicily and destinations but have enjoyed holidays in Italy and Malta in the past), Croatia maybe a two or three centre holiday but worried about ferries. A friend flew into Split and out of Dubrovnik and visited Hvar in between. Anyone have any other suggestions for places we may have missed and could advise when the best time to book leave is. We might even fit two holidays in one early and one late.

Thanks

PS we did a short Jet2 Luxe holiday to Spain last year with our daughter the hotel was absolutely lovely but the place it was in was less so.

Sardinia, Malta or Corsica

Actually one of my employees is sardinian and she's always recommending it.

I was going to suggest Madeira but it's quite hilly!

How about a cruise or Canary Islands? Tenerife have lots of flat promenades and is good for mooching around.
I am mid 50’s and have enjoyed lots of holidays with just my DH, some of the stand out ones have been Dubai (lots to do and flat), Tenerife with a car, Cape Town (we originally went with the DC and then went again), Turkey, particularly when we’ve found a hotel where you can walk to places. One fun holiday was a mini cruise to Guernsey and another good one was four nights in Jersey. I’ve been on lots of other holidays but they are more hotel resorts or cruises with big excursions so probably wouldn’t match your brief.

Madeira. Funchal is fairly flat, plenty to do there & a wide range of hotels.
Buses & taxis are cheap

How about Lübeck and then Mecklenburg - Lake district? It's definitely one on my bucket list!

https://www.off-to-mv.com/regions/mecklenburg-lake-district

I would recommend somewhere on the Istrian peninsula (Rovinj is perfect) for a week and a second week in Lake Bled, Slovenia with time for a day or two in Ljubljana.

It's my favourite part of the world.

Another vote for the Cote D’Azur. Anywhere from Menton to Fréjus is lovely. You can chill out or explore as much as you want, and the local food is fabulous, of course. Always in France, you will be expected to make an effort to speak French, and it’s obviously not a bargain or typical package holiday destination, but costs should be reasonable outside of high season.

How about Northern Spain? The Basque Country & Galicia have some fabulous coastal cities (eg Bilbao, San Sebastián), lovely countryside, amazing wine & a world class foodie culture. It’s also the polar opposite of a ‘Brits Abroad’ place, which is a bonus.

Sicily is gorgeous. Will be hot in sept - like 35 degrees. A car helps. Taormina is "fake" but lovely - 2 days max.
Syracuse gorgeous 2 days potting. No real sea access.
Palermo is gorgeous too and has good trains to coastal places nearby. The food is divine.

Cinque Terra nearly killed me! Steps everywhere. Dragging luggage around is no fun at all. Big cruise ships disgorge tourists in the morning - the towns heave like a maggoty mouse (towns are tiny so full easily with everyone on same mission ) then empty around 4 or 5. Evenings much quieter.

We went to Sicily a few years ago. It was in October so the season was coming to an end. Which was a shame because there were a couple of organised tours we would have loved to go to but they were finished.
We stayed in a hotel on a hill above Taormina. It was a beautiful place to wander through and there were lovely shops and restaurants. At the top of the hill was a place called Castelmola which we really loved and we ate there a few evenings. It was very small and quaint.
We watched all the weather changes over Mount Etna from our hotel balcony which was amazing.
Everything where we were was built on a side of a “cliff” Our walk down to Taormina was very steep and we got taxis back. We wouldn’t have hired a car as the roads were narrow, steep and windy.
Taormina got a bit “ samey” so I was glad we also had Castelmola to visit. If our week had been broken up by a couple of organised tours, and if it had been warm enough to go in the hotel pool it would have been great.
I would LOVE to return to Sicily. I would include Catania this time and do a trip to Mount Etna. I would go June or September . October is a bit too late in the season

We are going to Sicily in April. Small boat cruise with around 120 guests. So it can be as leisurely as you want but I think most people will go and see the famous sights. At least my experience of similar cruising suggests this will be the case. Hoping April will be not too hot so we enjoy everything.

Dalyan in Turkey would be ideal. Lots of couples there although our kids absolutely loved it too. Loads of places to potter around, shops, restaurants and beautiful scenery. Boats take you down the river to the beach or along the coast and there are various interesting places to visit if you want to go further afield. The public transport including boats is really good and its a 4 hour flight away.

We love Sardinia - Alghero is a stunning walled city. Also the Costa Smeralda.

Porto is wonderful and you can take day or overnight trips down the Douro Valley. Or fly to Lisbon, do the city and then train out to Cascais for beach.

Loved Rovinj - in my memory there’s a ferry to Venice and you can go for a day.

Or Montenegro - Kotor and the fjords are fabulous.

We flew from Edinburgh to Split ,stayed 3 nights in Split then got the ferry to Hvar for 3 nights.Great holiday

It would be the nice plan if you step out with your fellows and will enjoy the trip.

Lots of ideas thanks and lots of research to do.

We can go somewhere between 4 days and two weeks. But 7 to 10 days maybe best.

A holiday earlier rather than later would be better for us. I think April would be our best month for a holiday for us but want to improve our chances of mild, nice but not too hot weather so aiming for mid May and need to be back home by say 6th or 7th June (after that would be too hot for us) but need to be at home for most of that month. Or we could do early to mid September (but think Croatia or Sicily maybe too hot for DH then). Which would leave us with the first three weeks in October (which maybe too out of Season by the sounds of it). Unsure about ferries out of season if wanted to see say two islands in Croatia.