If you could spend 6 weeks next summer anywhere, where would you go?

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I've got a lot of accrued annual leave. My boss is ok for me to take 6 weeks in a row next year. DH is self employed and takes the school summer holidays off anyway so we’re thinking of taking advantage of the kids also being off and being away for the whole time.

But where to? Long haul destinations don’t always have great weather in July and Aug and whilst we’ve got a healthy budget we can’t break the bank.

where would you go?? Kids will be 11 and 13

A fancy motorhome and go to various locations around Europe such as Italy, Switzerland, Croatia etc.

The Rockies in Canada. I drove from Calgary through the Rockies to Vancouver in July one year and it was very warm and sunny the whole time.

If you want to stay in one location and would prefer Europe then I’d go with Greece and you can always do some island hopping

I'd do a road trip around the USA!

We spent 6 weeks in Moncarapacho in Portugal sept-oct last year. Found a 5 bed airbnb (split across 2 houses) for about £100/night. It had a pool, roof terrace, tennis court, pool table, foosball table... all set in an orange grove. It wasnt super fancy (2 old farmhouses) but it had character and the host was lovely. we had family and friends come out to stay over the weeks. It was brilliant.

Husband wfh for 4 of those weeks from the garage. I had a hire car and took the kids to the beach and nearby towns and parks to entertain them in the day.

South East Asia - fly to Singapore and get train up to Kuala Lumpur. Then get a cheap Air Asia flight to Borneo to Kota Kinabalu and Sepiloknfor the orangutans.
Then fly/train up to Bangkok and then up to Chiang Mai etcZ

Six weeks would give you a heap of time to see a hefty amount of SE Asia.

I'd opt for somewhere where the cost of living is low so you can say yes to everything the kids want to do
We had 3 weeks in Sri Lanka in school summer holiday and could easily have doubled the time.
Once you've paid for flights, accomodation for all four of you could be as low as £30 a night.

Thailand

I'd do Canada/US/South America

I’ll second the Sri Lanka idea. We were there over summer for almost 3 weeks and saw a fraction of the country. Easily spend 6 weeks. Amazing sights and local agent like Blue Lanka Tours can put an itinerary together for you for very reasonable costs! There’s so much to see and do. Albeit it us pretty hot over the summer months.

We’ve spent 4 weeks San Fran, across to Yosemite and back across then down highway one to LA/San Diego with our 3 teens.
Id also highly recommend Costa Rica but that’s probs 3 weeks as it’s not super cheap. We had 3 and it was about right for what we did. Or South Africa but again not super cheap esp if you take in a safari.

This is interesting. I always fancied a Greek villa for a month or more. When we were flying to Greece last year for 2 weeks we met a lovely family at the airport who had rented a villa for a month. Was super jealous.

We bumped into them a few times whilst we were there and they were flying home 10 days early - which was the soonest flight back they could get.

They hadn’t anticipated how expensive it would be to eat out for a month and how draining it was cooking in the villa, cleaning, washing etc which you don’t tend to do if you’re only there a week or two.

So my takeaway from that is that you need to be able to afford not to have to do the shit you do at home for 6 weeks - make sure you factor that in!

Scandinavia. I wouldn't risk southern europe in high summer these days. Conversely Scandinavia could be brilliant

I'd go to Austria or a similar location and just hike and swim and cycle and look at the view.

Or Canada and do the same if the budget stretched that far.

Asia, probably Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. Or South America, as much as I could get around.

I would go to Canada, six weeks in Canada in summer is my dream holiday! One day...

Norway or Sweden
Maldives haha

We are heading to South East Asia with our 3 teenagers this summer for 6 weeks. Have been planning it for years, starting in Thailand, then Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai and home. We are so excited. Research the weather, not as bad as you think. Might rain for an hour but could be fine the rest of the time.

Probably Turkey. Start in Istanbul and end travelling along the south coast - with Cappadocia and Pamukkale in the middle. We did this several years ago over a couple of weeks.
Asia doesn't have great weather in the summer hols I don't think and is it same for central America? Europe is very expensive especially Scandinavia - eating out eye wateringly so - but Turkey is a little cheaper than Europe, great food and so much to see and do. Distances are large though!
It depends if you want to travel around, or do you want a villa for the 6 weeks?

SW France, Med end of the Pyrenees, love it down there, the coast isn't too far away, small coastal villages packing great food and boat trips, hiking, cycling, rafting all available in the Pyrenees and surrounds, can go higher if it gets too hot.
Shopping trips to Andorra, Spain is available too.

Never found these areas of France expensive to either stay in or eat at, depends what you re used to though.

Stating the slightly obvious but it depends what sort of holiday and surroundings you want. Do you fancy far-flung and very different (South-East Asia, South America)? Relaxing and hot/warm but a bit more familiar (Europe)? Touring/big skies/mountains etc (USA/Canada).
I'd probably go for Canada and stay in a few places (Vancouver, Montreal, some remote island somewhere). Or, very different but lovely, a comfortable house with a garden and terrace somewhere on the Adriatic (I love Croatia) and just enjoy having time to do lots of leisurely beach/swimming, towns/history, island jaunts and day trips inland to lakes, forests etc.
Or Poland? Beautiful towns and cities with tons of historical interest, lakes and forests, Baltic beaches.

I wouldn't be travelling with kids though, so am probably in the market for a different sort of trip.

South west Germany - it's beautiful and great for active kids. With a few jaunts into nearby Switzerland and Austria.

Some great ideas here, thank you.

I’m longing for our backpacking days (though appreciate things will be very different 20 years later and with kids in tow).

I may look into a house swap too actually….

Come to Australia! It's our dry season/winter, perfect time to travel through the Central desert and see Coober Pedy, Uluruthe Kimberly...

Norway, Finland and possibly Sweden. I loved Norway the last time I went (a very long time ago) and the furthest North that we went was Bergen. I'd love to go further north, especially Tromso.

Campervan around America or Europe!

India 🇮🇳.