Need ideas for holidays over Christmas and New Year

[Bitteralmond]

Due to work commitments the only time DH and I (middle-aged no DCs) can get away is over Christmas. Neither of us is at all fussed about celebrating Christmas, DH is from another culture and I don't really like Christmas. We are looking for somewhere warmer than the UK, but not necessarily really hot. I don't mind long haul, but DH is not so keen as we will have 9 days max. Have already thought about Madeira, Italy, Thailand, the Caribbean and Oman. Last time we went to Seville and loved it, but would like to go to a different country this time. If anyone has experience of those places or any other suggestions, I would be interested. We usually book flights and hotel separately, and have never been AI.

Bump.

If you are happy with a really long travel, we loved Hawaii in December. The islands are special and so diverse with geography, it is very differnt. But obviously it's a long travel and expensive.

Colleagues went to Barbados after Christmas and enjoyed it. It's an island you can discover easily with a rental car and safe.

@reluctantbrit Did you use a tour company for Hawaii or did you arrange it yourself? Barbados is somewhere we considered a couple of years ago, and is definitely still on the list.

For Hawaii, we booked flights and hotels ourselves, DH had a confernce there so the accomodation on Maui was booked via the organisors. We just added on and paid that part extra.

We had a rental car on Maui and Big Island and did tours ourselves. It's really easy as long as you check which roads are covered as some require 4Wheel and extra insurance from the rental company.

We looked into it last year again and spoke to Trailfinders, they had a decent selection of hotels and we could have booked everything as a package.

Barbados was booked as a package via Virgin as DH sat on a fortune of miles we converted. But we went in April, my colleage went in December and I think they booked it via BA as a flight and hotel.

Maldives?

Kerala?

@Twilightstarbright Kerala crossed my mind yesterday. The Maldives doesn't appeal because neither of us are just sitting on the beach, or by the pool people and I have heard there is not much else to do in The Maldives. One of those river cruises in Kerala does appeal to me.