Where to go for big holiday

[redtreesummer]

Big birthday coming up and we can not decide where to go. Two adults and an 8 year old. We are after hot weather, swimming, wildlife, mixture of a fancy pants hotel and villa stay for a couple of weeks, in the summer holidays next year. So far on our short list: California, Borneo, Belize, Southern Africa. I would appreciate any thoughts or ideas, feeling slightly bamboozled!

Costa Rica.

Sri Lanka.

Definitely South Africa.

Edit. -sorry I see you said summer holidays. How hot is hot enough? Much of California is very hot at that time of the year.

Mexico, we had a split stay between 2 different areas last summer.

Saw lots of wildlife, went swimming with turtles, weather was amazing and had an all round wonderful holiday.

Thanks all, sorry, now I reveal how picky I am. I LOVE South Africa but it will be in the middle of winter there which appeals less, Sri Lanka is out as we went there last year. Costa Rica is an interesting idea but I have heard mixed reviews including that it is really American (I know California is on the list) and eye watering expensive but wildlife is awesome I imagine...

@MrsWhites where in Mexico were you?

Tanzania, and combine it with Zanzibar. Both amazing.

Borneo is a good choice weather wise in the summer holidays. I have been to Sabah and Sarawak: great wildlife, long houses, kayaking, national parks. We also spent a few days in Brunei.
i prefer Sarawak and we stayed in Kuching. In Sabah we stayed in Kota Kinabalu which is fine and you can visit the nearby islands for a day at the beach. Shangri La have a couple of resorts there and the one outside the towns
is beautiful and used to have an orangutan rescue centre there. The one in the centre of KK is more central for exploration/days out.
Restaurants were good value.

Indonesia is also worth a look as dry in Bali and Java then or central Vietnam.

I would have said Mexico, Riviera Maya is lovely but it's hurricane season in the summer.

Borneo is really appealing, thanks for the tips @ShanghaiDiva. It is a pain it will need to be in summer holidays as it does limit options

Thailand

ghana.

sri Lanka

never been impressed with California been 3 times now for various reasons wouldn’t rush back. (Brother lives in Az which is why we’ve been back).

Riviera maya area, lots of resorts all the way along the coast. We loved the tulum area, visited some ruins, cenotes, swam with turtles which was just amazing, a couple of adventure parks and you can visit the Sian khan biosphere - natural park.

Holbox island is then amazing for beaches, the riviera maya beaches get a lot of seaweed but Holbox isn’t affected in the same way so the beaches there are incredible. Very quiet small island but an amazing place to relax after a busier week.

We went during hurricane season but were very lucky with the weather, it rained twice for about 10 min the whole time.