Special, lux 40th birthday hols - generous budget!

[mamato3rascals]

Looking for recommendations for a special 40th birthday trip, kids will be 4, 6, 8. We are planning Florida for the year after as a big family holiday for dad’s 70th so looking at alternatives.

Had been looking at the Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi, but generally looking for recommendations. Max 8 hour flight.

A fairly generous budget as just been promoted and want to celebrate!

Please do share ideas or any direct experiences !

What is a “generous budget”?

And looking for more chill out beach / pool resort
or more activities and exploring?

Probably a bit of both in terms of activities but also a couple of chill days. Looking to be away c 5, maybe 6, nights.
£8k budget.

What board basis?

I’d be very surprised if you get the Emirates palace for 5 people during school holidays for £8k unless you weren’t including flights?

Any of the Ikos resorts. I'd avoid Dubai like the plague. Tacky place.

Porto Sani. But will need a higher budget

Forte Village in Sardinia

We staying at the Four Seasons Sharm el sheikh in October which looks pretty swish! I'll report back

Fyi, I'm a travel agent and I sometimes get very good deals on luxury properties, so do shout if I can price something up for you (or do the research too)

You manage to get in that you’re a TA and can price things up etc in every single post i have read from you!

out of interest, how is an independent TA paid?

What time of year?

Sharm El Sheik is an absolute shit hole. Don’t go there for a luxury holiday unless you want to be stuck in the hotel for the entire time. (Ex travel agent here)

Lol, I do post on other topics as well, but if I'm replying to a travel related post it would be silly not to mention it as it's what I do! I think I've mentioned it on four posts in the last 2 months, so that's hardly excessive given the volume of new threads.

To answer your question, like other travel agents, I make money on commission. If you book a hotel through booking.com then booking.com retain a percentage (e.g. 10%) and pay the remainder to the hotel company. If you book through me, I get that commission instead. I have a number of different trade websites I can check for the best prices, and I can also contact the hotel directly for a better rate.

For some options the commission is fixed, for others I can adjust my commission down to give my client a better price. Whether I can do this really depends on the total spend and the number of hours I've spent researching options for them (as I don't want to be making less than minimum wage!). But if a client comes to me with something very specific e.g. "I want hotel X on these dates - can you beat this price?" Then I'm happy to take a lower commission percentage and discount further, as that process is much quicker than the usual hours I spend researching.

Hope that all makes sense?

@MabelWotsits it is a bit different from the holidays we usually do, that's for sure! But I think we'll do day trips out to Ras Mohammed National Park, and the Blue Hole. I've also booked us flights to Cairo for the day(!) to see the pyramids (I wasn't originally going to bother with this, but I then found out that ancient Eygpt is going to be my son's school topic next term, so I know he'll be desperate to see them!)

What happens if you put suggestions to a client and then they just book direct themselves?

Google experiences of the pyramids and even on mumsnet… meant to be epically disappointing

I was going to say boat charter or safari when I saw generous but would be more than 8k

Lux? So opulence rather actually interesting?

as not even a week I’d be looking at shorter flight times, how about Morocco? Your budget will get you a good 5 star hotel and it’s very reasonable tj get a driver to take you on an Atlas Mountains tour and dinner at a local place etc which was so delicious. I personally wouldn’t touch the middle east on ethical grounds

Loads more! Op doesn’t clarify whether she’s including flights and board but I suspect that the £8k budget is for accommodation, boats and flights. For 5. In which case sadly it certainly won’t get the emirates on abu Dubai!!

That does happen occasionally. Unless they have a good reason for it, I just mentally note to myself that I shouldn't quote for them again.

We went to Liberty Fabay in Turkey for a special birthday and had the most amazing holiday. Best hotel and staff. The wet and wild day trip through animal excursion is great.

Edited for spelling mistake.

That's a shame @Blottum as I thought they were very impressive when I saw them pre kids (but we're probably talking 10 years ago now!)

Like many popular sights, the level of enjoyment is probably very dependent on how you do it. You do need to be a bit strategic! Our flight arrives very early, so we'll go to Giza before it gets busy, and then we'll get an uber to the Bent pyramid in Dahshur (as that was my favourite one last time - it's much quieter than Giza and feels like it's in the middle of nowhere)

I suspect a lot of people find the touts around Giza rather overwhelming which can sour the experience; but this is one of those situations where dressing appropriately and learning 'no, thank you' in Arabic makes a huge difference. They will recognise you're more savvy than most and quickly move on. (A good independent travel agent should give you helpful advice like this 😉)

@mamato3rascals you can’t beat Cavo Tagoo in Santorini (been in the island many times)

check this out : https://www.cavotagoo.com/santorini?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22408695313&gbraid=0AAAAAqzutvBGpB6i3g3pv359up2V-YweU&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnJfEBhCzARIsAIMtfKIQjFYUYiWYLoZlqUJz8jyfieXkvXqQODMlRDO97H6KQ0RJMzMPVoIaAuCfEALw_wcB

I think it’s more that now very run down and shabby

Agree. We had a fabulous time in Marrakesh: fabulous good, the YSL gardens and great drinks in roof top bars watching the sunset.
we stayed in a riad in the median but am sure a five star hotel would provide a balance between adult and child activities.
https://mamounia.com/en/the-experiences/un-sejour-de-5-nuits-pour-le-prix-de-4.html