Best ever couples holiday

[Spanielsandpups]

Hi everyone

we are wanting to go on an all out holiday pre kids… our dream has always been an African safari but would love to hear any other ideas whilst we are in the dreaming and planning stage!

thanks so much

DH and I did lots of travelling pre kids and went to some amazing places including safari in SA, but I think the holiday we loved the most was the Maldives.

Not as adventurous as many of our trips but we were working stupid hours at the time and needed the R&R and the beauty and the snorkelling blew us away.

I would honestly pick it over safari. Although sadly many of the reefs aren’t what they were back then.

Anywhere long haul with more freedom and less structured - India, Thailand, backpacking, beach huts, hiring mopeds etc. Theoretically you can do some of these with kids but the hassle, risk and planning involved means you’ll probably prefer safe easy holidays with kids.

We did a private tour in Thailand, guide, driver and us. Then 5 days Koh Samui.
We are currently looking at Cambodia/Vietnam to do something similar next year (DD is at uni).

Two weeks Canada, Road trip from Montreal up to Quebec and back.

Normally I would say USA but there is no way I can recommend it again at the moment. We did Boston then driving to Newport and then down to NY. We planned Autumn in Vermont/New Hampshire and Spring in South Carolina but that's all on hold.

Our best ever holiday was Mexico. Our travel agent set it all up. We travelled on our own starting in Mexico City and had several internal flights. At each airport we were met by a driver and a guide who took us out that afternoon and the following day. In the evenings we were left to our own devices to wander the towns and eat at pavement cafes. Unfortunately I don’t think it is safe to do this anymore. You are likely to be mugged, kidnapped or worse in some of the towns we remember most fondly.

How long do you have? Train around European cities would be wonderful, light luggage, carefree, see amazing architecture, museums, food, etc. I’d save the safari and beach type holidays for later with children if you end up having any.

We have loved both Costa Rica and Japan. Lots of travelling around both countries.

It depends on how active you want to be. Our last holiday pre-kids was supposed to be a fall tour of New England but 9/11 meant it was cancelled. We went last minute to the Maldives, which we didn’t think was our “type” of holiday but absolutely loved it (never made it to New England). I’d probably recommend something similar with plenty of time to relax. Once kids are 10+ you can have all sorts of fantastic holidays, budget allowing, and we’ve done active holidays since they were 4ish. They’re students now but still come on most holidays with us and our week without them is spent in the Caribbean or similar. Recent amazing family holidays have been American and Australian road trips, Costa Rica and a brilliant South Africa/ Namibia tour.

Ha similar here! We were supposed to be going to Bolivia and Chile and then flights got ridiculously expensive so went to the Maldives on a last minute deal instead.

Re saving safari and beach holidays for when you have kids -yes and no. Safari you would need to wait until they are old enough to have the vaccines and anti malarials, and many safari lodges won’t take under 6s on game drives. (Although you can visit some small non malarial reserves in SA with small kids). Beach holidays, yes in general but IME the Maldives is tricky with kids as it’s a long multi step journey, blooming expensive, and the main things to do are snorkelling and diving (and relaxing!) which you can’t do with small kids.

None of these are bad options though OP! Enjoy!

One of our favourite trips was Texas , we hired a dodge ram and traveled for 2 weeks booking b&bs then the second week we stayed at a ranch in bandera . We had a fabulous time and saw quite a bit of if Texas . The other was a motorhome trip in Scotland which was absolutely brilliant.

We did an Indian tour last year, amazing trip all private transfers and tours, 5 star hotels and no more than a half decent trip to Tenerife! So many options and you can also do a lot yourself if you don’t want a local fixer

The issue is, you have no idea what kind of child you will get.

DD is ND, she was ok with a beach resort every couple of years until she was around 12 and had an ASD burnout, since then she is super sensitive about noise and our last beach holiday was a disaster, pools and sea is really difficult for her to manage.

She isn't able to cope in Asia and a safari is also not possible.

So we had to wait until she is now at uni to plan a more unusual holiday again.
On the other hand, we had amazing holidays together in Europe, she is a gem to take on a museum/sightseeing trip since she is a toddler and her choice for her 18th birthday was a tour of the Loire castles.

I don't regret the Canada road trip or doing Thailand before she was born.

Zanzibar and Oman.

Mekong river cruise

Doha

Dubai, both these offered a great range of activities and every day was different plus the evenings were really good.

Alaskan cruise

Spa/beach hotel in Tuscany and then a wedding

Werdly a short break in Tenerife with a car. I loved the roads and like Dubai and Doha each day was different.

Prague with lots of activities, different evenings venues, spa treatments and five star hotels.

Norwegian Fjords Cruise - on the smaller ferries, so good
Croatia - lovely, simple holiday and lots of great food - (northern Croatia)
Ghana- simply awesome

Hoping to go to Jordan later in the year

Thank so much all - how do you all book your holidays? We have always just booked each part individually but with a bigger holiday I was thinking of using a travel agent or a specialised company, would this be a good idea? If so who would you recommend please?

I do a mixture, for example I am on a trip next month and have booked flights, a hotel
for one night and a cruise separately.
Last year I went in a big trip in Asia and booked my own flights and used a Chinese company for the rest, hotels, guides, excursions, drivers, train tickets etc, they sorted everything.
I think it depends on where you want to go.

6 weeks in our camper travelling to Croatia and back was bloody amazing. Similarly 6 weeks in Indonesia.
Unfortunately no 2 week holiday is likely to hit fabulous for me, I need longer!!!! Luckily work are happy to give me 3 to 4 weeks. That being said Cuba, in 2016 for 2 weeks was blooming special but we did a lot more than your 2 centre Havana and Varadero package

Best pre kids holiday was South America. I had gone travelling there when younger for several months, but on this trip we just did some compressed highlights which included flying into Rio for a few days, then island hopping to Isla Grande and Isla Bella; and then back to Paratay on mainland. From there a flight to Iguazu falls (Brazilian side; then across the border to Argentinian side) before heading to Buenos Aires for a final few days. I’m struggling to remember how long this holiday was- possibly 3 weeks. You could easily miss out the Argentinian/ iguazu leg and have a super two weeks in Brazil. Trail finders are brilliant with these kind of destinations.

A safari in South Africa is really easy to combine with Mauritius! I’d recommend going to Trailfinders as they can advise
I can highly recommend Paradise Cove which is adults only
https://www.paradisecovehotel.com/en?sjrncid=GA_20260659040&sjrnaid=GA_661298141992&sjrnclid=GA_paradise+cove+boutique+hotel&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20260659040&gbraid=0AAAAApwwb0FB8s_eniq9C4Lyori3ukzcM&gclid=CjwKCAiAmp3LBhAkEiwAJM2JUGZPEKy8krjr-56cBndrYx6DrYMBfD2ep7HZp4UebH8QxV_6S4aYPxoCTpYQAvD_BwE

I'm looking at South America for my big birthday next year, so this is really helpful.

Can I ask who you did the river cruise with? I have just booked one, and am feeling very apprehensive about it!

Bit of a mix. We normally use a company like Trailfinders or similar if it is a bigger trip to save us the hassle of organising every leg ourselves. We may pay more but for me it also means I have a contact if something goes wrong.

For a European trip we do most things ourselves. For example we go to Italy this year, booked flights, hotel for stop one, train tickets, car hire and hotel for stop 2.
For another trip we used Tui as it was actually cheaper than booking separately.

Scenic, I’ve been on a couple now and looked at lots of the ships and from the outside they all look fairly similar. What are you feeling apprehensive about?

We did it slightly different with our DC and flew to Rio and then to Iguassa and stayed on the Argentine side and hired a driver. It was a fabulous trip.

I’ve never been to that side of the world, so completely new culture. I have also never done a cruise.

so just a completely different step outside my comfort zone. I am sure it will be amazing