Recommend me a long haul holiday please

Incapuppy

If you are seriously considering Sri Lanka you could do a lot worse than start off with a copy of Mercury Direct's faraway brochure. They offer a good selection of AI beach hotels in Sri Lanka and they utilise scheduled flights. That will give you a better idea of what you fancy and you can then compare prices with other operators.

They have tours of Sri Lanka varying in length from 2 nights to 7 nights that are very reasonably priced. You could probably do it cheaper if you booked a mini-tour locally but we went last year as first-time visitors (with Kuoni) and found the pre-booked tour arrangements perfect for our first visit.

If you really want a holiday to remember with sights and experiences that will be very special then I would highly recommend SL. I think I would also recommend doing a tour of some duration followed by a 'beach flop' especially for a first time visitor.

I shall stop banging on about SL on here in case you lose the will to live :rotfl: but if you would like any more info please feel free to PM me

janiebaby29

Thankyou so much for your help , looks like IT is going to be sri lanka , i can see myself spending a lot of time researching late into the night

Emmylou_2

We went to Margarita this July (it's an island off Venezuela at the bottom of the Caribbean) to the Laguna Mar through First Choice... and it was AMAZING. We spent 12 days lying on the beach/by the pool and did an overnight trip to the mainland where we stayed in the jungle (well, nearly) and walked through waterfalls and went in a teeny tiny weeny (12 seater) plane over Angel Falls...

I didn't want to come home and would go back again (except there's SO MUCH world to see and I wanna see it ALL!)

The hotel was lovely, the rooms were amazing, the food was great and the rep was one of the best I've ever met...

boxtin

Why not consider Turkey ? In September , it is about 25-30 degrees. The Turquoise Coast - Dalaman Airport for this area - is beautiful. Oludeniz/Fethiye region is great for scenery. And on top of that , the pound is really good value at the moment.
Lots of great places to visit in the area too.

janiebaby29

boxtin wrote: »

Why not consider Turkey ? In September , it is about 25-30 degrees. The Turquoise Coast - Dalaman Airport for this area - is beautiful. Oludeniz/Fethiye region is great for scenery. And on top of that , the pound is really good value at the moment.
Lots of great places to visit in the area too.

been to turkey twice but its not long haul , i want to go out of europe thanks for your reply

poe.tuesday

you could got to Dreams resort in Tulum, Mexico, 5 star all inc (supadupa all inc too) for that cost, it's coming up as just under 2 k for this september with cosmos, you can also go with virgin. there is another really nice hotel called azul beach that is smaller but it does not have the same amount of eating choices that dreams has

thing about mexico is that you have the option of staying in the hotel and doing nothing if you want to, or if you want activites such as watersports, diving etc it also has that on offer along with good shopping, sights and great food

I have been to sri lanka too and loved it there but much preferred Mexico

other option you may like is Cuba, you will be able to get a good hotel for your budget

Incapuppy

Hi poe - I knew you would be along soon to recommend Mexico - its on my wish list too

I was thinking about this this morning, Janie - it all depends on what exactly you want most from your holiday. Whilst I still thoroughly recommend Sri Lanka as a fantastic destination, if you are looking more for your tropical AI beach paradise holiday then I think perhaps Mexico (or indeed Cuba) may fit the bill a little better.

I bet you're even more confused now

Pollycat

I think you've had some pretty good advice so far already, I've been to Sri Lanka a number of times and loved it.

There's quite a lot to see, a tour would be a good idea.
We've been as far north as Anaradapura, east to Trimcomalee (but that may now be 'off-limits' again), south to Galle and Yala National Park and inland to Kandy (Temple of the Tooth is a must-see), Nuwara Eliya (tea country) and to Sygaria (where Duran Duran filmed one of their videos).

Weather can be a bit iffy and I think October/November start to get quite rainy, check out this website for average rainfall month by month:
http://www.weatherbase.com/

Does your £2k budget include food & drink?

The Yucatan Peninsular (Mexico) will give you great nightlife, fabulous white beaches and lots to do including swimming with dolphins and a bit of culture (Chichen Itza & Tulum) thrown in.

I've not been but have you considered Egypt's Red Sea resorts?

shelly

I don't know how much it costs these days but the Moon Palace Golf Resort in Mexico is gorgeous.
We went on honeymoon 7 years ago and would love to go back. I think we left the hotel grounds only twice in 2 weeks.
They have a chain of (IIRC) 6 or 7 hotels and you can go to any of them and have full use of all the facilities.

Pollycat

If you do consider the Moon Palace, do be aware that it's quite a way from the main drag (aka Hotel Zone).

Local buses (very cheap) run every few minutes from (I think) the Westin Hotel all the way to Downtown Cancun, but they don't go as far as the Moon Palace.
It's easy to hop onto a bus and go to one of the many shopping malls, clubs or restaurants from most of the other hotels.
I don't think the MP would have suited us (purely from a location viewpoint) but if you really want an away-from-it-all holiday, you should take a serious look at the Moon Palace.