Holiday destination ideas!

JoeyEmma

We are looking to go away next summer for 3 weeks, but need ideas of holiday destinations. My boyfriend is a school teacher, and we can therefore only go in school holidays (all the parents would go mad if the teachers skived the last week of school, just because its cheaper to go away). I'll be 27, he'll be 28 by the time we go!

Anyway, we want to go somewhere exciting, that has a cheap cost of living. 2 years ago we went to Thailand, which was fab, cos we got to travel around, sightsee, sleep in relatively basic but nice accomodation (but with aircon!) and spend about the same as we would just on day to day living in the UK.

Problem that we have now is thinking of somewhere to go. We have thought about the following:
-Vietnam- monsoon season
-India- monsoon season
-South Africa- winter
-One half of South America- winter
-Other half of South America- hurricane season
-Mainland Europe- now becoming really expensive for day to day living thanks to the Euro.
-Australia, Canada and USA- ££££

We don't mind taking a rucksack, but I do have a fondness for air con, although I have coped with a fan and a net before. Dorm accomodation is a no-no, as is camping!

Come on, help us with exciting ideas!

smart3

Just returned from trip across america. Basicilly niagra falls down to chicago then picked up route 66 across to new mexico then diverted upto Colorado rockies and then across to Las vegas. One way car hire. seen some fantastic sights. Most research done on tripadvisor website. Dollar/pound rate fantastic. Booked flight 1st, got best deal early manchester to Boston £327 then only a few hotels booked direct with hotel on normal cancellation policy(Best flexibilty so no ridgid timetable. Highlights other than pure varid senery. Steamtrain in durango/silverton, pergosa hot springs, old parts of route 66 santa fe, Tulsa, oklahoma, new mexican food, rodeo, whitewater rafting, boat trips around Niagra, off road in north of grand canyon in our hire vehicle, chilling out in Las vegas at the end. Done west coast tour before but you could go coast to coast. I used hotels with free Wifi to check on hotels for next day. Hope that helps
Regards
Graham

littlereddevil

Would thoroughly recommend Malaysia or Sri Lanka or even Canada but that would be more expensive

eastendhammer

How about travelling around the greek islands? We have done this twice now and my girlfriend and I have just returned from doing it for a week round the dodecanese islands and would thoroughly recommend it, and we wished we'd gone for longer! The flight was very cheap booked last minute to Koz (£125) and stayed overnight there and found a really cheap 4* hotel (£50 room b&b) Then we got a ferry (very cheap) to samos and basically worked our way down through the islands, samos, leros, tylos, symi, rhodes and back to kos for the flight home. All the islands were different and standards of hotel and taverna's varied but all in all it was fantastic. We came back with amazing tans (probably due to the heatwave) some excellent pictures and felt like we'd really been away and achieved something. All hotels were booked either on arrival or on the internet the night before very easily. The main thing is its still very cheap to eat, drink and stay in this country even with the euro (like spain 8-10yrs ago) Most importantly was the fact that the locals were so so friendly and helpful and all spoke very good english.

JoeyEmma

Thanks for the tips!

Eastendhammer and Smart3 just out of curiosity, how much did you spend roughly a day? How much was the average hotel, and how much cash per day did you spend on sightseeing, lunches, tea, drinks and all the other black holes where money seems to disappear into on holiday?