Holidays with rainforest/ jungle/ nature?

needanewjob

So I'm trying to plan a 25th wedding anniversary trip for next September, 2 weeks. Costa Rica - 4 days cloudforest and rest beach sounded perfect until looking into it, flights from Manchester looking nightmarish. Riviera Maya Mexico or Khao Kak Thailand looking promising. Anyone else done anything incorporating beach and nature type stuff, eg, overnight treehouse in jungle/ eco parks in Mexico and care to share destinations? Thanks

donglemouse

you can fly direct to san jose, costa rica from london with BA in under 12 hours and then costa rica is pretty small so you can get most place in a couple of hours by road

what is specific you want to do with the jungle/rain forest stuff - walk? watch widlife? (any wild life in particular?) any limit on how far you want to fly?

if you tell me a bit more we can probably make suggestions

some rain forest locations like borneo, brazil, peru etc. are going to be even more travelling time to get to than costa rica

needanewjob

Hello Donglemouse. I would like to fly from Manchester, I don't want the faff of going to London. I think that pretty much excludes Central & South America. We want some walking trails and wildlife, don't want to be on a sunlounger for two weeks! We've up to £3.5k to spend as it's a one off trip, but I really couldn't imagine sitting on a plane for much more than, say, 12 hours.

donglemouse

Mexico? You could fly direct Manchester-Cancun in 11 hours (looks like Thomas Cook's the one flying that route) and then there's a whole variety of places to stay/see along that coast (Playa Del Carmen etc.) for all tastes/budgets. You could do as much or as little as you wanted? Plenty of easy day trips to places like Tulum, Chichen Itza etc.

I think Mexico is still reasonably cheap as the currency is struggling given their current situation with their US neighbours

South East Asia would be >12 hours flying

Someone else will probably come up with some better suggestions shortly

Hanchwinz

I have travelled to Mexico a few times and in some areas found it cheaper to go via USA rather than buy a direct flight so it's worth looking into if you decide to go there. As donglemouse ^^ has pointed out there are lots of places to visit from Riviera Maya, they also have a lot of 'ecoparks' where you can see lots, though they are fairly touristy so depends what you like. Further in-land you will find things less aimed at tourists, Chichen Itza is really fantastic. You will find many hotels also have things on offer e.g. biking, walking etc often included in the price.


I have also been to Costa Rica and had friends visit there too. My friends used Air BnB (don't know if I will be allowed to post that or it will be against forum rules!) they absolutely raved about it and found somewhere fantastic and good value. When we visited we booked a package as it was a fantastic deal (flight + all inclusive) and we then did day trips out of the resort e.g. visited Nicaragua, cloud forest, hired a car etc. Costa Rica was very unspoilt and lots of beautiful things to see but we found it slightly more expensive day-to-day probably because of this and I must be honest we didn't go 'off the beaten track'. We would love to go again and see more things so I would definitely recommend there and depending what you like, I would say it is less "Americanised" (I recognise the irony of that given it is in Central America!).


I won't mention South East Asia - unless you are interested in a longer flight!

needanewjob

Thanks for your view Hanchwinx. I understand what you're saying regarding flights, I'm looking for most direct and stress free way of travelling to whatever destination we decide on. Perhaps Mexico could offer whatever we are looking for. We're not exactly after a back to nature wildnerness thing, more a taste of the flora and fauna of the country. The Ecoparks look great, and assuming they would not be over busy last two weeks in September? I'm off to search the internet (yet again!)

gettingtheresometime

If the holiday you want goes from London is it really a faff to get there?

We travel a similar distance but go up the night before on the train, stay at a hotel (b&b cost £56 for 2) and then leisurely go to the airport.

Train ticket & rail card were bought with Tesco vouchers

elsien

Have you considered Madagascar? Got some great places to visit on the nature front.

agrinnall

I'd like to suggest Tobago, great beaches and surprisingly jungly, and you can get pretty much anywhere on the island within a couple of hours. I stayed in Charlotteville, which is beautiful.

Teahfc

Costa Rica all day long, has everything you could want, worth paying extra and enjoying so many micro climates, volcano, beaches, rain forests.
Best place I have been in my 35 years of travelling.

scumsthorne

New Zealand.(thinking outside the box)