Any suggestions?

PompeyPete

colcheslad wrote: »

+1 for Penang, seems to tick all of your boxes. If it's your 30th I definitely would avoid a cruise, give it another 20 years and maybe!

You'd be surprised.

Voyager2002

My first thought was Cuba: beautiful beaches and nature; good resorts; and lots of culture and history in the towns. The problem is finding a resort that ticks all your boxes that is within easy travelling distance of one of the interesting cities. Failiing that, they bring the culture to you: dancers and musicians perform nightly in most resorts.

Several people have mentioned Penang, which is an island in Malaysia. The capital, Georgetown, is fantastic: for beauty, history and culture, and for food. Half an hour from the city centre you have the botanical gardens, which are wild and wonderful, a place where you could gladly wander for most of the day. A staircase up from the gardens leads into a national park: mountains covered by rain-forest with hiking trails and lots of good views. The downside is that the beaches near the city are not very nice: you have to travel about 45 minutes from town to reach the beaches everyone uses (and they are nothing special), and the beautiful beaches in the national park are a fair distance away, and you are not allowed to swim there.

Bodders11

Cuba we have considered. We would quite like to do Havana and Varadero. Any suggestions on best way of booking?

Pollycat

Bodders11 wrote: »

I'm struggling.

My girlfriend and I are planning a holiday in 2020 for my 30th birthday but we don't know where to go.

We want sun and relaxation with a nice hotel. I would also like a place with cultural things/trips to do and a town/city to dress up and go out for dinner in the evening.

Ideally outside of Europe. Been to Dubai, America and Mexico. Would like Asia but my girlfriend is a little hesitant about moving about during a holiday. We did consider Bali but Seminyak, Ubud and Gili T was off putting due to moving.

So, yes, any suggestions please?

Bodders11 wrote: »

Hi All,

My girlfriend feels moving around would take away the feeling of being fully relaxed knowing you have to pack up again in a few days.

January- June to suit the climate of place we choose. Budget is flexible but ideally 1500pp +/-10% bed and breakfast plus spending money for dinner, drinks and excursions.

America was a very sweeping statement apologies. Done Vegas, Orlando and California road trip separately. Would love to do deep south road trip but not in our budget. Caribbean would be nice but hotels don't look fantastic for the price paid. Most all in too. Would both do it for the right place, though.

You wouldn't pack up your whole suitcase and take them all to Ubud and then to Gili T (or at least I wouldn't).
You'd chuck a few things into a bag and go off for a few days, leaving the rest of your stuff in your hotel (or at least that's what I'd do).

cubegame

The answer to every "where shall I go?" question is Argentina........

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5937646/move-over-usa-hello-argentina-aka-how-to-make-your-pesos-go-further

PompeyPete

Pollycat wrote: »

You wouldn't pack up your whole suitcase and take them all to Ubud and then to Gili T (or at least I wouldn't).
You'd chuck a few things into a bag and go off for a few days, leaving the rest of your stuff in your hotel (or at least that's what I'd do).

Travel light in the first place is what I'd do. Never had any problems washing stuff at the end of the day, and it being dry very quickly. Moving about, there's nobody to impress.

Voyager2002

Bodders11 wrote: »

Cuba we have considered. We would quite like to do Havana and Varadero. Any suggestions on best way of booking?

You need to check whether you can find a beach resort close enough to Havana for convenience (or vice versa). And I would suggest DIY: there is a tool called Cuba Junkie that shows all the casa particular options and allows you to book. These vary from someone's spare room to some really lavish places. And then finding flights is easy enough.

My experience was of the other end of Cuba: Santiago is a great city to visit (beautiful and interesting), although the beach resort where I spent part of my time was closer to Holguin and not convenient for day-trips anywhere. Getting from that area to Havana would be about a 12-hour drive.

(In case you are wondering: travel agents in Cuban cities would sell packages at the beach resorts that were very cheap, which is what I did but obviously you cannot rely on this.)

andrewf75

Don't understand the moving around bit. Surely you can do an all-inclusive in Asia that doesn't involve moving around?

Not really my style of holiday, but surely there are infinite options if all you want is sand, sea and a nice town to visit. If those are your only requirements why do you need to leave Europe? The options are almost endless.