wanderlust help

*Barbie*

If you had ~2 weeks to travel anywhere with your SO, where would you go, what would you do/see, and why?

Assume you don't have an unlimited budget (so you might be flying coach or not staying in a 5 star hotel every night) - but still manageable. 

I'm trying to figure out something for DK and I for next year - Dad is likely going to retire mid-year, so he and Mom can come down and house/baby/dog sit for us. We'd probably be going sometime July-October.

I suggested Australia/New Zealand since it would be winter/spring there, and not ungodly hot like it will be in TX. DK wants to see the great barrier reef before it dies, so would be a good chance. I also like to travel around, so ideally we'd hit a few different cities or countries (depending on where we go). 
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I'm also looking at Iceland for Wolverine's spring break next year. I feel like March would be their "off" season (although supposedly great for auroras), but it should be open enough that we can see a lot of the attractions on the southern part of the island (and maybe be extras for GOT? - not sure when they'll be filming).  

ShesSoCold

2 weeks? Alaska.

Or huge west road trip. Like, Grand Canyon, Utah, all over and then back.

I like your Australia and Iceland thoughts too. Maybe the south pacific.

*Barbie*

We want to do Alaska with our daughter when she's a few years older (say 9-10) - old enough to appreciate it. Same with a safari.

She loves nature stuff

missJeanLouise

Croatia... best time to go is may/june and September/October.

charlotte989875

If you asked my H he was say huge national park trip; hitting as many as possible. He wants to do Zion, Yellowstone, Grabd Canyon, the Badlands..

If it were me, I'd do international travel. I really want to do a safari so I'd either go Tanzania or Kenya. I want to see rhinos and hippos, and lions and tigers before they're all dead. 

I'd also go back to Israel in a heartbeat. Jerusalem and Bethlehem are amazing, and the history and preservation is incredible. It's really easy to get around and by October the weather will be nice and it won't be super busy. 

thisismynickname2

With 2 weeks, I'd go somewhere that is not easy to get to. 

We ARE doing Iceland in late October/early November- yay! But we're doing to be arriving on Saturday and leaving on Wednesday. With 2 weeks, I would be trying to get to Australia and New Zealand, or places in Asia. Places that justify ungodly flight times, hellish jet lag, and perhaps more than one flight connection. 

I'd also ask our European contingent- definitely noticed that they often chose places to travel that Americans and Canadians wouldn't necessarily think of right off the bat (like, one of my British cousins says Mallorca or Ibiza are kind of like our Las Vegas? Maybe? Or Caribbean at least.)

What about South America? Argentina or Chile? I've been wanting to check out their respective wine countries. 

tawillers

If we had the money & time, we'd be back in Australia, like, yesterday.  We were gone for 12 days, I think - 2 whole days to travel, 6 nights in Sydney, 4 nights in Cairns.

I feel like we should have the desire to travel somewhere else, and I guess I kinda do, but going back to Australia is my #1.

ernursej

I'd do a whirlwind European adventure. Hit several major cities. Start in Amsterdam and go through several countries down to Italy and then go West or jump down to Morocco. Do Northern Europe and also hit a few big cities in Russia.

*Barbie*

I suggested Australia or Asia because of the travel time. I figured it would be a solid 2 days of travel.

In 2015, DK and I did about a week and a half in Scandinavia - we spent a few days in Copenhagen and then did a cruise and stopped in Stockholm, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, and Helsinki. It was amazing - I wish we had more time. I need to find a way to travel full time.

CMGragain

October?  Try the eastern Mediterranean.  There are 12 day cruises from Rome that include stops in Italy, Greece, and possibly Turkey (Ephasus).  This is one of our favorite cruise memories, and we have been on 22.  Princess cruises has good deals.

*Barbie*

CMGragain said:

October?  Try the eastern Mediterranean.  There are 12 day cruises from Rome that include stops in Italy, Greece, and possibly Turkey (Ephasus).  This is one of our favorite cruise memories, and we have been on 22.  Princess cruises has good deals.

Thanks. I'll look into it. We had talked about Greece last year - with the economic issues travel was very affordable. We are pretty loyal to RCCL, but I know they have some longer Med cruises. 

ILoveBeachMusic

DH and I want to do the two week River Cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam! Hopefully next year.

*Barbie*

ILoveBeachMusic said:

DH and I want to do the two week River Cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam! Hopefully next year.

@ILoveBeachMusic - we did a river cruise (Antwerp to Amsterdam) with the in-laws, 7-8 years ago. DK and I were both ~25 at the time, and easily the youngest people on the trip by a good 20-30 years. It was nice (the food was great, the included tours were cool), but the pace was a little slow for us since they were catering more to retirees. The "free" days (where there wasn't an included tour), we were ALL over the place. We also ditched a walking tour or two in favor of exploring on our own. It's something we'll likely do again, but not until we're 50-something +. 

drid

FI and I did a trip like this this past fall. We went mid-September for two weeks. Started in Amsterdam and spent about four days there (I would go back in a heartbeat. Absolutely beautiful, the people are friendly, and there is SO MUCH to see, and it's where we got engaged). We then flew to Munich, Germany, rented a car and did a four day road trip down into Austria (another gorgeous place, rural Austria is AMAAAZING) and then to Stuttgart, Germany b/c FI is a Porsche fanatic and that is where they have the factory and an incredible car museum. And then we went back to Munich and spent about four days exploring Oktoberfest (Oktoberfest is incredible. There is so much more to it than just drinking, its ENORMOUS. But even just a day in the beer tents is such a neat experience, its hard to even describe!). And then from Munich we came back home to Alberta! Surprisingly the flights were actually pretty affordable considering we flew country to country too. And I definitely recommend KLM airlines (fresh Heinekens for the win!)

For our honeymoon, we're thinking of doing Monaco to hopefully see the Formula One races while we're there and then maybe Paris or London.  

missJeanLouise

Idk if it is practical with kids or not but, I could spend a couple weeks in arches national park. Alsoandplus, I would love to raft the Colorado river through the grand Canyon.

*Barbie*

@drid - that sounds like an awesome trip! We loved Amsterdam - we saw Anne Frank's house which was incredibly moving, walked through the Rijksmuseum (not as long as I would have liked, but this was with a pre-planned tour), visited the Van Gogh Museum (and lucked out, Starry Night was in town), visited Keukenhof Gardens (we were there in the spring for the tulips), and walked all over the city - the swans in the red light district seemed like an interesting contrast. 

We haven't been to Germany or Austria, and both are on the bucket list. Did you guys get to ride on the Porsche racetrack? My company has done a few leadership conferences in the area and that was one of their field trips. (I wasn't fortunate enough to be there, but I have a few colleagues that were and they said it was really neat.)

drid

@*Barbie* we didn't do the racetrack, we rented a 911 out of Munich and made the autobahn our race track . Next time we do Amsterdam, I definitely want to go during tulip season! We brought a bunch of bulbs back and this spring my garden was a nice reminder of our trip

OurWildKingdom

You all are inspiring me! FW's bucket list includes hiking the Appalachian Trail, but my idea of traveling is two weeks on the beach. I'm getting lots of possibilities for compromise.

*Barbie*

@tawillers - I might be needing Australia recs. I was looking into logistics today, and have a few things in mind, already.

depending on time and cost, this is what i'm thinking:
Houston -> Melbourne (~3 days) -> Tasmania (overnight cruise to the island) (~2-3 days) ->Sydney (3 days) -> Cairns / Great Barrier Reef (~3 days) -> New Zealand (one island ~3 days) -> home

It's a big area, so if travel time and cost is too much, then we'll simplify. Maybe we should do it as a 3 week trip.

ShesSoCold

@jells2dot0 got married in Australia and I think she recently went back. She probably has some good info too.

Jells2dot0

I've been to both Australia and New Zealand on two different trips. We did 2.5 weeks in Australia (only Queensland!) and 2 weeks in New Zealand. Based on my experience, I don't recommend doing both with only two weeks. With the way the currency exchange has been, it's been somewhat affordable to head to either, so I'd save one for another time. Absolutely LOVED both!

I rarely take more than 1 week trips because work freaks out when we're gone for more than a few days. But, some ideas based on the longer trips we've taken:

- Maldives (The only place on this list I haven't been. We're trying to save it for a milestone trip)

- Seychelles/Mauritius (can easily combine with a safari)

- Tahiti (can easily island hop). I've been 6 times and can't get enough.

- Fiji (can easily island hop)

- Driving trip in Europe (we've done Germany-Austria-Northern Italy-Switzerland and Germany-France-Belgium-Netherlands). I did this through the BMW European Delivery program, so I got to drive my own car on the Autobahns, but they were awesome trips even if you had a rental

- we're getting ready to book a Northern Light trip in Norway followed by time in England. I'm being sent over there for work, so H is going to tag along.

CMGragain

We returned from our French river cruise two weeks ago.  The Uniworld Line has changed greatly from the last time we sailed on it in 2003.  I knew it had been bought by a large corporation.
It was a VERY UPSCALE travel experience.  Most of the passengers were frequent cruisers on luxury ocean lines like Crystal, Seaborn and Regent.  Everything was included.  The staff fell over themselves trying to please us.  We were almost a bit intimidated.  I only met one rude passenger - a 22 year old who was very full of herself.  Everyone else was lovely.
Coincidence:  We shared a table with a lovely couple, and asked the usual questions - "Where are you from?"  They wife said, "Oh, we live in Iowa."  When I asked for more information, she said "Oh, you wouldn't have heard of it.  It's a small city called Fort Dodge."  "I was born there."  She couldn't believe it, coming all the way to France to meet someone who was born in her city.

*Barbie*

@CMGragain - we were on Uniworld in 2009 when we did Antwerp to Amsterdam with the in-laws. It was *very* nice, and pretty much all-inclusive. We'd use them again, but probably not until we're a little older since at 32/33 we're not really their target customers and the pace was a little slow for us. 

*Barbie*

@Jells2dot0 - thanks for the feedback. I'll take that into consideration because there was a lot I wanted to see in New Zealand, and I know we wouldn't get to both islands. We probably won't start booking stuff for a few months, so lots of time to research. 

CMGragain

Uniworld had the most wonderful body wash ever from l'Occitaine, but it is just too expensive for me to buy it for myself.  They also gave me samples of Hermes Orange Vert lotion, shampoo and conditioner to take home.  I felt quite pampered!

Jells2dot0

*Barbie* said:

@Jells2dot0 - thanks for the feedback. I'll take that into consideration because there was a lot I wanted to see in New Zealand, and I know we wouldn't get to both islands. We probably won't start booking stuff for a few months, so lots of time to research. 

@Barbie let me know if you want any more info on NZ. We spent time on both islands- Auckland, Bay of Islands, Napier on North Island and Christchurch and Queenstown on South Island. Bay of Islands was a little quieter, but we didn't get to do everything we wanted to do in the other places and there were so many places we didn't even get to see like Nelson, Franz Joseph, Rotorua, Dunedin, etc.

We also took the Houston-Auckland flight down there. It was 15 hours but it wasn't horrible!  Not sure of your budget, but we stayed at some really nice, highly rated lodges (Kauri Cliffs, Cape Kidnappers, and Matakauri) and hotels (Langham, The George).

In Australia, as I mentioned we stayed in Queensland the entire time. We went from the southern tip (Heron Island) to the northern tip (Lizard Island) and spent some time in Cairns and Brisbane.