Holiday recommendations

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

Oh, great and wise Dope…

I have to burn 2 weeks holiday before the end of the year. This is not including Christmas, when I have a trip planned, but I was wondering what recommendations people might have to spend my 2 weeks holiday?

Criteria:

  1. Not more than a couple hours flight time from London, because the Girlfriend might come meet me somewhere for a long weekend at the beginning or end
  2. I want warm, if possible, and would ideally like some beach weather if possible
  3. It will be end of October / beginning of November
  4. I’m an American living in London, so don’t really want to spend holidays going to South or North America; I can always do that if / when I move back to the US at some point in the distant future. Besides I was just back in the US for 3 weeks, and might be there for another 3 weeks in late November so don’t really feel the need for that
  5. SE Asia (Thailand / Vietnam / Laos / Burma) is out because the GF would kill me for not going with her.
  6. I’m not too keen on going to India; never been, it’s just not high on my agenda of cool places to go
  7. I don’t want to spend a huge amount; £1,000 ($2,000 US) is about it, including flights. I’m not adverse to the whole stay in a hostel thing either.

Any ideas out there in the land of the hugely intelligent dopers?

#2

I’ve never been there, but my friend said India was really interesting and she’d like to go back. Take a look at some tourism info.

http://www.tourindia.com/htm/homepage.htm

Of course, ymmv.

#3

You want beach weather, but do you want a beach?

London is a pretty good place to pickup good airfares which will probably be the biggest expense… esp. if you are staying a hostel. Are you legally resident in the UK (i.e. can you make use of the foreign embassies there which normally requires a residence permit)?

Also, your two hour flight time may not be enough to get someplace really warm. If you can extend the flight time a bit, how about: Cyprus, Lebanon/Syria (depending on the situation at the time) or Egypt. Of course there is always Spain… close by.

#4

Sure, why not? Just not sure if I want to stay on a beach for the whole 2 weeks. I do enjoy scuba diving, windsurfing, and mountain biking so am thinking about an ‘active’ holiday in Egypt or Doha, but not sure yet…

#5

Mountain biking holidays seem really popular at the moment- Morzine and Les Gets are the classic destinations from the UK, but there’s probably good stuff to be found in other parts of the Alps or Pyrenees. The trails there are the real McCoy though, so you would either need to take your bike and all your stuff on the airplane, or go with a dedicated mtb guide/holiday outfit who can lay on a decent bike.

#6

That sounds like a possibility… I might take the Eurostar to Paris, then TGV to Bourg and go from there. Would be interesting anyways :slight_smile: