STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Hermes

ideas?

gingembre1 · Kate Spade

*Tahiti

*Fiji

*Martinique

*India - for specific recommendations on where to go in India, PM me and I'll send you the list one of my Indian friends gave me for my trip next year.

*Borneo

*Canary Islands

*Cozumel

*Cyprus

*Turkey

*Portugal

*Azores

*Isla de Las Mujeres

*Seychelles

*Egypt (specifically, the Red Sea) I was just in Hurghada about a month ago, and I would recommend the Red Sea, or Egypt in general, a thousand times over.

*Greece

*Croatia (It's kind of the new "IT" destination in Europe, but not crowded yet)

These are all on my list of where I'd like to go. Some of them I chose for the culture/history, some purely for the beauty of the beaches, but most for a combination of the two. All of these also have a good range of choices for the kind of accomadation you prefer. Personally I like more rustic, smaller places.

ETA: On the French Riviera I would recommend staying in the really small villages/towns along the coast, and staying away from Nice, Cannes, and Marseilles. The beaches are also pretty rocky along the Cote d'Azur. But for charm, I would recommend Menton. I stayed there with my sister and it was a beautiful town. But the Cote d'Azur will be on the cooler side in September, so probably not great for beach time. Or check out Cinque Terre in Italy, it's an amazing place.

I would actually say go for a tour through Burgandy, the Loire Valley, or stay in the Swiss Alps. My vacation in the Swiss Alps in summer is one of my favorite memories. You can also go glacier skiing while you're there.

-- Edited by gingembre1 at 17:32, 2006-05-08

cc · Marc Jacobs

I haven’t been to any of these places but some of my dream culture/beach trips are

-Malta (history, architecture, art – Caravaggio!, sounds interesting and eccentric, beaches)
-Romania (history, architecture, monasteries and Byzantine art, and supposedly good beaches and spas on the Black Sea coast)
-southern Spain and Morocco (just sounds perfect to me)
-Turkey (I’m obsessed with ruins)

though these are obviously more history/culture heavy places than nature or beach destinations.
Have you been anywhere in South America? My coworker is always raving about Argentina and my sister and I almost went to Uruguay and it is still high on my "to do" list.

Hermes

gingembre1 - India's out because my husband has been spending a lot of time there on business, and is not fond of the idea of vacationing there right now. He's actually there as we speak in 115 degree temperatures...

We are already planning on taking a trip to St. Petersburg, but we are focusing on a relaxing beach with some nature and historical attractions as that's the type of trip we're looking for, for our anniversary. I also wanted to avoid going to places we have already been to, although we considered Tahiti because that's where our honeymoon was.

I've been throughout Greece, and love Crete but it's that "been there, done that" (BTDT) thing. Although Turkey sounds great because I love ruins too - I'm just concerned that it would become an exhausting sight seeing, and not relaxing, extravaganza.

Southern Spain/Portugal - BTDT. As far as Morocco, I've been to Tangier, and would love to go on a trip to Casa Blanca, Fez, and the Canary Islands - but my husband feels there are safer options at this time (yes, I know some of you will beg to differ - but the trip can wait.) I'd also love to go to Madagascar one day - but that's not a very romantic destination... Then there's the African safari idea (Collette's honeymoon) not very relaxing/beachy, but intriguing.

Borneo is an interesting idea, Bali was high on the list too - except for the terrorist bombings... Aren't there a lot of American hostage problems in Borneo though? I'll have to look it up.

My husband has mentioned the Azores before - that's a good one for consideration. The Seychelles would be cool too - that will go on the list.

Now, Egypt... I would love to go... again - is it too much sight seeing (I should probably explain that when we go to historically significant locales that we nearly kill ourselves trying to see as much as we can - I create excel spreadsheet itineraries that best manage our time based on site and museum open times, etc. - it's really exhausting, and I don't want that for our anniversary trip. Also, if we didn't plan it out and just winged it, my husband has a hard time just "hanging out" - he wants to see and do as much as possible while we're traveling - I want the sight seeing options to be minimal but still present.)

Croatia and Romania are really interesting ideas - I'll have to research those...

Malta is a really cool idea too.

Thanks for the suggestions, cc and gingembre1, you've really helped. I'm going to talk to my husband about some of the suggestions when he calls today.

shopgirl82 · Chanel

for what it's worth, romania and croatia are on my list. my bf has family in romania (again, the black sea is really nice, transylvania, etc...) and his good college friend showed us pictures of his house in croatia and i'm pretty psyched to go there.

ILoveChoo · Hermes

Latvia is also supposed to be another "up and coming" European beach spot. I know some people that went there last summer and loved it.

Hermes

Problem... we're going mid-september - Croatia and all of europe for that matter are going to be too cool for relaxing on the beach - I looked up the temperatures... Also the Azores would be 60-70 degrees.

also, yes I have been to South America - Manaus, Brazil - Amazon region. Thought about Rio, but I'm not overly excited about it. We have discussed Peru and Chile, plus I'd love to go to the Galopgos Islands one day - but none of these destinations would be relaxing for us.

also, in regard to the French riviera, we were there in september before, and the temps are on the cool side (although I did go topless on the beach there (woo hoo!)) but it was still borderline. We stayed in Roquebrune near monte carlo/monaco - I suspect Cinque Terre would have similar, cooling temperatures as it's very nearby....

(please forgive any misspellings!)

-- Edited by detroit at 10:58, 2006-05-09

Maddie · Coach

I think Indonesia would be amazing, but the State Dept does have a decent travel advisory about it. Plus terrorism there is often targeted at Westerners isn't it? Malaysia might be a safer alternative.

I'm ridiculously excited about my own trip to Sri Lanka, so I think you should go there. My understanding is that it's dangerous in the North and the East, but everywhere else is fine, and the conflict has pretty much nothing to do with Westerners anyway.

If you wanted to fly through Canada first you could go to my other dream destination - Cuba! Something else in the Caribbean could be cool too. I'm assuming you're not an Atlantis/Bahamas type of girl, but I've always wanted to go to Antigua after reading Jamaica Kincaid books.

Hermes

I'm going to look into sri lanka... also, I love the idea of cuba! hell - it'll take me less than an hour to drive to canada from where I live. definitely going to look into that.

Karina · Chanel

I love the idea of Cuba.

Hermes

looks like I'm going to have to wait for castro to die. check out the restrictions on travel - more hassle than it's worth:

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1097.html

Jahni · Dooney & Bourke

I've heard Belize is great, beautiful beaches and crazy jungle stuff...

Karina · Chanel

What about Barbados?

Hermes

Karina wrote:

What about Barbados?

I don't know... it just seems so accessible, you know? like I could do that anytime kind of accessible?

I did take a look at malta (very cool) and the Turkish Riviera (love!) I'm really thinking that might be the best choice... Istanbul on the other hand, was what I was worried about - too much sight seeing, and of course you have to go to cyprus... just not what I have in mind... BUT - the Turkish Riviera - so cool - check it out

http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults.cfm?destination=turkey_coast@267&cur_section=ove

shopgirl82 · Chanel

what about trinidad and tobago? my friend just got back and loved it. the 28th of september is Tobago Fest (not that i know what that means but it sounds like fun).

cc · Marc Jacobs

detroit wrote:

I did take a look at malta (very cool) and the Turkish Riviera (love!) I'm really thinking that might be the best choice... Istanbul on the other hand, was what I was worried about - too much sight seeing, and of course you have to go to cyprus... just not what I have in mind... BUT - the Turkish Riviera - so cool - check it out
http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults.cfm?destination=turkey_coast@267&cur_section=ove

I know what you mean about too much sightseeing. I am exactly the same way when I travel - I go insane trying to see everything and wind up exhausted and starving at the end of the day. And while I don't make spreadsheets I do make little calendars and list the opening hours of all the sites so I can plan my days around what is open when. Of course I always have a fabulous time but for something like a romantic anniversary trip it's better to have something interesting but also relaxing.

Anyway...I think the Med. coast of Turkey sounds awesome. I remember reading an article somewhere that said that a lot of the beachfront is owned by hotels but I assume that's what you would be looking for - a nice hotel on the beach. And there will still be archaeological sites to see but hopefully you'll be able to relax and not be overwhelmed.

If you're interested in Malta there are some really good posts and trip reports on Fodor's. It really sounds wacky which you might not want to deal with on an anniversary trip but it could be something to keep in mind for the future.

Lilykind · Hermes

i don't know if you've already been, but what about Thailand?

If you wanted cooler weather, you could stay in the mountainous northern region and then have a chauffeured car take you through the northeast along the Mekong River. The seafood is delish and there's a national park with the most beautiful waterfalls on Earth and gorgeous tropical flowers all around. I did this route with my family when I was 13...we pretty much rode the northern and eastern border of Thailand and stopped. We eventually went as far south as Pattaya beach before heading back up to Bangkok.

If you wanted beach, you can hop a quick flight from Bangkok to Phuket.

twinkle · Coach

I vote for Cuba as well.

It's actually incredibly easy to get there. Just fly into Cancun and there are always plenty of flights to Cuba you can catch. They could care less if you are a US citizen.

mckenke · BCBG

Croatia is great. My husband and I went in early September and it was plenty warm especially in the coastal areas. We spent our days on the beach and in the evenings it is nice and cool.

Another suggestion is Fernando de Noronha which is an island in Brazil. It is beautiful. There is only one main road, the beaches are gorgeous and totally empty. There is good snorkeling and you can kyack around the island. There is even one beach where thousands of spinner dolphins come into the shore every day its pretty cool.

We went to Indonesia for our honeymoon this year. Bali was okay. I liked Lombok a lot better which is the island next to Bali. Basically, I like to do my own thing and Bali is a little too geared to tourists. If you are interested I could give you suggestions, but it is a hell of a long flight.

It is easy enough to fly to Cuba through Jamaica, but I it wasn't one of my favorite places, but that is just my opinion.

If you want more info on any of these places, just let me know.

jah · Dooney & Bourke

What about the the Maldives? One of my clients has a sister that managed a resort in the Maldives for 13 years and he highly recommends it.

Beyond that, someone recommended Latvia. I've been there many, many times as I have a client there. It is a great cultural experience and they do have some nice beaches, but in September it will be too cold for the beaches. They really only get about 4 weeks of suitable "summer type" weather. There is also not a great deal to do outside of Riga, but should you decide to go to Latvia, I highly recommend the Bergs Hotel. I would recommend Latvia for a European vacation (I think it is kinda what Prague was a few years back, but not for a beach vacation).

For someplace closer to home, I have been hearing really great things about Panama. On a recent plane trip, I sat next to a woman that moved there ten years ago from Canada. She was telling me how Panama has become what Costa Rica was 5-10 years ago related to a vacation experience (which I take to mean that mass vacationers have not yet invaded and commercialized the experience too much).