Favorite Vacation Ideas?

Pretty self explanatory. My husband and I are brainstorming for a summer vacation and while there are things/places we enjoy, there isn't anywhere or anything we absolutely MUST do this year. So I am throwing it out there in the hopes that some little corner of the world we've never heard of or considered but someone else loves will strike our fancy.

I'm not going to put any qualifiers on it as far as destinations, activities, or budget because I just want to see what everyone comes up with. We'll whittle it down to fit our personal constraints, but for now anything goes!

We're heading to Tennerifa in September. I can't WAIT. Its supposedly so beautiful Hiking, Beach, sun...
It's not too expensive for us though, because the flight is within Europe, no idea what it would be from the US

Well, like I said in another thread, my dream vacation would be to go to Hawaii... do some island hopping... hike around through nature... swim... forever.


Realistically, though, I would like to pack the dogs up and drive to a place on the east coast where I can stay with the dogs and take them to a dog friendly beach so we can all play in the ocean!

I'm heading to the mountains for a vacation - Asheville, specifically. It's not terribly far (a few hours drive), but it's my kind of city: hippie, local food friendly.

We went to Corolla, NC this past summer/fall... rented a house right by the ocean... The beaches were dog friendly as were many attractions and shops, and many of the houses, too.

It was beautiful, great scenery, very relaxing and not *that* expensive, either, for being an "upscale" area.

One of my favorite vacations was what we did last year- rented a house on the ocean with a pool in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. It's a laid back surfing town with a bunch of restaurants. We spent most of the time swimming, eating, and drinking, which was a huge win.

Renting a cabin in the Smoky Mountains makes for a nice vacation with dogs. There are a handful of trails in the Smoky Mountains National Park that allow dogs. Most of the cabin companies offer really nice cabins with great views and hot tubs- perfect for relaxing with a beer after a long hike

I really enjoyed Ireland and Scotland. We did B&B driving tours with both. County Wicklow (right outside of Dublin) in Ireland was beautiful- rolling hills, lush scenery, and Glendalough was one of my favorite places I've ever been.

Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard are really nice in the summer months. Provincetown (the tip of Cape Cod) is a colorful, fun place with good shops and good food. If you did either of those, you could combine them with a couple of days in Boston.

The White Mountains in New Hampshire are gorgeous, as is coastal Maine in the summer.

I'm bumping this for Monday morning.

Somebody I know is going to Curacao, and it sounds really nice. I know like nothing about it though LOL

I tend to like the more active ones.

Boundary Waters
Loop of Arches/Canyonlands/Zion and so forth. Maybe Grand Canyon.
Warm/beaches? Hawaii is easy from the west coast, but you also have Fl, or some place in the Caribbean.
Colder? Go visit the Polar Bears near the Hudson Bay

Well, I LOVE to talk about traveling.

My dream vacations include (realistically) NoLa, Quebec, and more of California (maybe San Diego or San Jose), and (idealistically) Borneo, Paris, and Argentina.

Places I've been, divided by category:

CITIES:

New York - if you've never been here, come here. It IS expensive...but you can find lots of ways to save and there's a zillion free or low-cost things to do. It's definitely only fun if you want a city vacation, but past the fact that it's not a relaxing beach vacation, there's stuff for everyone...really cool historical sites, great art and science museums, fantastic shopping, shows, amazing food, botanical gardens/parks, nightlife, etc. Very dog friendly - most stores that don't sell food allow dogs, many hotels allow dog, there's very little breed/size restriction.

Boston - lots and lots of history, which is really cool, beautiful old buildings, they also have some impressive art museums, and some cool shopping. It's kind of hard for me to compare the restaurants/nightlife/etc. to New York, but it seems like there are some good places. The downsides are public transportation is slow and terrible and if you drive, good luck figuring out how the roads work.

Los Angeles - Also fun and kind of caters to lots of people...obviously there's less historical stuff and old architecture there. It might be *slightly* geared towards the younger, more night-lifey crowd, or families. On the plus side it's close to both the beach and mountains, and there's tons of hiking/swimming/etc...within VERY close distance to the city, you can walk to whichever you're closer to. The flowers are gorgeous. The weather is gorgeous. There's lots of neat art museums and shows, and the shopping is so great you need an extra suitcase for all the cool stuff you'll want to buy.

Washington DC - I've only been here for short weekend/overnight trips and it never seems like enough time. Lots of history/politics/and tons of fabulous museums (even better than New York!)...but not a whole lot of shopping, nightlife, etc. You can get to things like hiking/canoeing/kayaking/outdoorsy stuff, but it's not that convenient to someone staying in the city (especially without a car). Public transportation is easy/safe/good.

BEACHES:

Cape Cod - Cape Cod is ADORABLE. I've actually only been there off-season, and the stores/restaurants/bed and breakfasts/etc. are all really fun and cute then. I'm not sure if in summertime it gets horribly overcrowded or something, but I don't think so. The landscape is beautiful, there isn't really any crazy nightlife but there is a small bar scene and stuff like local cover bands/small outdoor concerts. There's lots of whale watching. And fishing/kayaking/beaches.

Ok I'll write more later! I'll tell you all about The Hamptons, various beach areas in Florida, and all the camping/mountainy/lake vacations I've done.

Thanks, I appreciate it! The problem we're having is that we're not really "Oh I've ALWAYS wanted to go to XYZ!" kind of people and we enjoy a lot of different things, can do either resting or active vacations, rough it or not... so it's overwhelming to get over the complete freedom of "well we could go anywhere and do anything" hump.

Oh gosh, where do I start?

My favorite vacation EVER was a cruise through the Mediterranean. We spend 3 days in Rome (most amazing city EVER!) and then hopped on a train out to the coast where we caught a ship and spent a day each in Naples (where we saw Pompeii and drove the Amalfi coast), Athens (hired a private cab driver to take us EVERYWHERE in the city), Rhodes (beach day on a greek island!), Ephesus (followed Paul's journey through the book of Ephesians), and 2 days in Egypt (dirty, disgusting, but SO INCREDIBLE).

We did a similar trip last summer up in the Baltics, starting with a couple days in Copenhagen and on to Germany, Estonia, St. Petersburg, Finland, and Sweden. Not nearly as cool as the Med to me, but Russia was fascinating and Copenhagen was a blast (all walkable--it's a very compact city).

I'm going to Ireland for a week next month. We're going to rent a car and zip around to castles and pubs. Not sure what it will be like--hopefully it has the wow factor Italy had for me!

Closer to home, I always enjoy time in the outer banks of North Carolina. As kids we always went camping, so I've done Yellowstone, Glacier, etc. Not my cup of tea, but my family enjoyed it immensely.

Our "to do" list includes Alaska (I went as a child, but DH has never been), Peru (Machu Picchu!), Hawaii (I've been, but never to the big island), and back to northern Italy to do florence/venice. One day if I ever have a flexible job again, I'd love to do a spring cruise through Asia. My cousin is the music director on a cruise ship and has been posting amazing pictures from Thailand, Korea, Kuala Lampur, etc, and I'm super jealous!

Not sure Ireland will have the wow factor Italy has, but maybe... They're drastically different.

Right now I want any holiday that is relaxing! The last two have been morocco and china. And they're mad, smelly, busy places!!!

We have rented a cottage in Cornwall for may, which I can't wait for. Just us,and the dogs and a local pub!

But I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally want a cheap, cheerful sunny holiday. My parents have a house in the south of France, that I really should take advantage of more. You can get SUPER cheap flights to lots of countries in Europe and again, I should take advantage of it, but time, life, work get in the way! I need a relaxing, cocktail filled, sunny, hot lounging holiday. Country isn't a big factor... Lol. Turkey, Malta, Cyprus maybe.

Yeah, my girlfriend is the one who wanted to go. I suggested Iceland, she wanted to do Ireland, so off we go! Maybe DH and I will do Iceland this summer together...

We always vacation on the Outer Banks of NC, mostly because Dad's family is across the Sound on the mainland but also it's just a nice place to go. We stay in Emerald Isle (Bogue Island) and while the beach is public, there's no public parking so the beach never gets that crowded. At certain times of the morning and afternoon, it's downright deserted, which is nice. Dogs are allowed and Riley loves running on the beach.

There's stuff to do (boat tours to Cape Lookout lighthouse, or Shackleford Island to see the Banker ponies), dolphin watching, plus the usual beach stuff (diving, fishing, jet skis, etc.) We're not too far from Beaufort, which still has a house Blackbeard lived in, and Sinbad, the only registered pirate in the U.S. . The Maritime Museum is constantly updating their Blackbeard collection (Queen Anne's Revenge was found in Bogue Outlet) and there's the Old Burying Ground, which is pretty cool, too.

The NC aquarium is on Bogue island and last year, we were there at the right time for sea turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs (Bogue island is a sea turtle sanctuary).

Looking forward to this year's trip!

I've only ever been to Belfast, so I can't really talk, but I have been to Italy, and I know it's nothing like that lol! Ireland is beautiful though.

I lie, I've been to Dublin too! For a day trip. It was pretty touristy. If I went for a holiday, I'd want to go countryside and coastal.

My friend did Ireland as part of a 10-odd day crawl of various places in Europe and his family loved it. They had some amazing pictures when they came back too. That and France I think were the two places they liked most. I know they stayed in Dublin for a day, but I think they also went a couple other places.

My parents went to Turkey a few years ago and loved it- lots of good food, dancing, beautiful stuff to see... I want to go sometime. My next vacation will be tropical- Hawaii, Mexico, somewhere with a beach and some really awesome food. I also would love to go to India someday, or maybe on the other side of things Alaska or New Zealand.... There are so many cool places out there!

I know some people are talking about traveling all around the world and whatnot....but....I've been begging Jin to take me here for a birthday or anniversary for the last two years. It'd be an awesome weekend getaway. I tend to think "small" when it comes to vacations! (Personally, running around like mad trying to see EVERYTHING I want to see doesn't sound like a great relaxing vacation to me).

$400 per night. Sybaris. And yes, this is all one room. They have locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana.

Ok, this is our next vacation!!