Recommendations for holiday

gaillimhabu

Girlfriend and I are planning our first holiday away. A week to ten days in June.

We are early 30's and looking for a spot with decent weather (25-30c) which includes beaches but also some hiking/sightseeing.
Bascially we'd get bored lying on a beach for a week. Not a big party place but not too quiet either.

Any suggestions would be great. We are trying to pick a spot that we haven't been to before

Have been to Rome, Venice, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris city wise.
Possibly a resort instead of mad traffic in a city

We're swaying towards Spain, Portugal or Greece. Possibly south of France.

I think eastern europe is out with the world cup going on which would probably mean dearer flights

gaillimhabu

Any pointers

schemingbohemia

San Sebastian/Bilbao? Haven't been to either in years but good mix of food/night life with decent hiking not too far away.

hefferboi

Algarve, Portugal. We were thinking of going to san sebastian for a lads holiday but was told its not a party town but its still meant to have a good night life.

cocoshovel

Madeira, Portugal. Close to the Canary Islands which will give you the nice weather and possibly beaches, and its also a very mountainous island which looks fantastic for hiking. Just google some pictures of it :eek:


http://wikitravel.org/en/Madeira
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira
http://wikitravel.org/en/Funchal

bamboozle

La Gomera in the canary islands (hotel jardin tecina) or Tavira in the Algarve in Portugal

Elvis_Presley

croatia - dubrovnik. awesome!

gaillimhabu

Thanks for all the tips. Girlfriend was already in Algarve area along with Dubrovnik. I was in the Canary islands

So we're swaying towards Madeira. What is the best route for flights.
I assume they like soccer as will be there for one or possibly two of Ireland's Euro matches

cocoshovel

gaillimhabu wrote: »

Thanks for all the tips. Girlfriend was already in Algarve area along with Dubrovnik. I was in the Canary islands

So we're swaying towards Madeira. What is the best route for flights.
I assume they like soccer as will be there for one or possibly two of Ireland's Euro matches

Unfortunately the only airline that flies from Ireland are SATA http://www.sata.pt/en. They fly once a week on a Sunday, from May until October. Flights are looking to be about €400 per person for a return.

However several other airlines such as Easyjet fly from various British airports such as London and Machester etc.

blindside88

You could try zackintos (probably Speke incorrecty) although zanti itself us a party town the rest of the island is quiet, it's a small island between Greece and Italy so get both food types and there is some great sea food. Because if it's size you can travel the entire island in a day by quad or car. Myself and my fiancé went 2 years ago and would recommend it to anyone, you can also take day trips to the likes of athens

diarmuid05

Turkey too far away? Kusadasi is a great spot

gaillimhabu

cocoshovel wrote: »

Unfortunately the only airline that flies from Ireland are SATA http://www.sata.pt/en. They fly once a week on a Sunday, from May until October. Flights are looking to be about €400 per person for a return.

However several other airlines such as Easyjet fly from various British airports such as London and Machester etc.

Thanks. Around €300 from London with Easyjet + €60 to get to Gatwick from Dublin with a few hrs stopever in between. Charter is probably the best route if we go with that.

cocoshovel

gaillimhabu wrote: »

Thanks. Around €300 from London with Easyjet + €60 to get to Gatwick from Dublin with a few hrs stopever in between. Charter is probably the best route if we go with that.

Id say easyjet are the cheapest, but there are a few other airlines/locations you could fly from within the UK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira_Airport#Airlines_and_destinations

gaillimhabu

Hi Guys. Back again. The charter flight for around €400 each is a bit too much for us.

So looking into San Sebastian or Bilbao. Which is better?

Looks like Aer Lingus flies direct to Bilbao.
A bit tricker to San Sebastain - Sounds like Ryanair to Biarritz and then train it. Or Bilbao+train as an alternative option