Exotic Holidays- any ideas?

nj23

I was just wondering if anybody could recommend somewhere out of the ordinary for a two week holiday, this July/August.
myself(23) and boyfriend and maybe a couple we are friends with will be going.
I'm open to all ideas but want to stay away from the whole package holiday in Spain etc idea.
We want somewhere a bit different, that's hot and where you have really nice beach and other sight seeing and activities to do.
we were thinking about thailand but after the tsunami we thought maybe this wasn't the year to go? Don't mind how far away within reason (15/16 hour flight at most)
don't think the carribean is a good idea during july and aust , possibilty of monsoons, i believe, but not sure.

tinkerbell

I read somewhere that the disaster areas will be mostly recovered by May or so (in Thailand), so you could still go there, if you wanted to head for places like Phuket, etc.

Bear in mind that a lot of Thailand was not effected by the tsunami, so there are still many beautiful places to go to.

embraer170

Malaysia
Indonesia (Bali) ... but beaches not that great
The Philippines
Thailand
Hawaii (weak US dollar, and not 'that' expensive during our summer, their real peak is Christmas)
Mexico
The Maldives (a package from the UK?)
Greece (Island Hopping)
Turkey
Croatian Coastline

tinkerbell wrote:

I read somewhere that the disaster areas will be mostly recovered by May or so (in Thailand), so you could still go there, if you wanted to head for places like Phuket, etc.

The Irish summer is the Monsoon season in Phuket, if you're unlikely might be raining for days. The other side of Thailand (Samui for example) is fine....

NikNik

What about:
Fiji http://www.bulafiji.com/
South Africa http://www.southafrica.net/index.cfm?CountryProfileID=2
Madagascar http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/africa/madagascar/
Seychelles http://www.seychelles.com/
Cambodia http://www.tourismcambodia.com/
or South America ?

Besprechen

try sri lanka, best holiday of my life and ive been on more than a few!
they're also crying out for visitors since the tsunami to get money back into country.
want any more info on it let me know.

Aliens are real

Thailand is beautiful and i think u should go. There are other islands and u can go to the other parts. Like the north.

I am MAN

embraer170 wrote:

The Irish summer is the Monsoon season in Phuket, if you're unlikely might be raining for days. The other side of Thailand (Samui for example) is fine....

That's untrue. It's still alot nicer than our Summer by ten fold.

The media have scared another person off from going to Thailand. Phuket is more or less fully operational now with only some bars closed around the beachfront. Phi Phi still needs quite a bit of work but that's not going to stop me from going back his year and rumour has it the beaches are even nicer since the Tsunami came.
If you would still rather avoid that area for whatever reason why not visit Koh Samui/Koh Tao/Koh Phangan/krabi/Pattaya/Chang Mai or even head up to Laos.

Plenty of tourists are still going regardless of what the media report I keep up to date with the situation on a daily basis.

Mark.

embraer170

That's untrue. It's still alot nicer than our Summer by ten fold.

I spent a few days on Phuket during the monsoon season in the mid-90s. Rain in the morning, a little sun in early afternoon but then the sea was far too rough to swim in, more rain in the afternoon... and the whole place very very mucky. The hotel swimming pool was fine but certainly did not compare to Phuket experience at other times of the year.

nj23

thanks folks for the suggestions. i am still considering thailand and i know they are crying out for tourists, so maybe! where are the best parts with the nicest beaches? What's it like for travelling around. would probably just book a hotel for the first night and take it from there but would need some sort of plan of where to go after that.
also i could put off going on holidays until september, would that be a safer time to avoid the monsoons?
also i heard of someone who combined thailand with cambodia? anyone know anything about cambodia and what it's like?

davidoco

go to egypt, it will be hot but bearable
you can spent 5 or 6 days doing the sights
then go to the Red Sea Sharm el Sheik or Dahab and learn to dive, cheap as chips

empirix

Yeah i am heading to Thailand/SEA at the end of the month - fromOz for another 3 months, hopefullly will make it into Tibet and India this time. Can't wait, Oz can get to you after a while!

As for Phi Ph, its one of my first ports of call, will spend afew days there to see what its like now, Carlito's and Hippies bars are back open so it aint all bad