Winter 2024/25 warm weather ideas?

[1242Vintage]

Wife and I enjoyed an “Endless Summer” this past Winter. Traveling through Belize, Costa Rica and Mexico for six weeks. So much fun! Our favorites were Drakes Bay and Tamarindo in Costa Rica.

NEED NEW IDEAS FOR NEXT WINTER TRAVEL

Wife loves a nice warm sandy beach, like who doesn’t! We also enjoy places with a good food scene and getting out to explore.

Just starting the planning process and have chatted about Panama (Boca Del Toro) and maybe Columbia. And my buddy has a vacation house in the Brazilian city of Guarapari, famous for its black sand beach. But takes a solid 30 hours of travel for us to get there from the U.S. west coast and then there’s the naturally occurring radiation in the beach sand!

Our Spanish is rudimentary, but improving rapidly.

If you have good ideas for Central America winter travels plz share. Thx.

 

[brett]

We live in Canada. It is cold in winter so we head south ever since early retirement 12 years ago. Typically for at least 2 months, sometimes longer.

We have been to Costa Rica several times, and included Panama. From Jaco in the south to Cocoa Beach in the north. Never needed to speak Spanish in CR or Panama. We combined one trip with a cruise and independent land travel in South America....Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. Uruguay was a surpise...one of our favs.

One winter we spent in Mexico. Independent travel. Started in Cancun, Merida, Puerto Morales, etc. then flew to Huatulco and made our way up the coast vt air and bus spending time in Puerto Escondido, Acapulco, Zuhuatanejo, and Puerto Vallarta. We continue to go back to Zi and Puerto Vallarta for 2-four week visits...just went back in Nov/Dec.. Not very interested in returning to Cancun etc.

We spent six winters in SE Asia. Mostly Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. In two of those trips we added 3-4 week extension in Australia. Also picked up a last minute Australian cruise to NZ. The downside for us are the long flights. 22-24 hrs to get to Thailand for us with 2 stops. When we return from Australia we typically stop for two days in HNL to recover from jetlag. SE Asia is very different, very inexpensive. The people are wonderful especially if you avoid the very touristy areas of Phuket and Ko Samui. Australia feels just like home to us.

My spouse did not originally have much interest in going to Thailand. In our first post retirement winter I picked up a bargain air fare in ealy Jan/ We left six days later for Bangkok. Now, whenever I ask her where we should go in winter her first choice is always Thailand with a side trip to Oz.

Prior to retiring we had multiple trips to Florida. All over the state. Plus some AZ, SC, NC, Texas, Puerto Rica, and California. Plus business travel to those areas. Plus a fair amount of the Eastern Caribbean. Have not been back since retiring. Too many other more interesting places on our list!

SE Asia and Australia have been our all time favourites. Next would be a trip between points on the Mexican Pacific Coast and a winter in Costa Rica. Plan to go back to Thailand next winter. Family health issues prevented us from going this winter.

Where you choose go may depend on how long you want to travel, your budget, and the flight times to get to some destinations. The choice is endless! One thing thing that has made our travel easier and more enjoyable is that we travel with carry on only. Makes air and independent land travel so much easier for us.

 

[Montecfo]

South Texas and Belize are both nice.

 

[1242Vintage]

Getting some great ideas new for next winter!

 

[brett]

Most of our travel is spontaneous, independent travel. More often than not if we are going to a new area (to us) or accommodation we will only book for two one or two nights. Then stay longer if we like it.

When we first went to Huatulco, Mexico we expected to stay for a week. Left after three days to go to Escondido. Booked for one day, stayed for a week. Exact same in Acapulco and Zihuatanejo. We liked ZI so much that we have been back multiple times for two and three week stays. We tend to stay at smaller places. Once in a while a five or six star resort IF we get a late booking special.

We love beaches. Our absolute best places for wonderful, uncrowded, and often emply beaches have been southern Thailand (mainland and islands), Australia, Costa Rica, and Uruguay.