December Trip

[Deleted]

Assuming you were living in Egypt, where would you take a winter break vacation?

We were thinking of doing Greece, particularly Santorini or Mykonos, but now I am thinking against it. I think it will be too cold to thoroughly enjoy all aspects.

The reason we were thinking of Greece is because it is only approx $300 for both of us to fly roundtrip to Greece....So we want to look somewhere close-ish to Egypt so the costs are relatively low.

I am thinking maybe a week in Jordan? What would you consider?

[jennlin]

dubai?

[dawnyp]

Greece would be cold in the winter. I've never been but on my list to go see are the Maldives, Turkey & Jordan.

[Deleted]

Turkey would be awesome, but cold. Lisbon would be nice, but maybe too far?

Is Morocco too far?

Oh, what about Botswana?

[Deleted]

I don't mind cold. But we want to be able to go to the beach and swim in Greece and in Dec it will be too cold for swimming. Cold is fine in other places....so long as swimming isn't something you would want to do in that location. lol. Am I making any sense?

I will look into those places. I was also thinking Turkey.

[amandasw]

I definitely agree NOT to do the Greek islands in the winter, they shut down in the off season! I had a friend who lived in Turkey for a year and she went in Feb or something and there was hardly anything open (like, literally one restaurant or something). We just went in the Spring and it was perfect! Not too crowded, not too hot, but everything is up and running. If it had been any colder I don't think I would have enjoyed it.

My sister went to Jordan, Oman and the UAE in the fall/winter and it was perfect! Those are places I would highly recommend.

ETA: also I had no idea the islands in Greece would be SO windy. It was ok because it would be warm, but cold + windy in a place you would normally enjoy a beach doesn't seem worth it.

[Deleted]

Yah I am thinking Jordan as a possibility.....its around $700-800 for us to fly there in Dec. Not too bad.

[Deleted]

It's a very, very sleepy place, but Madeira, Portugal was lovely. I heard they have incredible night life, but we never stayed awake long enough to take advantage of it. It's a short flight from lisbon. It's temperate year round.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira

If you go I'd highly recommend this hotel: www.hotelthevine.com/hotel-overview.html

[Deleted]

Wow same price to fly to Lisbon as Jordan. Doesn't make any sense. I don't understand flight pricing.

[Deleted]

Where do you fly to for Madeira? airport?

[dawnyp]

Not sure where you're looking for flights. Some of the low frills, low cost airlines I used while in Europe are EasyJet and RyanAir. Not sure what their coverage in Egypt is like.

[Deleted]

I just use trip advisor....

but thanks for the recs. I will def look into it!

[Deleted]

they don't fly out of Cairo. sad.

[Deleted]

Aug 10, 2012 16:48:11 GMT -5 @kinmir30 said:

Where do you fly to for Madeira? airport?

You'll fly into Funchal (FNC) and it's about a 20 min ride to town.

The runway is crazy.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira_Airport

[niq]

Do either of you Ski/snowboard? where's the nearest & cheapest place for winter sports ... Italy? or somewhere in the Czech Republic or Slovokia? Iceland?

[Deleted]

Oh weird. It's double the price to go to Madeira....

[Deleted]

Aug 10, 2012 17:08:22 GMT -5 @kinmir30 said:

Oh weird. It's double the price to go to Madeira....

Than Lisbon? If I had to chose between Madeira and Lisbon I'd choose Lisbon, hands down no context.

The only reason we went to Madeira this year is that it was one of the first places that H worked on at his job and he always wondered what it was like IRL and not just on a map.

However, if you like Maderian wine this is the place to go (since it's from there).

[Deleted]

Aug 10, 2012 17:15:10 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

Aug 10, 2012 17:11:39 GMT -5 @uwhuskygirl said:

Than Lisbon? If I had to chose between Madeira and Lisbon I'd choose Lisbon, hands down no context.

The only reason we went to Madeira this year is that it was one of the first places that H worked on at his job and he always wondered what it was like IRL and not just on a map.

However, if you like Maderian wine this is the place to go (since it's from there).

Go to Lisbon. Eat a lot of pastel de nada. You will love it.

PS uwhusky, I had one on Tuesday (it was de-lic-ious!) and was going to try to stop by the place in Issaquah to bring you one Monday night, but it was closed and I knew you were all crazy about the weight loss competition so.... no dice.

I appreciate the thought! (})

Good to know that the ones in Issaquah ar good though. that's going to be my first stop come Sept.

[Deleted]

I will be looking into Lisbon.....

when we looked before, flying to Tanzania is super pricey...which is silly because its on the same continent. Again, I don't get where they come up with the logic behind the pricing.

[macpanda]

I agree with PPs regarding greek isles in the winter. There are some other great suggestions on here. I just wanted to throw out there that Italy wouldn't be too far either. Since you don't mind cold, Rome might be nice.

[dawnyp]

If you don't mind cold there are tons of options. For some reason I thought you were looking for something warm. How many hours do you want to spend on a plane and are you looking for inexpensive cities and flights or just flights?

I would have to add being in Egypt you should definitely look into going on Safari somewhere in Africa. Not sure if December is a good time to go or what country would be best. The safari I did was one of my top all time travel experiences.