Need ideas for cooler July/Aug pre-baby vacation spots

[chocolatepie]

I refuse to call it a baby moon

We hope to vacation late July/early August - I'll be ~26/27 weeks. We live at the beach, so beach vacations are not appealing, and both of us are miserable in the heat (which I'm assuming will only get worse as my belly grows!). 

Through googling for cool places in the summer, I've come up with Scotland, Ireland (we've been but loved it), and Vancouver so far. We would love to do an Alaskan cruise but I'll be too far into pregnancy for a cruise. 

Not so worried about budget.

What other locations would you suggest?

[gardengal]

Anywhere a bit south of the equator where it will be winter?

Argentina, etc. Buenos Ares could be fun if you are craving meat a lot. you’d miss out on wine but there’s a load of cultural stuff & it’s a fun city.

[erbear]

Where are you? any limitations?

[chocolatepie]

Mar 30, 2019 20:21:32 GMT -5 gardengal said:

Anywhere a bit south of the equator where it will be winter?

Argentina, etc. Buenos Ares could be fun if you are craving meat a lot. you’d miss out on wine but there’s a load of cultural stuff & it’s a fun city.

Hadn't even considered Buenos Aires - thanks! Will add it to the list

[chocolatepie]

Mar 30, 2019 21:14:55 GMT -5 erbear said:

Where are you? any limitations?

I am in Florida - no limitations, other than we'd like to not be gone more than 7-8 nights.

[erbear]

Iceland
Spain and Portugal
Greek Isles
Montreal and Quebec
London and Paris

[dutchgirl678]

In late July/early August I would not go to Spain/Portugal/Italy/Greece. They will all be very hot and you will be miserable. We went to Southern German/Austria/Switzerland once during that time frame and it was amazing. Not too hot. Beautiful scenery.

[ESF]

Tofino, British Columbia is gorgeous. Nice hotels, beautiful scenery. It’s a coastline, but it’s not really a swimming beach. More like long walks, scenic hikes, and boating/kayaking. It also has fantastic food.

[emilyinchile]

What about Iceland or Scandinavia? Argentina or Chile if you don't mind drizzly, grey, potentially crappy winter weather.

[goldengirlz]

Any of the Nordic countries
Germany
Zurich (I’ve heard Geneva gets hot though I’ve only been in the winter)
Prague
Maybe even Amsterdam

[lilles]

Wales

[pittpurple]

I'm in Scotland - last summer we had a 'heat wave' which meant it hit 70 a few times. The odd thing is that it actually felt much hotter than that since there is no a/c anywhere and buildings are all set up to retain heat - small windows, etc. We don't even own a fan! So yes, it should be cool to cold all year but the weather has been odd this last year. But nothing near as hot as Florida for sure. Europe though has had record setting heat waves for 2 summers in a row so it's hard for me to recommend anything here as we are so badly set up for heat! Even Scandanavia was hot last summer and London was a nightmare.

I was a miserable traveller while pregnant so wouldn't have wanted long flights so in your situation I'd probably go to South America (assuming Zika isn't a consideration by then?) or Canada. If you can find a place with a/c, Copenhagen is gorgeous and easy to get around and I obviously like Edinburgh :-)

[GilliC]

Normally Scandinavia would be great at that time of year, but global warming has done crazy things. As pittpurple mentioned, it was 30°C last year, and this is not the place you want to be in a hotel at 30°C, because they just don't have the ventilation for it. Ironically, I'm not sure I would recommend a hotel with AC, because most of them don't have extremely powerful AC, and it often means they have less natural ventilation. Our apartment was bearable, because we have fans and kept all of the windows wide open. A lot of people in "air conditioned" hotels were miserable. Northern Norway would probably still be a safe bet, and the Lofoten Islands and Tromsø are lovely。

[dreamcrisp1]

I was also going to say no to Germany and Amsterdam then. Global warming. Last summer was ridiculous and barely anywhere has A/C. It was unbearably hot until September here. I am already crying at how I will survive 9 months pregnant.

Also, the amount of tourists here then. I don’t even want to be here. The amount of tourists now, and it’s barely April, is already overwhelming.

BC is amazing so I would consider there. Or Banff. A combo. Or Québec city and Montreal.

[wildrice]

Not as exotic, but we are planning to go to Maine in July this year. It's driveable for us, which was a major reason we chose it, but I'm really excited and I think it's going to be a beautiful summer spot, and we shouldn't melt. We are planning to spend time in Portland and Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park.

On the opposite side of the country, Seattle/Portland OR are beautiful in the summer too. We went there in July 4 years ago and absolutely loved it, had good weather, etc.

I would not do Europe in the summer if you can avoid it, unless you are going somewhere relatively obscure. The more popular sites are going to be super crowded, and much of the continent is going to be hot.

[ESF]

Apr 2, 2019 8:45:14 GMT -5 turbo said:

Mar 31, 2019 13:24:27 GMT -5 ESF said:

Tofino, British Columbia is gorgeous. Nice hotels, beautiful scenery. It’s a coastline, but it’s not really a swimming beach. More like long walks, scenic hikes, and boating/kayaking. It also has fantastic food.

I will second this recommendation whole-heartedly! My H and I just took our DS and pups up to The Wickaninnish in Tofino in February for a long weekend and had an absolutely wonderful time. We took my parents along as well and they adored it, too. It would be a perfect babymoon destination - you should have gorgeous weather, miles of flat beaches to walk, and just no pressure to DO anything. The spa at The Wick is great too.

You could fly direct from FL to Vancouver, then hop a quick flight - either direct to Tofino or just to Nanaimo. The drive from Nanaimo to Tofino is 3-4 hours but there are lots of places to stretch your legs along the way (and I think rental cars are a lot cheaper in Nanaimo).

And the food was great - if you were to go, Tacofino is an awesome taco truck, Wolf in the Fog is a popular restaurant, Soco has amazing key lime pie (I don’t even like key lime pie and I loved it), and The Pointe has really nice ambiance. Plus right now the US dollar is strong - so while it is pricey up there, it helps immensely to be on the better side of the exchange rate. I loved it and my DS keeps asking to go back to Canada and stay at the hotel!

OMG Wolf in the Fog was so good that we went twice for lunch, and we were only there four days. We also stayed at the Wick, and it was perfection.

We flew into Victoria, and did two nights at the Empress, then drove up, which took about 4.5 hours in December (icy roads). But the drive was gorgeous, and in the summer, there's more stuff open to stop at, like the market in Coombs. It would be a fun road trip.

[ESF]

Apr 2, 2019 23:41:38 GMT -5 turbo said:

Apr 2, 2019 16:25:13 GMT -5 ESF said:

OMG Wolf in the Fog was so good that we went twice for lunch, and we were only there four days. We also stayed at the Wick, and it was perfection.

We flew into Victoria, and did two nights at the Empress, then drove up, which took about 4.5 hours in December (icy roads). But the drive was gorgeous, and in the summer, there's more stuff open to stop at, like the market in Coombs. It would be a fun road trip.

That's smart to go to Victoria for a few days and then do the drive to break it up - we were heading up from Seattle so we drove / ferried / drove and it was a little rough on my kid... he had his first and only puking experience on the drive from Tofino back to Nanaimo. I wanted to stop and do Cathedral Grove and some of the other spots along the way, but it was snowing and icy, similar to your conditions it sounds like, so we just went straight through. They're also doing road construction on that highway now and they close it for 1 hour several times a day, so we were trying like mad to beat the closure.

I liked WITF, but we were there late and so I didn't get to fully enjoy it because the kid got cranky. That, and it took an extra 45 minutes for us to be seated past our reservation time because whoever had our table just didn't want to leave. Food was super good but when you're eating at 10 PM, you don't have the patience / stomach capacity that I fully needed to enjoy it! Still, would definitely go back again. I really, really want to return but it will probably be a little while... 

The Wick was absolutely amazing and I would recommend it to anyone so I'm glad you feel the same! The time we spent there makes me want to check out the two other R&C properties close by (Sonora Resort and Clayoquot). They're expensive as all get out but I bet they're amazing too. I've never had a bad experience at an R&C-affiliated property - I think that's probably my favorite hotel "brand" out there when I want to splurge.  

We had to miss Cathedral Grove because there had been a bad storm a couple days before we got there, and a bunch of the parks in the area were closed due to fallen trees and unsafe walkways. I was really disappointed.  We did do the Kinsol Trestle, which is just outside of Victoria, and so cool. I think a kid would love it, so you definitely have to go back, and do the lunch or mid-day bar menu at WITF! They had these tater tots that I still dream about...

I'm with you on R&C. This was the third one I've stayed at, and they are the best.

[cattledogkisses]

Spain/Portugal/Greek isles will be hotter than Hades in July/August. Don't go there.

Other than the ones people have already mentioned (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Canada), the Baltics might be another good option. We're planning to visit friends who live in Estonia this July.