First a little background.
My wife and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in a little over two years.
This is about the point I would want to start planning and saving.
We are Disney Vacation club Members, live in central Florida and go to Disney all the time so this would not be an Idea.
We have also done 9 Disney cruises so this would also would be out.
We were originally thinking of an Alaska cruise that also has some land touring aspect to it. Has anyone done this and could give some info on it?
I was thinking of Europe but with there being a language barrier I would think a tour company would be the way to go.
Does any one have any experience with vacations that would be out of the ordinary? Something different most people would not think of.
Any ideas would help.
Thanks

As a Club member you can use your points all around the world, if you didn't know this. Hawaii included.

You've got the hot under your belt. I'd strongly suggest looking for something striking out from Vancouver and exploring British Columbia. (Disney has cruises out of there by the way).

IMO the some of the prettiest terrain in North America is found in Canada. The lakes are mind blowing and what I have encountered clean.

We are doing an adventures by Disney out of Bozeman MT striking out next month. Several stops in MT and WY. I'll report back on that as well, I've never been to either of those states.

Here is one that strikes out of Calagary -

https://www.adventuresbydisney...n-rockies-vacations/

I guarantee you’ll love Hawaii.

Alaska land/sea cruise-tours are nice. Everyone speaks English and take $$. Weather can be hit-or-miss.

Millions of Americans who cannot speak another language go to Europe every year without any difficulty.

That said, nothing is more romantic than a vacation in Italy!

Alaska Cruises are awesome, in particular if you do the train part too.

But Hawaii is nice too. Maui is my favorite.

quote:

Originally posted by petr:
As a Club member you can use your points all around the world, if you didn't know this. Hawaii included.

Thanks I some times forget about the Member getaways.
My wife and I have been members for 22 years and have only used the member getaways part of DVC to go to Vegas for the Shot Show once.
I may look at other getaways including Adventure by Disney but it is not always the best use of points.
My wife likes the idea of Hawaii but I have no desire to go to Hawaii.

My wife and I agree that the best "vacation" that we ever took was our trip to Thunder Ranch for the Team Tactics class back in the mid 90s.

We flew down a couple of days early and stayed at a bed n breakfast in San Antonio, loved the city. Then headed out to Kerrville TX.

We had a great time!

A few of my firefighter friends have taken cruises to Alaska, they all had nothing but great things to say about their experiences both on the ship and off. The one suggestion given was to take advantage of the ships consigliere for the various adventures offered. If you book an adventure with the consigliere passengers get preferential service.

We went to Ireland for 8 days for our honeymoon and that was one of the best vacations I'd ever taken. No language barrier either!

This was the tour company, they are really, really good:

CIE Tours: Ireland

Consider one of the 4 all-inclusive resorts in Punta Cana DR.

Viking river cruise of EU.

We did the land sea Alaska cruise some years ago, and enjoyed it enormously.

30 year anniversary, you probably prefer something more sedate for the ship. We chose Holland America.

We flew to Anchorage. The next morning we went by train through Denali staying a night in the park, getting out into the deep boonies, with a view of Mt. McKinley whatever it is now. We overnighted in Fairbanks, then flew back to Anchorage and bussed to the ship. From there we took the inside passge back to Seattle, and flew home.

The excursions are fascinating. We took a helo to the Glacier, flew by seaplane to an inland lake to watch bears brunch on fresh salmon, panned for gold, and more besides. It was expensive, but I figured, rightly it turns out, that we would never be up that way again.

We were advised to take the last southbound trip of the year, mid-September, for mosquitoes and weather concerns. That worked out well. I can’t say how other times would work out, of course.

For a 35 year anniversary trip, we went to Italy. It was our first oversees trip and we are not experienced international travelers

It was a two week trip including Rome,Positano, Florence, Siena, and Venice. Did not have much language issues.

We used a tour company, AVVENTURE BELLISSIME to schedule the hotels, car service,train travels and some guided city tours. Became comfortable moving around Italy (not as intimidating as it sounds).

awesome trip. really enjoyed the coast in Positano. See the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" and you will get an idea about Tuscan region and Positano.

email is in my profile if you would like to continue the discussion

Steve

Many will think i am crazy but the place I have always wanted to go to since I was little was Afghanistan.

I studied the country and every book report I ever had to write in High School and College was about it.

I always wanted to go to the Panjshir Valley but I got send to Helmand and then Kandahar. It was still awesome, and I loved six of the seven months there, and look forward to going back in the fall for another deployment.

On my bucket list is the Azores or Alaska.

Some deep part of me would like to see the area my father fought in during his tour in Vietnam in 1968.

I don't know how much you are willing to spend but the people I've known that went to Australia or New Zealand said that it was well worth the money. Iceland is also becoming a popular destination as well.

Jim

Something out of the ordinary would be Turtle Island, Fiji. https://www.turtlefiji.com

We did this in 1999. Wowzers! Private island, no cars, no TV, rsdio, fax machines, internet, 14 private bures on a 500 acre island, with 14 English speaking heterosexual couples, all inclusive, staff of 120 or so to take care of you, 14 private beaches....

The worst part is that when your week is up, you don’t want to leave.

well, I hope it wasn't the vacation of a lifetime (as in, I hope to do it again, and even top it) but we spent 2 weeks in France and Italy, with a little bit in London. Had an amazing time. Its more work but I would not do any kind of tour company. Yawn. Get out and make your own adventure. Tour companies will funnel you to tourist garbage, most likely. In the big cities in Europe, there is plenty of English being spoken. But you should definitely try to learn some of the language... that is being a good traveler. They'll appreciate you and work with you more. We are hoping to go to Barcelona for a week next March for anniversary #10.

I don't have a lot of desire to go to Asia, but I would love to go to Africa.

My parents did many trips but there were 2 that stood out to us as their favorites.

They did an Alaska cruse and land tour. They did the inside passage on a small cruise ship. The personal attention to details due to the limited numbers of passengers and the smaller ship's ability to get into areas that the bigger ships could no go made the cruise different from all the other cruises they had gone on.

The other one was a trip to Costa Rica. They flew into the pacific side and did an overland eco trip across it to the east side where they took a ship back through the Panama Canal to where they started. I have a picture of my dad with a sail fish he caught on a fishing charter he took on the trip.

I would look at South Africa. The dollar to the Rand is 1:13. Your buying power for the dollar is greater. African Travel booked everything from Winery tours to Shark Cage diving.
Do the math....2.100 Rand Shark dive - boat, breakfast and transfer ( 1.5 hr ride) is $160 US.
Average cost for dinner for 2 including bottle of wine is $25 US.
I did an African Safari 3 days— think Animal Kingdom with 5 star food and accommodations. 2 days in Durban- coastal Florida on the India ocean. 4 days in Cape Town— NYC 5 star Hotel at reasonable rates— 3 course meal for 2 include wine for $25 US.
African Travel arranges everything from greeter at the gate , transfers, side trips.
A lot to do in South Africa...your dollar goes 3-4 times further in 4-5 star hotel.
DVC member for 25 years now.
Do South Africa.