A twin centre holiday in Cuba - Havana on B&B for a few days, plus AI in a resort hotel such as in Varadero?

One of the lovely 5star hotels in Side or Lara beach,Turkey would be lovely for a special birthday.

I second the reccommendation for cuba 2 center holiday, 4 nights in havana is enough to get the culture fix and is a beautiful, vibrant city ( hire a driver for a day to take you to all the places you wouldn't see with an organised tour ) then 10 days in varadero is perfect ! you can still go to loads of other places from varadero for a look around the island .
I suppose it all depends what you want from the holiday really, ie, adventure, chilling out, culture, lots of sightseeing, you'll get a good lot of ideas from all the members here anyway !
cheers,
juby

Hi Helen

I would go to Playacar in Mexico, perfect time of year to go and no problems that we found with spring breakers. It's a gated resort and we felt very safe. You can easily walk into Playa Del Carmen, but there is a little shopping centre if you fancy a wander. Loads to do if you want to, Mayan ruins, snorkelling, swimming with Dolphins etc. The hotels are fantastic- all 5*, we stayed at the Iberostar but the RUIs are good too. If you are beach lovers just check out the beach situation though as after the last hurricane they had big problems and have been trying to restore it.
We went for our 40ths and nothing before or after has matched upto it. High hopes for Egypt this year though!

Pam

HI all,
It's my hubby who'll be celebrating his 50th, so Helen T's part of our party. Great sugestions. We won't be taking up Pam's suggestion as we've already been to Playacar - Helen's been twice actually. I was thinking about a second visit to Turkey myself jay trip but didn't think we'd find many flights in April or even enough places open there, can youcorrect me if I'm wrong. HOwever, if we went to Turkey I wouldn't want AI. Next Cuba - one of the places I would like to visit. Friends of ours have doen the 2 centre havana and beach holiday and we may indeed look into it.

I'm wondering about Tunisia or Morocco? I'll be browsing the forums for an insite as I don't know much about them but the flight durations are appealing. Any more thoughts please?

We too are looking for twin centre, something organised, don't drive abroad. Wanting June, July 40th anniversary

Shirley, Marlou & I have been to Tunisia, and I don't think it fits the bill for what we'd want.

Oh, I forgot Helen. One to cross off the list then We'll have plenty to research on here anyway. Please keep your suggestions coming.

Have you thought about Dubai? I would never have thought about it, but stayed there for 5 nights on the way back from Australia, and we loved it! In fact we wished we had booked for longer there! Linda.

Dubai sounds lovely Linda but I think it will probably be out of our price range

What about a cruise? Apparently they are the 'in thing' at the moment. Have a look on the cruise forum, some very knowledgeable people over there who could help if you fancy trying it.

Pam

There are some lovely 5star hotels in Side and we went 2 years ago in March.The weather was lovely and everything was open.The Antalya area is open all year.We flew from our local airport with Thomas Cook but this winter I think they only go from Gatwick and Manchester.
There are 3 lovely hotels that are HB,the Sunrise Queen,the Arum and the Acanthus.I think these are available with Thomas Cook.

For my 50th in 2007 which was the 30th March we had a week in Toronto. Excellent place but a bit on the cold side.

I went to Hong Kong for my 40th - some excellent fares there at moment saw £299 the other day. Took better half to Toronto for her 40th...quite warm in September when we visited.

Within ten hours the OP said but if they can stand an extra half hour or so Bangkok comes in reach, a little longer Singapore or Kuala Lumpur which are easily tied in with a beach destination to make a two centre holiday.

Maybe I should have entitled the thread 50th birthday on a budget. I'm not a skinflint but rarely do we stay in 5 star hotels. The only time we've done this is in the Dom Rep and Mexico. As previously mentioned we normally go B&B or SC and as long as the rooms are clean, we're happy. After all we're hardly ever in them. We do like a pool and poolbar and aren't fussed on hotel based entertainment as we like a wonder in the evenings.

So far I'm liking the sound of Egypt. I think I might give Turkey a miss at this time of year. I haven't been in the Morocco forum next. Perhaps that will be one of my destinations this evening. I haven't totally ruled out Goa, but the main problem there again, is having to travel over 4 hours to London as there are no flights from our 2 local airports Cuba is another possibility but prices are very steep from Bristol. I'll have to do some more research.
Thanks for all your contibutions. We're a long way off deciding so please keep your suggestions flowing.

We we got a deal on the Toronto holiday. Flights and hotel for 8 nights for £300 each. It was so cheap that our youngest son came as well. Then the older one decided at the last minute that he wanted to come as well. The deal was no longer available so we booked him the flight (£199) and pitched up at the hotel as a 4 hander. The hotel put him up for nothing (They originally quoted $10 per night)! So the 4 of us had the break for less than £1200! And we got a direct flight from our home airport (Birmingham) to Toronto and when we checked in and the clerk looked at my passport and noticed that we were flying on my 50th bumped us all up to Business class! Result!

HI de HI - you did well girl

Excellent prices and treatment. I wonder if they do flights from Cardiff or Bristol I'll have to check. The way it's going my list of potential places is getting longer instead of shorter

Kenya and a Safari.The better half wants to go in March 2010,prices AI seem ok.

Hi Helen

I've read all the wonderful suggestions, but I am thinking that Egypt will probably be your best bet. Some sound lovely but a bit expensive, or not available from your local airport. Morocco and Tunisia sound great, but I think if you are after decent weather it will be more hit and miss in Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey than it will in Egypt.

I've been to Egypt (Sharm for me but there are other resorts) twice in April and we had lovely weather both times although you need to be aware that it does get dark early. So you start chasing the sun from 4pm onwards. From what I read it has got a little bit more expensive recently, probably due to the dodgy pound, but I thought of it as a 5 star holiday for 3 star prices.

If you can manage without a conventional beach and cope with a ten min cab ride of an evening too and from Namma Bay the Rennaisance Golden View Beach at Ras el um Sid resort is really nice. It looks stunning and its own restaurants are OK if you dont fancy going into NB of an evening. Portland/Thomson sell it.

If you dont want a cab ride, you would be better off looking at B&B's in NB, like the Hilton Sharm Dreams, Hilton Farouzay, Iberotel Lido, Marriott, Novotel etc Some hotels are beach side and others are road side so slightly cheaper, but you get access to the beach of the sister hotel normally.

Doe