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Help us decide where to go, please! Long, sorry
I'm sure you get these all the time, I think this is at least the 3rd time I've asked you guys for advice, but apparently I cannot make up my mind when it comes to choosing travel destinations.
I'm planning to go on a trip in June 2012 (coming up quick!) with my husband and a few siblings-in-law (3-5 adults total). Our budget is $2000 per person (for flight/lodging/expensive activities, not including spending money). We have about 10 days for the trip, I don't mind long flights but I don't want to spend 99% of the budget on flights and not be able to afford anything else. Things we would like to include: outdoor activities (hiking, boating,swimming,etc.), some nightlife, ideally an interesting city but with nature-related activities nearby, we don't need the place to be known for beaches but some water access would be awesome, and interesting culture/history would be great too. Unless it's a really different area that we know nothing about, we'd like to avoid too many guided tours. That's not asking too much, is it? 
We were considering Belize, which I LOVE because of the people and the price, but I've been there before and we'd like to go somewhere new. Croatia was a major consideration, but it just adds up really quickly and to do everything we'd want it would be super expensive.
I'd like to go outside of North America unless something is just fantastic, I know it would be cheaper. Other places to avoid are Hawaii, France, Greece, and Mexico (at least the Northern and Eastern parts) just because we've been there recently enough that we'd like to try something new.
Help! Thanks!
Re: Help us decide where to go, please! Long, sorry
Costa Rica might be a great option; we'll have to look into it more. Thanks!
This year we went to Hawaii for $1500 per person, so I'm not too worried about the budget (we don't really like fancy hotels, prefer small ones) unless it's a long flight or to an uncommon location. We don't plan on spending more than $1000 per person on flights if we can help it. We're leaving from St. Louis, and unfortunately the dates aren't really flexible because 2 of us are teachers. I know flights are more expensive then, but teachers don't get a choice for when to take vacation time
Thanks for the suggestions!
Married
Planning
If you are considering Central America, you might want to look at Nicaragua. We just took a trip to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. We liked them both, but enjoyed Nicaragua more. It is a good mix of cute towns, beach, and outdoor activities. It is really inexpensive and very do-able in your budget.
At first, $2000 pp doesn't sound like a lot but really that's $4k per couple, and $10k for 5 ppl, and that's plenty of money to play around with, especially if you are willing to rent a house or large apartment and stay together, cook a few of your own meals, and if you can get a cheaper flight.
We went to Colombia for 6 days and only spent about $2500 for the two of us, and that includes flights which were $350 each. Bogota is a really great city, with lots of culture and good food. Medellin has a great nightlife, and I loved Catagena - amazing culture, great food, beaches.
I also really like Honduras. I visited Copan for the ruins and a coffee tour, Roatan for the beaches and swimming with dolphins, ziplining, hiking, etc. You could also look into Peru or Bolivia, which might be doable depending on the cost of flights.
Honestly I'd make a list of every place that remotely interested me and fit the requirements (and there are a ton - Central and South America, Asiasomething in the US like Tahoe or the small towns on the east coast - if you get a cheapo flight and all share a house, it won't be any more expensive that Central America) and just start pricing flights.
I always figure I can find a nice place to stay for less than $100 a night, especially if we get an apartment, so for 5 people, I'd bank on $300 or so per night, figure on about $500 for activities, which puts you at about $900 per person, so start pricing flights under $1100 per person. And at that rate, depending on where you are flying from, you can go pretty much anywhere.
Just keep in mind that some places that are cheaper to fly to may cost more once you get there, and vice versa. When we went to Argentina a few years ago, we spent $4500 for 10 days all in, and $2500 of that was flights there and flights within the country, $700 was hotels and $500 was activities. We only spent about $800 in 10 days on eating, drinking, shopping, sightseeing and transport. So it may actually be worth it to spend more on the flight if once you get there you can see and do a lot for little money.
My thoughts exactly!
Married
Planning
What does everyone like to do? Tell us more about the dynamics among the adults.
Can you avoid going in June? School will be getting out and the crowds will get thick fast. For that reason, I would avoid Rome unless you can beat the crowds.
I think Italy will be much more expensive than South America although I'd probably start with looking at airfare and going from there. If you rent a house together, you can save a ton of money and make most of your meals yourselves to save more. If you can narrow down optiosn by airfare, you'll know what's left to play with to figure out where you can go.
BFP Apr 2012, EDD Dec 19 2012 * twin h/b at 6wk, 9wk scan * Baby A lost at 12wks, Baby B was my rainbow born at 36wks