Looking for an adventure (vacation) somewhere with beaches.....recommendations? - Calling Gameboy

Work has been rough and I'm way behind on wedding planning so it's about time we plan a honeymoon. As always, the hive has never let me down so I come asking for help again. We're pretty adventurous and our usual vacations involve flying to one place and road tripping to the next. Although we are tourists, we don't seek out touristy things to do. Mostly eat good food, explore nature and see sites. We're looking for a place that's warm and has at least some of the following available: surfing, sailing, diving, fishing, exploring,nature, good food, nice people. Barbados has been mentioned but don't be afraid to recommend something completely different. I'm also wondering if that will be too touristy for us. I've been thinking of those random island chains in the atlantic or maybe something like the Galapagos. Something off the beaten path. Basically if it comes up on the top 10 honeymoon lists I don't think I would be interested. We would likely fly out of Tampa/Orlando/Miami and long flights don't scare me. Money is a factor but I'm generally pretty good at finding deals. Anything?

Turks and Caicos Islands. Not too touristy. Beautiful beaches. Rent a car and drive the island exploring.

That's all I got.

When my wife and I got engaged, we drove US-1 from South Carolina down to Key West. We made no plans- got hotel rooms as we went, stopped when we felt like it, etc. The Florida Keys are awesome- there's a lot to do, and not all of it is touristy. It's really what you make of it. Drove on the beach at Daytona. Bahia Honda Key is absolutely stunning, and has great kayaking. There's a cool bar way off the beaten path on (I think) Duck Key, too. And La Te Da's in Key West is a great spot for a dressy night out with a piano bar and late night cocktails.

Oh, and we made this trip in our '64 Corvair convertible. And yes, it did break down- repeatedly- but we made it home.

I proposed at the Southernmost point of Key West, at sunrise. Good thing she said yes; I was her ride home.

My wife and I went to Door County Wisconsin. Beautiful little towns on the water, beaches and cliffs, state parks, good food, diving, good driving roads, but surfing is going to be difficult although I've heard of people surfing on Lake Michigan, I've never seen it.

This road we drove back and forth 3 or 4 times:

The beaches are best at the summer time, so if you're planning for a winter escape, Wisconsin might not be the place!

Dominica. It is an unloved gem in the Caribbean. If you love nature and exploring, it is a great place. The island is a tropical rain forest with pretty incredible diving around (not sure about surfing). Because it is less well known, it is a bit less typically touristy. Specializing much more in eco-tourism for people who want to hike, dive, and explore nature.

Costa Rica. Yes, there are touristy places but once you get away from those it's gorgeous. Beautiful beaches and tons of rainforest to hike through.

BTW, honeymoon was 6 months later in October driving the blue ridge parkway in our 1980 Mercedes 450SL convertible. No beaches, but lots of mountains and beautiful scenery. We hiked and cruised around, hopping from one B&B to the next. Good times.

RossD wrote: This road we drove back and forth 3 or 4 times:

Whoever laid out that road must have been suffering from being awesome.

Adventure vacation but reasonably easy travel arrangements.... Aruba.

It's a desert where you can rent motorcycles and jeeps pretty cheap. It's got a lot of wind so ... sailing windsurfing etc is big. It's got lots of powersports too if you want to rip on a jet ski or strap on boards and get pulled behind a boat. There are some cool caves to explore, great natural scenery and $100 will get you a Piper Cub ride to Caracas Venezuela.

Check out Belize.

As for the Caribbean, I recommend three islands. Which three almost doesn't matter, the point is that any island gets pretty small pretty quick. Dominica (dom-in-EEK-ah) is awesome, take the tubing trip down the river and hike the rainforest to the falls. After exploring for 3 days, jump on a small plane and head to Barbados. The flight is part of the fun. Then jump a ferry to Grenada for a few days. Or Nevis for some Killer Bees. Or sail to Martinique. Rent a Mini Moke and just explore!

My suggestion is Carmel CA and the Big Sur coast. This is just IMHO and I know a lot of folks will object, but if you already live in Florida the Caribbean is just more of the same. I say this as a transplanted native Floridian, but the first time I saw Big Sur I couldn't believe that such a place really existed.

I'll second or third some of the votes. We also like the non touristy places with a bit of adventure and liked Belize a lot, different activities by the sea or into the jungle. From diving/snorkeling to mayan ruins and caves only reachable by horse.

Grenada was incredible with great food, scenery and people plus crazy roads.

Dominica is next on the list to visit for reason stated above. Guyana is also on my list but a bit more roughing it.

Had a surprising good time staying in one of the large resort North of Playa del Carmen but rented a car to visit the small places down the coast and on the road to tzichen itza, so only used it to sleep in. And for its 11am pool bar happy hour.

Enjoy either.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Adventure vacation but reasonably easy travel arrangements.... Aruba. It's a desert where you can rent motorcycles and jeeps pretty cheap. It's got a lot of wind so ... sailing windsurfing etc is big. It's got lots of powersports too if you want to rip on a jet ski or strap on boards and get pulled behind a boat. There are some cool caves to explore, great natural scenery and $100 will get you a Piper Cub ride to Caracas Venezuela.

Diving is big there too. About half the island is developed, and the other half is either desert (some rough, some smooth) or national park.

If you are considering Aruba and have any questions, I should be able to answer them, and tell you about some good local places to hang out, and eat. The only problem with dining in Aruba, is that there are too many choices.

Panama is on my list to see next. Sounds interesting too.

All good suggestions so far. Dominica is indeed the least touristy but they are Poor with a capital P, so don't expect everything to be up to first-world standards.

Barbados ticks all your boxes, but moderately touristy and the costs tend to scare people away. On the plus side you won't be roughing it at any time, if there's no free wifi in range that's a big inconvenience by Bajan standards.

Aruba is only weak on the exploring/nature side of things. It's a desert island you can almost see across from the top deck of a cruise ship. Moderate to high touristyness factor. Ticks all your boxes otherwise.

Just got back from a trip to Culebra. It is a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico. It absolutely rocked and you should be able to hit most of your tick-list.

Google the place up.

http://www.destination360.com/caribbean/puerto-rico/culebra-island

Trip advisor had some good info on what to do and where to stay.

A bunch of great recommendations in this thread. Some have been done already and some have been added to the list for another adventure.

I forgot to mention that this trip will be in early/mid December.

I like the island hopping idea and also the big sur idea. Time to do some research!Keep the ideas coming!

In reply to Zomby Woof: Okay, so I will bite. Soon to be SWMBO and I are planning our honeymoon super last minute (like 4 weeks from now ), and are seriously looking at Aruba. I am booking a trip in the next couple of days, any pointers on where to or where not to stay. We are definitely going to do the jeep thing (she loves jeeps). It will be are first trip to the Caribbeans so any advice is welcome.

Thanks!

I should add, that we are looking at one of the "all inclusive" deals since we have never been there before. Any of the resorts stand out from the rest? I have seen the Tamarijn Aruba and the Divi Aruba?? I am so confused!!

We really wanted to go to a less popular Caribbean island, but both our budget and time constraints (end of August) meant that we didn't want to spend much time or money on airfare. If I had my ideal amount of vacation (6 weeks) I would've taken ferrys between various islands in the caribbean, but alas, I only have 2 weeks and thats just not enough time to bounce around.

We chose Mexico because it offers cheap places to "do nothing", cheap eats, cheap airfare, direct flights, and secure tourist destinations. It'll be my first time south of the border (I've been going to Canada for years) so it'll be a nice intro to trying to communicate with locals.

Our hope is perhaps next year we'll try Puerto Rico.

carczar_84 wrote: In reply to Zomby Woof: Okay, so I will bite. Soon to be SWMBO and I are planning our honeymoon super last minute (like 4 weeks from now ), and are seriously looking at Aruba. I am booking a trip in the next couple of days, any pointers on where to or where not to stay. We are definitely going to do the jeep thing (she loves jeeps). It will be are first trip to the Caribbeans so any advice is welcome. Thanks!

I'll tell you what I know. Those are hotels in the low rise section. The high rise section (where we stay) is just to the north, on Palm beach. Either way, I don't think you can go wrong, but I would be looking up there. The high rise section is a lot more active, especially in the evenings. There are bars, restaurants, and shops lining the street on the opposite side of the hotels. They're hopping at night, and we always go out for a walk after dinner, wander through the shops, or stop for a few beers, and just check out the action. We stay at the Holiday inn. It's very reasonably priced. The food is good, and the accommodations are fine, but nothing fancy. It's a Holiday inn. The Riu is much nicer, with more and better food choices, but you pay for it, and there's a reason why the Holiday inn has the most return customers of any hotel on the island, it's good value. Most of the other high rise hotels are even more expensive, but you might find a deal. They're all nice. With so many excellent options for dining, we choose the lesser resort, then spend some of the difference dining out. The only time we're in our room is at night, so we don't need anything super high end, and the beach section (although it's ALL good) is nicer at the Holiday inn.

This should show you where the hotels are.

https://www.google.ca/maps/search/hotels+aruba/@12.571496,-70.0451872,16z

You will not regret going to Aruba. There's a reason why they have so many repeat visitors. If you book, let me know, and I can give you some tips, and tell you about some places to go, and things to do.

A friend went to someplace called Tulum, said it was the best place he had been on vacation. Its somewhere down in the gulf of mexico

In reply to Zomby Woof:

Thanks for the information. I like the idea of being more near the nightlife and activities. When I get home from work I will look at that end of the island.

So do you book an all inclusive trip, or just pay as you go? We were thinking about going all inclusive just to simplify things since it's are first trip there. I figured even then we would still eat other places a few times.

Would you recommend renting a car while there? I was thinking about getting a jeep for a day or two to explore. Should I just rent it for the whole trip, or is that even needed?

Thanks again for the help!

We go all inclusive, but usually eat out at least a few nights/days a week. The beer tab would otherwise kill us if we didn't.

There are snack trucks, and little take out places built out of old shipping containers that serve up some of the best local food. You'll want to check those out if you go. If you're going for 7 days, I'd rent for 4 of those days, and see if you need more. The driving is like here, and it's perfectly safe. you can go anywhere, pretty much any time.

Zeerovers is a must. Catch of the day as fresh as you can get it. Very casual and popular with the locals.

Ruis take away is another place popular with the locals. It's an old shipping container. It opens at 9 PM and serves the best oyster soup, and steak sandwich on the island. Apparently he was the chef at one of the high end resorts, and quit and opened this place up. Awesome food.

There are more that I can tell you about if you decide to go.

I've wanted to go to Aruba forever. I was an avid windsurfer in the 80s and early 90s.

For our (oft-delayed) honeymoon, we ended up in Cozumel. We stayed at an all-inclusive and spent our entire time diving. It was bliss. Swim with the pretty fishes, hang out on the boat, swim with the fishes, come back, rinse off, grab lunch, hang out, eat dinner, go to bed. So easy. The food was high quality, I probably lost weight simply because I ate well.

Not quite what you're looking for, but there's a lot to be said for simply relaxing in each other's company instead of making the trip challenging.

Beaches? I hear Miami has godda lots of beaches, mang.