If you had the $$ what would be your ideal vacation? I'm not talking all $$ in world, but enough extra for a decent vacation. The first place (and second and third and last) with enough $$ is to E"Y. I have no interest in going to Florida at the current time. I have been there a few times and still not interested in going back. With less money, I would enjoy seeing various cities that I've never been to, preferably with a Jewish contigency.

Obviously Medinat Yisrael Reishit Tzemichat Ge'ulateinu. That's a given. After that:

London. For the kids.
Costa Rica [one of those eco-tourism things]. For me.
Italy. For my SPOUSE*.


*I'm married to my wife.

I LOVED Puerto Rico. It's beautiful, fun and an all around great vacation. There's a lot of stuff to do there.

#1: Hokkaido
#2: San Francisco
#3: Hawai'i

ETA: I don't know what you mean by "last". If you mean 4th place, then:
#4: Ireland
If you mean where you would least like to go, then it would be a 3-way tie between Malaysia, Mississippi and Ma'aale Adumim.

It's a toned down version of Cuba...
If you liked San Juan, PR try Puerto Vallarta or Campeche, Mexico or if you're really brave Havana, Cuba.

I know it's far, but if you could I would definitely make my to Cape Town. It is mindnumbingly beautiful. Absolutely breathtaking. Deals to South Africa can be had for about $700 and the Rand is very favorable against the dollar these days...

Eretz Yisrael.

I'm currently eyeing the Tristan da Cunha group.

I didn't see your post before writing mine. The only way to get to Tristan da Cunha is via ship from Cape Town. The problem is the ships don't go back and forth all that often and the vacation, by necessity, extends almost a month...

Oh my rtg!

Anywhere with clear, warm water and abundant, varied sea life. I've been diving all over the caribbean, so I'd probably want to do Australia if I had the money to spend - provided I could go by myself. If I was taking the yingele, I'd most likely opt for e"y. Pre-baby, I would've said the cliche'd backpacking through Europe is amazingly tempting, but apparently it's frowned upon to do that if you're a mommy...

Really?? You would be my hero if you made your way there but for some reason I highly doubt you'll end up visiting. Getting to the most remote inhabitated insland in the world can be tough. There are no airports, the only way in or out is by hitching a ride with a fishing trawler or the odd cruise ship out of Cape Town and those take seven days and only travel every month or so.

And the mail is awfully slow too. Its been three months since I sent the sole Constable on the island an international money order for a copy of his book and it still hasn't arrived.

rtg?

Getting there wouldn't be such a problem (it would just require a lot of planning advance) and it's not even so expensive. It's the amount of time I'd have to stay until the fishing vessel left that that would pose difficulty for me.

oh my rtg=oh MYRTG.
get it?

It's only 5 days from St. Helena. http://www.tristandc.com/shipping.php

thanks, was it a pun- oh my ready to go/MYRTG?

(sorry for ruining it with my slowness)

Medinat Yisrael Reishit Tzemichat Ge'ulateinu

I need a freaken goddam vaction myself. I am overworked like crazy and I just need to get away from everything.

I would love to go to Paris and see the Louvre,shop at the boutiques, swim in the hotel pool, lounge around and relax!

You're misreading the page. The RMS St. Helena is a ship that used to make the trip from Cape Town to Tristan da Cunha (but does not, currently). In any case, the one trip that the SA Agulhas, which also takes five days from Cape Town, is making to the island in 2008 remains there for nearly a month. At this time, my schedule does not allow me to take over a month's vacation.

Which bits of London do you think your kids would like?



(Oh and if you get here, do pop in.)

E'Y of course
Various cities in Europe for a Greatest Hits Art Museum trip
Most realistic in terms of budget- a trip to various national parks out west like the Grand canyon, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion, Yosemite etc

It's a dependency of, and administered from, St. Helena so there's got to be a way to get to Tristan da Cunha from there.

Why would someone need to get from St. Helena to Tristan da Cunha?

From the wikipedia pages on Tristan da Cunha and the island of St. Helena:

"The remote location of the islands makes transport to the outside world difficult. There is no airport, and the islands can only be reached by boat. Fishing boats from South Africa regularly service the islands. The RMS Saint Helena formerly connected the islands to South Africa, and the United Kingdom via Saint Helena and Ascension Island, but she no longer calls at Tristan da Cunha."

"These RAF flights offer a limited number of seats to civilians. The RMS Saint Helena runs between the United Kingdom, Ascension, St Helena and Cape Town. It no longer calls at Tristan da Cunha. However, the RMS Saint Helena is due for eventual decommissioning and may be partly replaced by an expanded airfield on Saint Helena Island."