yoonny

I am not sure if this is the right place but my family vacation couple of times a year (one exotic international destination and one more closer to home). We don't like to go to the same places and we have no preference as to whether it is a city, beach, luxurious, third world, etc. We enjoy beach resorts and also experiencing local culture in a city. We just went to Conrad Maldives and I am afraid we might get disappointed in our future vacations. How to you prevent from getting disappointed in your future vacations b/c your last one was fantastic? What is your secret? No, we will not go back to the same place at least for 5 years. Thanks.

the_savman

Interesting dilemma, I have not been to the Maldives but I can imagine it 'raises the bar' for future trips.

One easy way to circumvent this is to do the polar opposite, so if you have one great trip on a white sandy beach then choose somewhere like a snowy Ski resort or Cultural hotspot for the next so it will be impossible for you to compare either trip as they would be different animals.

Nice problem to have, eh

fozziedoggie

Flying ponys and unicorns?

Free pringles for life?

Hookers and crack?


The possibilities are limitless.


...Just poking fun, no disrespect or malice intended OP.

pinniped

I'm with the Savman...make the next one something completely different. Go trekking in Nepal or something. Rotate through a couple different vacation types before the next beach vacation.

particlemn

Although my list did not include the Maldives we ran into a similar problem and i came up with a "reset" that worked very well
'04 2-weeks in St Barths
'05 1-week in Maui
'06 2- weeks Italy
'07 1 weekend in Laughlin, NV
Let me tell you 07 was really fun especially with the talk of resetting the bar, we reset it to the floor but still had a wonderful time, vacation is who you spend it with, if you like your family you will even have fun in Laughlin

Sweet Willie

+2 or perhaps an urban vaca, as long as the vaca isn't a beach/ocean vaca.

365RoadWarrior

I don't have a family, and you haven't provided demographics on yours (age, gender...) so my suggestion could be totally wacky. Would there be any value in taking your kids to a place where they could "give back" a little to the world. The Maldives are pretty indulgent, and, at some point, we all have to realize that going to such a place is a privelege reserved for a few.

And so a more specific thought: the Maldives, some say , are doomed by climate change and rising oceans. Could you plan a vacation around either learning about or heling to forestall climate change? Help install solar cell arrays somewhere in Africa so they can shut down a coal-fired or dirty petrol generator?

Obviously, Somalia or Burkina Faso isn't going to provide any direct points of comparison to the Maldives, so there won't be any temptation to try to "top" the last vacation. If not Africa, there are plenty of opportunities in sub-rural United States.

SPatrick83

An African safari would be a cool change of pace.

I just got back from Kathmandu, Nepal and that was definitely a cool, rewarding and educational experience. If you want to kick it up a notch, take a helicopter tour of Mt. Everest. Pop down to India and check out the Taj Mahal.

As the earlier poster mentioned, if you have kids, an experience helping out the needy would be a very good experience and India certainly isn't short on the needy.

To get away from the craziness that is getting about India, I can recommend staying at the ITC Mauyra in Delhi and ITC Grand Central in Mumbai. Excellent staff and accommodations!

You can also fly Emirates to get to India and do a layover in Dubai to check the awesomeness that is that city. Would be cool to experience both ends of the economic spectrum in one trip!

Tomphot

I love the diversity we just had in Thailand.
Conrad Bangkok
Chiang Mai - hotel of your choice
Conrad Koh Samui

A little bit of everything on 1 trip - fantastic!!

yoonny

Thanks for great suggestions. I know vacation is who I spend it with but the location and the accommodation do add to the overall experience. I hate it when I don't have anything planned and nothing to look forward to. I need that anticipation. Whether it's Laughlin, NV, India, Nepal or some other part of the world, I sure will keep reading threads and decide where to go next and it will be a new and different experience.

kmandrew

You don't list an airline preference but check out the Oneworld round the world for 190k in Business on the American board. What can beat stopping in your 14 favorite cities, using your Hilton points?

JDiver

Well, we manage to keep doing just that - this year, we spend three weeks in Provence (one week river cruise, one on or own, one out of Bonnieux in the Luberon,) snorkel with whale sharks in the Caribbean, scuba dive (in and out of cages) with unbaited, unchummed great white sharks at Guadalupe Island off the coast of Baja California and scuba dive - maybe with with sperm whales - in Dominica. 2013 perhaps back to southern Africa... Nice way to celebrate my 57th year of scuba diving.

For Hiltons, maybe not so much in the awesome category, but still enjoyable.

Canarsie

This is a very good question — one, however, that is not specifically relevant to Hilton Worldwide hotel properties or the Hilton HHonors frequent guest loyalty program.

Let’s see what are the responses to the question of how to top your last awesome vacation in the TravelBuzz! forum, which is now the new home for this discussion.

Regards,

Canarsie
Co-Moderator, Hilton HHonors forum

worldiswide

I don't think it's always can you top this vs always going with an attitude to learn something new and gain new insights into cultures and people. Weve found travel reinforces what's good about the world in spite of newspaper headlines to the contrary and that most people in most places want to share their country with you and provide fair and honest services. We just returned from 3 weeks in hong kong new Zealand with short stops in Sydney and shanghai on the return home. We've been all those places before but had new experiences and met new people and developed friendships that will help to keep the vacations alive for a long time

Travel is something that you pay for that makes you richer.

texmanufan

yoony, I know exactly how you feel. I am about a year ahead of you on this as we went to the Conrad Maldives in Feb last year. It did raise the bar for us too.

For us, going to the Maldives was getting out of our comfort zone of over 25 years travel consisting of mostly European and Hawaii trips. To be true to what lead us there we are going to Moorea & Bora Bora in August. It is killing me not to go back to the Maldives so soon, so we just booked a return trip but to the Park Hyatt this time. After that it in no set order yet it will be Seychelles, African Safari, Galapagos/Machu Picchu trip, and Bali.