Destination advice please
 

So I am trying to find a trip for my SO and I in Feb from RDU to wherever. We are planning on leaving the 16th and returning the 23rd. I would like to spend no more than ~ $1200-1300 for air and hotel/person and would like to travel at least 10,000 miles round trip (so looking at deep South America, Asia, or Europe - on SkyTeam). Anyone have any good ideas for places to try?

A couple places that crossed my mind were Malaga, Casablanca, Lisbon, Dubai, and Buenos Aires but was also interested in some "off the beaten path" destinations too.

Mods, if you feel the need to move this please do

You really didn't specify as to what "off the beaten path" means to you, but here are some suggestions. Your budget is also fairly limiting.

For S. America, BA is always a good bet, as is Santiago, but neither are particularly obscure destinations in and of themselves. Also, you might consider Quito and Guayaquil (via Copa or LAN), as they give you access to some great beaches and some gorgeous mountain scenery. They're also dirt cheap and use US currency.

If you can score some cheap tix to Malaysia, I highly recommend Borneo and Sarawak. You might (Probably a bit of a stretch, but I've seen flights for under $1000 on occasion...) be able to wrangle a cheap flight into Kota Kinabalu (BKI)on Korean. Decent hotels there are generally less than $50, and you can stay in a 4 star place for around $100.

Costa Rica is nice at that time

How about Africa? I'm considering going there sometime in 2008, and have received some fantastic advice from fellow Flyertalkers! ^
Your budget, however, may make it difficult, as I don't think there are a lot of cheap tix between N.Am. and Africa.

In terms of Europe, you could do IST and the Eastern Balkans (Bulgaria, Romania) for not a lot of money...Great combination of natural beauty, urban life and the occasional bits of culture. I wouldn't spend more than a couple of days in Malaga, but Andalucía is a great place and distances are quite small, so you can hire a car and go to SVQ, GRX, ODB, GIB and Cadiz without spending too much time on the road.

In addition to BA, consider Santiago in the South America department. A week is enough time to see the city, tour the wine country, spend some time in the seacoast resort town of Viña del Mar and the nearby port of Valparaiso, maybe a quick day trip by air to somewhere else. (Going much further north or south for long enough to truly see it would require more time.) And there wouldn't be enough of a time change to throw your body clocks off.

As for Morocco, Casablanca is boring (they didn't even film the movie there) but Rabat, much more interesting, is less than an hour away by train. In a week you'd have time for Fez and/or Marrakesh. It's more exotic than Chile, less European despite being geographically closer to Europe.

Dubai: personally, I wouldn't bother (unless I was visiting an FTer who's in temporary residence there, but that's for another thread). Lisbon: wrong time of year. Even marginal for Malaga. Ditto for most of the rest of Europe, unless you're going for the winter sports. Not unpleasant weather by U.S. standards, but why go there then when you can go somewhere else then and take another trip to Europe when it's better?

Also: Does either of you speak Spanish (go to Chile) or French (Morocco)?

Thank you all for the replies. I hadn't considered SCL initially, but after some more research that seems like a good destination. Since neither my SO nor I have been to South America, I am leaning in that direction. Also the relatively small time change makes it more appealing.

Morocco still sounds interesting to me so I may explore some more options there. I had thought about Istanbul but my SO has been there a few times.

I really appreciate all the advice so far. Please keep it coming!

I think it's going to be hard to stay within that budget going anywhere far off except Europe. February fares to the warmer destinations will be high then, but European fares are at their lowest.

There's something to be said for going to some of the standard European major sightseeing cities then. The tourists will be gone, so the atmosphere will be less frenzied and more authentic, museums will be uncrowded, and in many places there will be more of a cultural "season" going on in the winter.
And often hotels will be much cheaper.

If it were me I'd think of either Paris -- plenty to do inside, and it usually doesn't get horribly cold in the winter -- or Northern Italy, since you could see Venice, Florence, etc. without the mobs. I'm not sure if those are far enough away from you though.

While Paris might be bearable in terms of the cold, I would be very hesitant to recommend a visit to N. Italy in the winter. It can be incredibly foggy.