Vacation with Dad after MSI, where would you go?

[samac]

---

Members do not see this ad.

So my dad has been saving all his change for me since I was a little girl and he said it's time to finally cash it in.
It'll probably be about $5000 and it's mine to do with what I want.

I would like to take him on a vacation. We travelled a lot when I was in grade school, from New York to Florida, to the Bahamas and the Dominical Republic.

Now that I'm older I'm not quite sure where I would want to take my dad on a vacation.

So while I've been searching travel sites my weird thought was I wonder where SDN would go.
So, where would you take your dad?

 

[DocVapor]

http://www.24h-lemans.com/en/

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I mean you're going to have to clarify exactly what you want to do? Are you looking for a relaxing beach vacation or are you thinking about travel with a day or two dedicated to maybe some r&r? If it's the former then I recommend Aruba or Grand Cayman, the later Spain ( Madrid -> Seville -> Barcelona) or Italy ( Rome -> Venice -> Milan -> Back to Rome & Go to Ostia 4 beach) because both are relatively cheap in the summer.

If you're into natural beauty consider Iceland for 4-5 days and stopping at the blue lagoon spa and or another one for an entire day.

 

[Brorthopedic]

Depending on your father's age, you can go backpack Europe

 

[piii]

Hanoi/North Vietnam, or Hong Kong.

 

[jacksweeds]

I've traveled extensively (30+ countries and counting)...its a huge passion of mine. PM me if you want any specific tips/advice/trip ideas. @samac

 

[ortnakas]

What kinds of things does your dad like to do?

International or domestic?

 

[frosted_flake]

So my dad has been saving all his change for me since I was a little girl and he said it's time to finally cash it in.
It'll probably be about $5000 and it's mine to do with what I want.

I would like to take him on a vacation. We travelled a lot when I was in grade school, from New York to Florida, to the Bahamas and the Dominical Republic.

Now that I'm older I'm not quite sure where I would want to take my dad on a vacation.

So while I've been searching travel sites my weird thought was I wonder where SDN would go.
So, where would you take your dad?

VEGAS!

 

[tartesos]

So my dad has been saving all his change for me since I was a little girl and he said it's time to finally cash it in.
It'll probably be about $5000 and it's mine to do with what I want.

I would like to take him on a vacation. We travelled a lot when I was in grade school, from New York to Florida, to the Bahamas and the Dominical Republic.

Now that I'm older I'm not quite sure where I would want to take my dad on a vacation.

So while I've been searching travel sites my weird thought was I wonder where SDN would go.
So, where would you take your dad?

Does he have any hobbies or interest in archaelogy? Likes the beach?
Mexico. Peru.
The Galapagos island is in my bucket list.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

If your dad is the outdoorsy type, I have heard that the Alaskan Cruises are phenomenal, tons of wildlife and gorgeous scenery. All while being on a cruise.

 

[Giovanotto]

If your dad is the outdoorsy type, I have heard that the Alaskan Cruises are phenomenal, tons of wildlife and gorgeous scenery. All while being on a cruise.

They are indeed, but from the catalogs I've looked at they are crazy expensive.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

They are indeed, but from the catalogs I've looked at they are crazy expensive.

Yeah but she said that they have 5k to spend on this trip. The ones I've seen are about 3k but they are all inclusive.

Disclaimer: haven't looked in a while so this is what I saw last time I looked about a year ago when my wife and I went on a trip

 

[samac]

Thanks for being so responsive!

You all have some really great ideas. I was just worried about what the best options were for a 23 girl and a 50 year old man.

I've thought about Europe. Possibly Ireland, it's our heritage. the most he's been out of the US. I've actually thought about an Alaskan Cruise too, he likes outdoors but likes to be able to relax.

I went to Vegas with my mother last year, that was a good time.

 

[Giovanotto]

Yeah but she said that they have 5k to spend on this trip. The ones I've seen are about 3k but they are all inclusive.

Disclaimer: haven't looked in a while so this is what I saw last time I looked about a year ago when my wife and I went on a trip

The ones I saw START at 5,000.

 

[jacksweeds]

Burma was awesome... you can get a decent flight to bangkok, then hop on a quick cheap flight to yangon. Bagan (google pics) is one of the most amazing places I've ever been to.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

The ones I saw START at 5,000.

Nah, I just checked. They start at 1000 for a balcony room, which are the better rooms. Now the spread is big, anywhere from 1000 to much higher than that.

 

[Ipper91]

Depends on how much time you guys have off. If you have a longer amount of time, I would suggest something in Central/South America where you'd def get more bang for the buck. I just came back from Europe for 16 days over the winter break, and I have traveled a good bit in Asia. Europe costed me about $100/day while Asia costs about $200/week. My guess is South America would be similar in expenses to Asia. Hiking across the USA out west is another low cost option as well. No flights required and there is soo much to see.

Besides looking at the cost per day, I would highly suggest taking up a credit card offer if you're able to pay off your expenses every month. Reason I say this is because credit card incentives are the best way to rack up free tickets/hotels/etc. It all depends on your situation I guess, but do keep those in mind..esp if your father's credit is good. Some credit cards have offers for 50k points and stuff which equals sometime even over a thousand in airfare. Check out thepointsguy on google if this last part interested you at all.

 

[petyr_baelish]

Depends on how much time you guys have off. If you have a longer amount of time, I would suggest something in Central/South America where you'd def get more bang for the buck. I just came back from Europe for 16 days over the winter break, and I have traveled a good bit in Asia. Europe costed me about $100/day while Asia costs about $200/week. My guess is South America would be similar in expenses to Asia. Hiking across the USA out west is another low cost option as well. No flights required and there is soo much to see.

Besides looking at the cost per day, I would highly suggest taking up a credit card offer if you're able to pay off your expenses every month. Reason I say this is because credit card incentives are the best way to rack up free tickets/hotels/etc. It all depends on your situation I guess, but do keep those in mind..esp if your father's credit is good. Some credit cards have offers for 50k points and stuff which equals sometime even over a thousand in airfare. Check out thepointsguy on google if this last part interested you at all.

Thepointsguy gets paid to aggressively promote the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and its by far not the best one. I like thepointsdoctor or onemileatatime better, personally. Less biased.

 

[samac]

I have credit cards, a couple cash back and one points card. But I wouldn't ask my dad to get one. I'm trying to save up points for years and attempt to make residency interviews a little smoother.

 

[deleted407021]

A college friend tells me Iceland trips are cheap.

 

[NotYou20]

I'd take my dad to Cuba. Beautiful scenery and a really unique culture. Tell the state department you're going to work on your Spanish and you should be good to go.

 

[Goro]

Grand Canyon National Park

So my dad has been saving all his change for me since I was a little girl and he said it's time to finally cash it in.
It'll probably be about $5000 and it's mine to do with what I want.

I would like to take him on a vacation. We travelled a lot when I was in grade school, from New York to Florida, to the Bahamas and the Dominical Republic.

Now that I'm older I'm not quite sure where I would want to take my dad on a vacation.

So while I've been searching travel sites my weird thought was I wonder where SDN would go.
So, where would you take your dad?

 

[kenjixshadow]

Grand Canyon National Park

👍

No one has mention these yet.

Dubai (a bit more pricy)

& Bali was one of my fav.

 

[IslandStyle808]

👍

No one has mention these yet.

Dubai (a bit more pricy)

& Bali was one of my fav.

I visited Dubai for a few days and it was fantastic. Loved the view from the Burj Khalifa.

 

[Goro]

Shown here is
Dead Horse Point State Park, which is in UT, not in the Grand Canyon.
But if in UT, check out Capitol Reef, Zion, and Bryce Canyon National Parks too!

👍

No one has mention these yet.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Dubai for 2 won't be affordable on 5k tbh.

Bali is beautiful, but honestly for ppl in the continental US it'll be cheaper and more easy to just fly to an all-inclusive resort on one of the Carib Islands than flying to an Island in Indonesia or one of the thai resorts like Phucket.

 

[yanks26dmb]

OP - skip the all-inclusive junk. things are so much cheaper when you plan your own vacation, rather than leave it in the hands of whichever corporation has set up shop with some all-inclusive resort... you'll get a much more authentic experience this way. Not to mention, you'll actually get to eat food that's from the area you're in...

and to hell with Dubai...why would you fly half way around the world just to go somewhere that's all about luxury malls/shopping, over priced garbage food, and mass consumerism...seems kind of a waste of an experience

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

OP - skip the all-inclusive junk. things are so much cheaper when you plan your own vacation, rather than leave it in the hands of whichever corporation has set up shop with some all-inclusive resort... you'll get a much more authentic experience this way. Not to mention, you'll actually get to eat food that's from the area you're in...

and to hell with Dubai...why would you fly half way around the world just to go somewhere that's all about luxury malls/shopping, over priced garbage food, and mass consumerism...seems kind of a waste of an experience

When I go to an all inclusive resort it's so that I can have my ass on a beach chair/ swim for about 6 hours a day, eat my ass off, and watch tv, and relax. If you want to go exploring the cities or doing etc, that's great too.

 

[yanks26dmb]

When I go to an all inclusive resort it's so that I can have my ass on a beach chair/ swim for about 6 hours a day, eat my ass off, and watch tv, and relax. If you want to go exploring the cities or doing etc, that's great too.

yeah, different strokes for different folks I suppose.

 

[kenjixshadow]

Someone who talks trash about Dubai is obviously never been there and the ignorance is obliviously showing. Inclusive resort is nice, but it's boring after 2 or 3 days.
OP, you already went to the Caribbean, so maybe Southeast Asia or Europe next? For Europea, I enjoyed of visiting Milan, Venice, Barcelona, Munich, and Madrid (be careful with your purse/wallet).

 

[yanks26dmb]

Someone who talks trash about Dubai is obviously never been there and the ignorance is obliviously showing. Inclusive resort is nice, but it's boring after 2 or 3 days.
OP, you already went to the Caribbean, so maybe Southeast Asia or Europe next? For Europea, I enjoyed of visiting Milan, Venice, Barcelona, Munich, and Madrid (be careful with your purse/wallet).

I spent two days in dubai as part of a longer 6 month trip....it was terrible.

Granted I was there for only two days and had just come from South Africa so maybe I was biased.....but it was not a pleasant place. Even less so when you consider the fact the city was/is built by modern day slavery.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Someone who talks trash about Dubai is obviously never been there and the ignorance is obliviously showing. Inclusive resort is nice, but it's boring after 2 or 3 days.
OP, you already went to the Caribbean, so maybe Southeast Asia or Europe next? For Europea, I enjoyed of visiting Milan, Venice, Barcelona, Munich, and Madrid (be careful with your purse/wallet).

Hence why recommendation for Spain tbh. It's not hard to do Madrid, Sevile, Toledo, Barcelona, and Grenada in 10 days. Likewise in the summer it's hot enough that the prices are cheap.

 

[yanks26dmb]

Hence why recommendation for Spain tbh. It's not hard to do Madrid, Sevile, Toledo, Barcelona, and Grenada in 10 days. Likewise in the summer it's hot enough that the prices are cheap.

Spain's great, though I would probably cut at least a couple of those cities off...thats a lot of internal traveling for just 10 days.

I'd put a serious vote in for San Sebastian up on the north coast.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Spain's great, though I would probably cut at least a couple of those cities off...thats a lot of internal traveling for just 10 days.

I'd put a serious vote in for San Sebastian up on the north coast.

I managed it save for Grenada. Toledo is a day tour tbh. Sevile is 2 days. Madrid is being entirely honest at max 3 days and is a generally bland city. Barcelona is 4 days. Give yourself 3 days of touring the sights, go to Mount Serrat, and a day or two on the beach ( also enjoy arguably the best food in Spain in some of the hippest places ever).

Personally I wouldn't mind going back to Barcelona if only to enjoy some good tapas.

 

[tartesos]

I managed it save for Grenada. Toledo is a day tour tbh. Sevile is 2 days. Madrid is being entirely honest at max 3 days and is a generally bland city. Barcelona is 4 days. Give yourself 3 days of touring the sights, go to Mount Serrat, and a day or two on the beach ( also enjoy arguably the best food in Spain in some of the hippest places ever).

Personally I wouldn't mind going back to Barcelona if only to enjoy some good tapas.

Not s fan of Madrid unless is be museums.
Toledo is beautiful. El Avila.

And Barcelona is amazing!
You can't go wrong

 

[ortnakas]

Shown here is
Dead Horse Point State Park, which is in UT, not in the Grand Canyon.
But if in UT, check out Capitol Reef, Zion, and Bryce Canyon National Parks too!

I like the National Park idea a lot, actually.

The parks in Southern Utah and Arizona are all excellent choices, but if you wanted something not quite as hot in the summer (and mountains as opposed to deserts) there's also Rocky Mountain (Colorado), Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons (Wyoming), and Glacier (Montana). Or if you want a beach and are okay with rain, Olympic (Washington).

 

[NurWollen]

I like the National Park idea a lot, actually.

The parks in Southern Utah and Arizona are all excellent choices, but if you wanted something not quite as hot in the summer (and mountains as opposed to deserts) there's also Rocky Mountain (Colorado), Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons (Wyoming), and Glacier (Montana). Or if you want a beach and are okay with rain, Olympic (Washington).

Yellowstone and the Tetons are unbelievably gorgeous in the summer. I don't know that I would want to spend more than a few days there though.

 

[Old_Mil]

So my dad has been saving all his change for me since I was a little girl and he said it's time to finally cash it in.


It'll probably be about $5000 and it's mine to do with what I want.

So, where would you take your dad?

Depends. What does he like? If you like the islands and ocean, Bermuda, the Caymans and Turks/Caicos are all nice.

If you have never been to Canada, Banff is nice, and the exchange rate is good right now.

Europe is a little unstable at the moment.

Airline tickets will burn up a bunch of that trying to get to the south pacific or Asia.


He raised a good kid, reps to you for thinking of this.

 

[lyana]

Georgia ( the county)- amazing people who will treat you like a relative, great wine, beautiful nature/cities.

 

[samac]

Depends. What does he like? If you like the islands and ocean, Bermuda, the Caymans and Turks/Caicos are all nice.

If you have never been to Canada, Banff is nice, and the exchange rate is good right now.

Europe is a little unstable at the moment.

Airline tickets will burn up a bunch of that trying to get to the south pacific or Asia.


He raised a good kid, reps to you for thinking of this.

He's done a lot for me and made a lot of sacrifices. I know he wouldn't let me turn around and give the money back to him, so I thought this was the next best thing.

I didn't even think of Bermuda that's a great idea.

I've also been looking at cruises at Alaska, something I thought of before but thought would be out of my price range, didn't realize they started as low as they did.
I also didn't think of the national parks, my dad has never been west of the Mississippi and it would be great to take him around Yellowstone.

I really appreciate all the opinions!

 

[cabinbuilder]

They are indeed, but from the catalogs I've looked at they are crazy expensive.

you can get good Alaskan cruise deals on the Alaskaair.com website.

 

[Catfish-Cupcake]

I'm a big fan of going on road trips and camping. My dad and I are hitting up Yellowstone for a week and then Glacier National Park in the early summer. People always talk about going to exotic locations, but there are lots of beautiful areas in the USA.

 

[Catfish-Cupcake]

He's done a lot for me and made a lot of sacrifices. I know he wouldn't let me turn around and give the money back to him, so I thought this was the next best thing.

I didn't even think of Bermuda that's a great idea.

I've also been looking at cruises at Alaska, something I thought of before but thought would be out of my price range, didn't realize they started as low as they did.
I also didn't think of the national parks, my dad has never been west of the Mississippi and it would be great to take him around Yellowstone.

I really appreciate all the opinions!

There is so much to do on the western side of the States! Yellowstone, Glacier, the cascades, the lost coast, the sawtooths are all beautiful places to visit!

 

[spenguin]

I think Japan is awesome to visit!
I'm going this year, paying roughly $50/night in the middle of each city through airbnb
Tokyo has some of the best food in the world. Not just Japanese food (tempura, ramen, sushi, etc) but they have amazing food of other kinds. It is the city with the most michelin stars (restaurant award)
You could go to an onsen (hot spring) for a couple relaxing days or go hiking to Mt. Fuji
They also have deep sea diving in some cities

 

[jtm0021]

Wait? Your not studying for your boards?!

Yellowstone definitely.

 

[Seth Joo]

So my dad has been saving all his change for me since I was a little girl and he said it's time to finally cash it in.
It'll probably be about $5000 and it's mine to do with what I want.

I would like to take him on a vacation. We travelled a lot when I was in grade school, from New York to Florida, to the Bahamas and the Dominical Republic.

Now that I'm older I'm not quite sure where I would want to take my dad on a vacation.

So while I've been searching travel sites my weird thought was I wonder where SDN would go.
So, where would you take your dad?

I would pick a cruise, possibly to Bermuda. Me and my girlfriend chose that over Europe given what is happening over there things do not look too promising.

 

[samac]

Wait? Your not studying for your boards?!

Yellowstone definitely.

Summer after MS I? Not intensely, no.

 

[jtm0021]

Summer after MS I? Not intensely, no.

I meant that with all the sarcasm in the world haha

 

[Person1345]

The ones I saw START at 5,000.

You guys are looking at the wrong cruises...Princess cruises in Alaska start at $699. I just looked 'em up the other day!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app