My goal is to present my husband with 3 options, (maybe 4), any of which would be fine by me, and then let him decide. So it's starting to shape up as

1) Portugal
2) South Africa
3) Switzerland/Austria
4) Northern Spain/France

Not a bad choice in the bunch!

As to when to go to SA, I'm finding that the rainfall and temperatures and best times to see wildlife don't seem to coincide well - I'm going to have to research this a little more.

Alice