If you could only have one last vacation with your family where would you go, where would you stay and what restaurant would you go to?

Hi Calamari,

I would go to Paris and have dinner at Taillevent.

I hope that this is just a rhetorical question.

To Giraffe Manor in Kenya, I wouldn't go with anyone else, and I'd eat at the hotel!

Thank you both for your suggestios. A friend of mine asked for my help in planning something memorable for his family. It will be their last vacation together. My travels are limited to only the U.S. and Europe. I thought I would pose the question to the experts for some suggestions.

Oh, dear. I would take my family to Rome. (They'd probably want to know what the heck I've been yacking about for eons, anyway!) My dad was a very devout Catholic, and died suddenly on July 2nd. He wouldn't fly, though, so I never took him; I think he would have enjoyed it a lot.

BC

Calamari, many times people will have in their hearts a secret desire to see some place. Thinking that the opportunity to visit this place will never happen, the topic might not come up in daily conversation, so no one will know about it. Ask your friend to lead you to the place he has dreamed about.

If you have at least a general location, you will find much help on this forum. There are many generous and knowledgeable travellers here who will be more than happy to help you assist your friend.

anywhere in Italy.

Italy would top my list, as would Paris. But then again, coming in a close second would be the Swiss and Austrian Alps.

But my family spent many memorable vacations in Cape Cod and New England, and we adore the SW U. S. as well.

The choice would probably boil down to family circumstances and finances.

Calamari, it obviously depends upon so many things-interests, time of year, where they've already been etc. I'm assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that one of the members of this family is ill so how ill & how far he/she can travel are obvious considerations.

I was thinking that perhaps the children are old enough to have started going their separate ways, so this might be one last vacation the family would take before in-laws & grandchildren came into the mix.

BC

There is probably no city in the world with such an accessible wealth of Western culture, be it literature, architecture, history, the arts, militaria, music, religion, etc. than London.

By accessible I mean that, at least for the most part, it is within easy flying distance from most of the U.S.A. the basic language is English, and a great many of the attractions are free of charge. There are some of the world?s finest galleries and museums and many huge parks and squares in which to get away from it all.

I took the original post quite differently, perhaps the children are moving away from home, getting married, going away to college, whatever. A few years back my family had ?one last vacation? for that very reason. There may be more in the future, but probably not with the same configuration of people.

Good luck.

If my children were old enough, and if my family could weather the long trip, I would go on safari in South Africa at the Singita Game Reserve. I would end the trip with a stay in Cape Town at the Mount Nelson or the Table Bay Hotel.

On a 2 weeks cruise to the Greek islands.

Bookchick,
So sorry to hear about your dad. My prayers are with you and your family. Joyce

Bookchick,

Sorry about your Dad. I lost my father suddenly, too.

Yes,it is an illness. This amazing father of three wants to take his wife and kids (6,8,12) on a trip they will all remember within the next six months. Thanks so much for all of the wonderful ideas. He will enjoy hearing all of them.

Wow. What a personal choice! For myself, I'd plan a family heritage trip, to share memories and stories with them about the kind of people they came from, where and how they lived, and what they overcame.

We'd go to Frenchtown, outside Missoula, in Montana, where my Mom's parents homesteaded. I'd tell them the story about how Grandma as a little girl accidentally set the outhouse on fire, how she hunted deer by herself to feed the family when she was a teenager,and we'd see the mountain peak ("Edith Peak), named for her by a forest ranger who was sweet on her as a young woman. We'd go to Mass on Sunday at that wonderful wood frame mission church, and hopefully they'd have a country-western band singing the Mass, like they did the last time I was there.

We'd go to Anaconda and Butte and see the mines where my Dad worked and fought for the dignity of miners.

I'd hope they would share the gratitude that I feel that the blood of such people runs in their veins.

The thing I miss most about my parents, now that I am older, is the questions they could answer for me about who we were and where we came from and what it was like.

My brother, a cousin, an aunt and uncle, and I took my mother to Italy about 6 years ago. It had been a lifelong dream of hers (as well as her sister's), and we did a "tour" of the places where their parents had grown up in the first part of the last century. I know this is done by a lot of people, but I truly believe that my mother appreciated it more than the average individual, since she was certain she would never get this opportunity in her life. She is still living, though pushing 80, and I would LOVE to take her back, though I don't know that her health would allow her a good time now. I'm just so glad we got her there when we did! It's a memory she will always have, and so will I.