europediana

Would you fodorites be so kind as to give me some advice? Wanderlust has once again nestled (well, that's probably not the right verb for wanderlust) into my brain and I need to travel again. I have ten or twelve days in October or early November, $2000, and no traveling partner. I'm trying to decide on a destination. I'd fly out of LAX. One of my main interests is New Zealand (I will also post this message here), but I fear that I want to cover too much area for my budget and time limit (I'd like to hit Rotorua, Doubtful Sound, and Queenstown).

I'm not looking for city interests this trip--more culture (I'm particularly interested in indigenous cultures of South America, Australia, NZ, etc), nature, scenery, hiking, etc. Any suggestions on any place in the world would be wonderful.

toedtoes

My vote would be to do New Zealand. Your interests for this trip really match NZ and it sounds like that's where you really want to be so why settle for something else.

Reduce your travel area to a doable size and cost figuring you'll come back to see the rest next time. Plan on visiting what is most important to you and then add on from that to fill your time and budget. Even if you only get to see on town/city, you'll have seen one more than otherwise.

suze

What's the price of a plane ticket from LAX to New Zeland? Will your $2000 cover a 12 day trip there?

suze

If not, I'd price South America. Being so much closer might make it a more desirable & practical destination for your short period of time. New Zeland's a long ways to go for 10 days imo.

europediana

Thank you all so much!