Hello,
Pardon the bit of a wild concept to be planning a trip of this length on such short notice but such is life. My partner and I just found out her place of employment needs to close for a few weeks for sudden renovations. We now have 14 days for a trip and are definitely going to take advantage of it. Our rough dates of travel would be 8/10-8/24

Our instinct was to go to Japan as we had discussed since early on in our relationship's beginning. I know August is not the ideal time to be off but it is uncommon for us to have more than two weeks off consecutively for such a trip. We are traveling from NYC so know that the knocking out multiple days for travel is important in building the itinerary.

We are very open to ideas of where to go anywhere in the world if you have thoughts. About us: we are two sommeliers who work in NYC restaurants. We love the outdoors, especially incorporating hiking into our vacations, the arts (visiting museums, seeing concerts), walking/bike tours, history, food and wine (the destination does not need to have prominent or any wine connection as we both have traveled quite a bit in that regard). Food is a really big part of our lives so we will definitely be seeking out all sorts of things from casual street food to a Michelin three star experience (where appropriate). Note, we do not need our destination to have ultra fine dining either, one of our most hopeful destinations at some point is Vietnam (not this trip). We really like to be quite active on our trips, usually walking 15-25k (and in some cases more than 30k) steps most days.

We'd ideally be looking to go to a country neither of us has been to before (but not necessarily!) so here are some of our visited places.
Italy, Spain, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Israel, Mexico, DR, Greece, UK (but briefly and for her only).

One of our favorite trips together was two weeks in Italy (Le Marche > Firenze) & Spain (Jerez/Sanlucar > Sevilla), for the record.

Okay, sorry for this disorganized post. I have not posted on Fodor's in some time but have found it so helpful through the years and thank you for reading!

Much as I love Japan, I would find the heat and humidity of August intolerable. YMMV. IME, weatherspark.com provides some very useful climate data. Your ability to find appropriate lodging this late in the game might be a deciding factor, so you might consider places that are a bit off the beaten trail. I'd be looking at South America, Central America, northern / mountainous Europe (e.g., the Baltics, Romania, Scotland, northern Spain or the Pyrenees, less visited parts of Switzerland, etc).

Hope that helps!

How are you on crowds? What sort of budget can you manage? Performing arts?

Edinburgh International and Fringe festivals: A performing arts orgy in one of the world's most beautiful cities. Hotels are pricey, LOTS of people... But every theater, club, church hall, pub is full of brilliant performers doing brilliant work. Exhausting and splendid.

Maybe a week in Edinburgh followed by a few days in the Highlands? Bliss.

You've been to Peru already? That seems like a natural for hiking foodies. And easy to get to from NYC. August is monsoon season in Mexico but it isn't all day, however hiking may be more of a problem. Mexico City is wonderful for food, museums and culture.