Birthday trip
 

I am turning 60 at the end of October and I would like to take a celebration trip with my 25 year old daughter.
Due to her schedule we only have 5 days. We will be leaving from Boston.
Looking for ideas for a fun trip. Would love to do something a bit exotic, but it can't be too far, due to time restraints. Directs flights preferred. Though I see that some of the direct flight from Boston (Costa Rica for example) are only on Sat. We would be flying on Friday (or red eye on Thurs) and returning for evening class on Wed.- so most likely on Tues.
Would appreciate any suggestions!

So you have 3 days to be somewhere, excluding travel days. Or less if you travel Thursday morning. So the closer and easier to get to (direct flights) the more practical it will be. Also best to not venture too far east or west to avoid jet lag.

These come to mind:

Puerto Rico
Quebec City (surface transport?)
Havana
New Orleans
Mexico City

Montreal
Reykjavik
New Orleans
Austin (fun and quirky but not necessarily "exotic")

Thanks...thinking Iceland...any thoughts?

I visited Iceland in March (also offseason) and had a fantastic time!

With your timetable, I would redeye on Thursday night (the Icelandair nonstop BOS-KEF lands at 6:30 AM), so you have Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night on the ground, plus half day Tuesday.

I'd base out of Reykjavik, and reserve one day for the Golden Circle and one day for the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. For the fossar (waterfalls) on the South Coast, you could do a very long day trip or spend a night near Vik. If you wanted to get out to Jokulsarlon, I would definitely recommend spending the night, but it will be longer distances in a short period.

Check out some recent trip reports on the Europe board. Most of them took longer trips than yours, but you can still get a good sense of what to expect (I never finished mine, but it's in there):

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ik-iceland.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...herworldly.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...in-iceland.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-the-south.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...e-and-fire.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...of-iceland.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...raryreport.cfm