Destination Recommendations Wanted
 

This is a re-post to find a few more ideas. Thanks to those who responded to the original post.
We are taking a two-week trip in 2009 and would like suggestions on where we should go. We want to travel outside the US. It'll be in May or late June. We focus on food and wine when we travel. We prefer countryside/smaller cities and towns over big cities but could spend some of the time in the city. Please consider exchange rates; we'd like to get a decent bang for our buck. We don't want cheap or budget, but we don't want to spend more than necessary. We've been to Tuscany, Rome, Provence, Japan, and SW Ireland. We're not interested in unstable countries. Thank you for your recommendations.

For good value in food and lodging, consider Argentina. Worldclass cooking and wine at loveable prices.

Buenos Aires is a pleasant city. You can fly from BA to other, smaller cities - such as Barriloche - very reasonably.

May and June would be a lovely time to visit Argentina.

You can find good airfares to BA on US carriers or on Aerolinas Argentinas.

TravelandNature

Consider Portugal....fresh seafood, great wine. Lisbon, Sintra, Pourto.
Sydney, Australia also offers some great eating opportunities. For meat eaters, we had as blast at small BOYB places in the Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley abnd Canberra. It is winter time Down Under in June, but we were then in later April and it was fine.
If you want to go back to Italy, consider Umbria, more rual than Tuscany, but still great food and wine.
British Columia is closer, great sea food in smaller towns as you go north of Victoria on Vancouver Island.
Finally, believe it or not, Poland. In and around Gdansk we had some great meals, wild boar ragu, sausages and interesting dishes with chicken.

I love, love, love the British Virgin Islands. I would stay in Tortola and do a few days in Virgin Gorda. Or a sail around the islands is breathtaking! If you need a "big city" fix, you could layover in San Juan, P.R.
A huge misconception about much of the Caribbean is that the islands are "all the same". They are all different, the cultures are amazing, the food/wine is terrific and the people are friendly.

Cape Town, South Africa and the small bay cities surrounding it.

Colonial cities of Mexico?

Spain, spain, Spain!

Hehe.

At least, that's where I'm headed. I don't know what's nice there, or if it's even going to be nice at all. That is why I'm going there!

Go a place where your heart desires.

Champagne and/or Alsace (in France) and/or the Mosel River in Germany. I'd do two of the three. The experience will be quite different from your Provence trip. Champagne does not have the most scenic countryside, but it does have fabulous wine. Reims is a very interesting city to visit, particularly for people interested in WWII history. (You can visit the War Room where the Germans signed the surrender treaty.)

The Mosel River in Germany makes for a lovely trip - very scenic. You can drive or bike. I much prefer it to the Rhine River (the Mosel is smaller in scale and wasn't as badly damaged in WWII).

Alsace is also a very interesting region - combining French and German influences. Charming towns, plus the larger city of Strasbourg.

The scenery will be best in the Mosel River and Strasbourg. Strasbourg and Champagne will have the best food. There is excellent wine in the Mosel region but it takes a little more sleuthing to find it.

Australia and New Zealand both have fantastic wine regions and are gorgeous. May-June not the ideal time to visit weatherwise but would still be very fine, especially in Australia.

Also second the recommendation for the wine regions just outside of Cape Town, South Africa. Again, May-June would not be my first choice for time of year to visit, but would not be bad either. The dollar is strong vs. the rand at the moment.

I'll second some responses you've already gotten and add a few...

New Zealand and South Africa would definitely fit the bill. Scotland is also great (substitute ale and scotch for wine). Also, with the crash in the Iceland economy, I'd heartily recommend it (it was a great trip at 70 IKR per $1... at 107 per, it would be awesome).

I agree about Argentina. We always had great food (especially beef) and wine and felt that we could splurge without over-extending our budget. Keep in mind that May and June are autumn months south of the equator although temperatures should still be mild.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_Aires#Climate

Also, I suggest bringing a corkscrew to be able to enjoy a bottle of wine in your hotel room. According to the TSA website, it is allowed in carry-on baggage.

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtrav...ted-items.shtm