My friend and I have planned a one week (7-8 full days excluding the first and last day). We're flying in from different parts of the world (one from HK and the other one from Vancouver). The last trip we did together was tuscany and florence where we stayed for one week in val d'orcia and did day trips from our home base. So that's kind of the idea of travel we liked. Somehow we are having a lot of trouble nailing down a destination for our trip this year!

Criteria for the trip:
- preferrably somewhere without (or have minimal) rain given one of us is coming from a very wet part of the West Coast at that time of the year
- we prefer to experience something new - leaning towards cultural for this trip rather than a sun/beach vacation
- one layover max for either of us. Not worthwhile to have a 2 stop layover for a one week trip

Some possible ideas
- Turkey (Istanbul + one more location if possible)
- Aurora Borealis in Finland or Norway
- Malta
- Jordan (was originally on the very top of our list but now with ISIS....thoughts on this?)
- Sicily
- Morocco

Although the above is list more Europe focused, we're open to other locations that doesn't involve more than c.20 hours of flying time (incluidng layover) and not more than 1 layover stop.


Places where we don't want to go:
- Paris (my friend was just there a year ago although I would love to visit again)
- Spain (I will be there in Sep!)

Your suggestions would be most useful!

Many thanks

Lisbon (click on my name for my Lisbon TR)

How about Lebanon plus Petra?

You can't count on the Aurora Borealis, so don't go just for that.

Sicily needs more than a week, but Sicily rather than Malta.

Nice.

Don't know your interests or budget, but among the options you mentioned:

Istanbul and Cappadocia, if you are into hiking, make a great combo. The area is unique and the landscape is otherworldly. If you prefer ancient civilizations, then you could combine Istanbul with Ephesus.

Jordan is still a very safe country in spite of the neighborhood it's in. You could combine a few days at Petra with time at the Red or Dead Seas.

In terms of flights out of HK and Vancouver, other options could include Japan, SE Asia (Thailand, Indonesia), Australia, New Zealand, or Hawaii.

Thursday and Trippl - many thanks for your responses.

Budget - mid range to low high end. For the latter part of November, Istanbul looks pretty chilly (low 10s from research). I don't mind the cold as long as the rain stays away.

Our interests include both cultural (esp food!) and outdoors (easy to moderate level).

Am currently thinking about SRi Lanka but the monsoon seasons are very finicky!

Your mid range may be my high end. Or my low end. It's meaningless. Use numbers, USD or euros. But I don't think that's an issue yet.

If you want warm, consider North Africa or South America.

How about Iceland for the Northern Lights? There are tours where you can float in a hot springs at night to watch them