p6e

Dear all,

my girlfriend and I want to find a perfect place for a ~ 14 days (depends on how much holiday we get, but shouldn't affect the choice of destination) holiday this November.We like to have beautiful beaches and the opportunity to snorkel. We both already saw sea turtles, but whale sharks, manta (or other) rays, morays, searhorses, sharks, whales or anything new besides fish would be great.Now one destination could possibly be the Maldives, but we want to have some cities to go to at night/evening and not just sit in our bungalow/a resort alone. It could possibily be a secluded area, but with the possibility to go for dinner and drinks to a town nearby by scooter or taxi.

Then, we both had some holidays with roadtrips in the US or destination hopping in south east asia, so we don't want to check-in and out every 1-3 days with the need to repack all the time.

So depending on the length of our stay I would say 2-3 destination at most. Perfect would be one, if we can do all the trips, adventures etc. from just this one spot where we are staying. That's why I almost ruled out Lombok and Bali because we would need to relocate several times, even changing islands when going to the Gilis.

If staying at one place for more than 5 days, I could also consider doing my diving license there - or at lease gather first experiences in this. But we also want to relax at the beach on some days, do adventures/excursions/trips on the other days, to have the perfect mix.

Since we are living in Europe and I intend to visit as much far aways destinations as possible before there might be children involved (that's when I will choose closer destinations in Europe), we don't want to go to anywhere in Europe. Also, we want to visit a country we both have never been to before, which rules out the following:

- UAE (Dubai / Abu Dhabi)
- Egypt
- Mexico
- USA
- Sri Lanka
- Singapore
- Thailand
- Europe (see above)

And of course, it needs to be warm enough for serving as a summer replacement holiday (both air and sea water temperature).What I stumbled upon was Ilha Grande, an Island just off the Brazilian coast, close to Rio. So this islands looks like a lot of fun for hiking, trips, snorkeling, boat trips, relaxing at the beach, also a 2-3 day stop in Rio and the Copacabana would spice this all up.But of course, I am still struggling to find other destinations. It is kinda hard to find halfway enough information about Ilha Grande compared to destinations like Lombok.

Does anyone have any good ideas? We'd love to hear from your ideas and experiences and are looking forward to any help. The budget shouldn't be the problem for us.

Thank you very much in advance!


Cheers,
p6e