Well, I have been racking my brain trying to come up with a travel plan to celebrate ...but am coming up empty. Can anyone help with destination ideas and/or itineraries...all you posters have great ideas and suggestions! I only have a week starting Dec. 29th which includes my birthday on 01.03.08. Travelling out of New Orleans and thinking about heading south...but can go anywhere in a weeks time and am looking to make it special!!

geezer? at 50?
nope. no ideas at all for a geezer who's only 50.

I'm three months behind you. Give us a little help. What is most important to you? Nature and wildlife? Vibrant night life? City, musuems, culture? Fine dining? Shopping?

Head down to Buenos Aires and party like a rock star with Scarlett!
It is summer down there in December/January and the dollar goes far too.
Happy Birthday to you Geezer!

I went to Hawaii

Depends on what you're looking for, but our absolute favorites are Hawaii and Costa Rica. Hawaii is gorgeous and posh. CR has amazing wildlife. We really love both.

50th birthday, 50th state. You cannot beat Hawaii.

starrsville, you took the words right out of my mouth... To be exact, I was thinking (sigh) "oh to be turning 50".

Vegas!

Don't know what you are like, but I am not far behind you, and if it were me.....and it will be soon....either Buenos Aires sounds spot on...or South Beach with a hot girl on your arm would work just dandy!

Paris France.Paul

A "geezer" at 50...wow...for your birthday start thinking AHEAD..I wish I were that young LOL!

As to Hawaii..I have to agree that IT would be great with or without a "hot" anyone on your arm. But make plans SOON.

My first choice would be a cruise - second would probably be Vegas.

What a great way to start the day...with a great laugh reading your replies! As only a spouse could do, the Geezer "handle" was compliments of my bride and is no way depictive of the way i percieve myself...that's my story. And she will likely have to be the "hot girl" on my arm on this trip. Your ideas are all great. I have never been to Argentina...i will check that out to see if it can be done with only a week to travel. Hawaii is also a great suggestion and one that i did not consider...something nice about staying in America...50 at 50. Can ya'll suggest more ideas where to go, stay, etc in Costa Rica and Hawaii...both those destinations are appealing...scenery, fine dining, art shopping, sightseeing all welcome things to do.

Costa Rica...half your time at the Lost Iguagna in the Arenal area; half in Manuel Antonio. If you search "missypie" in the Latin America forum, you'll find my trip report. We loved it...it's the prettiest place I've ever been.

Hi, geezer - love your name! We have been to Costa Rica twice and just loved it. Our favorite areas are Arenal and the Osa Peninsula, going to Manuel Antonio is also really popular. Arenal offers an active volcano that is amazing. We stayed at Lost Iguana and had an amazing view. The grounds are really lush and pretty, and it's set a little outside of town in the hills, so it's quiet. The grounds are landscaped, there's an open air restaurant on site that has a volcano view, and there's a nice small pool area. Our room had a balcony with view of the volcano and also a jacuzzi. Loved it! The town offers natural hot springs like Tabacon, ziplines, hanging bridges for hiking, and our favorite thing: Cano Negro which is a boat ride tour along a river where you see howler monkeys, white face capuchins, sloths, amazing birds - really neat! We used Sunset Tours for that and highly recommend them.

In the Osa Peninsula, we stayed at Bosque del Cabo. Go over to tripadvisor.com and check out the reviews. It's amazing and wild - you can see all the wildlife right from your front porch, and they also have great hiking, and you can take a boat out to swim with dolphins. The rooms are located on a bluff that looks out onto the Pacific Ocean and the Golfo Dulce. In the evenings, they have candlelight dinners where everyone gathers to discuss their adventures. Very fun! There's also an animal sanctuary nearby that you can visit. A little orphaned baby spider monkey adopted my husband; we got amazing pictures all over CR.

Manuel Antonio is the beach area. Pretty nice hotels located on a hill overlooking the Pacific and a National Park loaded with wildlife like monkeys. There are loads of restaurants here; this area is pretty developed. We stayed at a spot called Mango Moon - the King Upper Balcony suite is quite nice because it has its own private balcony.

We've already been to CR twice and can't wait to go back.

Regarding Hawaii, we've done Maui, Kauai, and Big Island - loved them all. If you have any questions, I'm happy to help. We've snorkelled, sailed, hiked out to see the lava flow at night, and took an amazing helicopter tour of the Na Pali coast - honestly the prettiest place I've ever seen.

Either place offers you a ton of choices.

My personal favorites are:
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Honolulu/Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii

I'm not a big 'nature' buff as far as activities, but appreciate natural beauty surrounding and within a city. I like to have a location with a decent beach, busy with bars and restaurants, reasonable priced hotels, lots of people around, where I can do as much or as little as I want. Also I don't like to rent a car, so need somewhere I can walk or use public transportation.

I have yet to have a bad trip to either of these places PV (18x) Waikiki (3x)!!

geezer123~ I'm tellin' ya, Hawaii's perfect for a 50th. You can thank us later
;-)

Volcanogirl, I bet if we were not in the same room, we were in the same building at Lost Iguana. (We were in Firefly, which I believe was misspelled "Fircfly.") I know that the resort has a few "issues." But waking up in the morning and going out on the patio and seeing the lush tripical vegetation close by, the volcano in the background, hearing the monkeys and birds, etc...a true slice of heaven on earth!!!

missypie, we were in room #16 I think - we just loved it there. When I saw that view, I couldn't believe it! Sometimes the area gets misty, but we were able to see the lava flowing down the volcano all 4 nights of our stay there - just amazing. Cano Negro was the first place we saw the monkeys - I knew that trip would not be my last to CR - love it!

We actually saw a few monkeys on the hanging bridge walk close to the LI. It was funny because we were behind a guided group of French people. We were keeping our distance because they had actually told our kids that they were too close to them (!). Anyway, they had stopped to look at some birds, so we stopped and saw monkeys! Of course, then they wanted to see them but never did (justice!).

Of course, where we saw loads of monkeys was on the beach at Manuel Antonio.