Let’s say you suck at planning vacations.
Let’s say you wanted to take a vacation for your anniversary.
Let’s say you wanted that trip to be May 25-28.
Where would you go?
Why did you pick this place?
What would you do while there?
(And just so we’re perfectly clear on this… I’m the one that sucks at planning vacations. I’m the one that has vacation days scheduled in a couple weeks for my anniversary. And I’m the one that has yet to plan anything. By saying “you” in the first section, I am in no way implying that you are bad at vacation planning. In fact, quite the opposite… I’m assuming that everyone must be better at that than I am, thus the reason I am posting this desperate plea for help!)
Jill Will Run 
What I would do (in your situation) is go to the Alaska Air website and look at vacation package specials to Hawaii, particularly Kona/Big Island or Kauai. (Because they’re less touristy than Oahu and Maui.) (I’ve never been to Kauai but I understand it’s beautiful.) The packages I saw come in 4-day increments. They are based on departing from Seattle (or more expensively, Portland), so you would have to get to Seattle first. All the packages are at resort hotels, so there are activities there, plus there’s the usual Hawaii stuff, hiking, driving to scenic places, waterfalls, volcanoes, beaches, swimming, etc. And wonderful fresh fruit (ah, mangos) and fish (ah, ono), and local foods (e.g. loco moco, my BF’s favorite). Plus macadamia nuts and coffee! In fact, I am going to Kona over Memorial Day weekend! The weather is consistently warm and mild (80-ish), and even though you’re probably not lacking for warm weather in Arizona you do lack an ocean! Good luck, hope you find something you like and have a great vacation!
Hawaii would be fun, I’m sure there are good flight deals from right here in Vegas to the islands too. Great advice about Kona or Kauai though, my first instinct was Oahu.
If I had the time and money, I would book a cruise on the Mediterranean. But you listed only the 25th-28th which doesn’t give you a lot of time for a European adventure.
For a four day trip, I would think about:
1) San Francisco– It is a fun city with stuff to do during the day and night.
*i would shop and do touristy stuff. I would visit places like Union Square, the Ferry Building and eat crab cocktail on Fisherman’s Wharf.
*I would head to Japan town and have awesome sushi (and maybe even enjoy a Japanese bath and massage). I would also want some dim sum in Chinatown.
*For the kid in me (and I am mentally planning this trip without my kids), I might head down to Santa Clara to Great America. It is an amusement park similar to Six Flags.
*I might drive to Napa for a day of wine tasting.
2)Catalina Island- it is a sleepy little town that is pretty relaxing.
*I would go mountain biking and/or hiking in the back country (I really want to see the Buffalo)
*I would go kayaking in the ocean.
*I would lay around and read a book.
*If I weren’t such a wimp about cold water, I would snorkel. The fish aren’t as pretty as in the tropics, but they are plentiful and friendly due to being fed by tourists all the time.
3) Santa Barbara- it is a gorgeous beach town.
*I would take a cooking class that uses local ingredients from the Farmer’s Market (my brother and sister-in-law are doing this for their anniversary http://www.marketforays.com/)
*I would go wine tasting
*I would have fresh seafood down by the water.
*I would walk around
*I would lay around and read a book.
I hope those choices give you some food for thought. Good luck and have fun!
Wow Lisa… great suggestions. I really love the idea of the cooking class, that’s such a cool idea. I hate cold water too! And an amusement park would be fun… I haven’t been to one in a few years, when I went to Disneyland with my mom. Kevin and I went to Disney World for our 1st anniversary and had a blast there.
Well, there are a few choices here. The Hawaii idea is good, only I would try to fly out of The Vegas because I’m pretty sure you can get good deals out of The Vegas. I would be sure to put snorkeling in the plans there, as well. And I want to try surfing and hula dancing sometime, so that would be on the itinerary.
And then there’s also the Baja of Mexico. I don’t know if you’re tolerant of slightly scary and slightly dirty, but I can always go for a good day in Rosarito hanging out at the deserted beach, the desertion ocurring largely in part to the lack of tourists because of the killings and scariness that is going on there. I just be sure to not take anything valuable so that they know they aren’t getting any money out of me. If you do this, then upon re-entry to the U.S. be sure to purchase a bag of churros from the dude walking between the line of cars. I swear to you upon El Ciego, that they are the best churros in the world.
I’m also a big fan of theme parks, such as Disneyland, Magic Mountain, or Sea World, but I’m not sure if that excites you.
If you care to hike, then I would also think about going to a National Park that I’ve never been to. Have you been to the Grand Canyon? Yosemite? Carlsbad? Do you like camping?
If you were to include Saturday and Sunday in on this deal, I would see if there are any last-minute cruises. Out of anywhere. You’re less than 2 weeks out, so I’m not sure what that does for you with the airfare, but I’d check it out, anyway.
Killings and scary areas? Gee… thanks for the suggestion. đŸ˜‰
I like theme parks… maybe that’s what we should do. I don’t like camping, but I love National Parks. We’re actually thinking of hitting up Glacier National Park later this summer.
I can’t include Sat/Sun because I have to be back to coach Team Challenge on Sat morning.
Also, fishing sounds kind of good to me right now. So, maybe go fishing in freshwater or deep sea somewhere!
I think it depends what type of things you like to do on vacation. I was going to say that Bryce Canyon is a fantastic trip, but you have already been there!
If you want to escape the heat you could go up to Portland / Seattle / Vancouver there are great tourist type things to do and you’ll be away from the desert for a bit!
If you want to relax on the beach you could head to Malibu or San Diego type areas.
I’d look at the things to do, then hotel, then flights. Once you have a good idea of them all in price and availability, then book đŸ˜‰
Oh I agree, the southern Utah scenery is great stuff. But we lived in that region for several years, so it’s still a little hard to think of taking a whole trip to those spots! But I wanted to get suggestions from people without giving too much info into what we like to do, so hopefully we’d get some new suggestions and not be stuck to our pre-conceived ideas of what to do!
For three days I’d head to wine country. California would be perfect for a bike tour of wine country, you can stay in a B&B and enjoy the area. Since you only have 3 days you don’t want to spend much of that time traveling, so stay close but in a cool, interesting way.
I agree, definitely do not want to spend too much of the time traveling. That’s blech…
Bike tour would be fun! I haven’t ridden a bike in YEARS and YEARS and YEARS… I’d probably crash! That would make good memories!
Florida Keys. No question. Perfect for a long weekend, although probably too far for you.
Oooh… that’s a good idea. I should go to the Keys someday.
I was just talking to Scott about this same thing. My suggestion is Durango CO. Great town. Very fun train ride to Silverton. Down the road is Mesa Verde. Fun place nearby is Ouray. A good hike to falls. Beautiful scenery and cooler than egas which is a must for me. You can also get great food in a town a coupleof hours awat….Gallup, NM Well. anyway,.
Durango is a niceplace. Also like the San
fransisco idea
Durango is a nice place, we went there for our 3rd anniversary!