If you always go on the same, or a similar, beach all-inclusive holiday, where you spend most of your time within the resort-occasionally venturing out to visit the beach, then you may need to consider going on a Cultural holiday for a bit of variety.
Cultural holidays can be whatever you make of them, they don’t need to be boring holidays spent going round museum after museum, unless of course you enjoy doing this. Here are some ideas on how you can get a bit of culture from your holiday:
See the wonders of the world: you could travel to one of the areas that has one of the seven wonders of the world, all of these places have cultures that are vastly different from the one we are used too, furthermore you will get to see one of the greatest things man has ever built. If you weren’t intending to travel far, this is fine, you don’t have to go all the way to china to see their Great Wall or Mexico to see Chichen Itza, instead you could travel a few hours to Cairo to see the pyramids. These places often have beaches and holiday resorts near to them, therefore you can still have a bit of a beach holiday around your cultural experiences.
Scuba diving holidays: there a number of places that you can travel too that have an excellent reef enabling you to scuba dive or snorkel and see a vast array of marine life and even some shipwrecks. Whether you are staying at a nice hotel in Cebu by the beach or taking a cruise around Antigua in the Caribbean, these spots are ideal for scuba divers that have little or no experience. A lot of resorts close to places you can snorkel or scuba dive also offer a number of water sports to add a bit more excitement to your beach holiday.
Hiking in the mountains or Glacier hiking: consider going to Switzerland or St Lucia in the Caribbean and trying your hand at hiking up the mountains or even hiking up icy mountainsides. Test your physical abilities, and see sights that you never thought you’d see for yourself.
Hiking through rainforests: this is a fantastic way to soak up some culture, and have a lot of fun. Hiking through rainforests gives you an insight as to the abundance of wildlife that live in there, you will get to see animals that until now you have only seen in captivity, behind bars. This is a physical and active holiday, and it may require you sleeping outdoors. Somewhere like St Lucia has lovely rainforests for you to explore.
Safari: consider going to Kenya or Tanzania and going on a safari, see animals in their natural habitat and experience the thrill of getting closer to them than you ever have done before. Safari’s may involve trekking and camping, so expect an active and action packed holiday.
Volcano’s: have you ever seen a volcano in real life? Maybe this could be how you get your cultural fix, consider going to Sicily and seeing Mount Etna for yourself, go to Pompeii while you’re in Italy and see the devastation caused by Mount Vesuvius on the town that has been buried there. St Lucia, has a drive in volcano that you may like to explore.
For a complete cultural change, why not go to somewhere like Cuba, where communism is evident and therefore the way of life is completely different to that of ours, learn about how Cuban people are only allowed to leave the country if they have been invited to another country and are going to be coming back and other interesting facts. Go to Havana and see the complete contrast between old and new Havana, and while you’re there walk in the footsteps of Earnest Hemingway.
Seeing as how we have two teenagers and a young boy in our family, I believe we’ll benefit the most by choosing cultural holiday destinations for our vacation over the beach or the ski resort. I was thinking maybe China, but the picture of Egypt has caught my attention too. As a parent you want the vacation to be part enjoyable and part educational. Spinx in the morning and scuba diving in Taba in the afternoon? It sounds exactly like what I’m looking for.