Late January sunshine

[GTI]

Basically I'm working over Christmas/New Year due to some pretty pressing deadlines. So to compensate the missus I plan to take her somewhere nice and warm in late January. A standard package would be fine e.g 7nts, but want to avoid Egypt and Morocco because we've done those to death. Any other ideas?

[gunner]

How about South Africa, Kenya, The Gabon, Cuba, Florida, Mexico - all of which I would love to go to personally (or have been to).

Depends on budget though really mate.

[GTI]

Cheers mate, budget-wise this will be our minor holiday of the year so I was thinking about 800 UKP for the two of us for 7nts. Ideally no more than 4 hours away from W.Europe. I will be flying from somewhere like Basel/Zurich/Strassbourg/Karlsruhe etc.. which are all good charter airports so prices should be similar to the UK.

[gunner]

For that you will probably find somewhere in Kenya I would of thought. The weather will be spot on, and I have heard good reports from people that have been.

[Pongo]

I have to agree with Gunner about Kenya, but it's a fair old flight (8 hours from Gatwick) Another African place to consider is Gambia, less of a flight, cheap, hot and decent nightlife on the Senegambia strip.

[GTI]

Unfortunately flights to Kenya and Gambia were prohibitively expensive from here, so I've just booked a week in the Tunisian Island of Djerba instead. Its probably going to be dead quiet and maybe a little chilly at night, but I think it should be good.

[gunner]

Unfortunately flights to Kenya and Gambia were prohibitively expensive from here, so I've just booked a week in the Tunisian Island of Djerba instead. Its probably going to be dead quiet and maybe a little chilly at night, but I think it should be good.

Sounds very interesting, let me know how it goes! I was not impressed by Tunisia at all really, but this might be a bit different.

[GTI]

Sounds very interesting, let me know how it goes! I was not impressed by Tunisia at all really, but this might be a bit different.

A few years ago I needed to clear my head (wimmin problems), so on a whim I booked return flights to the capital Tunis for that day and picked up a copy of Lonely Planet at the airport. I spent two weeks travelling from the North (Tunis) all the way down south to Douz in the Sahara dessert. I travelled exclusively by train and louage (shared taxis) and all my hotels were plucked from the pages of Lonely planet.

Throughout my travels (Tunis>Bizereit>Kairaoun>Hammamat>Sousse>Sfax>Djerba>Douz etc..) I saw two sides of Tunisia.. the mass tourism/Thomas Cook/Russians/Germans/French etc.. side and then a very beautiful and authentic Tunisian side. The Tunisians have their own souks, restaurants and entertainment very different from the Westerners who are largely culturally ignorant and just want sand, sea, sex and booze.

I'll let you know how we get on in Djerba, but from what I remember there is a very touristy part of the island with miles upon miles of package Hotels.. and it is that which I think you need to avoid, especially during peak periods.