Discover Themed Vacations – A Great Way to Spend Your Time Off

Below are some great ideas on how to spend your vacation. If you are tired of doing the same old thing or visiting the same old place, then let us brainstorm some ideas with you to ensure your trip is wonderful.

Maybe you have some extra money this time and want to try something different? Let’s take a journey and discover some great theme vacations…

Some people have a passion they want to pursue, like cooking or mountain biking and they would like to learn more about it or share their passion with others. By creating a theme vacation that immerses the vacationer in a topic, place or activity, the tour companies and hospitality industries have wisely tapped a previously unexplored vein of income.

Let’s assume that your trip is planned with travel experts and tour guides. Whether your passion is Egyptology, music, golf, or architecture, or whether you are one of those people who just wants to sit on the best beaches and perhaps do a little snorkeling, a “theme” vacation will give you plenty of exposure to the things you love the most.

You may get a really cheap deal on a Nile trip with an inexperienced tour company. Weigh the value and safety of the trip. Choose a company that has negotiated the best access to historical sites and one that will provide adequate security and lodging. Go with a company that is a bit more expensive, so that your trip isn’t a nightmare.

A good theme vacation can cost you anywhere from $1,500 to $3,500 (and sometimes, even as much as $5,500 for exotic or hard-to-reach destinations or dangerous locales that require assistance and security or trained guides), depending on the length of stay and the distance you must travel to get there and participate in the activities. So be prepared to spend some money!

Look at the itinerary and decide if you are up to the challenge. If you are going to mountain bike in China, and you have only just started your mountain biking exercise and conditioning, you may not yet be ready for such an intense journey. If you fall behind or have problems, you may lose your dream trip and your money.

Visit Hawaii, do some sight-seeing and attend the NFL pro bowl, or any one of many other experiences. Attend the Rose Bowl, and get grandstand seats to watch the Rose Bowl Parade. If you want to play football, you can play in the historic Los Angeles Coliseum or play in the Disney Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, FL.

You can even play baseball in other countries, sightsee and enjoy the local cuisine and activities and live out your baseball dream all at the same time. Join a tour and visit Panama, Japan Costa Rica, Australia, China, Prague, the Dominican Republic, Mexico City, Greece, Israel and even Paris, all while playing baseball and loving every minute of your journey.

A multi-million dollar industry of resorts, vacations and experiences that immerse you in the golf experience, teach you how to play a better game and provide beautiful surroundings in which to play and sightsee. How about playing in Ireland on Royal Portrush, Tralee, Ballybunion, or Portmarnock? You can even take a golf CRUISE, playing in the Bahamas, Bermuda, Mexico, or Hawaii.

Take a bike tour of Georgia or North Carolina and bike through wine country. Or bike the New England coastline and back roads. How about a cross country trip in British Columbia, or a Rocky Mountain ride including Mount Seven. Sharpen or develop skills with a novice or women’s biking vacation and camp. Travel the Inca Trail in Peru from Andahuaylos to Cusco.

Hunt Axis Deer in Florida, take an exotic hunting trip to Namibia’s Kalahari Desert to see and hunt more than 20 species, and do some shark fishing on the same trip. Hunt pronghorns in New Mexico, or moose or brown bear in Alaska or fly-in for caribou and black bear trips starting at Lake Hood and going to Alaska’s Lake Clark.

Go on a yoga retreat in the Colorado Rockies, with plenty of outdoor contemplation and meditation time. Travel to Mexico to San Blas for a yoga retreat or immerse yourself in yoga under the jungle canopy in Belize. You can find yoga retreats in Mayan Tulum, Costa Rica and closer to home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the United States.

Get started on a weight loss program or to get in better shape, by visiting a weight loss spa and hike in the beautiful hills of Vermont, or take a luxury weight loss break in France, or Hilton Head and learn how to change your lifestyle, eat better and exercise, all while vacationing in a beautiful environment.

History themed cruises allow you to hear speakers, historians and authors talk about places and events as you visit the sites. Take a history cruise off the coast of Massachusetts, or a Black History cruise, or cruise on the Potomac or take an Alaskan Natural History Tour, or join a Gold Rush Tour in Australia, Alaska, Canada or California.

Take an archeology tour in Albania, Great Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Peru or Italy, or through the Aegean or Mesopotamia. You can head to China or Tibet or take an archeological cruise along the Carian Coast. Go to the Himalayas, Europe, Sub-Sahara, Asia or Central America and learn from the scholars who lecture and lead expeditions to study in the area.

If you are an antique collector or want to learn about antiques, you can take a German antiquing tour accompanied by a professional, or perhaps you’d prefer Prague or the Czech countryside. Take the Heart of Europe antiques tour of Dresden, Bohemia and Saxony, among other locations, or a guided tour of Great Britain’s best antique locations.

Whether you are looking for a family vacation, a romantic beach getaway with a beachfront rental or a beach vacation with adventure and activities, you will have no trouble finding the perfect fit. You can choose a resort, a cruise that stops in several ports or plop on a beach near a rented beachfront home and read your favorite novel.

Visit the quaint, historic town of Saratoga Springs, NY and enjoy horseracing on an old track, or attend the Triple Crown races. You can even stay in a chateau and watch horseracing in Chantilly, France. Watch the greyhounds race in Texas or Florida, and Australia. Pursue your dog racing passion and see the sights around the Walthamstow dog-racing stadium in London.

‘Mancations’ are the rage, with more options than ever for you to “get away with the boys”. RVing, backpacking, fishing, hunting; even guy’s movie vacations. Women’s vacations are not what they used to be. There are plenty of genteel tours in Savannah and Charleston, and Grecian tours, but just as many exciting vacations to Burma and downhill ski trips in Montana.

For Singles (straight, gay or lesbian), there are New Year’s Western cruises, Jewish cruises and Caribbean cruises, and the singles cruise scene is very active. You can take an exciting or more exotic singles trip to Thailand, Turkey or Cambodia, or even go to a Dude Ranch, and there are plenty of singles adventure vacations, as well.

Great travel ideas for seniors or baby boomers abound. Some are guided and some allow you to wander free and explore on your own and some are adventurous! Rent a vacation apartment in Europe, head to Sydney, Australia or ride the rails! Maybe you’d like to study Spanish abroad or visit Egypt or Asia in a small group, with personalized attention.

There are plenty of musical vacations to get your heart humming. You can take an escorted music tour in Paris or cruise on the Danube with the Vienna Boys’ Choir. You can visit Branson or Nashville’s Grand Ole’ Opry. You can take a jazz or Broadway music cruise or attend a two-week jazz school in France, or sing in the Berkshires.

If you love movies, you can visit Universal Studios in Orlando or California, or Warner Brothers Studios, or take a tour of a move studio in California. You can also live your fantasies by following the path of your favorite movies: Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, and any one of many other locales where movies were filmed.

Take a vacation that brings your passion for books to life. Have you read the DaVinci Code? Take a tour that will take you to the places mentioned in the book. Take a Harry Potter tour or a Pride and Prejudice Tour, or any one of a number of other book-based tours, or take a cruise with lectures and rub elbows with authors.

Take a driving or biking wine tour, visit Spain or Portugal and sample the wine while seeing the sights. Travel the Shawangunk Wine Trail in New York, take a tour of the Burgundy and Northern Rhone regions in France or sample Chilean wine or visit Napa Valley or Virginia Wine Country. You can even take a women’s wine vacation with your friends.

Learn to cook in Australia, France, Spain, Thailand or another exotic locale. Perhaps your tastes run more toward sampling the fare, rather than cooking it yourself. Take a cuisine cruise, or visit Sicily, Tuscany, Asia, Vietnam, Vienna, India or Spain to indulge. Take an historical train ride through Canada and British Columbia and enjoy only the best cuisine.

Take a marine eco- vacation in Canada or help rescue seals, a marine biology vacation in the Philippines, or participate in a Labrador whale study. Visit the Kennedy Space Center, or NASA museum in Washington, D.C. or spend your vacation in a space camp. Take the Galapagos volcano tour, study the African continent or visit the rainforest canopy in Costa Rica.

Take out trip insurance if it is available so you can preserve your investment by going later or if you have to cancel the trip altogether. Health emergencies, travel snags or instability in a particular country may cause problems with any and all vacations but the cost of a theme vacation can be steep so insurance is even more important on these trips.

Whether you want to use a ‘plan your own vacation’ company to help you with travel and location plans or you are the ‘do it yourself’ type who wants to do the research and plan your own trip step-by-step on your own, there are many options for planning your vacation. We have provided links to help you make your plans.

There’s no place like Broadway, except the West End in London! You can vacation on a cruise ship that will treat you to Broadway shows while you relax and enjoy the ocean view, or take in the local Shakespeare festival in Nashville. You can even take a tour backstage at the world-famous Radio City Music Hall. Everyone loves the theater!

Are you a fan of classical or modern painting, or sculpture? You can visit art museums, churches and other locations to study and appreciate the artists who created these masterpieces. Art cruises allow you to listen to art experts and see the best art up close and personal. Perhaps you’d like to learn to paint or sculpt in Prague?

There you have it! Loads of information and ideas to have a vacation like no other.
We hope you enjoy your trip and come back with lots of great stories!!!!