A question for all you well traveled folks:

If you were planning a celebration for a birthday ending in "0" what would you do or where would you go (NOT including cruises)

Say you could spend a bit of money (not over the top extravagant but really nice), could spend a weekend or more, say up to two weeks, where would you go or what would you do? I am thinking of staying in the US, Hawaii, Caribbean, but never Mexico. Please give me some suggestions.

Maybe Kona on the big island of Hawaii? We just got back from a week's stay, and we were very pleasantly surprised. Hardly any traffic, views of the ocean or mountains wherever you may be on the island, quiet and calm. We also were shocked that the prices of things were either less, or the same as, what we pay in Washington State. $2.49 for a gallon of gas at Costco. I actually took a picture of that! :)

It's an easy island to drive out and explore. Black sand beach, green sand beach, volcano park, lots of great restaurants (with favorable happy hour rates). The locals are warm and welcoming to us tourists (I couldn't say the same thing about us as locals when we lived by Disney, LOL) Bottom line, this was the most relaxing vacation we have had in a long time!

You could consider Napa Valley, maybe tie in a few days in San Francisco too.

Look at Sanibel / Captiva island in Florida. Fly into Ft Meyers airport and it's a short drive.

Glad to hear about Kristin's experience in Kona. Alice and I are doing a timeshare exchange there later in the year. We usually go to Grand Cayman for our dive trip, but it's harder to get there now and easier to get to Hawaii. Going to scuba dive (night dive with the manta rays especially), hopefully helicopter for lava flow viewing?, and chilling out. Years ago, we had planned to go to Hawaii for my 50th, which was also going to be the 50th anniversary of Hawaii becoming the 50th state, and Alice's checking-off her 50th state. But, we ended up going to Hawaii the year before due to Silversea overbooking a cruise we were on and we took their offer to cancel and get a free future cruise. But we had "use it or lose it" vacation time to take and it was November. So we went to Oahu and stayed at the Ko Olina outside of Honolulu. It's a Marriott property. Very , very nice stay. Great beach with 4 lagoons. That was during the height of my Marriott stays so our upgrade was to a "presidential"-style suite. We enjoyed a lot of things on Oahu. We did take a day to fly over to the Big island to see Volcano park. But, other than that experience, I don't have much to offer in the way of Hawaii advice.

Interestingly, last weekend at our golf club, I was talking to a couple who do not like to go to Napa. They say it's too crowded. They go north of Napa, more in the area of northern Sonoma County -- Healdsburg, etc. Depending on the time of year you go, Napa could still be a great trip.

Grand Cayman --- if you want what I think is the best beach in the world. The Marriott is the best of the major resort properties on Seven Mile Beach in terms of being close to the water. They have rooms directly facing the beach. They also have an artificial reef that makes for the best snorkeling on Seven Mile Beach. If you stay at the Ritz or the Westin, etc, they are set back farther from the water. Great beach still, but not as good snorkeling because it's just sandy bottom. The artificial reef the Marriott has attracts lots of fish. I love relaxing at the beach and watching the cruise ships come and go. But, crazy as this sounds, we have done nothing else in Grand Cayman other than get up early, do a beach walk, get picked up by the dive operator at 7 or 8 AM, go out on the boat and do 2 dives, get dropped off at noon or 1pm, lunch on the beach, and then stay at the beach snorkeling, walking, napping, reading, etc. until the sun sets over the water; go get cleaned up, eat dinner, watch a movie, go to bed and do it all over exactly like that every day. We either stay at the Marriott or a timeshare condo next to it. You can order lunch from the pool bar at the Marriott. Or walk to the pool bar at the Comfort Suites next to it for variety. For about 8 or 9 years we've done weeks like that. So, no help with other things to do, but I've heard about stuff! (haha).

New York City --- Go to as many shows on Broadway as you can handle, eat at great restaurants and live it up in a great hotel near Times Square so you can walk to the theaters easily. Once you stand in the long line at TKTS to buy the half-price show tickets, you keep you stub and next time go to the "express" line. See matinee, go to dinner, see evening show, rinse, repeat!

Thanks for the input everyone....very helpful!

I would second the suggestion to go to NYC. There is a TKTS booth in lower Manhattan with much shorter lines than the Times Sq one. Used to be on John St but I think it has moved to the South Street Seaport.

Helen