It's that time of the year, time to start planning a nice holiday escape out of Europe. As soon as I realized that the Russia/China plan fizzled, my mind started racing and exploring alternatives. Also, I haven’t really had the opportunity to choose a place for holiday in quite a while, so this is also part of it (the Venezuela trip wasn’t entirely 100% my choice).

At the moment I'm looking for interesting destinations and still open for suggestions. I had to park Japan and Madagascar options but they’re just slightly postponed to a later date. South America and Australia are also parked because of the recent visits and that leaves options in Africa and Asia. These are the options under consideration (in no particular order):-

China - For the cultural heritage and loads of other interesting stuff. Was already thinking of going there last year but again that didn’t happen. This year there are the Olympics so there’s a hope that road signs and the like will be translated in English. The Olympics period is not a runner but because it will be busy, but just after the Olympics should be good. China is cheap and there may also be some discounts after the Olympics.

South Africa:- This is a very good choice too, relatively safe and quite a popular tourist destination. The definite must visit places here are Kruger Park and Cape town, which happen to be on different sides of the country but that’s ok. I already have some planning done her because I was going last year with my travel mentor.

Namibia: This is probably the safest spot you can visit in Africa. I know 3 different groups of people who went there. All of them said it’s very cheap and very easy to get by. Like South Africa we can go on a safari, but in Namibia there’s the desert and some very unique scenery.

India: Again a good destination with loads to see and explore. The only thing is that I don’t know much about the place and planning might be a bit tricky with all the options available.

Cambodia/Loas/Vietnam: The Cambodia/Vietnam thing is also very interesting. This area is getting quite a lot of attention from tourists supposedly being beautiful and cheap. Vietnam is probably the most interesting of the 3. Probably might end up choosing 1 of the places to see it properly depending on the time available.

So basically there are spots in Asia and Africa. The Asian part is more concentrated on culture (especially China and India) and the Africa is more concentrated on nature. All of the countries are cheap to visit. Probably the most expensive option from the lot would be South Africa.

If anybody has been to any of these countries or has any alternative suggestions please feel free to comment.

Update: NY Times list of places to visit in 2008