The parties are over, the new year has begun and everyone is hibernating for the winter. If you have been hit by the January blues, making a plan to get off the island, explore and have fun with friends or family might be just the pick-me-up you need.
We sat down with Trip Bermuda owner, Leila Wilson, to get the lowdown on her best group holidays for every age and travel taste.
Mexico
Mexico is, hands down, Ms Wilson’s favourite location for a group trip because there’s so much for everyone to see and do, making it ideal for both adult-only and family groups.
If you don’t like long journeys, try the luxurious Playa Mujeres and Isla Mujeres near Cancún, on the Caribbean coast.
“You can leave here by 9am and be there by 2pm,” she said.
Away from beaches, there are over 7,000 “underground water caves” called cenotes, in which you can swim, as well as activities such as ziplining and ATV excursions. If you are travelling with children, she recommended going all-inclusive and staying at Hotel Xcaret, where you can enjoy everything the area has to offer, all within the resort.
Cancún also serves as a gateway to places such as Tulum, a “hippy town” with a “big party scene” 80 miles south of the city, as well as Isla Holbox to the North, which she only discovered this year:
“Isla Holbox is a developing island and the food was so good. Just beautiful restaurants,” she said. Because the island is developing, this does mean quite a lot of construction but, she emphasised, this doesn’t ruin the vibe.
“There’s really beautiful places there. It’s more of an adventurous place. They have a sand bar, which you can walk to.”
It’s also very reasonably priced.
Further afield, on the west coast of Mexico, Ms Wilson recommended Cabo San Lucas.
“They have the arches there which is really beautiful to view by boat. They have beach clubs, they have ATV-ing. It’s more of a desert vibe there.”
In addition to its delicious food and breathtaking scenery, she also loves Mexican architecture.
“They can make a concrete couch just look so beautiful,” she laughed.
Cruising
When Ms Wilson is asked about the best holiday for multi-generational families, her answer, without a blink of an eye, is cruises.
“It’s the easiest travel and it’s fun for everyone. You don’t have to worry about what your grandma’s going to do because there’ll be something for her. You don’t have to worry about what your child’s going to do because there’s a kids club. And then for the parents, they have swim up bars and lounges where you can just relax.”
For summer, she recommended Mediterranean cruises. On a seven-day cruise you can see at least three different countries without the stress of multiple journeys. If you want to explore more, land travel before or after the cruise, can also be arranged.
“I’ve done cruises before where it starts in Rome, but if you did want to have a more adventurous side, you could fly into Venice and do that for a few days and it’s a simple two-hour train ride to Rome,” she said.
Outside the European summer, she recommended a Caribbean cruise, which also works well if you want to squeeze a short trip into a school break.
“They have four-day cruises that visit the Bahamas,” she advised. “Four days on the ship and one or two days on either end in Florida.”
Royal Caribbean’s private Bahamian island, CocoCay, has something for everyone including a water park with no queues, a swim up pool, and cabanas with slides into the ocean.
They also stop in Nassau.
“When I went there I did a tour that took you to a private island and it was a full day there, snorkelling, they had the pigs on the beach in Exuma,” she reminisced, referring to the famous swimming pigs.
She also raved about Royal Caribbean’s “mega” ships that have so much to do on board you might not want to get off, including ice-skating, ziplining and rock climbing.
Mysteries and other group trips
Intrepid travellers might enjoy Ms Wilson’s mystery trips.
“You don’t know what you’re going to get with it. I organise everything,” she smiled.
Groups give her a budget and fill in a form giving information such as where they have been in the past and whether they prefer hotels or Airbnbs. She then plans as much, or as little, as the group wants.
In addition to Mexico, other places where she has organised successful group trips include Guatemala and Dubai. The Guatemala trip included a volcanic eruption.
For groups, Ms Wilson also recommended Phuket and Chang Mai in Thailand, Bali in Indonesia and St Lucia and Curaçao in the Caribbean.
“St Lucia is really beautiful because most time you’ll have a view of the Pitons, but Curaçao is beautiful in its own way because it has that European feel,” she said.
Her favourite aspect of Thailand and Bali is the food.
“I don’t know what they put in their food but something as simple as rice just tastes so good and I wanted to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
Boring but important
Ms Wilson shared these important tips for successful group travel:
- Check in advance that everyone’s passports are up-to-date.
- Buy travel insurance from a Bermuda-based insurer. Even if it’s offered as part of your trip, Bermudians can’t always take advantage of this.
- When travelling with friends, ensure everyone has the necessary funds at the start so someone doesn’t drop out at the last minute, increasing the cost for everyone else.
- Don’t try to pre-plan too much. Allow some time to rest, especially if you are travelling a long way.
- Book through a travel agent in case things don’t go to plan. “If something does go wrong, you can just WhatsApp us and we can help you,” she said.
