looking for vacation for 5th year wedding anniversary

The wife and I are  trying to plan a trip for our 5th year wedding anniversary. we are up in the cold of Canada and looking to go south to warmer weather...  this is for the end of October, we origaniy got married in Antigua and loved it, was a very beautiful island,  we were set in a smaller resort witch we like, I'm not a fan of the big resort strips.....  we had thought of going to Hawaii but can't really figure where to go.....  we are not ones to sit idle on the beach,  don't mind doing some but we like to keep things moving, local culture and historic stuff is high on our list, and nature treks can also be fun... my wife is not a fan of swimming so snorkeling or fishing is not something high priority.....

we are not very rich but still trying to get something nice for our money, if anyone knows where we could go it would be much appreciated,  planning these things always seem to be dificult since we don't really fit in the normal go south on the beach and stay there kind of ppl... 

Thanx

St. Augustine in Florida is relaxed, beautiful and historic.  Also has some great restaurants and bars.

I enjoyed the ghost tours :)

Can't beat Pearl Harbor for "historic in Hawai'i" if that's what you're looking for. Waikiki is pretty much a tourist strip but you get the beach lifestyle, great restaurants, and plenty of things to do via tour bus or taxi when you leave the beach.

I love Hawaii, one of my fave places in the world.  I avoid Oahu and usually go to Maui, but want to try Kawaii next as I have read it is more chilled out.

New Zealand is nice, but possibly too far for your trip. You can do mountainy cold ski type stuff in the South Island, or sub-tropical beaches in the north, but it is not as hot/tropically as Hawaii. I also like Queensland in Australia, particularly the Great Barrier Reef and Port Douglas area.  However check when rainy season and avoid going then.

I loved my time in Italy also, but preferred northern Italy /Italian lakes areas. 

Come to Punta Indio! Located in the beautiful Buenos Aires province! :D>

Spanish is a must, of course you can go to a more mainstream location that has facilities and people who speaks english, like Mar del Plata :3

Costa Rica and Belize are great Central American places to go for history and tropical hiking.  My stepson and his wife did a great tour in Belize for their honeymoon.  They are very active, outdoorsy people and enjoyed it.  I have friends that run a health spa through one of Costa Rica's resorts (think it is a smaller one), so know it is an interesting country, as well. 

Of course, Argentina probaly isn't bad in October - that is spring for them.  Same for New Zealand, but I know they have a wide range of things to do based on which island you go to as per what Hex said.  =)

Hawaii, just as hex said, stay away from mainstream Oahu.  Lots of great things to see on the other islands.  

In the end it is best to really do some digging and trying to find the more off the beat path things to do.  Trips I have done have had a mix of mainstream and heading out on my own deals.  I think one of my funnest tours was the sunset RedRocks Jeep tour in Sedona.  Small crew in an open jeep in the back country gettng some interesting views of the rocks.  Then again our tour guide and jeep driver had a good personality and I had to laugh about ripping my pants open trying to get back in the jeep at the first stop.  So yeah, it's those quirky happenings that really make a trip memorable.

My husband and I are going to Hawaii for vacation starting tomorrow morning. We'll just be visiting the main island, for about 7 full days. We decided to just go with one island because it sounded like island hopping took a while and was expensive, and the big island because they had plenty to do, including the volcano park we definitely wanted to visit. GoHawaii.com was a great resource for things to do and companies to book with and they list things by island. We'll be attending a luau; ziplining through the rainforest; visiting a few parks with waterfalls, hiking trails, botanical gardens, and historic sites; visiting the historic hulihee palace and shopping in Kaliua village; going on a dinner cruise (with a glass bottom boat to see the big Manta Rays at night); dining at a couple of highly rated, local sourced restaurants; and spending a day at the volcano park area (includes the volcano itself, museum, lava tree park, black sand beach, volcano village with art galleries). We do like to get in the water so we'll also be doing two snorkeling trips, surfing, and hanging out at the hotel where we can do the poolside bar, rent kayaks, etc. Other things you can do include a trip to high elevation Maunakea for a hike/stargazing tour, a submarine tour underwater, helicopter tours, visit to a Hawaiian cowboy ranch, whale watching tours, parasailing, visit to a Macademia farm, coffee farms, etc.

There's a lot to do, and we're really looking forward to it, but it is very pricey there. We did whale watching in San Diego that was less expensive, snorkeling in mexico off a cruise that was less expensive. Loved San Diego - lots to do and not as expensive - museums, zoo, Legoland, walking, renting bikes, whale watching tours, etc. The cruise was fun to try out, but we like being in a resort better.

I'll probably post a link to my facebook vacation album here once we get back, if you want to see what some of it looks like. :)

thanx for the info,  my wife looked at all the Hawaii stuff and think she came to the conclusion that it would cost us a lot more then if we hit another Carrabin location....  we might have to keep Hawaii for a future trip,  but I appreciate all the info and would love to know how your trip went Rylssa...

@ Bri.. we had also looked into Belize, can't remember what exactly my wife looked at but if you have more information from your stepsons trip ( what tour they took, did they backpack the region or was is something organised)  that might help my wilf figure out if she like it or not :)

thanx a lot everyone for the info again   

I love Croatia, specifically Dubrovnik and Split.  

yeah Croatia was high on my list,  started looking into it again :)  is the southern part better then say around Zagreb,  there seem to be a lot of places to visit up there aswell

I couldn’t tell you if the southern part is better than around Zagreb.  I only know Dubrovnik down to the coast to Split.

My husband went to Croatia “wild camping” with his college buddies many years ago.   A couple of years ago he took me back to the areas he enjoyed.  

We flew from Budapest to Dubrovnik and rented a car. Dubrovnik and the surround area are enchanting and the food is wonderful. We found the area the boys set up their wild camp and the view is awe inspiring, however a big hotel now owns the area. Dubrovnik has citrus trees, buckeye trees, and olive trees so check the weather for October.

From Dubrovnik we drove to Split and the coastal drive was breathtaking.   However, there is a small segment of the coast that is not covered by GPS European maps called Bosnia.

Diocletian's Palace  is a must see in Split.   The heavenly singers in the Palace  are still singing after all these years.

My husband's brother goes to Croatia in the summer and camps at one of the islands.  Not much to do on the islands but tell tall tales, swim, dive, and eat well.

In answer to what my stepson and his wife did for their honeymoon in Belize is they bought the book - Lonely Planet Belize - and picked out what they wanted to do.  They did not stay at a resort, but one thing they did was rent part of a duplex out on one of the islands, Caye Caulker, for part of the trip.    Another part of the trip they stayed in Orange Walk Town near the ruins and explored on their own.  They did not stay on Ambergris Caye/San Pedro, one of the larger tourist islands with resorts, but they did take a water taxi to it and biked around for the day checking it out.

If you can afford it, Port Douglas in Far North Queensland, Australia is a nice relaxed vacation spot on the Great Barrier Reef.  The main street is a lovely sleepy little town with a couple of pubs, restaurants and tourist shops.  Everybody speaks English obviously so there's no language barrier to deal with.

Airlie Beach is where I got Married and had my honeymoon 9 years ago.  We stayed at the Coral Sea Resort It's one of the most beautiful areas of Australia set in the middle of the Whitsunday Islands, so there is plenty to do if you want to be active and it's also great to just relax and sip cocktails.