Ideas for New Year 2026 please!

[NorthernLass]

Due to probable work commitments, a big family occasion and an expiring 241, I need to book a trip leaving Dec 26th or 27th 2025, retuning by January 9th 2026. I’ll probably need to be online at midnight to get Boxing Day award seats in a few weeks! Must have hot weather, scuba diving, and places other than the hotel to eat. Flight needs to be 10 hours max and from LHR (or another airport with a MAN connection).

So far I have pondered and ruled out the following:

USA/Bermuda/Canaries (weather not guaranteed)
Maldives/Barbados/Dubai (too expensive at New Year)
GCM/NAS/PLS (BA flights don’t work for our return date)
Mauritius/Costa Rica/Cancun/Caribbean islands (LGW departures, don’t work with our constrained dates)

Considering Puerto Rico or another destination on IB but need to look at whether the return leg to MAN would take us over our dates. Also ideally I’d like to use the Barclays voucher for the outbound (though it has a longer expiry date than the 241, so not absolutely required).

Open to other suggestions! TIA.

[AndrewT]

You’ve just about exhausted my list of possibles! Why does NAS not work, thought that was daily?

South Africa? Can’t comment on scuba options there.

[NorthernLass]

SA is a bit of an unknown quantity but we’d probably want to go for longer and do a safari as well as beachy stuff.

I forgot about NAS being daily. Very expensive these days, though, and temps in winter can be a bit on the low side like Florida.

[Olly]

Know you’ve ruled out Dubai, but what about one of the other middle-eastern options – Bahrain or Abu Dhabi perhaps?

[ToonFlyer]

How about Oman? That might tick all your boxes and from what I have read of late they are trying to attract more visitors, which might well influence the potential cost.

[Michael C]

Chennai + short hop to SL?!

[phantomchickenz]

Why limit to 10 hours? Plenty of lovely spots in SE Asia.

[yorkshireRich]

I’m with Phantom. 2-4-1 to Singapore then decide from there.

I’d do Vietnam personally as it’s one of my favourite places in the world.

[phantomchickenz]

I’d go back to Pimilai in Ko Lanta in a heartbeat.

[NorthernLass]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

For under 10-12 nights, we definitely don’t want more than a 5-hour time difference to deal with. We’d be coming back by the time we’d fully adjusted otherwise!

I think all ME would be expensive. Also thought BA doesn’t fly to Muscat 🤷‍♀️

Pondering NAS again, there’s a new SLH option where we could use HH points for at least some of the stay. Will keep an eye on the weather over the next few weeks to get an idea of what it might be like!!

[masaccio]

You’re not wrong about the Maldives. I did a quick look at Filitheyo which is a great 4* dive resort and it’s £8k for 2 weeks over NY with D2. Even AI, I think that’s pricey for a Maldives 4*.

If you don’t mind a night in Miami on the way out, which is not a bad thing, Roatan is good for beach and scuba diving. We stayed at the outstanding Beach House and it looks like it’s about $250 per night. There is a very, very good dive shop next door. Really stretching your 10 hour limit mind.

Is Barbados really too expensive over NY? Prices on D2 for next year where they are already available are decent. I expect you could Airbnb pretty cheaply too. You didn’t mention budget so I don’t know what is too much but The Rockley is £4.8k on your dates B&B and it’s a good beach with loads of places to eat nearby. Dive shops aplenty too.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

I’m pondering something much closer to home with the weekend before New Year in Amsterdam and then Berlin for New Year itself.

This doesn’t help Northern Lass but it helps me by putting a marker down!

[AJA]

What about somewhere is South America? Rio or BA or Chile? The flight may be longer than 10 hours but the weather will be good. And Brazil time difference is only 3 hours. Also offers up routes on IB via MAD so still allows use of the 2-4-1. No good for the Barclays voucher though. Also no idea if any of those places offer scuba diving so that may be a deal breaker.

[phantomchickenz]

We were in Amsterdam last weekend and I’m in Berlin in January (for work, boo). The light festival currently running in Amsterdam is pretty cool.

[simonbarker]

Does the Mombasa coast line tick all those boxes? It’s where we are aiming to spend Christmas and New Year next year.

[NorthernLass]

We’ve been to Mombasa twice and OH actually learned to dive there (and saw a whale shark!) but I don’t think BA flies there (does any airline from the U.K. any more?)

@masaccio – I’ve got my eye on MLE (either on BA or QR) for our 30th anniversary the following March so yes one this needs to be restrained in terms of budget. Ideally hoping to use points!bI know there’s the Hilton Barbados but I’m not sure if it’s near many other dining options and it’s unclear when the new Indigo is going to start taking bookings.

AMS and BER I imagine will be a bit on the chilly side 😂

[masaccio]

NorthernLass wrote:

AMS and BER I imagine will be a bit on the chilly side 😂

With you there. I am totally a warm water wuss when it comes to scuba.

[simonbarker]

NorthernLass wrote:

We’ve been to Mombasa twice and OH actually learned to dive there (and saw a whale shark!) but I don’t think BA flies there (does any airline from the U.K. any more?)

Sorry, I guess I should have said Nairobi on to Mombasa 😆

[memesweeper]

NorthernLass wrote:

Mauritius/Costa Rica/Cancun/Caribbean islands (LGW departures, don’t work with our constrained dates)

MAN – MAD
MAD – SJO should work out OK .. Costa Rica is flat-out wonderful, and Xmas could be perfect weather on the Atlantic coast.

[NorthernLass]

CR’s another one I think we’d like to go for longer and see it properly.

I’m actually veering back to DXB now 😂, plenty of HH points options which could be combined with half board which would make it affordable. Shortish day flights to/from LHR and only 4 hours time difference. I don’t think the diving’s amazing but it would keep OH up to date.

I could then use the 241 to get home, and as the “return” leg, book to MLE or DOH in the March/April for our anniversary.

[masaccio]

NorthernLass wrote:

I don’t think the diving’s amazing but it would keep OH up to date

There’s this – https://deepdivedubai.com/dive/ – not exactly whale sharks and the fish of the Maldives, but it does look kinda fun. Very pricey mind at 250 quid for a guided dive to 30m. Even swanky Maldives isn’t that much.

The open water dives look pretty miserable. Realistically, you’d need to go to Muscat which is a 4 hour drive away. That in itself sounds like quite a nice side trip to me.

[NorthernLass]

I saw that last year – might make a fun Xmas present, and something a bit different for the log book.

A couple of bog standard dives should tide him over if we’re doing Maldives a couple of months later! I’m doing a 7-leg trip with him to Bimini this coming March so he can see hammerheads so he can’t complain 😂

[Erico1875]

SOUTH GOA.
I’m there just now.
Fly into BLR BOM or DEL.
Then indigo to GOA. Indigo let you book extra seat for buttons so you can have a row to your selves.
Benaulim has the Taj Exotica and Marriott.
Cavellosim has Holiday inn, Leela, Radisson and an All Inclusive Novotel (Don Silva) although we air BnB it.

[masaccio]

Erico1875 wrote:

SOUTH GOA

I did trip to dive around Pigeon Island (Netrani) which was good if not stellar. It was worth the trip as Murdeshwar was quite the sight. I used https://www.goadiving.com/ and they organised everything door-to-door.

+1 for the Taj in Goa.

[SamG]

Don’t forget it’s T-355 so it’s a date in Jan – 5th I believe. I’ll be doing my usual Canaries over new year but will be in India early Jan so it’ll be 5.30am for me to lock in the seats, assuming BA put LGW on sale before then