60th Birthday Vacation Ideas

[kuslamb]

My dad is turning 60 in a year.  We are planning on taking him somewhere.  We do not know where.  We want to stay in continental USA.  We spend a lot of time in Carmel/Pebble Beach, California area.  We also spend a lot of time in the Breckenridge, Colorado area.  I say this becuase we do not want to do wine country and do not want to do mountains of Colorado. 

A couple more requirements.  We really enjoy eating at good restaurants.  Good not always meaning expensive, but we do not need direct access to Applebees.  We enjoy golf.  We were originally going to do Scotland golf trip but too expensive with the exchange rate and do not really want to fly internationally.  Cooler weather is better for us.  We will probably be traveling in the middle of the summer 2009.  No Arizona, no Florida.  There will be approximately 10 adults travelling.  No children.  We will probably want to rent a house that will sleep everyone.

Please throw out any ideas or recommendations.  Also, any past experience would be great also.  I was thinking Maine, Martha's Vineyard, maybe even Hamptons, etc... but have no idea what it is like up there and have some preconceived notions about how well I would like it there.  NYC also comes to mind, but would probably not want to stay in the city.  We have done the city enough that outside of the city sounds like more fun.  No experience with Seattle, Portland, etc... but hear it is a great area. 

Thanks for any help or ideas. 

[nota]

Michigan UP is really nice in summer. Lots of golf and other stuff to do and cooler weather.

Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina in fall or spring.

The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W. VA is really really nice.

I'm leaving out the Broadmoor in Colorado because you didn't seem to want to go to Colorado and anywhere in Hawaii because of the long flights although Princeville on Kauai and Turtle Bay on Oahu meet all your criteria.

Koolau Golf Club is one not to miss if you go to Oahu. It's the only Hawaii course I ever broke 100 on.

Depending on the time of the year, Las Vegas offers some cool stuff as well as lots of golf.

I'm a golfer and I'm 60. Any of these are just pretty darn awesome and most if not all offer stuff for any non golfers as well as stuff for your non golf time. You would want to pay attention to the time of year you were going so you wouldn't be hot. If you go to Hawaii in January, go to the North Shore on whatever island you choose because of the high surf. Awesome.

[49r]

Martha's Vineyard is heaven in the summertime although it can get kind of crowded particularly on sunny weekends and around holidays, otherwise I can't think of another place I'd rather spend a summer vacation.

If you plan to take a car there, however, I would look into making ferry reservations as soon as you can.

[ChandraNH]

I'll second the Vineyard, the Cape or mid-coast Maine.  Though you'll need to start making your reservations right now.  Portland, Maine has some really fine restaurants and nothing beats driving along Route 1 and seeing the craggy shore, waves lapping and stopping at a roadside stand for ice cream and lobster rolls (lobster in a frankfurter bun (top split) with melted butter.

You could take a multi-day cruise on a windjammer from the Maine coast, visit smaller islands and at the end, have a lobster bake on an island.

Here's a link for the windjammer cruises.  http://www.mainewindjammercruises.com/

[missingkc]

Vancouver/Victoria?  Barely international.