3 months off - where to go?!

I'm hoping to take a sabbatical and have 3 months off work. Dates are still TBC, but probably mid-November to mid-Feb.

I'll be travelling with my boyfriend and we've done the RTW year long trip before and now just can't decide where to go... We loved our RTW trip but found the pace quite hard going, so I would imagine this time we'll stick to 1 or 2 countries or focus on 1 area. We like beaches and will dive and snorkel wherever we can, perhaps mix in a few jungle treks, adventure activities and cool cities and we're happy.

SE Asia is tempting because we found it easy to travel through and although it was 5 years ago that we were last there, I think we've got a good idea of what we're letting ourselves in for. Plus we never made it to the Philippines so that would be good...

On the other hand when we were in South America before we didn't get to go to any of the more northern countries, so possibly Venuzuela/Northern Brazil or Equador/Colombia perhaps.

We've also got friends living in Mozambique, so we could visit them on an Africa trip. I've never really researched Africa as much and for whatever reason (probably wrong) don't expect to find that chilled out/relaxing on cushions/watching films/snorkelling feel that you get in say, the north of Ko Phangan... although I've not ever really researched it, so am open to suggestions...

I guess the South Pacific might get pricey for 3 months??!

How on earth can anyone advise you on this load of rambling nonsense??

It's rambling because the same thing has been cross-posted on 4 branches (so far).

But the South Pacific gets the least of this post - a single line about high prices.
So I guess this is hardly the region OP is most interested in...

Reading it all, my impression that SE Asia is the place they'd enjoy most.
I certainly would not choose Africa for "relaxing", and even within Africa, Mozambique would be among my last choices to do so.

Mandja - Why bother replying at all if you think it's nonsense??

Laszlo - I've never been to the South Pacific and haven't even researched it recently... I know I need to do my own homework too, but I was wondering what other people might do in my situation... Am I right that its expensive there? How does it compare to SE Asia and South America? Is the diving/snorkelling good?

Yes, it is rambling... What does it matter? I was giving you my thoughts as well as asking a question.

Yes, it's expensive.

Quite HOW expensive depends on which country you visit and how you want to travel, but overall, it's at least maybe 2-3 times more expensive than SE Asia for the same things. And that's in the cheaper countries like Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and the Solomons. The French territories or Micronesia can be even pricier.

The diving/snorkelling can be good, but not better than in SE Asia.
PNG and the Solomons fall within the Coral Triangle just like the Philippines and eastern Indonesia, so are similarly good. The further you move from this region, the poorer the marine life.

I can't compare the South Pacific with South America, but compared to Africa, it is definitely more relaxing, and probably also better "value for money".
Thing is, many prices in Africa are kept artificially high, with foreigners being charged up to 100 times the local prices for access to national parks and the like.
Fortunately, that's not the reason why the Pacific is expensive.

Why bother replying at all if you think it's nonsense

The reply is to let you know, just in case you didn't realize

Yes, it is rambling... What does it matter?

Here's one reason, provided by the LP moderators on the west-europe branch:

1. Research before asking a question. It will help you get better, more detailed and useful answers from the community if you've already done some homework. It's also polite. The community is here to help, but we're not your personal search engine. Invest some preliminary time and we'll help you fill in the gaps.

Notice that phrase: It's also polite.

A few months ago the OP had another 'question' about snorkeling in the Sinai. Following some attempts by posters to answer, the OP comes back with
>Thanks guys... I think we're heading for Malaysia now instead

Well, it's polite to do some thinking first. Other people are taking the time to try and help. We're the ones trying to help YOU, get it?

So, on to Malasia and another rambling question(s) introduced by:
>Ok, so admittedly I'm being a little lazy - I can't get hold of a guidebook until the weekend

Give the OP some benefit for having the insight. Perhaps it is laziness, wanting others to do the homework and/or thinking for her. If so, then the OP shouldn't get pissed off when they don't do as desired, or can't figure out what she's getting at.

With this same post on the Thailand branch one of the Thai regulars posted the following:
>in the south Pacific Fiji has some lovely islands off the main island with budget resorts run largely by the local villagers - go to Thorntree's South Pacific forum for details. Maybe ask about budget resorts in the Yasawas for starters.

Right, so what does this branch get? The ramble about everything but the SP, and then the one sentence:
>I guess the South Pacific might get pricey for 3 months??!

The South Pacific is a big place. Without the slightest hint about where you might want to go, and what your definition of 'pricey' is, there's not much anyone can say, except do the thinking you should have done in the first place as Laszlo did in #4.

Perhaps a nicer way of looking at it is that the OP simply has a rambling style of thinking. Fair enough, but this better suits some brainstorming over a beer or two in a bar somewhere. It doesn't fit so well on a question and answer forum.