If you wanna check out Cuba, i think Cancun is the best place for that.
If you wanna do sailboat thing, drive to Panama from Costa Rica and do the San Blas Islands sailboat tour, lots of great options for really awesome tours, i hear... But they are like 4 day tours and Panama is pretty big.
But the Panama highway doesnt really have many towns, almost no highways intersect it and zero stop lights or signs, plus no traffic police or highway patrol, so you can drive like the bus drivers at 90 MPH and make good time.
South of a few places in Mexico, sailboats have very few places to stop on the Pacific and certain portion of the year sailboats are a no go.

Stay at that place i told ya about a few nights for unforgettably awesome vacation that you be dreaming about for many years to come.
Ive travelled all the US, alot of Mexico, all C.A and I've never seen a place so colorful, peaceful and magical as those mountains.
Lots of wild blueberries and blackberries growing everywhere too, tasty snacks if you do some cool hikes.
It's not far from San Jose and the drive there is very Bonito, rural CR looks like Ireland.
Also, San Isidro is very near. Nice little city, lots of cool offerings and a bunch of excellent Pacific Beaches very nearby.
Southern CR is way better than the North, i thought the people in the North were unfriendly and pretentious.

very civilized traffic

The cars will stop for pedestrians at zebra crossings!! One of the very few places in Asia where that happens. Even here in Japan it's not common.

Almaty's like an organized European city stuck in the middle of Asia.

Kazakhstan has a couple of 7000 meter peaks. Almaty could have had the winter olympics, but instead they went to smog-instead-of-snow Beijing.

If I were in Mexico City on Easter Sunday, I would consider renting (or borrowing a bike) and cycling the usually busy streets that are closed most of that day to traffic. Just beside the cathedral, on the west side, is a kiosk where I've borrowed ordinary single speed mountain bikes several times for up to three hours, free. Just show them your passport and tell them where you're staying.

If I were in Oaxaca, I would go for a walk or hike in the countryside for some peace and quiet. Note there is an informal birding group that gets together most Sundays at 8 AM at the southeast corner of Llano Park, you could try them. Or head to San Andres Huayapam and ask at their bienes comunales if you can walk up into the sierra norte. I've also hiked the sacred hills beside Teotitlan del Valle, and not far from there, beside Macuilzochil. Finally I hiked to the Devil's Cave one day near San Pablo Villa de Mitla: a different kind of sacredness.

Do they wear clogs and disport tulips too?

They did in fact "discover" the Australian continent ... albeit not on purpose - they just got blown onto the rather large west coast.

But they found it unappealing - no nutmeg or cinnamon I expect ... which is rather a good thing ... otherwise people like me would be speaking like Martians and dodging fat little windmills down the highways.

Hei, just sharing a bit of extra information:

• I second @krommenaas that GPS embedded with a map containing the paths (or similar) is essential at places. The markings used to mark the Peak of Balkans (PoB) are shared with other hikes/trekks so there is a chance of entering the wrong trekk. And, specially, on open fields and forests there may be too little or no markings. Openstreetmap (OSM) has the PoB paths and other secondary paths. Some of those secondary paths may be very shallow and almost impossible to see at places. The relief indications of OSM are a bit imprecise though, dont count on them. You may be in or out of tree line in reality but not on the map. I had the impression that Maps.me has a few more of the secondary trails then Openstreetmap. It has the Maja Harapit one for example. One thing to consider is that in both Cerem (at the guesthouse indicated by the Cicerone book) and Doberdol there is no electricity. In Doberdol, I stayed in a new? guesthouse a bit after then one indicated on the Cicerone book. They had a solar panel and as I was the single client, I could fully charge my phone. However, if there are many tourists, Im not sure one would be able to charge so easily.

• If you are doing the stages a faster then the cicerone average and are not feeling too tired at the end, Id say give it a try on the Maja Kolata =D (be mindfull to turn back if finding it difficult or too long). The route was surprisingly well marked and I'd say that the begining from Valbona was also very well marked. The marks looked recent, so they may have improved since @krommenaas has been there. In my experience, the marking only got bad after going down the pass.

The detour to climb both Kolatas and come back to the main trail took me 3 hours, but I had a light pack (no tent) and I hike fast (It took me a bit more then 2h to get from Valbona to the bifurcation to climb it). Now at the end of June there was still some snow fields to be negotiated. The trickiest one would be the one to climb the Albanian Kolata, but hopefully someone had already dug steps on it, so it was very ok to go up. I did not find it much exposed and it was ok to climb with strong wind, though maybe not ok with fog or wet ground.

In Valbona, Ive stayed at the Guesthouse Arben Selimaj which is closer to the begining of the trail over the passes between Valbona and Ceremi. It was a great guesthouse, cheap, awesome food and nice family. There was no need to negotiate an early (6am) breakfast =D The only tricky thing is that they seem to have a partnership with a hostel, which sends a lot of people there for doing the Valbona Theth trekk. So, I woulndt be suprised if they get full sometimes, although it has quite a few dorms (and some private rooms if I understand right).

• On my way between Vusanje and Theth, Ive considered to climbe the Maja Harapit. The Maps.me app has the trail, but in practice the trail is almost invisible. No marks except for extremely sparse cairns (some has as little as 2-3 stones so they may be rather an accidental cairn). Some parts are indeed quite exposed and, if I was going the right way, it involves a little bit of bouldering. The lack of marking and uncertainty about how bad would be the downhill to Theth, made me retreat after climbing about 200 meters.

• Similarly to @krommenaas, Ive shortcutted the trail in Doberdol (I did not had enough days =S). However, I went from Doberdol all the way to Plav, in accord to the signs that makes it about 33km. It is very easy to do the shortcut as you can follow a 4x4 road going from below the pass to next to the Hrid lake. From the map and what I could see, I understand that you do not miss much, landscape wise, by skipping Babino Polje. However, people told me that the guesthouse there was one of the bests =D There is also a possible detour to climb the Hridiski peak and go directly from it to the Hrid lake. The views are very nice, but the trail down from Hridiski peak is very easy to be missed. I ended up missing it and having to cross a long boulder field after =S

best mode is very subjective -- I really like travelling by boat and the next preference is other types of surface transport. We don't know how much time you have available; how much you want to see of other parts of Malaysia as you pass through. If you have time; travel by bus to Singapore -- the scenery is OK - not the greatest but good. Flying Penang to Singapore is an option but you don't get the feeling you have seen the route; just bypassed it.

Not to be missed on Langkawi -- the beaches of course; I remember going to some mangroves; going to the peak and the walk around the summit; there were some other places I drove to as well -- I used the LP book so I suggest the ebook to you. Much lighter and compact.

Paul

Title: A boat trip to Loch Coruisk on Skye

Destinations covered: Loch Coruisk, Isle of Skye, Scotland

Theme: family adventure travel

Style: travel guide/travel inspiration

Synopsis: Loch Coruisk on Skye, is breathtakingly beautiful. A contender for one of the most spectacular places we’ve ever been! It is a remote loch ringed by the highest peaks of the Cuillin mountains. Accessible only by boat trip from Elgol (as we did) or via an arduous 5.5 mile hike from Kilmarie. Travel to Loch Coruisk by boat and spend time at this dramatic setting, either hiking or simply enjoying the majestic surroundings. This was a real highlight of our time on Skye.

URL: https://www.goliveyoung.com/a-boat-trip-to-loch-coruisk-on-skye/

It's not so much that it's this far out - I expect it's more a result of it being a fairly short and intense touring season ... and February is right in the peak. Anyway - you seem sorted. Presumably the rental company covers the safety seats for the children (if they are little).

I terms of geothermal fields in / near Rotorua, we really liked Wai-O-Tapu ... not nearly as commercial as Whakarewarewa, but also admittedly without the same Maori cultural context.

So July August is not only peak tourism season, but also peak heat/humidity and monsoon rain season.

I would definitely consider avoiding spending time in eastern and southern China, except for Guangzhou(rainy time with a friend is still time with a friend)

If you really want to spend time in Sanqing Shan you can, but the hike up will either be hot and humid or wet and humid and the view from the top might not be great. It could be somewhat clear, but you are chancing it.

Yunnan is not so hot, being up in the mountains but there is still rain to worry about. Even then, places like Lijiang will be swarming with tourists, similar to Yangshuo. Southern Yunnan is less traveled, less developed more rural, but it starts getting warmer, particularly in the valleys.

For me I would spend july/august with some time in the tibetan foothills. Western Sichuan, Southern Gansu, or Qinghai provinces. Real hiking, real nature, some interesting cultures Han-Hui-Tibetan triangle, and blissfully cooler and less threat of rain.