Need to take wks hol by end of March, need recommended destinations for fab salsa!

[Claire_Brummell]

Hey all

Know I've been absent of late but things have been crazy in the land of Claire!!

I've just found out that I have a week's holiday to take by the end of march and am looking to go away - but I need somewhere with fab salsa preferably every night of the week!

I'm open to locations - I have no fixed ideas at all - I'm up for unusual and exotic!!

But I need to move fast on this - so I'm after either recommendations on places people have been or recommendations or friendly locals who want to rave about where they live!!

Either way - floor's open to you guys - if you could go anywhere, where would you go and why?

Help me!! My holiday is in your hands ;)

Hugs to you all,

Claire xx

[alemana]

anywhere in the world?

new york city, of course.

[mamboqueen]

South Beach?

[africana]

eww not florida lol

DEFINTELY New York City! I keep fantasizing about having no work so I can travel :)

[salsera_alemana]

Probably NYC will offer you salsa every night of the week. Boriken and alemana should be able to give you tips.

If I (!) had the choice I would go to Puerto Rico but I cannot guarantee that you will have salsa every night of the week there. Check out http://www.abailarsalsa.tk/ and click on "Actividades" if you can read Spanish. There is often a lot going on but not every week of the year! So you might not want to go there in a week where there is not much going on. They often have great concerts and dances with famous salsa bands. Often, the great parties and dances are announced 1-2 weeks in advance, so you might not know now what will be going on in March.

To play it safe, NY might be better and cheaper from the UK.

[Pacion]

Or... depending on your budget, take a look at the Calendar, and do three long weekenders. There is Prague coming up and a weekend in Rome and a few others to choose from. That is one way of guaranteeing dancing :lol:

[djpatricio]

For exotic fail-safe, Havana.

For regular old fail-safe I'd try NYC or Miami, and since most everybody in Miami is from New York anyway, it's getting two cities for the price of one! I guess you could also try San Juan P.R. too.

But for wierd/exotic, I'd try Dubai, UAE. I heard the salsa scene is pretty cool, at one point I read you could salsa every night of the week there. Just don't make any Mohammed jokes though....

[pygmalion]

But for wierd/exotic, I'd try Dubai, UAE. I heard the salsa scene is pretty cool, at one point I read you could salsa every night of the week there. Just don't make any Mohammed jokes though....

Dubai? Is that destination safe for non-native women? :?

[mamboqueen]

I would never have guessed Dubai as being a hotbed of salsa dancers. Is this really true??? m

[Big10]

I've just found out that I have a week's holiday to take by the end of march and am looking to go away - but I need somewhere with fab salsa preferably every night of the week!
If I were you, I would give some serious thought to visiting Houston around the time of the Texas Salsa Congress in March. The official congress dates are Friday, March 17th through Sunday March 19th. The weather should be very pleasant at that time of year, also.

I would structure my week by coming into Houston on Monday and giving yourself time to rest/adjust. There will be very good Salsa options for the Tuesday and Thursday nights preceding the Congress. (Wednesday has a couple of options that will be okay too, but not as good as the surrounding nights, so maybe you could do something different in the city that night.) The Congress itself will be "off the hook" through the weekend, with many top-notch instructors/performers from across the U.S., and social dancing going until 3 or 4 a.m. in the morning, depending on the night.

http://www.txsalsacongress.com/tsc/instructors.cfm

http://www.txsalsacongress.com/tsc/performers.cfm

Then sleep on the plane back home Monday. ;)

[pygmalion]

Damn! That's my birthday week, and I'm already planning to be too depressed to dance. :wink: :lol:

[djpatricio]

Dubai? Is that destination safe for non-native women? :?

That's a good point...a single female traveller probably ought to go tandem at least to Dubai the first time, from what I've read.

As far as a hotbed of salsa dancing, I'm not sure it's a hotbed per se, and I've not been there yet, but from all the things I read and people I talk to it seems like they have a decent scene in Dubai. As far as mideast countries (Dubai is a city-state in the UAE) go, it's pretty modernized, you can drink alcohol, not have to wear a burqua, etc....there's an extraordinary number of expats there, especially from the UK, so they have a pretty international culture and kick-ass nightlife.

[Big10]

Damn! That's my birthday week, and I'm already planning to be too depressed to dance. :wink: :lol:
What if I invite Mr. Rum or Ms. Tequila to help you forget your troubles? :cool:

It's a bit of a trek for Claire, but you (being only a few driving hours away) don't have much of an excuse not to be down here for one or more nights of the event....:p

[amrimi]

In case you don't want to go to far away you can come Hamburg. There is Salsa here every night of the week with several options to choose from.

[MacMoto]

Damn! That's my birthday week, and I'm already planning to be too depressed to dance. :wink: :lol:
But dancing is good for depression ;).

Claire,
Have a great time wherever you decide to go. I have no suggestions, only a question: do you have a suitcase big enough to fit me in?:lol:

[africana]

I don't know how it skipped my mind!! but i'm gonna be at the Boston Congress at the end of march - it seems to be a well regarded congress, I'm excited
you could merge that with a visit to NYC

oh and don't forget salsa-shopping, the only thing better than salsa but for the daytime lol NYC is great for that too :0

@pygmalion, why the appointment for a sad birthday?? I'd take big10 up on his offer instead :p

[lolita]

EGYPT-CAIRo
we have salsa going on all week long... beside ur gonna enjoy the great egyptian sense of humor and friendly attitude
plus all the historic sites ( pyramids, sphynx, museusm, all that stuff)

the weather is too *******ing, not cold, not hot..
u get to see me:D

[SurfSalsa]

How about sunny South Africa??? You can salsa every night in Cape Town (OK Sundays are in a very overcrowded Cuban-style restaurant and you'll have the same class Tuesdays and Thursdays, but its an excellent teacher, so not that bad.) Sunny beaches, animals, friendly people, March is excellent weather... hey, I'm sounding like a travel agent...

PS - did you make it to Gambia???

[Josh]

anywhere? Italy.

When I went I was not a salsa dancer, but I hear the dancing is great there.

Beeeeauuuuutiful place. Kills ANYwhere in the US. Anywhere.

[Benjamim Nande]

If you plan to come to Portugal, we will held the "Internacional Salsa Congress" from March 31 to April 2nd.

Johnny Vasquez e su Império Azteca (Los Angeles)
Tropical Gem (Itália)
Sacuye Latin dancers (Suécia)
Salsa e Punto (Venezuela)
David e Gemma (Espanha)
Agustin Williams y Mambo in Action ( Zaire )
Fabian y Ester ( Sevilha )
Fusion Salsera (Venezuela)

and much more...

and you can have a taste of Portuguese salsa; you'll be surprised ;)

Benjamim.

[nikita]

Hi Claire-
I would definately go to Cuba, if I could:p :p :p
Dubai has the craziest Salsa scene I've ever seen...If you go there, you'll have a lot of fun. Even for a girl going alone it's no problem at all. + everybody speaks English there. It's just very, very hot...
You can check out under www.desertbeat.com (http://www.desertbeat.com) or www.salsa-dubai.com (http://www.salsa-dubai.com)

[salsera_alemana]

anywhere? Italy.

When I went I was not a salsa dancer, but I hear the dancing is great there.

Beeeeauuuuutiful place. Kills ANYwhere in the US. Anywhere.

I DEFINITELY agree!!!! I LOVE Italy! My favourite country in Europe. For a vacation it is wonderful: beautiful towns, cities, landscapes, more history and culture than anywhere else, delicious (!!!!!!!) food, very cultured people, beautiful language, beautiful clothes and shoes. The whole package is just great!

There is plenty of salsa in Italy! We spent six days in Tuscany last August and went out dancing two nights. You can go to the Internet and print out your salsa calendar for almost every day of the week, depending on where you are. We were in Pisa and went to a club somewhere in the countryside near Lucca on a Tuesday night. Beautiful location, it was an outdoor restaurant, after dinner we just changed location from the restaurant to the patio right next to it, a huge dancefloor under the stars and trees with hundreds of exited salseros and salseras dancing the night away.

Another night we went to Tirrénia, north of Livorno. They had a club right on the beach with a nice big dance floor outside, salsa under the stars with a view of the ocean, not bad!

I hear that Florence has better salsa clubs, Florence is a beautiful city with a lot to see! (We did not go there on this trip.) If you consider Italy, check out the Internet for salsa in Italy and you will get an idea where "the action" could be, they have salsa all over Italy, and Italy is beautiful no matter where you go!

In 1998 we spent a couple of days in Rome but did not have a car. So we checked out the salsa clubs in the city. They were nice but we did not get to go to the real "hot" places with the great dancers (Italy has a lot of excellent salsa dancers!) because those clubs were outside of the city. And taxis were expensive.

[BugBear]

Sorry 'bout the offtopic but with this much praise for Italy I just couldn't resist :)
http://www.infonegocio.com/xeron/bruno/italy.html