Hi all,

I've got a tricky one to solve:
I'm looking for a holiday destination for January 2017. We will be in Europe for Christmas and New year and want to spend another 14 days in a windsurf spot.
The criteria are:

- warm
- windy
- suitable for beginners (my 9yo son) as well as for rusty intermediates (myself) I was thinking a lagoon or protected bay or so would be nice
- politically stable/ safe
- a nice luxury resort with pool
- modern surf gear hire and school
- good food
- some culture/nature for the days without wind

So far I was thinking Mauritius, Vietnam, Thailand...
Looking forward to hearing your ideas!



With kind regards,
Christian

Okinawa in Japan should be a good pick.
For sure one of the most safe places you can go.
We will have our annual Toyota Cup again on Kohamajima at the great Hoshino Resort. They do have a windsurf school close by as well.


Just realizing that the the wind is dropping before the event starts...

Another option might be the Club Met on Ishigakijima, but this is a bit on the pricy side but they do have a great kids service including some English speakers. For the rest, communication issues should be traveling with you in Japan ;-)
Nevertheless a trip worth.
~Shinobi

Tell whomever invited you to EUR for that time of year to get stuffed, and spend all of Chrissy plus your 14 days in WA.
Spend the $10K you just saved on windsurf gear for the 9 y/o and yourself.

I'm envious...

Some places to research here.

velaresorts.com/index.php

We stayed here for 2 weeks in 2013, my then 10 year old windsurfed every day, more then me, as it wasn't as windy as I would have liked, we were apparently at the end of the season, had a few ballistic days that cleaned out the cobwebs. We had a a hire car and took it with us on a ferry overnight from Genoa. Having a car was great as Sardinia is fantastic to explore...

we stayed in the windsurf village in the video and it was basic, clean, no fuss, no pool but the beach is pretty good, that cafe on the beach is awesome, we had many great morning coffees there and afternoon aperitifs.

There's not much to do at night, but some other beach bars get pretty noisy early on then everyone seems to go to bed, suited us with two young kids under 10.

The kids loved it and the wife was happy.

However, Europe to sail? I live in Perth so really why would you, we wanted to see Sardina so that was the excuse, there were no waves at Port Polo, but it was fun blasting and checking out the euro sailing culture.

Kids probably got more out of it then me on a windsurf level.

They had great gear though, and I paid the premium package which meant you could just grab whatever board and rig you wanted so I got to try out lots of bigger gear then Id usually use.

awesome holiday.

www.windsurfvillage.it/resort-holidays-sardinia

www.directferries.com.au/ferries_from_italy_to_sardinia.htm

Largely prompted by this review:

www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1009804-i12979-k6932304-Windsurf_equipment_rental_in_Mui_Ne-Mui_Ne_Phan_Thiet_Binh_Thuan_Province.html

I considered going to this place over Xmas (but then I realized it's insane to waste annual leave to go windsurfing overseas during our summer):

www.surf4you.ru/

(at the bottom of the page there is a link to the English page)

They have very modern gear. They also have their own sail brand S4Y, designed by a "secret Australian designer". (I wonder who that could be?)

The hotel looks very new:



Now go there and tell us how it is.