Some birthdays are best spent as far away from the daily routine as possible, so set your destination for someplace exotic like Playa del Carmen, Mexico. This low-key beach town at the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula is surrounded by white sands where you can snorkel to underwater caves, go fishing for billfish or take a day trip out to the ancient ruins of Tulum. The nightlife along La Quinta offers a wide range of restaurants that offer everything from authentic Mayan food to some of the freshest sushi you've eaten, delivered daily from each morning's catch. PDC also has some of the best clubs in the world, such as La Santanera with its open-air dance floor that keeps moving until morning, and Om, a hotel and outdoor bar that attracts a hip, young crowd. The end of the year brings the Riviera Maya Jazz Festival. If electronic music is more your scene, disc jockeys from around the world come to the Mexican Riviera for the annual BPM Festival. Airfares vary according to season. Two ways to arrive at Playa del Carmen are to fly into Cancun and then take a bus or taxi south, or to land in Cozumel and ride the ferry over.
Maybe going international is out of reach for now, so book domestic and choose the city that never sleeps. There is always something going on in New York City. Take in a Broadway show or see the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Check out the traditional sites: Go to the Bronx Zoo, visit the Statue of Liberty at Ellis Island or view the city skyline from the top of the Empire State Building. Some of the best restaurants in the world are in Manhattan, with renowned chefs including Bobby Flay and Mario Batali behind their menus. Many people will argue that the best pizza in the country is in New York, and places like Joe's and Bleecker Street Pizzeria are good places to test that theory. The nightlife is second to none -- whether it's seeing the New York Philharmonic, a concert at the world famous Madison Square Garden or going underground to dance to techno at the Sullivan Room, New York has music for any taste. Flights come in to LaGuardia or JFK airports, or if you want to save a few bucks on the flight, try flying into Newark, New Jersey, and grabbing a shuttle van into the city. As of time of publication, cab rides are a flat rate of $45 from JFK and LaGuardia.
If skiing or snowboarding is your thing, plan a trip to Chamonix in southeastern France. Labelled the "death-sport capital of the world," this resort town is popular with extreme sports enthusiasts from all corners of the globe, and is perhaps best known as the host of the very first Winter Olympics. Defined by its proximity to Mont Blanc, the highest point of the Alps, and situated at the border between France and Italy, Chamonix offers three world-class ski areas as well as a tramway to take ice climbers and snow enthusiasts to the famed mountain for day trips. The villages and hamlets are home to restaurants, bars and high-end shopping. Best of all, since this is an international meeting place, you don't necessarily need to be fluent in French to get around.
One of the seven wonders of the world and the only living organism on Earth that can be seen from space, the Great Barrier Reef is Australia's national treasure. The home to thousands of types of marine life, this collection of islands offer exclusive opportunities to come face to face with turtles, rare coral and sharks. When the experts want to study these mysterious predators of the deep, they come to the Great Barrier Reef. There are other water activities like white-water rafting if you're looking for something a bit less intimidating. Towns along the mainland in Queensland include Cairns, Ayr and Rockhampton, each surrounded by gorgeous backdrops such as the Berserker Ranges and the Outback. Cairns is perhaps the most modern city, with its art galleries, boutiques, botanical gardens and casino. There's even a skyrail where you can see a tropical rain forest underneath. Flying into Cairns is often expensive, so one of the better alternatives is to fly into Sydney and take a train to Brisbane with a stopover that will take you to Cairns. That trip can take a few days, so plan accordingly.
