No Stupid Questions

I think you should give Turkey some serious consideration. If I were your mom, I imagine I'd absolutely love it if you shared your passion for the local history with me.

I think Turkey should have wonderful beaches, but from there you could also travel to Albania, Greece or Italy quite easily. If those are too hot, you could go to Poland or Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia. I haven't been myself, but I hear Eastern Europe has beautiful old cities and nature. Those countries are also pretty cheap!

Depending on how much you want to travel and whether you like trains you could get an Eurail ticket for one or more countries. If you're younger than 28 you'll get a nice discount. There should also plenty of affordable flights.

I recently vacationed in Costa Rica. Language won't be an issue. Everyone was polite & friendly.

We did a lot of driving. From the central volcano area, down to the coast at Puerto Viejo.

I'd return to check out the West coast.

FYI: I have an American friend from Thailand. She advised us against travel due to the Middle East shit show effecting many aspects of life in Thailand. Even our tour provider warned us that flights were no longer guaranteed.

Don't let the heat scare you away from Thailand.

Spend the first week with your mom up in Chiang Mai, go to "elephant nature park" up there, one of the few who actually are a real elephant sanctuary for rescued elephants and treat them well. You can feed, touch, and bathe them, it's an awesome experience. There's also great cooking classes to do that take you through the markets where you try different foods as you collect your ingredients to cook with later.

If your mom is open minded enough, go to the ladyboy cabaret, it's good fun, I've literally seen families there before, it's not x-rated stuff, just good song and dance with humor mixed in.

Night market every night, and Sunday walking street both offer tons of shopping and excellent street food options everywhere you go for literal miles. Don't miss out on the best Khao soi of your life.

See the temples, Doi Suthep offers an unmatched view of the valley Chiang Mai lies in. Doi Inthanon is high enough of a climb in elevation that you get serious relief from the heat, and there are waterfalls to visit along the way, makes a great day trip.

Spend a couple days up in Pai to enjoy a peaceful hippie-ish town with beautiful views (about 3 hour drive by car). If you make the trip up here, you might as well go to the white temple in Chiang Rai - I can't vouch for that one but it looks sweet!

Week two - fly yourself down to Phuket for the beach and nightlife. Go to a full moon party, do some shrooms or whatever floats your boat. Tons of bars and clubs in the area for you too. Also, if you're up for something not as much of a party but still incredible while you're there, look up John Gray sea canoe tours. They do the best day trips out in the bay, take you to a couple different hongs where you kayak under these caves into lagoons, see bats, monkeys, all kinds of cool shit.. They cook you good food on the boat.. You can do overnight trips where you camp on a tiny island you have to yourselves.. Highly recommend them.

I spent a couple months in Thailand in college (over the summer months) so I'm always encouraging others to see it, even in the hotter months - don't let weather discourage you. The people, the sights, and the food far outweigh any bad weather you might encounter. I liked it enough to bring my wife back for our honeymoon years later, we had an awesome time.

If you're worried about stability in Costa Rica, man do I have news for you about Cuba.

Big question is what is "too hot"? Croatia or Turkey in June would be toasty. You can also look at the Aegean side of Greece. Beyond being hot, June and August both are when these places empty out or get absolutely filled up for the summer. Personally, I would suggest looking more around the Balkans and seeing if there's something you like and renting a car to drive between places. Beaches in NE Greece, hot springs in Bulgaria? Beaches in Montenegro, shopping in Belgrade? You get that Ottoman history anywhere you go. Maybe look at flying into one city and flying out of another.

Turkey is solid, but beaches might be some internal flights or long drives from IST. Just beware of scams and hustles from every direction.

Scotland in June is beautiful, the question would be if you can actually find a place to stay. It's a short summer so things book up quickly and expensively. Water is always freezing.

Dominican Republic on the Semana peninsula? Panama?

Belize.

Tiny country just south of Mexico. It was the only English colony in South America. It's a lot like Jamaica with less crime. Beautiful beaches and friendly people. I went there for the scuba diving, but it also has old Mayan ruins to explore.

You can use US dollars anywhere if that matters.

How about Spain?

Split in Croatia sounds like it’d fulfill basically all of your criteria.