I'm a bit loathed to go to Portugal or Spain as it's full of Brits. Those damn Brits are a pain in the arse. Speshly the Apple bunch.

Spain inland is stunning and less commercial.
North Italy is also Stunning.

Remember large areas of Europe don't want tourists

I'm not sure when you plan to travel, but the summer tends to be prime mosquito season on the islands.  Best to go after October and before the end of March.  Spain and Portugal are both drop dead beautiful, although I think there's less palm trees and not so much iguana poop.

This year I thought about just chucking a load of dosh at somewhere relatively close to home. We could probably get a great place with a pool in Portugal or Spain with premium economy flights, for less than just the cost of the flights to St Lucia.

I feel like my ever increasing age is making me frugal. If that is true, then I'm old and I refuse to accept that.

Lassie, go get help!

Or, it could just be Trump waving his willy around just to make sure the world knows he has one.  I'm reminded of Idi Amin.  Didn't he do something utterly ridiculous like make some high ranking UK official crawl on the rug in front of him in order to gain some concessions?

That's what this is like.  Poor Zelensky has to kiss the ring.  Trump wants that Nobel peace prize so badly and he needs to make himself the center of the universe in order to agree to get something done.

Bit of a jump comparing Mr T to Idi, but I'm with you.