Planning next year holls. Vietnam Sri Lanka or Goa. Can you think of any where else.

[allgoodinthehood]

Just got back last night ( Koh Samui ) and now looking at the next one.
Cant decide at all. Two adults in early fifties. No kids and has to be in summer school holls.
Any ideas gratefully received

Only been to Sri Lanka from your list but definitely recommend it. To maximise your time spend a few days in each place. Colombo isn’t a good base to travel to the other cities/safari parks from as it’s 7/8 hours drive.

If you’re traveling in the school summer holidays you will be very much off season for India and Sri Lanka - it will be monsoon season. Can you not go at any other time? While Monsoon season isn’t so bad in some places, it’s really not when you want to be considering India. Kerala is the place I was going to recommend to you - gorgeous place, interesting history, extremely safe, beautiful, amazing food. Look up Munnar, Aleppey, Fort Kochi, Varkala, Cherai - and I was going to suggest that you visit Kerala and Goa on the same trip. For Goa I’d recommend Palolem beach for you. However do not go during the summer holidays!! Goa is pretty much totally shut down at this time - a lot of the lovely beach huts which house the businesses (little bungalows and cafes, bars and restaurants) are just totally dismantled, ready to be built again later after monsoon season. The atmosphere is quite depressing, to be frank. The only visitors are those who booked by accident not realizing it would be monsoon season. As for Kerala, don’t even consider it during UK summer holidays. It can flood and again, it just won’t be a nice holiday environment.

However - if you want to go at another time of year - I can’t recommend these two places enough! Kerala is like another world compared to the rest of India. It’s fresh, green, beautiful - they call it ‘God’s own country’. It’s really safe and easy to travel and you don’t get any of the scams you might meet in the rest of India. Palolem beach is Goa is also wonderful. Just make sure you go at the right time of year.

If you want to go to Vietnam I’d recommend Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh, Ha Noi and Ha Long Bay. Again, the UK summer holidays are not the best time to visit Asia so be prepared for the weather to be less than ideal.

Vietnam is fantastic.
But in the summer hols you need to be careful about the season because places do flood and become impassable.

We went in July to Central Vietnam because it is rainy season in the North then. While we were in Hoi An 4 people drowned in floods in Hanoi.

Hoi An and Hue are amazing, plenty to do in Central Vietnam.

Otherwise, what about Costa Rica?

Sri Lanka. It’s wonderful and tourists haven’t ruined it yet.

I used to live in India and Goa was fine for a laugh as it was just a cheap overnight train away, but no way I’d opt for it as a holiday from here. It’s a lot of hassle, not that nice and filled with obnoxious foreigners.

Sri Lanka is my favourite place in the world though. It’s beautiful, still relatively unspoilt, people are super friendly and helpful, and the food is amazing.

Do travel by train and bus there. There’s no need to take a taxi (except from the airport). The trains are great, very easy and safe. We’ve been all down the coast to Matara and then up to the hill country (Kandy, Ella, etc). The north of the country is still relatively closed off but I’ve heard the east coast has some nice surfing. I would steer clear of the big resorts on the coast and stay in guesthouses in smaller villages (Unawatuna and Mirissa are lovely). I have friends who run a guesthouse called Latitude 6 in Meddawatta and that’s also really nice.

Agree with others above that neither India or Sri Lanka would be ideal in summer holidays. It’s end of summer and start of the monsoon. I quite like the interior areas in the monsoon but a lot of the coastal cities flood and beaches tend to close down for the season. It’s much nicer around Christmas if that’s an option.

Thank you so much for the information Very helpful and food for thought.
unfortunately i can only go in summer holls as i work in a school.

Please keep ideas coming as the trip isnt cheap so desperately want to get it right.

Vietnam is really easy to travel but you need a good two weeks or more to travel the length of the country. Places to visit from North to South are Sapa (northern Vietnam with the terraced paddy fields and ethnic minorities), Halong Bay (though visit Bai Tu Long bay instead as it's the same but less crowded), Hanoi (the capital, has the old town to explore), Danang/Hoi An (central VN, UNESCO heritage site, old merchant houses, tailors, beach, fantastic street food), Saigon/HCMC (the 'capital' of the south, Mekong/Cu chu tunnels. Phu Quoc, mentioned above by another poster is an island popular for tourists, also where they are famous for making fish sauce.

Whatever you do take advice about the weather seriously. You can Google search recommended places by month/season. My dad went to Goa in August and it rained hard all day every day. I think Malaysia is ok then?

I work in a school too and I went to Vietnam over Christmas. There's no time of year I can get more than two weeks off in one go anyway.

I would recommend that time of year for Asia, or Easter. I had an amazing holiday in Malaysia over Easter, it's a truly awesome country.

If it has to be summer, I would honestly consider another part of the world.

Malaysia is an excellent holiday, if fairly long flight.

Have you considered holidaying somewhere you don't need to travel long haul? Emissions from flights are contributing massively to the climate crisis and we all need to take action to change the situation before it is too late. If you flew to Thailand, that's about 12,000 miles in the air on your recent holiday. This might help understand the impact of that choice: www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/jul/19/carbon-calculator-how-taking-one-flight-emits-as-much-as-many-people-do-in-a-year

Phu Quoc

You do not want to go to Phu Quoc in August. It's monsoon season and this month it experienced the worst flooding in its history.

We went to Bali for our honeymoon and absolutely loved it. Vietnam and Cambodia are next on the list. I've never been to Sri Lanka but it looks beautiful. I'm sure wherever you choose, you will have a great time.

Costa Rica. It's in the other direction but we loved it.

We've going to Vietnam next year though.

Vietnam and Laos. You won't regret either.

Cambodia and Vietnam are fabulous. Also Myanmar. There is a great company - Pandaw from memory - that do these amazing boat trips across the delta through all three countries.

Does Central America appeal at all - Guatemala & Nicaragua were two of my favourite places during my wandering backpacking youth, I hope to revisit both again now I’m ‘grown up’(!). Rainforests, temple ruins, volcanoes, food, colonial buildings etc.

We spent 2 weeks in Vietnam last November and loved it. Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh. If you have longer I’d advise going to Sapa (north of Hanoi) as well, skipping Hue and touring Mekong Delta in south.
The food was incredible and all the people were so welcoming. Everyone we met went out of their way to be helpful and friendly.

Could you go during the Easter holidays rather than summer?