Ideas please

[AvonCallingBarksdale]

Last year we went to the Seychelles with Audley which was amazing but v pricey. We’re a family of 4 - DS16, DD13, me and DH. The DC loved the long haul trip but I think I’m missing a trip cost-wise. I’d love to visit Canada/Sri Lanka/Vietnam - any tips on keeping prices down please?

Book it all yourself. We use Audley for multi centre road trips (not every time and I DIY quite a lot) but for the Seychelles you would pay top dollar and it’s just one location. You don’t need this level of expertise for a beach holiday!

I have only been to Canada of the places you mention. We have just done a wildlife specific trip, and it wasn’t cheap, so you might not want that! You could easily plan a road trip from Calgary to Vancouver though using Audley route suggestions. Ditto East Canada. Price your flights, hotels/apartments and car hire and see what the price looks like. Add in any experiences you might want such as whale watching trips. Using cheaper accommodation will definitely lower the cost. Booking flights now should be cheaper. Use a guide book such as Lonely Planet to check itineraries and lodging ideas too.
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I’m sure Vietnam and Sri Lanka advice will be along shortly.

I have been to everywhere in your list and as Bubbles says book yourself to keep prices low.
I use the selective Asia website for travel ideas, routes, temperature details etc. I usually book accommodation through booking.com and research hotels on trip advisor.
For Vietnam domestic flights are reasonable and Viet Jet is a good budget choice. You don’t need a visa for Vietnam if you are a British citizen, can stay up to 15 days, but cannot exit and enter again within a thirty day period. For stays over 15 days you will need a visa, but very easy to do online and then the second stage is when you land.
Hotels are good value and earring money out is very reasonable.
For money I just use an atm to withdraw cash, but credit cards are also widely accepted.
Where to go?
Hoi An is lovely and has the advantage of being dry during the uk summer, but can get very hot.
Sapa is too wet in the summer.
Have been to Hanoi at various times and had some rain in the summer, but plenty of museums and indoor attractions so not an issue.
HCMC - easy to go out to cu chi tunnels from here. We went by boat as traffic can be insane, booked ourselves online.
You can easily book a taxi to take you to a second location eg HCMC to Mekong Delta. It’s about 2.5 hours and I think we paid about 60/70 dollars to get there. Stayed three nights then back to HCMC. Hotels are happy to book drivers and always know somebody that can take you wherever you want to go.

Join Jacks Flight Club

We did 16 days west coast of Canada last year for £5k for four of us flying into Calgary and out of Vancouver with a one way car rental. Awesome holiday.

Currently in Ghana which including flights 4-5 star hotels and transfers will have cost us about £1k each fantastic country.

I’ve been to Canada & Sri Lanka (but not Vietnam, it’s on a long list!). Eastern Canada would cost less to get too but if you’re looking for mountains and lots of wildlife, heading off West would be better. Skyscanner and Kayak for flights, look at the travel itineraries of the non package holiday tour operators, look at the cost of car hire ( unless you just want to do cities) and buy either a Lonely Planet/Rough Guide. Once you’ve got a rough itinerary, spend time on Tripadvisor or ask questions here, there’s usually someone who can help! Canada isn’t cheap do you probably want to look at AirBnB or HomeAway for aspartments.

Sri Lanka would be cheaper! For 3 of us last April, flight costs were around £1400 with a change in Kuwait. Flights with a stop aren’t ideal but you’ll probably save a couple of hundred (although it’s marginally less environmentally friendly so something you may want to take into account!). In Sri Lanka there is a train network and apparently very scenic journeys. We used a local transport firm rather than trains which from memory was between £200-250 in total for an airport pick up into Colombo, Colombo to Kandy, Kandy to Tangalle and then Tangalle to the airport. The traffic on the roads mean journeys can take a long time! We used a local tour operator (you can find them on Tripadvisor) for trips from Kandy (Dambulla, Sigiriya etc) which was much cheaper than going through the likes of Viator. I used booking.com for all hotels - 4/5 star, a cost of about £800 for 11 nights. Check TripAdvisor reviews on hotels before booking. I got our itinerary off Lonely Planets website (select Sri Lanka) which has a number of suggested itineraries based on what you want to see. We took £1k spending money but only used about £700.

These are all great - thank you!