South East Asia with Children

[Jelly4444]

We have been to South East Asia previously but looking for somewhere new to go. We've been to

Bangkok
Chiang Mai
Koh Samui etc
Phuket etc
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Hong Kong
Hanoi
Halong Bay

Can anyone recommend a tourist destination that might suit with children aged 7 - 10 years old? Somewhere in Bali maybe?

We spent the summer in Bali and Lombok with our 14 and 10 year old. I would definitely recommend. Lots of snorkelling, culture, surfing, food and beautiful scenery. I’d recommend travelling around and not sticking to the south coast of Bali. August is also dry season, so the weather was great. (We stayed in Ubud, Amed, Gili Trawangan, Senaru, Selong Belanak, Gili Gede and Uluwatu).

Thank you @Fedupofballs I don't know much about Bali so will check out your suggestions. My worry is that Bali is a bit of a "Magaluf for Aussies" - any areas that I should avoid?

That’s mainly around the south of Bali. Gili T did have more of a party island feel, but we were 5 minutes away from the main strip and the beauty of the island meant it didn’t bother us at all. Gili Gede only had about 20 tourists in total.
I spent most of 2020 and 2021 researching our itinerary and it really paid off.

I think Siem Reap in Cambodia is a great destination for children. Good resort hotels and all the temples to explore plus some other activities (small museums, markets, Tonle Sap lake) to fill up the time. I’d combine it with a few days at a beach resort or with a visit to Laos if your children are adventurous. I’d do this holiday over Christmas/New Year.

Bali & Lombok, as mentioned above, is good for July/August.

We went to Siem Reap with our 10 year old and had an amazing time. So much to see and do and if you get a hotel with a pool, downtime as well. We hired a tuk tuk driver to take us round the temples so we could spend as much/ little time as we liked. We did a cookery class, and the place we stayed at was run by an NGO so we did a day in a local village which was amazing. Food was amazing, Oscar loved eating tarantula and snake 🤢but we also went to a fab place with tasting menu for $28. We’d love to go back and looking to do Phnom Penh, Kampot and the islands- could be an add on if you have longer than a week.
Bali and Lombok were also amazing, we loved Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan.
south East Asia is my favourite part of the world, can’t wait to go back!

I hadn't thought of Cambodia actually! Great suggestion - thank you both.

Tarantula or snake @Holidayqueen1 ?? 😱 I'm not sure we are that adventurous. Did they taste like chicken?

Did you only do KL in Malaysia? We recently did a multi centre trip to Malaysia, staying in KL, Penang and the Perhentian Islands. Was amazing for our 6 and 9 year olds.

Or Borneo?

Another vote for Borneo.
And Sri Lanka but not at the moment with political/economic instability.
Both good places for UK school summer hols weather-wise, and age wise for your kids.

@Teenytinyvoice Yes! We only did KL as it was rainy season when we were there and the kids were quite young at the time. I have been looking at Langkawi and Penang.

Sri Lanka is actually high on my list but I wouldn't risk it with the kids.

Borneo! That's a great idea - somewhere that I hadn't thought of either.

I was told that in Malaysia, the really nice beaches are on the east coast. For us, the extra day transiting to Perhentian really was worth it. Multi Center makes it harder to mix it up, in that you do 3 city days, 3 culture days and then 3 beach days back to back, but I loved the variety.