£10k and want to see more of the world? Where would you go?

[ForSaleChesterDraws]

Trying to think of a multi centre family holiday (couple of cities and a beach) with DH and 12 yo son in the summer holidays. Had thought about Japan, but alas, £10k isn’t enough. DH and I did Thai island hopping in our 20s, so would like to try somewhere else. We had wondered if we could do Vietnam on our budget, staying midrange hotels with air con.

@Takoneko that bus looks fabulous.

When I was backpacking in Asia, the locals called the night buses "flying coffins"

I’m not sure how many families actually want a backpacking style holiday. We never did with teens. We liked a fairly easy life without sleeping on buses. Bullet trains- that’s far better!

@TizerorFizz

No when I went to Iceland from the UK it was my most expensive holiday. It's really expensive to get around, eat, etc

I didn't know about the Russian airspace restriction though. We don't really follow any of the wars over this way so yeah, new info for me

You can do the bullet train for less money, so I’m not really sure it massively changes the cost of the holiday one way or another. £10k for three people is perfectly doable for Japan for two weeks in the summer holidays with bullet train tickets if that’s how you preferred to travel. A nozomi bullet train (the fastest type) is less than £80 per person between Osaka and Tokyo.

@kiwiaddict Not sure how you travelled but hiring a car is normal in Iceland. Norway is more expensive.

Malaysia - KL, Penang, langawi then Singapore.
Easily doable under 10k for 3.

I’m a big fan of Japan but it will be tight to do it for a family on 10k- having done the overnight bus, I’d not do it again. And I would never go to Japan in the summer holidays. Easter perhaps.

i’d do some kind of south east Asia trip, either Malaysia or Vietnam plus Singapore. Singapore is quite expensive but the others are cheap once there.

Iceland is another must-do I think, but obvs not a warm destination, usually

@Clearinguptheclutter why would you never do Japan in the summer holidays?

I lived near Tokyo for just under 2 years. Weather in July and August was horrid- very little sun and so unbelievably humid that it was like wandering round in a thick soup all day.

Any other season is great for visiting Japan. Winter is very often sunny with less grey/rainy days than here. Autumn and Spring nice too.

We did Borneo & Singapore the summer just gone for 3 weeks. It did cost us more like £15k but we are a family of 4 & did pretty much 4 & 5 star all the way. Had a fabulous time travelling to several locations in Borneo including staying in the rainforest with local tribes where we spotted orangutan.

We went in July, weather was hot and humid and had some crazy rain but still loved it (also been in spring and autumn, possibly preferable, but we had NZ school holidays and sumo as restrictions!)

Can I ask where you got your price for Japan from? We plan to go in the next couple of years and are spending less than £10k for four of us. Did you just get a package price?

Agree Singapore is fantastic use air Asia for flight to different parts of SE Asia if you do decide that part of the world

@tenbob where did you see cheap flights to Sri Lanka,? I've been tracking them for months and they haven't gone much under £900 pp.

@ForSaleChesterDraws We did a cheap trip to Vietnam in 2022 flying on Bamboo air which was basic but flights were around £500pp.

Once there we stayed in some lovely places for Around £100 a night and could have gone cheaper and still been in nice places. The food is also incredible and very cheap.

I didn’t say they were cheap, I said they were reasonable!

for OPs trip, even flights at £900pp return still leaves a healthy amount of budget that will go a long way in Sri Lanka

Might be cheaper going with one of the Middle Eastern airlines than direct with Sri Lankan airlines?

The five of us had a very reasonably priced 16 days in Sri Lanka last August & if you give Blue Lanka Tours your budget they will give you a driver and itinerary. We had a phenomenal time that I’d highly recommend. We’ve toured South Africa, Costa Rica, quite a bit of the states, Australia but Sri Lanka was incredibly good value.

Costa Rica or Vietnam are both amazing

I would do India. It's epic. Cheap to travel around, cheap hotels, amazing culture. And it's like travelling to hundreds of different countries within one country as each region is so different. You could fly into a Delhi and out of Mumbai (or vice versa). Go up north to the mountains, golden triangle, inland, goa etc.

Or do Cambodia and Vietnam.

Or Sri Lanka is fabulous and very family friendly.

Ah ok my budget is less than £10k. I've been to Sri Lanka several times and never paid anything like as much as I'm seeing now for flights. We seen to be in an era of expensive flights.

I'm just reluctant to spend £3-4k before we start!

Flights have gone up a lot. It’s fuel costs and general wage inflation. I cannot imagine how 4 people could go to Japan for £10,000. I really would save more and do the travel comfortably so you actually are not exhausted by it. Obviously the uk summer school holidays are hot and humid in Japan. Also the earlier itinerary misses out some fantastic things and places that many people want to see.

@TizerorFizz we are a family of 3, not 4. Timescales are affected by health as are planning this trip whilst still well enough to have adventures. I am fine with midrange 3-4* hotels and train travel, it doesn’t need to be all luxury.

I was responding to another poster and the idea of going to Japan at the worst time of year. I agree with @Clearinguptheclutter Just because something appears good value, it can be unpleasant when you get there. Your budget is not anywhere near luxury. It would be three stars but there are inns.

I also think a lot of people who quote prices are going for very basic holidays. Backpacking plus! So I would be careful about non direct flights, taking time out to sit in airports, staying in places you wish you hadn’t and going at the worst possible time. There are places you can go long haul on a budget but some countries don’t lend themselves to this. Others do. It’s usually where wages are low!

@TizerorFizz

It’s fine that you decided that Japan was a location to splash out and go luxury, but the OP didn’t say she was looking for luxury, she said mid-range hotels and somewhere new and said she’d ruled out Japan on cost. I was just responding to that.

I personally think Japan (and the far east more generally) is a very good place to travel on a budget. Hotel prices are very competitive and the hotels that I’ve stayed in have always been scrupulously clean with helpful staff and decent amenities. The last time I was in Japan (admittedly years ago) I think we stayed in Monterey and Daiwa Roynet hotels. They were great for the price. In Hong Kong we booked Lanson Place for a great price and it felt very high-end considering how cheap it was. Nowhere have we ever felt like we were backpacking.

You have to shop around a bit, but Japan is full of very clean, pleasant hotels located right by transport links at very good prices. We are using different (but also mid range) hotels in April and don’t expect luxury, but we are confident the hotels will be spotlessly clean and modern with helpful staff.

For me, Japan is not a once-in-a-lifetime destination. We will probably go back every few years from now on. Next time we may fly business class as we won’t be with family, but I won’t be splurging on 5* hotels because mid-range in Japan is so good.

We also aren’t skimping on flights. We are actually paying more for the convenience of flying into Osaka and out of Tokyo to save a pointless cross country trip during our precious holiday time. There is no direct option for flying to Osaka from London and stopping in Helsinki gave us a more convenient flight time than stopping in Haneda.

My itinerary is clearly not for everyone, I know that. But where we have decided to spend our time has not meaningfully changed the cost. Most people won’t want to spend three days at theme parks, but if you took those out then you could do a Shinkansen and two nights in Hiroshima or Hakone without adding any significant cost, in fact you might save a bit as theme parks aren’t cheap. Likewise, you could swap Osaka for Kyoto without the price changing.

If I felt it was justified, I could easily afford to spend double what I have, I just don’t feel it’s necessary. For our next splurge it will be the flights we upgrade rather than the hotels.

You could do multi-centre out of Singapore or Bangkok easily for that budget, even including Japan. Air Asia flies direct from Bangkok to Japan (as well as places like Hanoi, Hong Kong, KL, Siem Reap, etc) very cheaply, no more than 200 per person. The trick is to toggle your dates and where you fly into until you hit on one that is below the odds. Booking a round trip into Bangkok and then branching out from there is usually the cheapest option for us.

Luxury?? We didn’t go luxury! I wish. Well one hotel was but it was ryokans. Business hotels and one amazing little hotel in Kyoto. We prefer to have decent places to stay.