South East Asia - summer 2025

[Radiatorvalves]

We are contemplating a big holiday next summer for me, DH and our sons (will be 18&20) in south east Asia.

Does anyone have any recommendations? We are thinking a couple of days in Singapore and maybe another city and then 2 other locations. One beachy place and one perhaps inland. We are all active and would want to do things not just sit on beach!

Budget is flexible and fairly generous but won’t extend to anything too flash!

Also mindful that the weather may be unpredictable in July….

Happy to book independently but if anyone has used a travel agent, interested to hear experiences.

Thanks!

SE Asia has a lot of options!

Re: travel agents, we've been using these guys for many years, they're really great and flexible e.g. we often book parts of our trip independently and they are fine with this: https://www.travelcounsellors.co.uk

Love the name @Kucinghitam!

Yes SE Asia has a whole load of options depending on what kind of activities you all like? Diving/surfing/hiking? Temples? Give us some hints and we can make some suggestions suitable for the time of year.

We priced up a trip to Bali and the Gili islands. Pretty expensive but it included private transfers which we really don't need. Also a couple of days in Singapore and Hong Kong. Came out at about 15,000.

July is supposed to be the best time to visit Bali for weather but busy as it's where the Aussies go then so we were told.

We are watching Race Across the World and they are travelling from Japan to Borneo. They have been through Cambodia and Vietnam, now in Thailand. Might be good inspiration for you!

Vietnam is much cheaper out of the apparently. A lot of those countries it is rainy season though. I think Koh Samui is ok for rain then.

We have ended up going to Canada though.

If you can go early July it's cheaper obviously because of school hols. If it's post A-levels for your 18 year old. We able to go a bit earlier because both our DC are doing exams.

We are going to Singapore and Central Vietnam early July - flights were about £4K for 4 and hotels I booked through booking dot com are about another £2k. We are going for about 13 nights.

Trailfinders priced it up for me to start with - they had a very poor choice of mid range hotels in crap locations and worked out £1k more!

Thanks all - some brilliant suggestions that I will work through. Early July is possible. Have been advised Borneo, central Vietnam and Indonesia are best weather wise… and thinking through that too.

Activities? A bit of culture would be great, but that should be peripheral to activities. We usually holiday in the alps, and the boys are very active… haven’t done diving (yet) but snorkeling, windsurfing, rafting etc would be good. Also keen to see animals.

Interesting to see the different experiences and recommendations re travel agencies. I called one up at the weekend and think they were more high end and bespoke than we need (said a Singapore/indonesia/HK combo would likely be £20-24k 😳).

All quite exciting!

We are looking at Borneo. 3 nights Kuala Lumpur, 5 nights wildlife based stuff and 3 nights beach at the end.

Coming in about 11-12k for 3.

£20K! <faints>

We have done Singapore/Malaysia, HK/Malaysia, etc, and never paid over £7-8K for the 4 of us and that would be for usually 3 weeks.

I guess Singapore and HK are very expensive destinations and even elsewhere in SE Asia the sky is the limit depending on your preferred accommodation!

For July, the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, and its associated islands, is also great weather-wise.

Have a look a stubborn mule travel. I think they tend to be more cost effective.

Indonesian Borneo and various other islands is a fantastic trip. I'm not sure I'd bother with KL if I was going to Indonesia, I'd want to spend the time there. A river boat in Borneo and perhaps another one in Komodo. I loved the snorkelling hiking, animals (orangutans are amazing animals). You have volcanos you can climb, beaches, wildlife, culture and adventures. Amazing location.

We did travel with Steppes and it was pretty pricey. I think hotel options do heavily influence the cost. We also did quite a few flights.