Help deciding holiday with teens - go East or West?

[KatherineRS]

Very lucky to have this decision to make I realise!
We want to go a bit further afield for our summer holiday next year with two teens (15,14). Contemplating Indonesia (maybe Lombok, Bali etc) via Singapore or if we go west, a road trip round California. The flights to go east are more expensive but I think (unless I’m wrong?) we’ll spend less once there and a lot of our days will be beach/pool based as well as sight seeing. The flights to California are cheaper but I think food, accommodation will be far more expensive plus we’ll be in towns/cities a bit more with more opportunities to spend.

I’d love other suggestions - the weather has ruled out Thailand, Vietnam etc which would have been another option.

Would you go east or west, and which do you think would work out more cheaply?

I think Asia will work out cheaper. You can stay in really nice hotels for a lot less in Asia than in the US, and you can eat fabulous food very cheaply. The US is very expensive atm.

I did Cali with the teens in 22 and the Florida last year. I'd say Florida is slightly cheaper. Both holidays came in at around 12k (mainly due to 4 nights at universal studios)

@jeaux90 what did you in Florida please? It’s never appealed for some reason! None of us are interested in theme parks. Would you recommend it?

@ladybirdsanchez yes I agree. I also think I’d rather somewhere culturally different rather than the states, particularly as we were in Canada recently.

Florida is just so hot and humid in the summer, I’d give it a miss. I’ve been many times, and there is much more than parks, but it’s not a patch on Indonesia in my opinion.

Komodo, Borneo, Bali, Flores, are just amazing. Florida is also eye wateringly expensive.

I found Bali quite boring

We climbed a volcano, visited hot springs, did a cookery course in a local village having shopped at the market, went to a local
house, cycled around the world heritage paddy fields.

We stayed in Ubud, but only 5 days after travelling in other areas of Indonesia.

What did you do?

We did most of that but compared to Borneo, Vietnam , thailand and Cambodia….I thought Bali was meh …..especially Ubud…. All those fucking monkeys

East, 100%.

How about Japan?

Ah we didn’t go to the monkey forest, it has a bad rep. Ubud was the only part of Bali we visited and we are clearly more easily entertained. Borneo is indeed amazing but I’d take Bali + wider Indonesia over Florida. You do know Bali isn’t a country, right? All the comparisons you make are to whole countries, against just one part of Indonesia's incredibly varied offering.

Japan was pretty pricey too when we went, but eat local and travel by train OP

Japan is very hot and humid in the summer - it's not a good time to visit. Plus, it's really expensive. Indonesia is a lot more tempting.

I’ve been to Bali before actually, pre kids, and did some of the best snorkelling and diving of my life. That’s a huge draw for me going back with my kids who will love that side of it. Having said that, I think they’d be more excited in theory by going to America for the first time, but once there it sounds like I’ll be stressing about money the whole time which will not make for a great holiday!

Thanks so much for all your advice.

@Kitkat1523 Thailand would be my dream as I feel safe there and would love to travel around reliving my youth with my kids (only half joking) but the weather just isn’t reliable enough in the summer.

Komodo National Park was amazing for snorkelling. I agree some of the best I've ever seen.

I’ve just been having a look on Booking.com as if we were going this summer and pricing up accommodation and wow, that has decided it - such a big difference if we go east. Also, if we ‘rough’ it for half the time we can then splurge on amazing places for the other half! Also I think we will spend so much less during the day as so many of the places have pools or beach access which will occupy my kids for free. I’m getting excited! Thanks again for all your replies.

Accommodation in Bali has gone up a lot since COVID but is still cheap compared to other places with the kind of impeccable service in high end hotels you only ever seem to get in Asia these days and good food is SO cheap. You might want to go to the islands, if you went to the Gillis you could also get the boat over to Lombok for a few days. Otherwise you could get the ferry to Nusa Lembongan or Nusa Penida from Sanur (short trip) and the snorkeling there is good. Lovina and Amed in the North are much less developed than the South although I still think Seminyak is worth it for a few days for the restaurants. Avoid Canngu, full of Insta posers and shocking traffic. We go again for a month in August and I can’t wait.