Japan & where?

[Sockmate123]

Hoping to book Japan for next April, 2 kids 12 & 9, myself and DH. Want to combine with a chilled beach style holiday after the business if Tokyo etc

Any suggestions?

If you want beautiful beaches, you should look at Okinawa - I think it's about a 3-hour flight, but unsure of the weather that time of year. Absolutely beautiful, especially if you venture off the main island/hire a car.

Other beach destinations are Izu peninsula which is south of Tokyo - you can access it by train, but best to hire a car and then you can drive along the coastline and visit the various different coves and beaches. It's really beautiful and more relaxed than the major cities.

There is also the southern most island - lots of beaches to see there, many of which have black sand (I think!).

How long are you going for in total? I’d personally just stick to Japan. You can always fly down to Okinawa for beaches. Japan is amazing and there’s far more to the country than Tokyo. I’d spend as much time exploring Japan as you possibly can.

south korea

I can’t imagine doing a beach holiday in South Korea in April. It will be a lot colder there than in southern Japan.

Probably 3 weeks or a little over. I suppose going so far I was hoping for the kids to visit more than one country....

Maybe I misread the original! You could fly down to anywhere in SE Asia - weather permitting, how about Thailand or Vietnam (Da Nang?) - if you want to experience another country.

I don’t necessarily think it’s a wild notion, if you don’t want to explore more of Japan or it’s not a ‘once in a lifetime’ type hol! I agree with others though, plenty to see and do in Japan for three weeks…and more.

You could look at flying into Bangkok and then transit to Tokyo, then back to Thailand for second leg. You can get good deals for flights like this as well, as the main airline country want to get tourists through.

@Sockmate123

You could easily spend 3 weeks in Japan and barely scratch the surface of what it has to offer, so you definitely wouldn’t run out of things to do there. However, if you’re specifically wanting to visit more than one country then I personally loved Taiwan.

Oh I never thought of Taiwan! That's an excellent suggestion! Thank you. Yes I know 3 weeks isn't a massive amount of time but I suppose you wouldn't see most of UK or Ireland in that time either, we just want to see some of it 🥰

Thailand was one I was thinking of. Vietnam I heard is beautiful. Thank you for your reply 😊

Definitely Thailand or Vietnam especially if you can get flights via there to Japan (though will still involve another flight to get to nice beach spots as there are none near Bangkok/Hanoi/HCM). If flying directly to Japan, another option is Saipan or Guam - quite random but these are very popular beach destinations for Japanese and there are loads of cheap flights and packages from Tokyo (3-4 hour flight). Great if you just want to chill and not that interested in cultural activities etc for that part of the holiday or if you dive/snorkel. Okinawa is beautiful but will be too cold that time of the year to swim, same for Taiwan or South Korea beaches. Philippines (Palawan or Cebu) is another option, there are direct flights from Tokyo.