Inspiration for 3 week multi centre holiday (of a lifetime) in July

[Newmummypamela]

Help! Feeling overwhelmed with all the choice. am looking for some inspiration for an amazing 3 week trip in July this year - with a 13 & 16 year old. Weather needs to be hot with some variety to keep the children interested, although they do like chill time too. We were initially thinking Dubai>Singapore>Bali but not sure about July weather in Singapore.
Any advice or recommendations would be really appreciated.

Air Malaysia are doing a free stopover in Malaysia if you fly with them this summer (or they were), so you could do Malaysia (KL and one other), Bali and tag on Lombok. There is so much to explore within each of those, that could easily fill 3 weeks.

Indonesia more widely with Borneo, Komodo, and add another for luck, then Bali, would be my suggestion. My teens loved it.

We had a river boat in Tanjung Puting NP, and a liveaboard in Komodo. Excellent trip.

How about the US and Hawaii ?

Dubai will be crazy hot in July (45c plus) I would be looking at USA roadtrip (did this with my children at similar age) or Canada or even inter railing round Europe. Otherwise literally do a layover in Dubai (2 or 3 days max) and spend most of your time in SE Asia . Singapore is a nice city but very expensive and once the kids have done Sentosa/Universal Studios/Zoo and a city tour there is not a lot else there 4/5 days max I would say so you could look at doing another ( Malaysia / Borneo / Thailand/Vietnam/ Cambodia) as well as Bali

Thanks so much everyone - really appreciate these replies.

East coast USA and Hawaii

SE Asia would be really special and agree, the Malaysia stopover is appealing and great airline.

Singapore is hot all year round but with air conditioning in malls, taxis, public transport. 38C in Singapore is much more pleasant than in London!

if you’re considering Bali, you should go to Lombok and the Gili islands, which is absolutely beautiful. Or island hopping in Thailand, although the and Andaman is possibly a bit rainy in the summer..

Kuala Lumpur is a very cool city and amazing food, so much to see and do.

i would choose all of the above over Dubai, and your ££ will go further in SE Asia. But of course depends what you like doing.

Following if that's ok - we're thinking about Japan in July and looking for somewhere beachy to tag on but have no idea where.

We've got 3 weeks - we usually do a lazy 3 weeks AI in Turkey.

Japan is very hot and humid in the summer, lots of people go to Hokkaido for warm (not hot) weather and the hiking and scenery is meant to be amazing.

We went to Japan last May and went to Izu, we hired a car and drove down to Shimoda and stayed in an Airbnb, though there are hotels with pools, too. The scenery is very cool and beautiful beaches.

you could also consider flying to Okinawa for white sand beaches, water sports, resorts etc.

Just another thought - we get our variety by mixing nature, culture and beach. So our stops are moving around in a country (although we were going to do the Malaysia Bali option this summer). My kids are similar ages to yours and we had an amazing three weeks in Thailand a couple of years ago. They LOVED SE Asia. Three weeks goes fast 😊 I would also echo Dubai comment. I was in the region for work in June one year, which was ‘only’ 40 degrees. You could do nothing outside during the day. It would be a really limited experience to go there in July.

We did 3 weeks in USA last year LA - LAS VEGAS - PHOENIX - NYC
we had a brilliant time although it was very hot & expensive 🙂

Sri Lanka?

Vietnam and Cambodia.

Loving the replies - thank you! Dubai is now definitely off the cards for this trip.

I have 14/17 year old and we are doing Kuala Lumpur / Borneo & Singapore.

It's a mix of city, wildlife and beach.

Hi! I’m thinking of a similar trip, Kuala Lumpur - Komodo - gili & Lombok - Bali - Java and then trip to Kalimantan to Tanjung and back to Java to do yogya etc. can you share your experiences of any tours / tour companies / highlights? My kids will be 9 and 7

This was the cruise we did around Komodo. It was exceptional, and I felt safe and the hosts were incredible, some boats look top heavy and I’d be careful they were stable in the currents.
https://anandacruises.com

Make sure you have air con in the house boat at Tanjung, plenty had beds in the open but it was very buggy, and baking hot. So worth it though. Make sure you have binoculars as the orangutans play in the trees and you can watch them. Be prepared to sit for long periods. Water bottles and long sleeves, long trousers as it’s the jungle.

We climbed mount Batur at dawn and that was also amazing. An outreach project and a community cooking project in Bali, a cycle around the rice terraces was good but e-bikes might have been easier.

My one other comment would be, don’t waste time in KL! If you want to go as part of a bigger trip to Malaysia, great, but Indonesia is so amazing and varied, unless you’ve got time to burn, spend the trip there

Ty!! I’m checking out the cruise as I write!

ive been told the klotok in Tanjung can get very buggy, and with kids, well especially one that gets bitten a lot am leaning towards sandakan instead.

kl is just a stop over as we fly into there, but agree the track beauty is out in the wildlife!

We've just finished our three week trip - it was amazing!! Best holiday we've ever had. We ended up doing 8 days in Bali (6 of those in Seminyak & 2 in Ubud, wish we'd stayed longer), 5 days in Singapore and 7 days in Koh Samui Thailand. The kids were blown away by all the trips and scenery. We'd honeymooned In Koh Samui 20 years ago , so it was great to be there again for our big anniversary.

Would love to see other parts of Thailand - have already been to Bangkok & Thailand (didn't like either) and Hua Hin (quite nice).

@Newmummypamela I am currently sitting on the balcony in my Borneo rainforest lodge on our lifetime trip - looking for orangatangs.

Wow!!! What an amazing trip :) sounds blissful..thanks for sharing! We didn’t go to Asia this year due to moving house & other factors but will be planning an expedition in 2027 all being well. We are hoping to go Thailand in December of this year doing some island hoping from
phuket - Koh Libong Koh lipe & Koh Lanta as well as khao sok national park if you want inspo

This sounds amazing & my daughter in particular would be on cloud 9 with this!! She loves all things forest and was sad when we left Ubud. Have a wonderful trip.

Thanks so much for this - I have taken a note as we'd definitely love to do some island hopping! Happy travels.