S or SE Asia in summer holidays but not rainy

[bennybannsider]

I would like to take my family to South or South East Asia during the school summer holidays next year. So from 1st July onwards, but we will need to be home for GCSE results day. We don't have a particular country in mind, as happy to revisit places the adults have been or to go to a new place together. But...this is the main problem....with being tied to school holidays I can't work out if there's anywhere we can go that isn't going to be constant rain. We are ok with it being very hot, but a fortnight of sightseeing and walks in the lashing rain, even warm rain, is not tempting.

Any tips on where I could look?

I lived in SE Asia for years. Typically it will rain very heavily for a couple of hours and then be back to dry again. You'll know when it's going to rain as about ten mins before it'll get windy. I wouldn't let the rain put you off, it's not an issue (unless you're going rural when roads will get washed away).

From memory parts of Malaysia are good in July.

I also went to India in August and although technically rainy season it wasn't consta t rain at all. Far from it in fact. Odd summer shower or storm but nothing significant.

Sri Lanka is a great option in July. Half of it will be in the dry season then but even in the SW which will be in the rainy season it usually isn’t constantly raining,

Thanks all. That's good to know about the rain being quick.

Sri Lanka is one of our main choices.

We have never been to India and know very little about it so it feels too "big" to go to for a fortnight holiday.

I was in Lombok, Indonesia for the first half of August this year and we had not a drop of rain the whole time. I obviously can't say if that's usual, but the weather was glorious - hot and windy so never felt too hot. We spent 2 x 2 days in Singapore either end of the Lombok trip and it absolutely threw it down with massive storms for hours of each day.

Indonesia
Borneo
East Coast Malaysia
Sri Lanka North and east coasts

These places are tropical and may have some thunderstorms but it is their drier season and should be mostly dry and sunny

Gulf islands of Thailand are not bad
Central coast of Vietnam should usually be hot and dry but has had storms this year
Rajasthan area of India will be hot and humid but not too wet - it’s monsoon season but it’s a very dry area of the country

Japan and Korea will be very hot, not sure about rain

We went to Malaysia in July -east coast was totally dry, west coast we had some crazy downpours and thunderstorms but they didn’t last long and didn’t spoil our trip or affect what we were doing at all.

was v hot though!

Don’t go to HK- rains a lot ( and can be all day for days on end) and is increasingly prone to typhoons in July/ August.

We're thinking Sri Lanka for next summer @bennybannsider also GCSE year but have a tighter window as youngest won't finish school until 20th July.

The north is not monsoonal at that time of year. I've never been to that part as last time I was there the war meant you couldn't travel north, but hear it's lovely.

I think Bali is also ok at that time of year and central to South Vietnam. Friends just got back from Cambodia and they didn't have much rain.

July is peak dry season in Indonesia - you shouldn't see much if any rain.

It can get very hot in the middle of the day, but gets a nice temp in the mornings / evenings during July as this is 'windy' season and the winds keep thing cool.

We used to live in China and following areas are dry then: Bali, Java, Malaysian Borneo, Central Vietnam, Brunei
we have also been to Phuket in the summer and had only one day of rain and generally decent weather in Laos, Hanoi and Bangkok