April SE Asia trip - where?

[Moretwirlsandswirls]

We’re planning to meet my 18 year old son and friend on their gap year as they travel back from working in Australia.

We have 2-2.5 weeks at the beginning of April. We think they’ll have finished their Aussie leg and Bali/Lombok too. So after that?

We’re not booking anything yet as it’s really up to them but I’m looking for ideas.

We’re pretty adventurous and happy to rough it if 5 star it for the best experience.

Any ideas would be amazing! Thanks.

How about New Guinea?...Fly into Makassar from Denpasar-thats the Eastern Indonesian hub for West Papua.You could fly to Merauke and enter the huge Wasar national park there to see New Guinean wildlife such as Cassowaries and tree Kangaroos.Then local plane to Wamena in the Highlands to see mountain life in an equatorial tundra.Then onto Jayapura where you can visit Wewak in PNG and cruise on the Sepik river.
Afterwards re-enter West Papua and fly to Sorong for visiting Ampat Raja for the diving and such.Some of those places do have decent hotels available.Almost all of those places can be reached on the low cost airlines apart from Wamena which isn't t that dear and can be booked in Merauke at the airport as tickets aren't t sold online.

That sounds interesting! I’m kind of hoping to be UK side of Bali just because of time constraints. But I’ll take a look - thanks!

Phuket, (or Krabi) in Thailand, or further down the west coast and perhaps Langkawi, Malaysia and perhaps Penang.

Or you could go to Singapore and after a few days take the sleeper train up through Malaysia and finish in Bangkok (or vice versa).

The Monsoon season doesn’t start there until May.

Maybe take a look at www.intrepidtravel.com for ideas (flights not included unless specified).

Vietnam
super cheap once you're there

Vietnam. April is perfect time to go as it is good weather from North to South. We went last April and it was the best holiday ever.

If you don't fancy that, then other options are Thailand (but I would have thought they would have already visited on a gap year and it will be hot hot hot in April), or Borneo - mixture of beach and nature. Perhaps could combine with a few days in KL?

@Roaminginthegloaming thanks . I love the idea of the train. We’ve already been to Thailand and Malaysia (I should have said that in my OP)

@Verite1 and @ramonaquimby Vietnam sounds perfect. Any highlights? Thanks.🙏

@Moretwirlsandswirls

I thought I’d suggested Vietnam too but on re-reading my previous post I’d omitted it.

We did an 11 day Vietnam 🇻🇳 Express tour from north to south with Intrepid Travel in March 2024, starting in Hanoi and ending in Ho Chi Minh City.

We had a wonderful time: the trip included a night on a houseboat in Ha Long Bay, then an overnight train (bunk beds - very hard!) heading south. Lots of temples, a wonderful day as pillion passengers on motorcycles going through town and countryside, an afternoon as single passengers in Tri-shaws.

We had a domestic flight too, and two days in beautiful Hoi Ann, a small (very touristy) city on the Mekong with thousands of colorful silk/paper lanterns lit up around the town, riverside and on the boats. Our trip included a day out to an island on the Mekong and a journey on a long boat (kayak) through the mangroves.

My best and fondest memory of Hoi An though was when four of us in our group rented bicycles (arranged by our tour leader as it was an optional activity) for half a day and our guide took us through the countryside lanes next to the paddy fields, along the riverside and to the homes of a couple of the locals: one really lovely, hospitable man made rice wine of various strengths (which we tasted) and then he entertained us in his living room by playing his guitar and singing a song.

It was about his friend and fellow soldier who was killed by a landmine in Cambodia. He wore a prosthetic leg as he too was injured by a landmine. He had pictures on his walls of Uncle Ho (Chi Minh) and a certificate of his Party membership.

Afterwards we went along the lane to watch and participate in having a go at making a woven mattress at a lovely lady’s home. We then continued to a village eating house (cafe) where we had a go at making rice noodles- then eating them - for lunch. It really was a brilliant experience.

The trip ended in HCMC after visiting the Cu Chi Tunels (husband had a go at shooting an AK-47 gun - extra charge) but we stayed on for another couple of days in a very posh hotel with a rooftop pool. We really enjoyed visiting the old Presidential Palace and the War Remnants Museum was very somber and thought provoking to see the horrors of the effects of Agent Orange and birth defects.

There is no way we could have done this trip on our own due to language and time constraints and we had a packed schedule. There are other tour companies offering trips in the region, but our Aussie friends recommended Intrepid and we couldn’t fault them: indeed we’ve just been on a wonderful safari in Botswana with Intrepid. :)

We had 2 weeks and organised everything ourselves. I disagree about language constraints , pretty much everyone speaks pretty good English, and lots was organised online.
Have a google or use AI if you're not worried about your carbon footprint to suggest your itinerary!
We flew into Hanoi then internal flights to DaNang and later onto HCM and flew home from there.
you can't fit everything in a 2 week period, so just do your favourites. We also had several days relaxing on a beach. Have fun, we loved it

@Roaminginthegloaming wow, thanks so much! That sounds amazing. I think I’ll try and replicate some of that. I have seen intrepid before. I’ll definitely bear them in mind. I don’t think we’d do an organised thing as we’ll be with my son but hopefully I can get some tips from their site. I really appreciate all the time you took typing that out! Thank you.

Thanks so much, that’s reassuring! I always plan our trips so we are pretty confident doing our own thing. It may be that we can do a couple of tours locally, like the cycling trip or the cooking trip. I think the boat sounds cool too. Thanks very much.

We spent 15 nights there and I organised it all myself. Used an internal travel agent in Vietnam to book an overnight trip in Halong bay but did the rest myself. It was waaaaay cheaper than booking through an agent. I had so many highlights - it would be easier to say what wasn't! We loved Hanoi, Hoi An, Danang and Halong Bay (even though very touristy). Only place we were not as keen on was Ho Chi Minh but it was incredibly hot and right at the end of the holiday so we were flagging. I would have liked to have gone to Nimh Binh and Sapa but didn't have time for everything and as I was with my kids needed to balance stuff for me with stuff for them. It was an amazing place though.