Five week Asia itinerary suggestions for summer school holidays

[Happytraveller24]

Looking for potential itineraries for spending five weeks over this summer break in Asia. From mid-July to mid-August. Original plan was to spend one week in place beginning with KL Malaysia, then Bangkok, Ho Chi Min Vietnam, South Korean and ending in Tokyo.
Any recommendations on places or order of countries welcome.

I don’t think the order of countries matters that much (unless you’re trying to hit the most desirable weather in each of them), but I would try to see a mixture of cities and nature if you’re going to that part of the world.

1 week in KL is probably too much - I’d do 2 nights there, then 4/5 in Borneo, for example. One week in Ho Chi Minh? Unless you’re set on the Mekong Delta, I’d skip the south and go to the northern or central part of the country for more nature and cultural sights. Tokyo is probably the only place I’d be happy to spend an extended time in.

I wouldn't do a week in Bangkok. I did 6 days there, & it was too long.

And also a week in HCMC is too long. Vietnam is a fascinating country, we spent 3 weeks touring Vietnam & Cambodia recently, starting with Hanoi & going to Saigon was about 7/8 days.

I’d add Borneo - we went in the summer and was great.

I think It's rainy season in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. Check the weather.

If you only have a week in Vietnam I personally wouldn't spend it in HCMC (as much as I enjoyed it there) - if it was me I'd split it between Hue and Hoi An (as they are very close together and easy to travel between and fly in/out of Hue/Da Nang at the start and end of the week). It's also dry season then in central Vietnam.

How about including Siem Reap to spend a few days seeing the many sights around Anchor Wat?

I absolutely love that part of the world - I'm sure you'll have a great time wherever you choose!

You need to look at the weather and plan around that.

I'd focus on Indonesia only. Theres more than enough islands for lots of cities, history, islands, beaches, wildlife. Weather good.

It might be worth adding Singapore to your trip (and pairing with KL, probably two nights each). I also recommend Borneo. South Korea, you need three nights if you are just staying in Seoul. You could head down to Busan and take a short flight from there to Osaka. Then travel from Osaka to Kyoto and then on to Tokyo. That is likely a good place to fly back from.

I’d add Singapore. It’s rainy season on west coast Malaysia but not on the east so I’d focus on that side, including Borneo. Many parts of Thailand will also be rainy but again focus on the east for better weather.

East coast Malaysia and KL
Singapore
Borneo
Java
Lombok & Gili islands

It’s good weather in these areas and rainy and/or very hot and humid in (most of) the rest of Asia.

Trying to cover a bigger selection of countries would also feel like you barely scratched the surface of each IMO and would mean a lot more flying.

What is your rough plan in South Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh city) for a week?

I would do (in no particular order)

indonesia
Malaysia
Thailand
Vietnam
Singapore

and end with 5 days in the Maldives to rest

one week is too long in KL imo, Borneo would be my choice.
central Vietnam is dry at that time, but very hot, so I would choose Hoi an and Hue over HCMC.
Bali is dry then too - Ubud is fabulous.
i love South Korea: Seoul and Gyeongju are my favourite places, not keen on Busan.

Honestly, I think what you’re proposing, four countries and the places, sounds pretty damn miserable. And I say this as someone who’s done a lot SE Asia Travel.

July August is a notoriously terrible time for Japan. Oppressive heat for when you’re doing a lot of the wandering around and looking that you do in Japan. Having said that, I would trade my right arm to have five weeks just to go round Japan, take it slowly and take the train from place to place. You could tag on a trip to somewhere like Palau.

Personally, I would do something like the following:

• Starting Singapore travel over land optimum Malaysia, stopping at the Tioman islands, a couple of nights at most in KL (super dull city), up through Thailand, with possibly a stop in somewhere like Samui, Bangkok, and then if you go anywhere else go to Northern Thailand, or somewhere like Laos (Luang Prabang) and Cambodia (Siam Reap & Pnom Penh)
• You could do a leisurely Travel through vietnam over 2 to 3 weeks, have a good weekend somewhere like Danang for a beach stop, again properly visiting places along the way and then combine it with Cambodia as above

bottom line is I wouldn’t do the city to city and country country travel you’re proposing and I’d probably stick in a country or two and do more overland as then you’ll get more of a leisurely pace of life and interesting things to see

You could very easily do Indonesia for five weeks alone. Do something like flight to Bali, visit Lombok (which has always been much nicer than Bali), boat trip along the spice Islands through to Komodo and Flores, see the Komodo dragons. That alone is a good 3 to 4 weeks if done in a really nice relaxing way. Plus, you would see the most superb corals and marine life. It depends on your interests.

I’m just really strongly of the view that to have that amount of time allows you to go into the interior of some of these countries. Whereas if you do five countries, you’ll just see these main cities that are hubs and not necessarily always that interesting.

Second doing one of the suggestions by curious79. Narrow down your list countries and see more than just the major cities. I have travelled a lot in Asia, and I lived in Japan for a while but we did 72 hours in Tokyo last August and it's so very very hot. We were in Australia and coming home to the UK and so that's why we went in August, but with so many other places with better weather for sightseeing at that time of year I would stay away.

PPs make good points, I would probably fly into KL, 3 days there and then do Tioman island (give yourself enough time for the ferries) and then across to Borneo. Alternatively you could do Perhentian Islands which IMO are nicer than Tioman but less accessible. After Borneo, I'd do Singapore (3-4 days) and then fly to Bali and do Lombok, Gili islands, Komodo if you have time. You could then fly back to KL for the flight home. There may be a more efficient/cost effective order to do this but those are the main places I'd include. You get some city time in KL and Singapore. Rainforest in Borneo. Beaches in Tioman/Perhentian and Bali/Lombok.

Thank you all for so many great suggestions! I’m going to map it out over the week and post a final itinerary. In a very fortunate position to have these five weeks over the summer and want to make the best of the time we have.

I can’t help with the overall plan but if you end up going to South Korea I would absolutely recommend Busan over Seoul. Depending on what you enjoy, it is less crowded and there’s still loads to see and do.

Your main problem is the weather. Very hot and humid with typhoon risk in many of your places.

I guess there are two responses: either embrace it and make it mostly a beach holiday, or try to do slightly cooler places like Hokkaido and Lijiang.

We’ve literally just come back from the area. We had five nights in HCMC and that was plenty, even doing days at a relaxed pace for the heat.

if you can get yourself to Ha Long Bay, do a 2 night cruise. The majority are one night, it’s worth finding a 2 night one. We had a few nights in Hanoi too.

Another vote for Siem Reap. It’s definitely worth the trip.

Why would you do that? You'd be spending so much of your time just flying from place to place and only in citiies basically. Choose one country, maybe two at most and slow down a bit. These are all big countries.
You shoudl note that July-August is rainy season in much of Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam and hot and humid and rainy in Korea and Japan too. Funnily enough, islands in Gulf of Thailand (Koh Samui, Tao and Phangan) have their own mini climate and it's not rainy there.

Decide what you want. Cities? Beaches? Culture? Mountains? And go from there.

The idea of Singapore and then going to Indonesia is a very good one given the weather.

With five weeks, I’d plan one or two countries.

And be guided by the weather.

At the moment your plan will give you a week each in five different countries - but it looks like it’s all focussed on cities (although you don’t say where you want to go in South Korea).

In hot and humid weather than doesn’t sound like much fun and I think you’re at risk of just seeing a very small aspect of each country. Why not combine some city stays with countryside?

You could easily have a much more balanced itinerary between relaxed beaches or mountain stays and smaller cities as well as one or two big cities if you enjoy them.

A lot of the best bits of the countries you want to visit aren’t the cities you’ve mentioned. I wouldn’t go all the way to Thailand and not leave Bangkok, I’d want to scuba dive or snorkel and see some of the limestone cast mountains, and temples. Likewise I wouldn’t go to Japan and just stay in Tokyo (great as it is) - I’d want a visit to the Alps and a stay in a hot springs town and at least some time in one of the historical towns/cities.

It sounds like you might need to try and tick off less countries and just explore one or two in more depth.

It will be 40°+ in most of Japan in August (its already 30°) and the humidity will be at 100% so unpleasant unless you plan to be inside in air conditioned comfort.

i wouldn’t spend all my time in cities. You could fly in, spend a night or two there, then explore somewhere of the country. Maybe cut it down to 3 countries instead. Also, I would visit north and/or central Vietnam instead. HCMC was our least favourite place in Vietnam and it will be roasting as well.