Inspire me for October - adventure and beach without breaking the bank.

[Eightytwenty]

Inspire me!

2 weeks October (10-25th). Adults and teen or teens.

Fly from Scotland.

Ideal destinations - Vietnam, Sri Lanka or Jordan. But budget for above closer to 10k than 5k which is where I’d like to land.

Ideally would have a combo of beach (diving if possible), history, culture or scenery. Would prefer it to feel like an adventure than a package holiday.

@Eightytwenty with regard ME transfers, Dubai is ok now - foreign office advisory updated. I haven't checked other hub counties.
Our travel insurance (Coop) was still going to cover us for everything but the layover even when it was all but essential travel.
Agree with above about Sri Lanka. Our trip was 6 years ago now, but accomodation for 4 was around £30 a night. Food super cheap. On top of flights it cost us about £1500 (no driver, used trains and buses). Awesome country.

We had originally booked for March with Emirates but had to pull out when war kicked off. This time we booked direct flights with Sri Lankan which I would recommend for avoiding any war issues and quick. I initially book everything free cancellation, no prepayment and then as date gets closer shift to a lower cost rate when it's certain holiday will go ahead. This meant we got all money refunded in March, insurance won't refund if war kicks off again.

I think we have paid 2000 for 2 here excluding flights, insurance and heathrow parking but could easily have cut it to 1,500 and adding another person wouldn't have added that much depending on how you do things, nothing for car, entrance fee for safari but not vehicle then if share very little extra, maybe 10 pounds a night. Our driver provided water each trip and also sometimes fresh fruit cut in front of you and local sweets. You can also do transfers for some and some public transport though transfers work better with fewer stops and to see Sri Lanka moving every couple of nights works well unless you can stay longer than 2 weeks.

Malaysia- Kuala Lumpur, Penang, langkawi and then 2 nights in Singapore before Borneo.

Flights to KL are a bit cheaper. Only been once - was stuck for 24h trying to get home on airline industry discount tickets.