Summer Holiday Asia Plans... Help!

AdladUK

AdladUK

AdladUK

Associate
Joined
6 Jan 2007
Posts
1,509
Hi,

So last year we went for a month to Thailand. To cut a long story short we tried to fit WAY too much in. Bangkok (twice), Samui, Phangan, Lanta, Chiang Mai... Not to mention the stops on the way there in Istanbul.

This year I was hoping to reduce the traveling, or at least stay in 1 place for longer.

The plan was as follows...

Fly to Doha, stay for 2 or 3 nights, relax, go to some nice restaurants, maybe a desert tour.

From Doha fly direct to Male (Maldives). Stay 5 nights in a nice resort. This would be the luxury paradise part of the journey.

From Male fly direct to Singapore. I'm very excited about going to Singapore from everything I've heard. We would stay 4 or 5 nights here.

Now is the part I'm not sure about... I was thinking to fly direct from Singapore to Phuket (it's a short flight) and then stay in the Phuket region of Thailand for 2+ weeks and not travel all over the country again. I'm just not certain this would be a great idea though? I think there's a lot to explore in that region, but to be honest I've also heard Phuket is a dump and serious tourist trap and the time I spent in Lanta last year (close to Phuket) wasn't the best.

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated, thank you
 
If doing the Maldives do Sri Lanka in the way spend a couple if weeks touring the country seeing amazing things then chill for 10 days in the best maldives resort you can afford. Sri Lanka is fantastic so much culture and history and the Maldives is paradise I thought I'd no bored after a week but all I wanted to do was stay longer!
 
traveler89 said:
you can visit srilanka,india and bangladesh as well because these are very beautiful and tourist friendly country.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, but I'm trying to cut down the traveling from last year, not increase it :p

I'll look into Sri Lanka now as I've never thought about it before... But it would be a replacement to Thailand, as doing Thailand on top would just be far too much
 
I'd look at Malaysia over Singapore. We visited both for 3 weeks and have friends in Singapore and whilst Singapore is nice it's a) very expensive and b) limited as to what you can do bar looking at Colonial buildings. If you spend 5 nights in Malaysia instead using KL as a base you'll be able to stay in a pretty good hotel and do day trips to visit islands, rainforest etc as well as exploring KL itself. Hell you could even take a day trip to Singapore.

Just out of interest what have you heard about Singapore and why are you excited by it?
 
Having been to Singapore I cant honestly think of anything there to make it worth staying 4 or 5 nights :confused:
 
Same with Qatar. A whole day or two at most IMO, no need for 3 days! One day/afternoon to do the Doha and a day to do the desert. We struggled with 10 hours there in Doha itself.
 
Singapore was only good for one thing when I went there......

The first F1 race at night :)

They do have a cool water park we all ended up at too. No hotels though as was backpacking so stayed in Little India in a hostel. Good fun.
 
Russinating said:
I'd look at Malaysia over Singapore. We visited both for 3 weeks and have friends in Singapore and whilst Singapore is nice it's a) very expensive and b) limited as to what you can do bar looking at Colonial buildings. If you spend 5 nights in Malaysia instead using KL as a base you'll be able to stay in a pretty good hotel and do day trips to visit islands, rainforest etc as well as exploring KL itself. Hell you could even take a day trip to Singapore.

Just out of interest what have you heard about Singapore and why are you excited by it?
Click to expand...

Hey,

Thanks for the advice :)

Regarding Singapore it's just what I had heard from people who had been there and research I did on the place. It seems like a very clean, low crime city with nice architecture and a TON of cool restaurants and bars. I can understand how 5 days might be too much though... I wasn't trying to do a "holiday to Singapore", more like a city break before hitting Thailand or somewhere else.

This YT video makes it seem like a pretty awesome location though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwhWkJGGW5g
 
Amp34 said:
Same with Qatar. A whole day or two at most IMO, no need for 3 days! One day/afternoon to do the Doha and a day to do the desert. We struggled with 10 hours there in Doha itself.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think we'll cut Doha down to 2 days and Singapore to 3. Still though, I'm not sure where to spend the bulk of the holiday.

It's important we don't do too much. I know a lot of people on here will probably be fine seeing 15 different places in a month, but that's not what this holiday is about for us. We'd like to see some exotic places, but also have enough time to chill out and relax. If that makes sense :)
 
Would definitely recommend Malaysia. Take a look at Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Penang, Tioman, Taman Negara, Rawa. Lots of choice, can be city, beach, adventure, whatever. All pretty close together, cheap, friendly locals etc.

You'll still struggle to fill 3 worthwhile nights in Singapore tbh. What are you planning on doing there?
 
Russinating said:
Would definitely recommend Malaysia. Take a look at Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Penang, Tioman, Taman Negara, Rawa. Lots of choice, can be city, beach, adventure, whatever. All pretty close together, cheap, friendly locals etc.

You'll still struggle to fill 3 worthwhile nights in Singapore tbh. What are you planning on doing there?
Click to expand...

Thanks :)

I think what we'll do is stay 3 or 4 days in Malaysia on the way there. And then on the way back stay 2 or 3 days in Singapore. Covers both bases.

I didn't have a huge plan of things to do in Singapore... I just wanted a short city break in Asia and Singapore seemed like a cool place in a convenient location for the rest of the trip
 
It definitely seems that region of Malaysia/Singapore/Bali/Southern Thailand could offer a ton of adventure. It's just hard choosing where to go :)

Like I've said we do want to see some places (Doha, Maldives, Singapore), but we also want a good 2 weeks of the holiday where we can settle in 1 place, perhaps rent a villa. I was thinking the Phuket region for that, but maybe that's not the best option...
 
Anyway the holiday so far is as follows:

Fly into Doha and stay 2 nights
Fly direct to Male (Maldives) from Doha and stay 5 nights in a nice resort
From Male fly to Kuala Lumpur and stay 4 nights (explore the region a bit)

Then I'm stuck on where to go. Phuket region of Thailand for 2 weeks? Bali? Not sure.

Depending on that on the way home fly through Singapore, staying 2 days. And from Singapore fly direct back to Doha (stay a night to break the flight up) and then home
 
I'm guessing you want the week-in-one-place bit to be beach/relaxed? If so look at Redang, Penang, Tioman and Rawa for the Malaysia offerings. Vary in size (larger to smaller there) and amount to do.

Singapore is nice but it's almost nicer as a place to live than as a tourist to visit. Most of it is like any other city and although it has a few unique bits (like the zoo as mentioned) everything else such as Sentosa, Little India etc can be bettered in Malaysia. It also loves its Colonial British history (Raffles Hotel etc) which is probably great if you're Asian but it's a bit dull/home-from-home as a Brit.

Oh and why Doha over Dubai? Just asking, and sorry to ruin all your holiday plans :p.
 
Russinating said:
I'm guessing you want the week-in-one-place bit to be beach/relaxed? If so look at Redang, Penang, Tioman and Rawa for the Malaysia offerings. Vary in size (larger to smaller there) and amount to do.

Singapore is nice but it's almost nicer as a place to live than as a tourist to visit. Most of it is like any other city and although it has a few unique bits (like the zoo as mentioned) everything else such as Sentosa, Little India etc can be bettered in Malaysia. It also loves its Colonial British history (Raffles Hotel etc) which is probably great if you're Asian but it's a bit dull/home-from-home as a Brit.

Oh and why Doha over Dubai? Just asking, and sorry to ruin all your holiday plans :p.
Click to expand...

That's interesting that Malaysia offers so much, to be honest I wasn't aware :)

The 2 weeks in 1 place is indeed meant for relaxation. As mentioned last year we pretty much went all around Thailand. It was great and looking back I enjoyed it, but it was too much traveling and this year we're hoping to cut that down a bit but still experience an exotic holiday (if that makes sense).

So we'll do Kuala Lumpur and Singapore (on the way in and out respectively) as the city part of the holiday and then Maldives and somewhere else as the relaxation part. I think that's a nice balance.

Doha over Dubai because of the direct flight they have from where I live. I can fly direct to Doha in like 4 hours and then direct from Doha to Male in another 4. It's just an easier journey. Plus I've been to Dubai a couple of times already :)
 
Makes sense :). And yeah plenty to do in Malaysia. I know you want to stay put but I'd thoroughly recommend visiting Taman Negara if you can. A shortish coach journey from KL and then a 2 hour boat trip which in itself is great. Two nights there is enough to do an excursion trek, canopy walk, night time 4x4 safari and some white water rafting. Stay in Resort Mutiara, it's right on the river and is the best place, everywhere else is very basic and a bit gap yar. You won't regret it!

Some from our trip...

Boats to get there
d9geGS4.jpg


Resort chalet
TtqngY1.jpg


4x4 night safari, saw a wild slow loris
JUWmGal.jpg


Canopy walk
hsFVJqU.jpg


River swim!
Ae9dsiV.jpg


Huge trees!
OuACGOX.jpg


View from the resort across to the other side/rainforest
7sgToZo.jpg.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom