Malaysia, Indonesia or Fiji

Soldato
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Right, on the back of my Bora Bora thread a few days ago, it's sunk in that even if I can save enough money to go for 3 weeks, the sheer cost of flights will mean it'll be a stingy holiday which I don't want.

My girlfriend and I have had a good chat and decided that we either want to go to Malaysia, Indonesia or Fiji. Would like to hear from folks here who've been to any of these and your thoughts, both good on bad on these places.

We have a window from April to July next year and can go for 3 weeks. Our budget is around £3k but we can double that. We intend on spending the final week in a topend hotel and just chilling by a beautiful beach somewhere. We're happy to go budget accomodation for the first 2 weeks.

Initial thoughts are for Malaysia, all i've heard from people who've visited say it's got the beauty of thai beaches and islands but even better. I loved Thailand so this has caught my attention straight away. Indonesia seems to have a lot more culture than Malaysia in terms of temples and such to visit and to be honest, I don't know a great deal about Fiji, it just looks like heaven, but it's such a variety of islands I wouldn't know which part to go.

Flights wise it's about £450'ish each return for Indonesia, £600'ish each return for Malaysia and £1200'ish each return for Fiji, so this needs to be taken into consideration for the overall cost.

I've spent a lot of time around the lonely planet and trip advisor forums but each section is heavily biased to each country so just wanted to get a general feel from you folks here about where to go.

If anyone can recommend anywhere else, ideally a small tropical island similar to Maldives, Tahiti, Rarotonga, Phi Phi with warm seas and loads of coral reefs, would be open to suggestions as well.
 

mjt

mjt

Soldato
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fiji takes about 36 hours to get to (air nz, via lax and nz) door to door
so that allows for stopovers in both LA and NZ, but it's really really far and going via LA is hassle if you don't want to do a stopover..

if you go to indonesia/malaysia, there are plenty of different islands and adventures you can experience.

i'm going to malaysia in a few weeks actually. singapore, KL and then borneo.
i'd recommend it before i've been as there's so much to do, as you can easily go to indonesia from there.

depends what you want really. if you just want to lounge about on the beach, then the south pacific is probably the best bet. no idea if you can get from fiji to tahiti easily though. french polynesia sounds lovely.
don't forget that vietnam has some fantastic unspolied beaches too..
 
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Associate
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If you want to goto malaysia, much cheaper to fly to Singapore and work your way up.

There is the low cost "air asia" version of our easyjet/ryanair type airlines.
 
Associate
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Fiji is beautiful, words can't describe some of the islands. You are right there are hundreds to choose from. What you want to do is get a package tour which includes boats/accomodation & food on the islands. Or what I done was got a boat pass a chose my Islands myself. http://www.awesomefiji.com/

Looking at your budget you won't regret going to Fiji, if you want to spend all day on the beach, or snorkeling in some amazing waters then it's a great choice. There are some really good day trips as well. Don't expect high end hotels and meals on the islands, it's all basic, but the food is still great. You could spend some time in Fiji then elsewhere for your topend hotel as I wouldn't waste my time on the main island.
 

mjt

mjt

Soldato
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Yup...have found £376 each return from London Stansted to Kuala Lumpur in june :)

that seems rather a lot for air asia. could be because it's peak season though
i'm going to singapore with lufthansa next month for €399. although that was a special offer, book in june to travel in october..
 
Soldato
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Fiji is beautiful, words can't describe some of the islands. You are right there are hundreds to choose from. What you want to do is get a package tour which includes boats/accomodation & food on the islands. Or what I done was got a boat pass a chose my Islands myself. http://www.awesomefiji.com/

Those tours on that site are dirt cheap for what's included, definately considering Fiji again now, damn i'm so indecisive :D
 
Soldato
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I'm planning on going to Fiji around April time for a couple of months to do a lot of diving and to do some conservation work. I shall have to have a look at air asia and www.awesomefiji.com

Haha, some of awesomefiji's package names made me laugh:
A Great Pair
A Lazy Threesome
Tropical Awegasm
:D
 
Soldato
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ARGH...just looking at Fiji flights, found them for around £1200 per person, but was curious and I can fly to tahiti for £1120 each...soooo tempted!
 
Soldato
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I've also booked with awesomefiji. I was there for 2 weeks as part of my RTW trip. However I was on a serious budget. We stayed at one of the cheapest places (Kuata resort, Yasawas Islands) but it was fantastic. I was impressed with the company as well, good service and everything ran smoothly and cheaply. I think awesome Fiji is definitely aimed at the budget end of things though, although there a few more 'exclusive' islands that you can go with.

A lot of people do 'island hopping' through awesomefiji so you can experience a lot of different islands. That might be an idea if you're going for 3 weeks; spend 2 weeks island hopping around the Yasawas and in the last week go somewhere a bit more luxurious.
 
Soldato
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Fiji is beautiful, words can't describe some of the islands. You are right there are hundreds to choose from. What you want to do is get a package tour which includes boats/accomodation & food on the islands. Or what I done was got a boat pass a chose my Islands myself. http://www.awesomefiji.com/

Looking at your budget you won't regret going to Fiji, if you want to spend all day on the beach, or snorkeling in some amazing waters then it's a great choice. There are some really good day trips as well. Don't expect high end hotels and meals on the islands, it's all basic, but the food is still great. You could spend some time in Fiji then elsewhere for your topend hotel as I wouldn't waste my time on the main island.

Dont know about malasia or indonesia but I was in Fiji in January. Amazing. I went with awesome adventures and did this package

http://www.awesomefiji.com/longpack-tropical-awegasm.aspx with 2 extra nights. £550 for 2 weeks including all food and activities. The activities were amazing including a day on a yacht with free alcohol, cave trip, village trips, a hike, snorkelling with sharks (which you can do just by swimming out by yourself) I went fishing with the locals. Drinking kava with the locals. God i want to go back...

edit - seems to have gone up £100, go to sta travel and check out prices

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Here is a couple more, not the greatest but there more in my head than on my camera, more so because my battery died :(.

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Why can't I see the images?! ... There we go :D.
 
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They had a rugby tournament between the islands, the pitch lined with ash and goals of bamboo, was great to see. They then had all the tents and such setup for the support so was good to see all the people who lived on the islands cheering there teams on!
 
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Fiji is incredible! I went there as part of my RTW and its like nothing iv ever experienced before. Botaira was my favorite Yasawa by a country mile, we were in a dorm but got all food (and that was 3 course waiter service for lunch and dinner!) for about £20pppn.

The only problem however is that its an absolute mission. I went straight there and although not 36hrs like the guy said above, it took me about 26hrs i think so still a very long time.
Not sure i would fly that far for a 3 week holiday so my vote would be with Malaysia as its beautiful, cheap to get to and very cheap when u are out there even for luxury accomodation :)
 
Soldato
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I will echo the sentiment, Fiji is one of the finest places on the planet to chill out. However it is one hell of a long way for a three week holiday! You will be dead on your feet for the first few days after getting there and dead for weeks after getting back!
 
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