3 month Asia with our kids, 9 and 13 years old - sharing our trip for inspiration and suggestions
We are from Europe and will travel to Asia from the end of December to the end of March 2027. Our family: me, my wife and our two kids, 9 and 13 years old.
We discussed if we want and open travel plan, being able to adjust depending on the weather our mood or whatever, compared to having a planned trip enabling us to look forward to our journey, cities and places we will be visiting. We chose the latter (because it was tremendous fun to plan and will most likely enable us to enjoy being there instead of being there and having to spend time planning).
Anyways, now we have a plan, booked flights and places to stay (most of them with free cancellation). I am posting here in case it can help others planning their own trip, and in case you have suggestions for us on the trip overall, specific locations, great restaurants, or any other tips.
We used the app TripIt (only for free features) for keeping an automatic overview of our trip, and a good-old-excel-file to enter expenses and some other details.
We generally check several apps for flights and accommodation to find the best deals. Crazy how much the prices differ for exactly the same flight or stay!!
| Travel and accomomdation | what we’ll do; duration | prices in Euro (rough numbers) and where we booked |
|---|---|---|
| flight from Europe to Japan, Osaka | depart in the evening, arrive next day in the evening local time; 18 hours, one lay over | 2200 €; China Southern Airlines found vi flygresor.se app and booked on ticket.se |
| From Osaka airport, go straight to a private house in Kyoto | 9 days in Kyoto to adjust to the new time zone, celebrate new years, see the city and make some day trips | 1300 € for the house; found on airbnb |
| Take the train to Nikko and stay at Roost Hostel Nikko | just 1 night at the hostel. we need that stop to catch the bus to the national Park stay | 100 €; booking |
| Stay in the Nikko national park at Hatcho No Yu | 2 nights. Beautiful nature, warm, and quietness. | 730 €; I did not succeed to book via their own website (I think it only worked when having an address in Japan) and had to book via expedia |
| Take the bus and train to Tokyo. Stay at Grand Hostel LDK | 7 nights. experience the city and have time to do some schoolwork with the kids. | 800 €; agoda |
| Fly from Tokyo to Asahikawa on Hokkaido | 2 hours | 300 €; Japan Airlines |
| Skiing in Furano! Stay at Hotel Edel Warme; breakfast and dinner included. | 6 nights. we wanted to use this trip to experience Japanese powder snow. Furano seems to be the best combination of resort, affordable price | 2200 €; agoda |
| Fly from Sapporto to Seoul, South Korea | 3 hours | 1000 €; found on skyscanner |
| Stay in Seoul; Happy Garden Guethouse | 4 nights. maybe go concert, and definitely see the border to North Korea | 310 €; via booking |
| Fly from Seoul to Beijing | 3 hours | 400 €; found on skyscanner |
| Stay in Beijing; Base Beijing Wangfujing apartments | 5 nights. do the major sightseeing and have time for school work | 430 €; booking com |
| Take night train to ZhangJiaJie | 1 night. it’s a a four person compartment. | 300 €; found on 12trip |
| Stay in ZhangJiaJie; Zhangjiajie National Park Nvue Resort | 4 nights. i’m sure it’s more beautiful in spring or summer. but likely not as crowded this time of year. | 400 €; booking com |
| Train to ChongQing | some hours | 150 €; 12trip |
| Stay in ChongQing; Skyline Curated Hotel | 3 nights. eat hot pot take the cable cars and see Chinese city | 110 €, booking com |
| Train to YangShuo | some hours | 200 €; 12trip |
| Stay in YangShuo; Snow Lion Riverside Resort | 6 nights. hopefully it’s a bit warmer as we are further south. cycling and climbing and take time for some schoolwork. | 400 €; breakfast included; booking com |
| Train to Hong Kong | some hours | 220 €; 12trip |
| Stay in HongKong; YMCA of Hong Kong | 7 nights; so we have time for two days Disneyland | 1000 €; on YMCA of Hong Kong - HOME the non refundable rate |
| Fly from HongKong to Phnom Penh | some hours | 650 €; found on skyscanner and booked on vietnamairlines |
| Stay in Phnom Penh; Chaiya Palace Hotel | 4 nights. enjoy this luxury hotel at an extremely affordable price. Have time for some schoolwork | 260 €; agoda |
| Taxi to Koh Ta Kiev | some hours | will find it once there |
| Stay in Koh Ta Kiev at Kactus Sanctuary Cambodia | 6 nights. be as close as it can get when you want quietness white sand beach and still be in community with other travelers. | 600 €; booked on Kactus own website |
| Taxi to Phnom Penh | some hours | will find once there |
| Stay in Phnom Penh to catch flight to Bangkok early next morning. Phnom Penh Infinity Pool stay | 1 night; we learned that the land boarder between Cambodia and Thailand is closed and so we have to fly | 7 €!!!! crazy price on agoda |
| Flight, Phnom Penh to Bangkok DMK | some hours | 320 €; found the cheapest price for our connection on booking com , which was the first time I ever booked a flight there |
| Taxi form DMK to Koh Chang | some hours | will find once there |
| Stay on Koh Chang at Nature Beach Resort | 13 nights. Enjoy the beach. the pool and some activities have time for school work | 1100 €; booked on Nature Beach Resort |
| Taxi from Koh Chang to Bangkok | some hours | will find once there |
| Stay in Bangkok; De Chalet hostel | 3 nights. do a bit of sightseeing and just enjoy the last days of our travel journey before heading home | 100 €, booked on agoda |
| Flight from Bangkok to Europe; depart late evening, overlay in Istanbul 6-9 a.m. local time, then onwards to our home city. | 1 night | 1900 €; turkish airlines booked on Lastminute com |