meljoff

My husband and I are visiting Singapore at the end of June, and are staying with his aunt and uncle. They have lived there for a few years. His aunt has asked us to think of some other cities/countries in the vicinity that we are interested in visiting. While I am VERY excited to visit Asia (our first time), we are pretty clueless. I plan to research, but am really interested in what some of the 'experts' think. What cities around Singapore would be interesting to visit for a few overnight trips? We will be there for over 2 weeks. Thanks in advance for any help!

ckm

Hello and welcome to Asia. Sgp shld be a good intro - almost like the disneyland of Asia. Great place, very orderly and clinical. For a walk on the less orderly side, try Bangkok - 2 hrs flt away. For a potpurri of the diverse cultures of South East Asia, try Kuala Lumpur - arguably cheaper shopping than Sgp! Try Penang or Melaka if you like historical/great food. Phuket, Bali for great beaches, Ho Chih Minh (Saigon) for Vietnamese culture and food. In short, Sgp is a great launch pad for an adventure of lifetime, only if you step out of her comfort zone and know what you want!
Enjoy and have a great time in Asia.
br

rv224

I agree with the above poster. Singapore along with other regional countries have started a few budget airlines. It's relatively cheap to fly to Bangkok, Bali, Hong Kong, and now Vietnam from here.

You can also drive up to Malaysia. My suggestions for Malaysia: Stop by melaka for a day or two to see a very colonial town. Head to Kuala Lumpur. Take a 2 day trip to the highlands (Cameron highlands) and visit the tea plantation.

JamesA

These are some flight times from Singapore and some options to give you an idea of what is close:

KL : 50 mins
Penang : 1 hr 10
Langkawi: 1 hr 20
Phuket: 1 hr 40
Koh Samui: 1 hr 40
Ho Chi Minh City ( Saigon ): 2 hrs
Bangkok: 2 hrs 20
Bali: 2 hrs 30

Silk Air do a lot of packages offers for a couple of nights.

www.valuair.com.sg
www.tigerairways.com
www.jetstarasia.com
www.silkair.com

There are also cruises:

http://www.starcruises.com/Itinerari...ore/index.html

Cicerone

Your question says “Overnight trips”. IMO while all of the destinations mentioned above are great places to visit, only one of them is appropriate for an overnight visit, the rest all deserve more time; and the flight time to get to some of them makes an overnight trip a waste of time. I assume you meant trips for several nights. I would put Bangkok near the top of my list, with Bali and the east coast of Malaysia close behind. Some suggestions:

1. A few day drive up the east coast of Malaysia as far as Kuala Terrenganu if you have time. Great weather in June, beautiful deserted beaches. Take a boat out to Rawa island or some of the islands in the Redang area. (Run a search here, as a number of people, myself included, have posted on this area).

2. Hong Kong is a good stopover on the way to or from your trip to Singapore, assuming you are flying via the Pacific from the US.

3. The island of Kalimantan in east Malaysia (usually erroneously referred to as Borneo) is just a few hours by air and has some great parks, beaches, the highest mountain in SE Asia (which you can climb without a lot of difficulty), and you can also take a “headunter” tour upriver to see the longhouses and local life.

4. The Malacca suggestion above is a good one, and this actually is a good overnight trip from Singapore by car. You can stop and shop along the way (there are several porcelain factories) and then explore Malacca which has a small bit of preserved colonial Portuguese buildings, an interesting Chinatown area, and a good museum of Malay history.

5. You also might want to ask your husband’s aunt/uncle where THEIR favourite places are. As they have lived there a few years, they may know of places that are well off the tourist path which you may enjoy even more.

Take a look at weatherbase.com and worldclimate.com for historical average temps and rainfall. Note that some parts of the west coast of Thailand and Malaysia will have some rain in June (e.g. Phuket), and you might want to avoid these.