My wife and I would like to go to Japan during late July / August (we are restricted to school holidays). We would like to do Japan (spending around a week) and then go somewhere else to relax by the beach. We cannot go anywhere that needs us to take malaria tablets. I've thought of a couple of ideas:

1) Japan and then Hong Kong - I think there are some beaches away from the central city area?

2) Japan and then Maldives - flights look to be expensive.

Does anyone have any ideas?

You could go to Okinawa, but I think it might be typhoon season. You could get a special fare for visitors to Japan. Would be $125 or less per flight.

You could, for example, fly into Tokyo and split the week between there and Kyoto. For $250 you could fly from Osaka to Okinawa, then from Okinawa back to Tokyo.

A better idea would be to spend more than just a week on the main island of Japan.

Last year I looked into going to Okinawa in July or August. Check online, as some of the beaches there close in July/Uugust due to infestation of small poisonous jellyfish. They are apparently very bad stings, and send people to the emergency room. Some of the beaches are netted to prevent contact w/them, but they are smal and can get through the nets.

You are going to have to go farther from Japan to get nice beaches. The beaches along the east coast of Malaysia are really lovely. I expect you'd have to fly to Kuala Lumpur and then take a short hop to a beach resort area. I've been to Kuantan, which was lovely. Thailand is another option. But either option will take two flights from Japan.

Hawaii? Flights to Japan can often be routed through Hawaii with a stopover at little additional cost.

Hi

Well, if you can afford the Maldives I say go for it. My wife and I went there a couple of years back (to a place called Sun Island) and it was amazing. I have posted a trip report with pictures on my homepage http://gardkarlsen.com/sun_island_index.htm. But maybe the beaches of southern Thailand is easier to reach and a cheaper alternative.

We also went to Japan last year. Here is a trip report from that trip: http://gardkarlsen.com/japan_tokyo.htm

Get in touch if you have any questions.

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures