Hello everyone - this is my first post, although I've read through quite a few recently.

My husband and I travelled to Tokyo last year and loved it. We'd like to take another trip next year for maybe 1-2 weeks and we're trying to decide on locations - some of the options that have been discussed are Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, India and Australia and also, a return to Japan.

What I was wondering was, are there any particular places in Asia/Australia that have particularly cheap/affordable flights from Japan, so we could work in a return to Japan but also see something new. We would be interested in either a return flight from Japan or a London -> Japan, Japan ->somewhere new, somewhere new -> London kind of situation.

Has anyone had any great experiences doing this kind of thing or have any ideas for us? We were looking at early 2013 - between Jan - March/April.

Thanks for your help and suggestions!

G

Japan doesn't have the budget airlines other countries have, so no really cheap flights elsewhere. Also, Australia is a LONG way from Japan, so considering adding that in adds in perhaps a 12 hut flight each way. Choose a place closer. Note than even from Japan, a flight to Bangkok is 6 or 7 hours. Asia is very large, distances are longer than you think. PLaces you could fly into that have goos budget airline connections include Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

With just one to two weeks, you have little time to explore. If you only have a week, spend it all in one place - Japan or Thailand or Cambodia for instance. Forget trying to do much of anything in India in a week - it is possible, but you are making it harder for yourselves than necessary. If you have two weeks, you can choose two countries.

Your task is to decide what interests you and how much time you have. With those two pieces of information, we can be of much more assistance.

Thank you very much for your reply and that is definitely helpful.

We would definitely be able to take 2 weeks - when we've looked at tours in India, it's definitely looked like it would be at least 10-14 days, so one trip on its own.

We are interested in cities but also beautiful scenery, if possible, and good food. I guess the problem is, we're interesetd in a lot so it is hard to narrow it down (which isn't very helpful!).

A few thoughts; Do you have to re-visit Japan on this trip? If not, then I could suggest a SE Asian trip for your two weeks. A combination of Thailand and Cambodia is a good introduction to SE Asia. Thailand is the easiest (best tourist infrastructure) country to travel in SE Asia, and has fascinating cities (Bangkok is my favorite city in the world), beautiful scenery, and arguably the best food in SE Asia. Take a look at a good Thailand guidebook, and look at some information on the temples of Angkor in Cambodia. See if these interest you.

You might find some photos helpful: www.marlandc.com has our travel photos of many places in SE Asia. A quick run-though will give you a sense of whether you want to know more.

Do a bit of research about what you want and come back to ask more questions - we are glad to help.

You can get relatively cheap flights from Japan on Air Asia Most of these flights are via KUL( I have done a LOT of research into this) otherwise you are stuck with full service, expensive options !

If Japan is not a deal breaker a VERY good carrier from LHR which we use a lot is EVA. You can get a direct flight to Bangkok, which will then allow you to catch all sorts of good priced flights to many parts of SE Asia.
Really YOU need to figure out where you want to go and then I am sure we would be delighted to help all we can
As an example I have used BKK and Singapore as a hub to then travel onto Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia Indonesia etc tec.... The world is your oyster!

Spend some time on the Air Asia website. For example, you can fly nonstop from Toyko Haneda to Bali Denpasar for about $US300 roundtrip. There are plenty of other Asian destinations as well.

Bear in mind that Air Asia is an "ala carte" carrier and incidentals, like luggage and flight changes, mean extra charges.

Aside from the airfare, the cost on the ground varies widely from place to place in Asia.

Bali is good for a short trip because it offers a variety of experience within a self contained geographic area. Once you're there you don't have to fly again for beach, nature, arts and tradition. Beautiful scenery, fascinating culture and pretty good food.

Yes agree with Air Asia from Tokyo to Bali. We will probably do this next year 2014. AA also travels to most places you mention from either HND or NRT Tokyo.

http://www.airasia.com/jp/

Aloha!

I didn't realize Air Asia is now flying out of Haneda. Good info. Thanks, Marmot!

Have you ruled out visiting more of Japan?

Good question, kja. There is more to Japan than Tokyo.

I see the discussion here about Air Asia and wondering if that is something different from Air Asia Japan. ANA and Air Asia are ending their joint venture called Air Asia Japan (I think I read elsewhere that the brand name belongs to ANA).

"Air Asia Japan" won't be flying come November. AFAIK it it not a sure thing that Air Asia Japan will start operating again in December as ANA planned.
http://centreforaviation.com/analysi...-around-121471

I just took the information off the AirAsia website; I haven't personally flown AA from Japan.

However, I was wrong about the non-stop. Flights to Bali (and other destinations) connect through Kuala Lumpur as Smeagol noted.

Apparently there are several configurations of AirAsia. For example (also from AA's Website) JW is Air Asia Japan, QZ is Indonesia AirAsia, FD is Thai AirAsia.

We are flying KIX to KUL in November ( and on some of these routes for a few extra £££ you can buy the "lie flat" seats......)

As Marmot said spend some time looking at the AA website ( which is what did when I was trying to sort our onwards destination from Osaka.)

Japan has another low cost airline now: Peach - http://www.flypeach.com/home.aspx. They are based in Osaka, which probably isn't helpful since you would probably go through Tokyo, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. I've taken Peach from Hong Kong to Osaka and it was fine. Cleaner and more organized than Air Asia. Right now they don't go too many places outside of Japan but I do think they are adding destinations quickly.

Thank you very much for everyone's responses and sorry for the delay in responding - we had to put plans on hold for a few weeks.

Planning is back in progress but now we have decided to see something new and are looking at Thailand. About 10-14 days in Thailand - ideally some time in Bangkok and then somewhere a bit more remote. February/March time. If anyone has any ideas on how that might work, I would be grateful for help.

Thanks again!