Long Haul Destination Ideas

Moneygrabber89

Hi,

We are looking at booking a quite a long haul 2 week holiday in June or July. Ideally looking at somewhere where flights are around £500 but the cost of living is really cheap. We looked at Bali as flights from Manchester were around £500 however w though the flight time of 23 hours was too long for a 2 week holiday.

Other places we’ve considered are Thailand and South Africa. Could anybody offer any other suggestions. Would Cuba we OK priced as hotels seem quite expensive.

Ideal flight time would be max 10 hours

[Deleted User]

The cost of living is low in Cuba if you are Cuban but it's not as cheap as you would think for tourists because Cuba operates a dual currency system and hotels, restaurants, etc all cost more for tourists than they would for Cubans.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/cuba/money

I've been to South Africa and I really liked it. Eating out is a lot less expensive than in the UK and the food is good. I was in Vietnam last year and I loved it. The people are lovely, the food is great but very cheap as are the hotels.

PompeyPete

Thailand isn't cheap anymore. You're £££ will go much further in Vietnam, you'll be an instant dong millionaire with the exchange rate curently at about £ = 30,500 dong. A 50cl bottle of decent beer in a local bar costs about 15,000 dong [50p], cheaper if you're in Hanoi supping fresh Bia Hoi.

The following link will give you an idea of the weather in July throughout the SE Asia Region...

https://www.selectiveasia.com/asia-holidays/weather/july

The best weather should be in Central and North Vietnam, so I'd fly into Hanoi. There are plenty of day or overnight trips to do from Hanoi, and just about all hotels have tour desks which are invariably honest. Here's the place we stayed in February for 8 nights, which also shows the trips that they arrange...

http://www.hanoi3bhomestay.com/

...and the Trip Advisor reviews...

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g293924-d8711497-Reviews-Hanoi_3B_Homestay-Hanoi.html#REVIEWS

It's not The Ritz, but for the value for money it was much better.

Also perhaps spend a week in Hoi An [cheap flight to Da Nang and short taxi ride]. Hoi An is a lovely place, and really comes to life after dark when it's lit up by lanterns...

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Hoi_An

We stayed at this central place...

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g298082-d8460649-Reviews-Hoi_An_Travel_Lodge_Hotel-Hoi_An_Quang_Nam_Province.html

Great vfm.

Voyager2002

On Cuba: check the weather forecasts since you do not want to be there during hurricane season.

Hotels are only for people who know no better: the budget traveller would stay in a casa particular (in principle a room in someone's house but usually a small and privately-owned hotel), paying around US$25 per night for a double room. Restaurants are generally cheap (apart from a few for clueless tourists) but quality is not great: you will find the best food in your casa, but no-one visits Cuba for the food.

The costs that you face have absolutely nothing to do with the dual currency system: if it bothers you then you can easily exchange your CUC (foreigner's money) for CUP (Cuban people's money). So can any Cuban, if they have enough to make it worthwhile.

Moneygrabber89

Thanks so much for your input guys. Much appreciated. Vietnam sounds like may be a great option. If anybody has any other ideas please keep posted.

[Deleted User]

Voyager2002 wrote: »

On Cuba: check the weather forecasts since you do not want to be there during hurricane season.

Hotels are only for people who know no better: the budget traveller would stay in a casa particular (in principle a room in someone's house but usually a small and privately-owned hotel), paying around US$25 per night for a double room. Restaurants are generally cheap (apart from a few for clueless tourists) but quality is not great: you will find the best food in your casa, but no-one visits Cuba for the food.

The costs that you face have absolutely nothing to do with the dual currency system: if it bothers you then you can easily exchange your CUC (foreigner's money) for CUP (Cuban people's money). So can any Cuban, if they have enough to make it worthwhile.

By that token anyone who stays in a hotel anywhere in the world must be clueless then because there are always cheaper alternatives.

Everyone I've ever known who has been to Cuba likes it but has remarked that it wasn't as cheap as they were expecting hence why I highlighted this to the OP.

The dual currency system exists so that tourists don't inflate costs for normal Cubans and so that Cubans can charge tourists prices they are used to paying—creating what's essentially a local price and a tourist price. For instance, a Cuban might pay the equivalent of 0.05 USD to go to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, but a tourist would pay the equivalent of 5 USD.

slinga

Not sure why you want to do long haul.
Boring stuff for us. But we have to do it.

Save your dosh and upgrade somewhere in Europe.

enjoyyourshoes

Uganda:-

great safari less popular therefore less people

Gorillas

Fantastic scenery and people

blindman

enjoyyourshoes wrote: »

Uganda:-

great safari less popular therefore less people

Gorillas

Fantastic scenery and people

Tell me more :cool:

or have you written a Trip report somewhere?

OP
Vietnam ticks your boxes.

Moneygrabber89

In regards to Europe and upgrade we considered Italy and hiring a car. The idea sounds great, cheap flights etc. but the cost of hotels and general spending such as food actually make it a more expensive holiday surprisingly

Voyager2002

Lover_of_Lycra wrote: »

By that token anyone who stays in a hotel anywhere in the world must be clueless then because there are always cheaper alternatives.

Everyone I've ever known who has been to Cuba likes it but has remarked that it wasn't as cheap as they were expecting hence why I highlighted this to the OP.

The dual currency system exists so that tourists don't inflate costs for normal Cubans and so that Cubans can charge tourists prices they are used to paying—creating what's essentially a local price and a tourist price. For instance, a Cuban might pay the equivalent of 0.05 USD to go to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, but a tourist would pay the equivalent of 5 USD.

Some interesting points... I was trying to say that virtually all the hotels offer poor value for money, considering factors such as quality and comfort as well as price. In London there are many places to stay that are cheaper than the Ritz, but none of them offer the particular characteristics that are valued by its guests, so they would argue that it offers greater value for money.

While many places in Cuba charge different prices to locals and to foreigners (something that you also find a lot in Vietnam and to some extent in Thailand), there is no need to have dual currencies to achieve this. I think that the second currency was originally introduced as a way to enable tourists to buy luxures that were not available to (most) local people: such items were only sold in CUC, and there was no legal way for (most) Cubans to get hold of CUC. Now, however, every high street has a money-changer doing that exchange so it is hard to see what function the two currencies serve.