Family Trip to SOA - Summer 2025 - Searching for ideas

[DanielM85]

Hey,
I am new to this forum and I am hoping for some suggestions / ideas for a possible summer vacation in Summer 2025.
We are a family with 2 kids (6 and 9 years at that time) and would like to go to South East Asia for around 4-5 weeks.

As I am the only diver (Divemaster) we would like to find a compromise between diving / costs and family holiday (Big City like BKK, Sin, some easy rainforest experience and of course snorkeling and diving)

Before we got kids we have been to SOA a few times (Thailand, Malaysia and Nunukan Island) - we have never been to SOA with kids before so we are currently discussing different options - maybe you could give us some additional ideas

1) Thailand inkl. Samui, Phangnan and Koh Tao
2) West Malaysia with Singapur, Cameron Highlands, Taman Negara + Perhentians / Tioman / Redang? e.g. fly to East Malaysia / Borneo as well - not sure about that effort
3) Singapur+ Sulawesi (e.g. Kuda Laut Resort or Coral Eye (quite expensive))
4) Mixture of 2 and 3
5) Seychelles (probably not the ideal months)
6) new ideas ?

We would like to have a holiday for all of us - so a resort / area only for diving without a house reef is not an option for that holiday.
Raja Ampat and Palau would be to far / expensive and probably not the best for us 4.

Best regards from Germany
Daniel

 

[Centrals]

1 + 2.
Starting at Bangkok and slowly work your way down to Singapore via the East coast of both Thailand and Malaysia.
Koh Chang might be a good idea from BKK as well.
Koh Tao should be the best for the family. Forget about Samui.
How about Tenggol Island in the East coast of Malaysi but staying on the island is relatively expensive?

 

[diveUAE]

We've often travelled with our kids and made the compromise between diving and holiday for kids. But both my husband and I are divers and the kids are not that keen on snorkeling (although they do like it).

Some of our favourite places are:
Thailand - during the summer months Koh Tao for diving is ok, but you're definitely compromising. We combined with Bangkok, Kanchanaburi for Bridge over river Kwai (did the train ride on the old train there and the kids liked it at lot) and Hua Hin (did not like Hua Hin at all and did not find any diving while there)

Malaysia: In 2008 (when the 2 oldest were 8 and 6) we did Sandakan/Sepilok/Sukau, Lankayan, Seligan island (turtles), Mabul/Sipadan, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. Did not at the time know, there was advisory of not traveling to Mabul/Sipadan, Lankayan and Seligan, which make our travel insurance void, just lucky to not need it I guess. Mabul/Sipadan was amazing and Lankayan was great. Kids loved Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and Sepilok/Sukau, Seligan they we're a bit tired and the resort was/is run down.
This summer we're doing: Perhentian island (Bubbles resort, hoping for turtle nesting or hatching - our youngest can maybe join their program), Sepilok/Sukau, Poring hot springs, Kota Kinabalu (diving in the national park) and KL. (I've ruled out all the areas with travel warnings from the Danish government, but you would need to check the warnings from your country).

Indonesia: Bali! We all loved Bali. First time we stayed on Nusa Lembongan, a few days in Ubud and then Amed, it was great for everyone. 2 years ago we stayed in Padang Bai and Ubud. The diving from N Lembongan, Amed (Tulemben) and Padang Bai is great - much better than Koh Tao and there was enough for everyone to do - we did cooking classes, bike rides, volcano walk and various other trips.