Japan, Thailand, Dubai Itinerary for comments

[Wally1976]

OK, so planning a trip for next July/August for myself, wife and two daughters who’ll be 16 and 13. Daughters have only been long-haul once before (Florida in August 2022).

One daughter wanted to go to Japan and Dubai (both of which I’d like to do too) and one wanted to go to Thailand to “feed elephants”. I’m a teacher so restricted to school holidays and my wife has managed to get 3 weeks off. Trying to use points as much as possible; we have lots of Avios and Hilton points, about 200k Marriott and about 80k Amex MR.

In an effort to please everyone I have come up with the following rough itinerary:

Day 1 Fly LHR-HND 13.00 (BA CW on points with 2x2for1) (Now booked)
Day 2 Arrive HND 10.55, transfer to Tokyo hotel
Day 3 Tokyo
Day 4 DisneySea
Day 5 Tokyo
Day 6 To Fuji-Q Highland
Day 7 Mt Fuji Area
Day 8 To Kyoto
Day 9 Kyoto/Osaka
Day 10 Universal Studios
Day 11 Kyoto/Osaka
Day 12 To Hiroshima via Himeji Castle
Day 13 To Fukuoka
Day 14 Fly FUK-DMK 08.15-11.40 (Thai AirAsia, cash)
Day 15 Bangkok
Day 16 To I Love Phants Elephant sanctuary (early)
Day 17 Back to Bangkok for evening
Day 18 Bangkok
Day 19 Fly BKK-DXB 09.55-13.00 (Emirates economy on points)
Day 20 Dubai/Burj Kalifa/Shopping
Day 21 Ferrari World
Day 22 Dubai/Beach/Desert Safari
Day 23 Fly DXB-LHR 09.20-14.10 (BA WT on points)

I’ve been to Bangkok previously but apart from that none of us have been to any of these places before.

Are we nuts trying to do all this in one trip?

Any suggestions and comments welcome. (And before anyone says it, yes we know it’s going to be insanely hot everywhere!)

[HampshireHog]

Yes. I think you know the answer hence your question? Japan is an amazing place with loads to see and do. It’s the further destination on your itinerary and I’d max my time there and immerse yourself.

[JDB]

The schedule is nuts, you will be permanently in transit, packing and unpacking and not enough time to enjoy things. July/August in Japan or Dubai seem a bit sub-optimal as well.

[Mart16]

I think it’s a perfectly fine itinerary, I like moving around a lot and it’s certainly a great mix of places. Makes everyone happy and as you say you’re limited when you can travel. Ignore the naysayers, the only person who really knows if it’ll work is you. If your family are flexible, go with the flow kind of people, you’ll be grand

[meta]

Have you been to Japan @Mart16?

This is crazy. You can’t do Hiroshima and Himeji in one day. I mean you can, but you are also restricted by opening hours of the castle and places. It takes 1h30 to travel between Hiroshima and Himeji and then 1h30 from Osaka to Himeji. You’ll also have to backtrack to Tokyo or Yokohama from Mt Fuji to go to Kyoto. (3 hours minimum travel time)

Also you’ll find that everything in Japan takes time. Kyoto alone would take so much time with transportation inside the city and if you are staying in Osaka you can add extra two hours of traveling each day.

I also don’t understand going to Japan and then visiting Disneyland and Universal Studios unless it’s specific request from your daughter.

Ferrari World is in Abu Dhabi and not Dubai.

It looks like this schedule was made without thinking about distances and times.

Also sub-optimal use of 241 vouchers!

[BBbetter]

@Mart16, are you aware of the weather during July / August?

It’ll be 41 degrees in July at Dubai. Also it’s a dry desert heat and can be terrible for some people if you are not used to it.

[meta]

OP said in their initial post they are not bothered about the weather in either of the places.

Weather is secondary issue in the whole itinerary.

[Mart16]

OP has two daughters with competing preferred itineraries, tight restrictions on when they can travel, is not concerned about weather/temperatures. Admittedly they won’t be able to “immerse” themselves, whatever that means, but provided all parties are fit, healthy, capable of withstanding temperatures and a full on schedule, it’s doable.

[BBbetter]

meta wrote:

OP said in their initial post they are not bothered about the weather in either of the places.

Weather is secondary issue in the whole itinerary.

Fair enough.

I now suspect its a plan by OP to go with his daughters’ preferences despite the terrible weather, just so they are put off traveling with parents again!

OP, if at any point you decide to go to a place with good weather in August, but inflexible on dates, Bali is a good option. For other places, refer to link below.
https://www.selectiveasia.com/weather/august

[Olly]

If I were you @Wally1976 I’d scrap the Dubai part of the trip. As others have commented, the temperature at that time of year isn’t the best, and comparatively speaking it’s the easiest part of the trip to do another time (given flight availability). That gives you 5 additional days to spend in Thailand (visit an Island or Hua Hin perhaps), or space out your time in Japan per Meta’s comment

[zio]

@Wally1976 This definitely has the potential to be one of your most memorable family holidays.
I’m guessing from this itinerary that you aren’t a lie-on-the-beach-for-a-week family but summer travel in these countries is going to be physically demanding and only you know how energetic your teenagers are, and how well you think you will all cope with the heat.
In my opinion, your itinerary, while possible, runs a clear risk of becoming punishing. Especially during the Japan leg it looks like you are going to be spending an inordinate amount of time getting yourselves to the next public transport, so constantly chasing a tough schedule. There is a definite danger of trying to fit in something extra and ending up not enjoying both the extra and the destinations either side. You don’t want to be running around Himeji or the golden pavilion, and you want to have enough time everywhere (except the train stations) to get the “I liked XXX. I wish we’d had more time there. Maybe we could go back…” feeling.
If it were me (ie complete personal bias), I would save Dubai for another time- each daughter has got one destination- and spend the 4 additional days in Japan to reduce the percentage of inter-city travel days.
How you progress now largely depends on how easy it is to unpick booked flights. If you feel all your flights are now fixed, the smallest change I could suggest would be skipping Fuji and adding the extra time into days 8-13. If FUK-DMK isn’t booked, I would consider flying out from Osaka and not trying to fit in Hiroshima, Himeji and Fukuoka.

[Michael C]

I was at I Love Phants yesterday.
I mean…it was nice and interesting, but for about 2 hours.
And the elephant feeding was about 10 minutes of that!
Oh, and it’s far nearer Hua Hin, so a return minivan trip from Bangkok would
be around…6 hours?…

[Wally1976]

Thank you for all the comments; lots of food for thought!

To answer some of the points…

JDB wrote:

The schedule is nuts, you will be permanently in transit, packing and unpacking and not enough time to enjoy things.

I have tried to work it so that there’s at least 2 nights in each location and 4 in most but you do have a point.

meta wrote:

You can’t do Hiroshima and Himeji in one day. I mean you can, but you are also restricted by opening hours of the castle and places. It takes 1h30 to travel between Hiroshima and Himeji and then 1h30 from Osaka to Himeji. You’ll also have to backtrack to Tokyo or Yokohama from Mt Fuji to go to Kyoto. (3 hours minimum travel time)

From quick research, it looked like there wasn’t really much to do in Hiroshima. Happy to be corrected. Also when I looked there did seem to be train routes from Mt Fuji area to Kyoto without backtracking to Tokyo (via Mishima)? I admit I haven’t looked at that in depth.

meta wrote:

Also you’ll find that everything in Japan takes time. Kyoto alone would take so much time with transportation inside the city and if you are staying in Osaka you can add extra two hours of traveling each day.

I read online that it was better to stay in Kyoto than Osaka so went for that as a base.

meta wrote:

I also don’t understand going to Japan and then visiting Disneyland and Universal Studios unless it’s specific request from your daughter.

In short we like theme parks! As I understand it, DisneySea is different to other Disney parks elsewhere (we’ve been to Florida and Disneyland Paris) and Fuji-Q Highland will be different and more “Japanese”. I’d probably skip Universal Studios personally but daughters want to go.

meta wrote:

Ferrari World is in Abu Dhabi and not Dubai.

Yes I know but it’s only an hour’s drive or so.

meta wrote:

It looks like this schedule was made without thinking about distances and times.

It is based on *brief* research. I have a lack of knowledge of most of these places, hence this thread!

meta wrote:

Also sub-optimal use of 241 vouchers!

Agreed but there’s a lack of options for this itinerary. Using them for CW to HND saves 110k each voucher though which is not too shabby IMO.

Regarding the weather, we know it’ll be uncomfortable in places but there’ll be lots of air con and we don’t have the option to go at other times of year so resigned to dealing with it really. As stated we did Florida in August – more akin to Japan and Thailand than Dubai. I, personally have also done lots of travelling to hot places previously. And yes, we are all fit and healthy.

BBbetter wrote:

I now suspect its a plan by OP to go with his daughters’ preferences despite the terrible weather, just so they are put off traveling with parents again!

OP, if at any point you decide to go to a place with good weather in August, but inflexible on dates, Bali is a good option. For other places, refer to link below.
https://www.selectiveasia.com/weather/august

This made me chuckle! Thanks for the link, that’s very useful.

Olly wrote:

If I were you @Wally1976 I’d scrap the Dubai part of the trip. As others have commented, the temperature at that time of year isn’t the best, and comparatively speaking it’s the easiest part of the trip to do another time (given flight availability). That gives you 5 additional days to spend in Thailand (visit an Island or Hua Hin perhaps), or space out your time in Japan per Meta’s comment

I do quite like this idea and had already given it some thought. If there was a direct BA flight I’d definitely do this but it looks like getting back from Thailand would be either a cash ticket on Thai Airways or Avios on Qatar. The latter of course is not direct and, some time ago I gave up trying to get my BAEC and Qatar accounts to sync. I can try again of course.

Thanks again and any more suggestions, keep them coming.

[BJ]

@Wally, I applaud you for wanting to travel and not go to other side of the world to sit in a resort! However, this needs rethinking. My initial thoughts are 4 nights in Tokyo, 2 nights around Fuji, 4 nights in Osaka then 1 am JAL flight or morning Air Asia X flight to Bangkok, 3 nights Bangkok, 4-5 nights at beach to relax (probably Hua Hin to include elephants), 2-4 nights Dubai. Better still frop Dubai and do 10 nights each in Japan and Thailand. You already did Florida so I assume you mean the parks so I very strongly recommend dropping parks in Japam in favour of real Japanese experiences. I am never popular for saying this but I don’t think Kyoto appeals to most teens so a half day trip each with Nara is fine IMO. Better to stay in Osaka than Kyoto as base to explore Kansai and even further afield. Try searching for the thread on Japan and Thailand created by @Boi. She also has two teen daughters, she got a lot of good advice, acted on it and I believe had a great time.

[Wally1976]

Wow, so much to think about! Thanks again.

zio wrote:

If it were me (ie complete personal bias), I would save Dubai for another time- each daughter has got one destination- and spend the 4 additional days in Japan to reduce the percentage of inter-city travel days.
How you progress now largely depends on how easy it is to unpick booked flights. If you feel all your flights are now fixed, the smallest change I could suggest would be skipping Fuji and adding the extra time into days 8-13. If FUK-DMK isn’t booked, I would consider flying out from Osaka and not trying to fit in Hiroshima, Himeji and Fukuo

The only flight booked at the moment is LHR-HND at the start so no problem unpicking flights.

Skipping Dubai might well be the option it’s just that the flight options aren’t the best.

Michael C wrote:

I was at I Love Phants yesterday.
I mean…it was nice and interesting, but for about 2 hours.
And the elephant feeding was about 10 minutes of that!
Oh, and it’s far nearer Hua Hin, so a return minivan trip from Bangkok would
be around…6 hours?…

That’s interesting thanks. Yes it is about 3 hours drive from Bangkok (each way) which is why I pencilled in an overnight stay there.

BJ wrote:

wanting to travel and not go to other side of the world to sit in a resort! However, this needs rethinking. My initial thoughts are 4 nights in Tokyo, 2 nights around Fuji, 4 nights in Osaka then 1 am JAL flight or morning Air Asia X flight to Bangkok, 3 nights Bangkok, 4-5 nights at beach to relax (probably Hua Hin to include elephants), 2-4 nights Dubai. Better still frop Dubai and do 10 nights each in Japan and Thailand. You already did Florida so I assume you mean the parks so I very strongly recommend dropping parks in Japam in favour of real Japanese experiences. I am never popular for saying this but I don’t think Kyoto appeals to most teens so a half day trip each with Nara is fine IMO. Better to stay in Osaka than Kyoto as base to explore Kansai and even further afield. Try searching for the thread on Japan and Thailand created by @Boi. She also has two teen daughters, she got a lot of good advice, acted on it and I believe had a great time.

I have found two other threads:

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/my-draft-thailand-japan-itinerary-suggestions-please/ (I think this is the one you refer to)
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/japan-and-thailand-travel-advice/

Need to spend time reading and processing those now.

[meta]

You can fly back from Hong Kong or Singapore and if you don’t mind with a stopover in Helsinki on Finnair too.

[meta]

May I also suggest swapping Kyoto for Nagoya and the new Studio Ghibli Park

https://ghibli-park.jp/en/

This will be more appealing for teens and it’s an hour and a bit from Osaka.

[oxfordowl1]

A couple of thoughts – my partner and I had a great 15 nights in Japan this June.

We really enjoyed Hiroshima, even though as it was the end of the holiday we were tired. The Peace Memorial Park is fascinating and excellently organised. We spent a couple of hours (including the Memorial Hall) and didn’t even feel the need to visit the museum. The Hiroshima Museum of Art and the Shukkei-en gardens whilst small, are very much worth of visit. Miyajima island was was partners favourite part of the whole trip and could easily be a full day trip from Hiroshima.

Four nights in Tokyo felt about right for us. It also allowed us a chance to rest after the flight.

You may not be sports fans, but even if not, I would recommend a baseball game (and maybe even a football game as well). The atmosphere is fanatical but in a wonderfully family friendly way.

Japan felt so safe that we had no hesitation splitting up if we wanted to do different things. This might be an option if two of you are into sashimi/sushi and the other two are not. The food was such a large part of our holiday.

Finally, we stayed in the Umeda area of Osaka and would recommend it. Lots of hotel and food options and I think it is an area that would appeal to kids.

Hope this helps and happy to answer any other questions.

[KevinC]

We are just back from Japan.

If you like theme parks then, yes, go to Disney Sea.

Personally I preferred Kyoto as a base to Osaka – especially if you have spent time in Tokyo. We stayed in Umeda and it felt a bit like holidaying in the Westfield Centre – of course that has its appeals.

We found that most places weren’t that busy. But you can’t fit too much in a day 1) because of the heat and 2) because a lot of sites close by five. I think in the summer you get to see fewer things but you can see them properly. An exception was Nara (and you should consider putting Nara on your list). Try to build in time for exploring wherever you stay. There are tiny temples wherever you look.

If it was me, I would drop Dubai, but I’m sure you’ll have a great time whatever you decide.

[Wally1976]

Thanks again all.

@oxfordowl1 Definitely would like to catch some sport. After a quick search it looks like there’s some sumo wrestling on the first day we get there which might be fun :-). Alternatively baseball or football would be good.

[To dare is to do]

Wally, you can go to a sumo stable and watch a training session. In July there’s one of the big Sumo tournaments you can find lots of videos on YouTube, I’ve become a fan off watching Sumo it’s full of tradition and rituals and there’s so much more to it than “ 2 fat blokes” wrestling. The next grand sumo tournament starts 8th September loads of links on YouTube or NHJ world Japan do a daily half hour round up.