We have hit a bit of a conundrum when it comes to planning a birthday trip for my wife and I. We are looking to travel in March and are torn between splitting our time in Seoul, South Korea and Osaka and Kyoto, Japan, spending the entire time in Korea, spending the entire time in Japan, or going somewhere completely different. We both like the idea of a beach but know that we would both go stir crazy after about three days. Now, if there’s a beach destination that also has some city exploration close by (within a 2-3 hour flight) then we may just be sold on that.
I have gone back and forth on the different options and just need to make a decision. Any ideas or suggestions? I am open to ideas and would love to know how other folks have explored Asia. If you are asking “why Osaka?”, after a bit of reading, it is definitely a food city and I love the possibility of exploring a town by simply eating my way through it.
You can easily do the beach in Thailand then head off to Bangkok or Singapore or a myriad of other cities in SE Asia. I’m the same way in that I can only take a beach for two or three days then I have to be somewhere else. Just did a trip over the week of New Year’s that had a day in Bangkok, two in Phuket, one in Singapore, and one in Shanghai before heading home to the NYC area.
Thanks for the suggestion Jim! I should add that we only have a week in Asia. I currently have two first class seats on Asiana’s New York-Seoul flight. Adding on a SE Asia destination requires an overnight in Bangkok or Seoul, leaving us with six days. Getting back to Tokyo to catch our flight home requires a really early flight from SE Asia, leaving us with really five days on the ground. Any thoughts on Vietnam beaches?