Year End Vacation 2015

We’d not initially planned for a trip out of Singapore at the year-end. Changes at work leading to a new job portfolio, that we’d already done a family vacation during the June holidays, and most of all – prudent spending – all pointed to a year-end period where we’d be home bound to do very local things. So, it was mostly on impulse that we decided to find a small block of time where I would be able to get out of work, and then go somewhere.

Tricky thing though is that after that very tough experience with Peter onboard airplanes on our return leg from Santhiya last year – basically, he just couldn’t keep still – we’d resolved not to travel by air anywhere until he’s older and better able to moderate his behavior. With that in mind, our planning planning parameters were:

5 Days trip – that was the longest block I could easily find

Does not involve air travel

Won’t break the bank LOL

We considered a whole bunch of places, including a little known island south of Vietnam, Penang, Langkawi, various other islands off the west coast of Malaysia, cruises, and even our 2012 destination spot again – Telunas – before deciding on that very popular if also expensive Club Med Bintan. Most of our previous trips routinely featured our own itineraries and we basically just made stuff up as we went along. Sometimes, that worked well – like in our Telunas trip. But we also learned lessons from our Santhiya 2014 trip, where we spent seven days there not doing very much, even if half of that time I spent violently sick in bed. Simply put, it’s hard putting together a workable itinerary when you have a temperamental 2 year old boy! This time round, we wanted someone else to do all the planning for us for a semi-short stay, and there’s no better place than Club Med than that.

Vacation spot for Dec 2015.

Club Med Bintan is just over an hour away from Singapore, and is also a popular vacation spot for many local families here, if going by the many blog reviews is any indication. The total damage was a shade under S$2.8K for a 5D4N stay – ouch. More notes and comments to come in the months ahead!