3 Tips On Planning Your National Day Long Weekend Holiday

Another long weekend is coming up in Singapore in August: National Day. By taking time off on either the 7th and the 8th or the 10th and the 11th, you can enjoy a 5 day vacation. If you haven't already planned out your vacation plans, it's still not too late to start making some travel plans. There are many options available in Asia that are exciting, beautiful and financially affordable. Here are some tips to help you make your decisions.

14 Places You Can Fly To For Under S$300 Round-Trip

According to Kayak, there are still 14 cities that you can fly to for under S$300 for a round trip ticket. Some popular options that stood out were Penang, Yangon, Bangkok, Phuket, PHnom Penh, Manila and Ho Chi Minh City. We looked up prices for non-stop round-trip flights from Singapore to various locations in SE Asia for both 5 August - 9 August trip and 9 August - 13 August trip. For those who are willing to splurge a little more, a flight to Bali or Maldives was still available for around S$600.

5 Aug - 9 AugPrice (SGD)9 Aug - 13 AugPrice (SGD)
1George Town (Penang), Malaysia99Yangon, Myanmar171
2Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia144Phuket, Thailand223
3Yangon, Myanmar171Cebu City, Philippines231
4Bangkok, Thailand172Phnom Penh, Cambodia252
5Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam195Bangkok, Thailand267
6Bandung, Indonesia227Manila, Philippines269
7Manila, Philippines258Krabi, Thailand269
8Jakarta, Indonesia270Langakawi, Malaysia280
9Phnom Penh, Cambodia274Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam300
10Phuket, Thailand276Hat Yai, Thailand333
11Hong Kong, Hong Kong300Hong Kong, Hong Kong350
12Hanoi, Vietnam329Taipei, Taiwan468
13Krabi, Thailand357Guangzhou, China473
14Langakawi, Malaysia364Colombo, Sri Lanka500
15Mumbai, India414Male, Maldives549
16Taipei, Taiwan452HaiKou, China550
17Colombo, Sri Lanka500Denpasar (Bali), Indonesia622
18Perth, Australia528Dubai, UAE623
19Denpasar (Bali), Indonesia570Shanghai, China647
20Melbourne, Australia697Da Nang, Vietnam690
21Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia700

Airbnbs Can Help You Save +60% On Lodging

One downside to traveling to popular locations is that hotels are usually either booked out or prohibitively expensive. For many travelers who don't require a fancy concierge service or amenities, getting an Airbnb can be a convenient way of solving these two problems. For instance, we found that Airbnb in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Yangon tend to be at least 60%-70% cheaper to their hotel counterparts.

Sometimes, Airbnbs can be just as nice if not nicer than hotel rooms. Since they are mostly located near residential areas, you are closely located to most essential things like grocery stores and transportation. Not only that, many homes that are listed on Airbnb in Asia tend to be quite nicely decorated. You can read the reviews and ratings of the apartment or home that you want to book ahead of time to find the place that best fits your needs.

Book Your Trip with A Travel Credit Card

When you are booking any of the flights or lodgings that we mention above, you can earn significant savings in form of discounts, cash rebate and mile awards by using a miles credit card. In particular, we think couple credit cards deserve a special mention for their high level of awards for travel bookings.

CardAirBnBFlightOverseas Spend
DBS Altitude Card3 miles per S$1 spent on AirbnbUp to 9 miles per S$1 spent on Expedia2 miles per S$1 spent overseas
Citi PMV Card2 miles per S$1 forex spending+S$50 Airbnb discount (requires S$250 of booking)3 miles per S$1 spent on Expedia3 miles on overseas spending on long-weekends
HSBC Revolution Card2 miles per S$1 spent online for travel bookings + 9% off travel bookings0.4 miles per S$1 spent overseas
Maybank Horizon Card2 miles per S$1 forex spending2 miles per S$1 spent on flights & travel packages2 miles per S$1 spent overseas

Parting Thoughts

Travelling is one of the best ways of spending your money to gain new experiences and become a happier person. And, long weekends provide an excellent opportunity for us to take time out of our busy daily routines to change things up a bit and go somewhere we haven't been before. We hope this article helps you to encourage you to go experience something new and cool, and ultimately lead to a healthier mind set and a happier life style. If you plan on engaging in a potentially dangerous sports/leisure activity while you are abroad, you may want to take precautions and get some protection before you embark on your journey.

Duckju Kang

Duckju (DJ) is the founder and CEO of ValueChampion. He covers the financial services industry, consumer finance products, budgeting and investing. He previously worked at hedge funds such as Tiger Asia and Cadian Capital. He graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with honors, Magna Cum Laude. His work has been featured on major international media such as CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, the Straits Times, Today and more.

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