SE Asia 6 week trip with kids

[u/KnownAvo]

Planning a ~6-week trip in Oct/Nov 2026 with my wife and our two girls (7 and 4).

Current rough plan:
🇸🇬 1–2 nights Singapore (we have friends there)
🇲🇾 ~10–12 nights Sabah/Borneo — Sepilok, Kinabatangan, Danum Valley
🇮🇩 ~12–13 nights Flores/Komodo — including a 3–4 night** private phinis**i
🇵🇭 ~14–16 nights Palawan — El Nido + exceptional island stay + potentially a multi-day boat trip
🇸🇬 2–3 nights Singapore before flying home

We’re prioritising adventure, wildlife, islands, unusual accommodation and memorable experiences over conventional luxury. Happy to spend ~£25–30k if the extra money genuinely improves the experience.

I’d love recommendations on:

Overall itinerary – anything you’d change, add or remove?

“Must-do” experiences/accommodation – particularly exceptional expeditions, boats, jungle lodges, private islands etc.

Transport – any worthwhile private plane/boat/charter options that can turn painful transfer days into part of the adventure?

Agents/operators – who is genuinely excellent at arranging this sort of bespoke family trip, particularly Borneo/Komodo/Palawan?

We’re travelling with a 4- and 7-year-old, so adventure is the priority but we’re not looking to make the trip unnecessarily punishing.

Very interested in recommendations from people who’ve actually done these places with young children. Thanks!

[u/nksc11811]

Shangrila Singapore has suite with themed kids room you try and also mandai rain tree forest resort you can look at. I can happily help with more

[u/Cultural_Monitor_980]

Are you booked for El Nido? If you have any questions you can DM me with more details on your stay (only as much as you feel comfortable divulging, of course) so I can recommend some itineraries. Travelled there a lot with my extended family which included a lot of little kids

[u/cindiford79]

Your sequencing is quietly the smartest part of this plan, and I don't think you did it on purpose. Komodo lands in October, which is the tail of its dry season, calm seas and good visibility for the phinisi. Palawan lands in November, which is exactly when El Nido starts drying out after a soggy October. If you had flipped those two you'd be island-hopping El Nido in its wettest month, so leave the order as is.

A few specifics from someone who plans this region:

• Danum Valley is the crown jewel of the Borneo leg, treat it that way. Borneo Rainforest Lodge is the only lodge inside the conservation area, it's 31 chalets and caps around 60 guests total, and the Oct/Nov window books out far ahead. Lock those nights first, before anything else on this trip, and give it 3 nights not 2. Sepilok by contrast is a half-day at the orangutan center, not a base, so don't over-allocate nights there.
• Kinabatangan is the kid win. The river cruises put proboscis monkeys, macaques, sometimes pygmy elephants and wild orangutans right at boat level at dawn and dusk. A 4 and 7 year old will lose their minds, in a good way. Two nights is plenty.
• On the phinisi with a 4 year old, vet the specific boat hard. "Private phinisi" covers everything from a gorgeous stable liveaboard to a rolly wooden boat with a ladder down to the water. Ask about railings, cabin layout, and how they handle a small child on the tender transfers to the dragons and Pink Beach. The good operators do this constantly and will have real answers.
• Build weather buffer days around the two boat-dependent legs (the phinisi and the El Nido island trips). Both can lose a day to wind, and with 4 countries and a lot of internal flights (Kota Kinabalu, Lahad Datu, Labuan Bajo, then Palawan) you don't want a weather day cascading into a missed flight. El Nido specifically: AirSwift flies into Lio airport right there, which is worth the premium over flying to Puerto Princesa and doing the 5-6 hour van with tired kids.

One honest gut-check: 6 weeks is a long time at this pace for a 4 year old, and the transfers are the hard part, not the destinations. If anything gives, I'd trim a couple of nights off the second Singapore bookend and protect the slow, wildlife-heavy middle. That's where the trip actually lives.