Ten affordable tropical escapes that won't empty your savings

The tropical daydream has a reputation for being expensive, but that's mostly the resorts talking. Across South-East Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean's quieter corners, warm seas and coconut palms come with guesthouse prices and street-food bills. These ten destinations keep costs honest once you've swallowed the airfare — think beach bungalows for the price of a UK car park and dinners that cost less than the tip back home.

Lanta is Thailand at its most relaxed: long west-facing beaches, a mellow Muslim-Thai fishing culture and sunset bars where a cold Chang costs little more than a pound. Bamboo bungalows steps from the sand remain genuinely cheap outside January. Hire a scooter, work through the beaches from Long Beach south to Bamboo Bay, and time dinner to the nightly sky show.

Between Galle's Dutch fort and the surf town of Weligama, Sri Lanka's south coast strings together palm-fringed bays, whale-watching out of Mirissa and rice-and-curry feasts for a couple of pounds. Trains along the coast cost pennies and provide the scenery for free. December to March is the dry season here; a first surf lesson in warm, forgiving Weligama water is practically a rite.

Duty-free status keeps prices low across this jungly Malaysian island, and its infrastructure — good roads, a cable car up into the rainforest canopy, night markets that rotate villages — makes budget travel effortless. Pantai Cenang has the buzz; Tanjung Rhu the wow. Eat where the night market queue is longest; a full dinner rarely tops a few ringgit more than the parking would at home.

Vietnam's teardrop island off the Cambodian coast mixes powdery Long Beach sunsets with fishing-village seafood at prices that feel like typos. Visa-exempt entry for short stays keeps admin painless. The south's Sao Beach does the white-sand-turquoise-water thing; the north stays sleepy and rural. November to March is dry, golden and — by tropical standards — outrageously good value.

On the Samaná peninsula, far from the all-inclusive strips, Las Terrenas is the Caribbean with a Latin-European accent: palm-crowded beaches, cheap colmado beers, whale season in February and March and guesthouses at prices Barbados forgot decades ago. Quad bikes and moto-taxis stand in for hire cars. Playa Bonita, ten minutes away, is one of the Caribbean's most underrated beaches.

The gentlest of the three Gili islands off Lombok has no cars, no motorbikes and no need for either — you cross it on foot in twenty minutes. Snorkel with turtles straight off the beach, eat grilled fish at sand-floored warungs and let horse carts provide the only traffic noise. Rooms with breakfast go for hostel prices. It's the tropical reset button, minus the resort mark-up.

An hour's ferry from Sihanoukville, Sanloem is the quiet sibling island: a crescent of squeaky white sand at Saracen Bay, bioluminescent plankton on moonless nights and bungalows that cost less than a London round of drinks. Electricity can be part-time and Wi-Fi temperamental — treat that as the feature it is. November to May offers the calmest, clearest water.

Boracay's famous 2018 closure-and-clean-up worked: White Beach — four kilometres of sand so fine it squeaks underfoot — is calmer and cleaner than its old party reputation suggests, and rooms a street back from the front still go for backpacker money. Graze the barbecue stalls around D'Mall, then escape to quieter Puka Shell Beach when the sunset crowds gather. Visit December to May, during the amihan winds, when the water sits flat as bathwater.

Kerala's beach scene peaks at Varkala, where red laterite cliffs rise behind Papanasam Beach and a clifftop path strings together juice bars, yoga schools and guesthouses with sea views at Indian prices. The beach below is sacred — locals scatter ashes at dawn — which keeps development respectful and the mood mellow. Thalis and fresh-caught seafood cost pocket change. Come November to February, after the monsoon, when the sea calms and the sunsets perform nightly.

Half an hour by fast boat from Sanur, Nusa Penida serves Bali's most outrageous coastline — the T-rex-shaped cliffs of Kelingking, the natural infinity pool at Angel's Billabong, mantas at Crystal Bay — at guesthouse-and-warung prices. Roads are rough, so hire a driver rather than white-knuckling a scooter. Stay two nights; day-trippers see the queues, overnighters get the dawn viewpoints alone. April to October brings dry trails and the clearest, calmest water.