2019 Travel Plans

[RooFlyer]

here's nothing better than getting back to your riad and having a swim in the pool in the courtyard.

Agreed ... La Maison Arabe.

 

[Ed Force One]

My 2019 plans for July-August:
Melb-Sing-Frankfurt- NYC-Montreal-Quebec-NYC-Sing-Melb

Planning to fly SQ as I have a bunch of KF points to burn

 

[trooper]

A relatively dull year...because I'm spending my first year or so of "semi retirement" just seeing how the income and budget pans out...NZ will be a more common destination I think. Phillipines late in the year but can probably survive Y for that trip lol. Was very pleased to use up my remaining Lifemiles on the one planned US trip in August. OZ in J SYD-ICN-LAX and then the real treat, ORD-NRT-SYD on NH with ORD-NRT in F. (No F NRT-SYD of course) A nice "Last hurrah" after a dozen years of US/AV bonus miles purchasing and redeeming...

 

[trooper]

Wife and I both 60 in 2019. We were planning a trip to Japan and Korea to celebrate but one of our sons is now working at the Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna Canada in between working at the Summer Camps in USA. Understandably wife wants to see our son in between the seasons so plans changed to Canada for a 4 week trip.

For the last 6 years have been travelling in J on SQ using points for trips to Europe and Asia. Wanting to keep what points we have for future Europe flights so having to pay for international flights is a somewhat new! Plan on flying on China Airlines in PE on the way there and J on the way back and at around $3000 each from Brisbane return is in my view good value with the bonus of a day to see Taipei on the way there and back. Will be leaving at the end of April.

We will have a few days in Vancouver and then pick up a hire car and drive to Kelowna to pick up our son and then take around 8 days to drive to Calgary. Will then fly back to Vancouver for a 7 day Alaska cruise. Son will then fly on to New York. Once back in Vancouver will then take a ferry to Victoria on Vancouver Island for a few nights and then on to Seattle for a few nights before flying home from Vancouver.

Am surprised by the high cost of hotels (will stay in some Airbnb) in Canada and Seattle and also internal flights in Canada (Calgary to Vancouver). Looking like the 4 week trip will be about double what a 4 week Europe trip would cost though that does include the cruise. Will be the first time in USA and Canada for me though wife had a trip there in the early 80s.

Not looking forward to the coffee and beer in Canada and USA! From doing some research Kelowna is the main wine producing area in Canada so hoping to try some Canadian wines.

I can't comment on coffee but based on my travel buddys experiences you might be surprised by the beer in the USA... SO many smaller breweries seem to exist now... he always manages to find something interesting that he hasn't drunk before.... If you are in the pacific Northwest at all I'd recommend (Newport Oregon? IIRC) the Rogue Brewery tour as entertaining...

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Since I am now being coached by penegal I will be as accurate as I possibly can - Sing, China, Sweden, France, England, Hong Kong (is that China?), USA, Indo, Phils, Swiss, Germany - when, how and how often yet to be decided - some decisions / itineraries already finalised - others from 1 day prior til who knows when - will be as exciting and eventful as I can possibly make it.

 

[OZDUCK]

I can't comment on coffee but based on my travel buddys experiences you might be surprised by the beer in the USA... SO many smaller breweries seem to exist now... he always manages to find something interesting that he hasn't drunk before.... If you are in the pacific Northwest at all I'd recommend (Newport Oregon? IIRC) the Rogue Brewery tour as entertaining...

Moffat39 Like trooper I can't personally comment on the coffee, but my wife assures me that it was consistently horrid in eastern Canada from Toronto to Halifax. But I also encountered an incredible number of small craft breweries in Canada. Any town above a few thousand people seemed to have at least a craft brewing bar. They especially seemed to favour various varieties of ales. A lot of them offered tasting paddles which are always interesting.

Wine was a mixed bag. I tasted some a a winery near Niagara-on-the-Lake. which was horrid. However I also had some near Wolfville in Nova Scotia which was fabulous. I am sure there will be plenty of good wine on the west coast.

 

[JohnM]

Kelowna in Canada is in the Okanagan Valley - an exceptional wine region.

 

[moffat39]

I can't comment on coffee but based on my travel buddys experiences you might be surprised by the beer in the USA... SO many smaller breweries seem to exist now... he always manages to find something interesting that he hasn't drunk before.... If you are in the pacific Northwest at all I'd recommend (Newport Oregon? IIRC) the Rogue Brewery tour as entertaining..

Moffat39 Like trooper I can't personally comment on the coffee, but my wife assures me that it was consistently horrid in eastern Canada from Toronto to Halifax. But I also encountered an incredible number of small craft breweries in Canada. Any town above a few thousand people seemed to have at least a craft brewing bar. They especially seemed to favour various varieties of ales. A lot of them offered tasting paddles which are always interesting.

Wine was a mixed bag. I tasted some a a winery near Niagara-on-the-Lake. which was horrid. However I also had some near Wolfville in Nova Scotia which was fabulous. I am sure there will be plenty of good wine on the west coast.

Kelowna in Canada is in the Okanagan Valley - an exceptional wine region.

Trooper,Ozduck and JohnM -many thanks for your helpful replies. I am preparing myself for 4 weeks of bad coffee! There are facebook groups for Alaska Cruises with Princess Cruises and the overall comments about the coffee are negative. I will take some of the individual satchels you can buy in supermarkets in Australia for coffee to have on the cruise.

The craft beer sounds good and will give them a try.

And looking forward to Okanagan Valley wine. I have read that the valley is the same latitude as Champagne and Rhine Valley regions with some good rieslings. One of my favourite wines is an aged riesling so hoping they will have aged rieslings in the valley.

 

[Flashback]

Trooper,Ozduck and JohnM -many thanks for your helpful replies. I am preparing myself for 4 weeks of bad coffee! There are facebook groups for Alaska Cruises with Princess Cruises and the overall comments about the coffee are negative. I will take some of the individual satchels you can buy in supermarkets in Australia for coffee to have on the cruise.

The craft beer sounds good and will give them a try.

And looking forward to Okanagan Valley wine. I have read that the valley is the same latitude as Champagne and Rhine Valley regions with some good rieslings. One of my favourite wines is an aged riesling so hoping they will have aged rieslings in the valley.

Currently in the Alsace wine region and partook in a riesling or two last night

 

[moffat39]

Currently in the Alsace wine region and partook in a riesling or two last night

Flashback - some great Rieslings and Pinot Gris from the Alsace. Can buy Grand Cru Rieslings in Brisbane at Thierry Galichet's bottle shop La Cache Brisbane. He is the importer as well and they are very reasonably priced.

 

[CMak]

What's the concern?

Reports of constant lost luggage episodes, change of flight times (we have already has a change from a late afternoon flight departure to a mid morning departure so we now need to be at the airport at 7am) and flight delays.

 

[Renato1]

I've just finished all the airline bookings for next year's 10 week trip.
Melbourne - Tunis
Tunis - Lisbon
Lisbon - Venice
Venice - Doha
Doha - Melbourne.

For the outbound and inward legs of the trip, there was no competition - Qatar won hands down (same case as it was last year when we flew Melboune to Stockholm, then Venice to Melbourne). Curiously, my travel agent could only get prices $108 dearer than what I could get with Qatar by logging in as a Privelege Member at the Qatar site.

Using BudgetAir.com.au I saved just over $220 on the ticket prices for both of us on the Lisbon- Venice leg with AirPortugal compared to using their site. The saving from using BudgetAir with TunisAir was only very small.

I was originally planning on doing Tunis then Malta, but very oddly, the direct flights from Tunis to Malta cease in March, so that instead of doing a 50 minute flight, we'd have had to do a five hour flight via Rome. So I ruled out Malta and went for Lisbon.

I also decided to use up all my Amex Member Reward Points and Travel Credit to pay for the hotels in Tunis and Doha, where for a change, the prices were actually slightly cheaper than the prices at Booking.com. I've booked a hotel in Lisbon with Booking.com wth free cancellation, intending to alter the booking and pay for some of the nights with next year's Amex Travel credit and with any points I accumulate before the big devaluation in April.
Regards,
Renato

 

[JohnM]

I've just finished all the airline bookings for next year's 10 week trip.
Melbourne - Tunis
Tunis - Lisbon
Lisbon - Venice
Venice - Doha
Doha - Melbourne.

How long are you spending in Tunisia and are you planning on travelling outside Tunis? I believe Tunisia is now re-awakening quite quickly on the tourism front.

 

[JohnM]

I've just finished putting together a DONE4 to finalise several trips next year.

I have a milestone birthday and the slippery slope is getting steeper so I've decided that I need to pick up the pace.

1. Early March: Kimberley in the wet. The only way to get into the Mitchell Plateau area at that time of year is by air. A nice bit of aviation involved in this trip :



2. Late March- early May. Six weeks Chile, Argentina, Uruguay.

This started when @juddles said to me that I ought to cease always moving while travelling and stop and settle into a place for a bit. Why don't I come to the fishing village in Chile where he is busy refurbishing his house?

My response was to first check that it wasn't the rum talking , because I said I'm prone to making instant decisions. All clear and the best time sorted, so within a few days I'm scoping a QF FF redemption. Hmmm - that's interesting - a J award on EK PER-xDXB-xGRU-SCL shows up . I didn't know EK flies to SCL . Turns out they didn't then, but it was starting in July. Bingo! Awesome! . Booked and I'll worry later about getting home.

Have a bit of a think about what else I'd like to do while over in S America. The Salta wine region in NW Argentina has been on my to-do list for years. And Uruguay has sat under the radar, but not entirely unnoticed for a while. Six weeks sounds like a nice sojourn to accomplish all these objectives - roughly two weeks in each of the three places.

Look for award flights home and QR EZE-xDOH-PER in J shows. Ding! Done!

Buy a LA el-cheapo LSC-xSCL-AEP where I'll rent a car and head to the mountains and back, then take the ferry to Uruguay and rent a car there for a snoop around.

Thanks @juddles! Really looking forward to this one! .




3. Mid June-mid October. A bunch of things strung together like pearls on a string using a DONE4 (and a few other linking flights.)



Start with a visit to friends in South Carolina, followed by Mexico & Cuba.



Back to LOTFAP and up to Nome, with a few days there to rent a 4WD and scope it out. Take a charter flight over to Anadyr in Russia to join an expedition cruise 'Across the Top of the World' to Wrangel Island.



Back to Nome from Anadyr, down to LAX, across to DOH and up to Helsinki for a weekend. Then to DEL via a bit of cruising on AY and JL .

From DEL to Ashgabat in Turkmenistan to start a 5 Stans tour. Told @RooFlyer I was doing this; he was swiftly aboard . Finish that in Almaty, Kazakhstan.



Back to DEL and on to BOM to fill in a few days there and at the Ajanta and Ellora caves near Aurangabad.

Then move on to Amritsar to scope out the Indian Hill Country.



Finish that and straight down to CMB for a look around Sri Lanka.



Then home xHKG.

That lot should help pass the time and keep me from getting bored....

Now to start on 2020....

 

[amaroo]

I've just finished putting together a DONE4 to finalise several trips next year.

I have a milestone birthday and the slippery slope is getting steeper so I've decided that I need to pick up the pace.

.

Now that's travelling! Nice to see some familiar destinations in your itinerary

 

[drron]

Well JohnM you may very well spend less time at home than me for 2019.Awesome.

 

[Major]

That's also a lot of TR's I have to view

 

[VPS]

I've just finished putting together a DONE4 to finalise several trips next year.

I have a milestone birthday and the slippery slope is getting steeper so I've decided that I need to pick up the pace.

1. Early March: Kimberley in the wet. The only way to get into the Mitchell Plateau area at that time of year is by air. A nice bit of aviation involved in this trip :

View attachment 146998

2. Late March- early May. Six weeks Chile, Argentina, Uruguay.

This started when @juddles said to me that I ought to cease always moving while travelling and stop and settle into a place for a bit. Why don't I come to the fishing village in Chile where he is busy refurbishing his house?

My response was to first check that it wasn't the rum talking , because I said I'm prone to making instant decisions. All clear and the best time sorted, so within a few days I'm scoping a QF FF redemption. Hmmm - that's interesting - a J award on EK PER-xDXB-xGRU-SCL shows up . I didn't know EK flies to SCL . Turns out they didn't then, but it was starting in July. Bingo! Awesome! . Booked and I'll worry later about getting home.

Have a bit of a think about what else I'd like to do while over in S America. The Salta wine region in NW Argentina has been on my to-do list for years. And Uruguay has sat under the radar, but not entirely unnoticed for a while. Six weeks sounds like a nice sojourn to accomplish all these objectives - roughly two weeks in each of the three places.

Look for award flights home and QR EZE-xDOH-PER in J shows. Ding! Done!

Buy a LA el-cheapo LSC-xSCL-AEP where I'll rent a car and head to the mountains and back, then take the ferry to Uruguay and rent a car there for a snoop around.

Thanks @juddles! Really looking forward to this one! .

View attachment 146999
View attachment 147000

3. Mid June-mid October. A bunch of things strung together like pearls on a string using a DONE4 (and a few other linking flights.)

View attachment 147001

Start with a visit to friends in South Carolina, followed by Mexico & Cuba.

View attachment 147002

Back to LOTFAP and up to Nome, with a few days there to rent a 4WD and scope it out. Take a charter flight over to Anadyr in Russia to join an expedition cruise 'Across the Top of the World' to Wrangel Island.

View attachment 147003

Back to Nome from Anadyr, down to LAX, across to DOH and up to Helsinki for a weekend. Then to DEL via a bit of cruising on AY and JL .

From DEL to Ashgabat in Turkmenistan to start a 5 Stans tour. Told @RooFlyer I was doing this; he was swiftly aboard . Finish that in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

View attachment 147004

Back to DEL and on to BOM to fill in a few days there and at the Ajanta and Ellora caves near Aurangabad.

Then move on to Amritsar to scope out the Indian Hill Country.

View attachment 147005

Finish that and straight down to CMB for a look around Sri Lanka.

View attachment 147006

Then home xHKG.

That lot should help pass the time and keep me from getting bored....

Now to start on 2020....

I'm tired just looking at the itinerary - sounds fantastic

 

[Renato1]

How long are you spending in Tunisia and are you planning on travelling outside Tunis? I believe Tunisia is now re-awakening quite quickly on the tourism front.

Hi John,
We're just spending five nights/four full days there - should be enough to see the town and nearby Carthiginian ruins (what's left of them after the Romans destroyed Carthage).
Regards,
Renato

 

[RooFlyer]

Am surprised by the high cost of hotels (will stay in some Airbnb) in Canada and Seattle and also internal flights in Canada (Calgary to Vancouver). Looking like the 4 week trip will be about double what a 4 week Europe trip would cost though that does include the cruise. Will be the first time in USA and Canada for me though wife had a trip there in the early 80s.

Not looking forward to the coffee and beer in Canada and USA! From doing some research Kelowna is the main wine producing area in Canada so hoping to try some Canadian wines.

You can get some decent coffee in Canada. I haven't done the east in detail for over 20 years, but DeVille Coffee at 1st St SW in Calgary and the Wild Flour Cafe in Banff are definite winners. There are numerous bakeries in Vancouver which have espresso machines and good coffee.

A bit of a write-up about Kelowna and some wineries here.

Check Canada in the trip report index here.