2025 travel plans

[SuePa]

That all sounds amazing! Where in eastern Turkey? Promise a TR?

It's a trip with Wild Frontiers, called Turkey: Eastern Borderlands

Turkey: Eastern Borderlands (New Tour) | Wild Frontiers

Explore the diverse history and changing scenery of eastern Turkey, where ancient civilisations have sculpted the landscapes and cities leaving a rich legacy of striking architecture, varied culture and delicious cuisine.

www.wildfrontierstravel.com

Hmm a trip report? Maybe. I'm not very good at that sort of thing.

 

[RooFlyer]

It's a trip with Wild Frontiers, called Turkey: Eastern Borderlands

Turkey: Eastern Borderlands (New Tour) | Wild Frontiers

Explore the diverse history and changing scenery of eastern Turkey, where ancient civilisations have sculpted the landscapes and cities leaving a rich legacy of striking architecture, varied culture and delicious cuisine.

www.wildfrontierstravel.com

Hmm a trip report? Maybe. I'm not very good at that sort of thing.

Wow - fantastic! I'm going to try to do that when I can squeeze it in.

 

[RooFlyer]

Just finished booking a trip to Scotland, Azores and Barcelona in October next year, all reward seats, except the flights from the Azores yet to be booked.

Honestly amazed how easy it was to get QR business using Virgin and Alaskan points/miles; multiple choices every day, at least 2 seats available each flight (I was only after 1). Booking a week after inventory opened, to make sure all inventory was available.

BNE-DOH-AMS (VFF/QR)
AMS-LHR-INV (ASMP/BA)
INV-LHD-PDL (Aeroplan/TAP)
BCN-DOH (VFF/QR)
DOH-CGK (ASMP/QR)
CGK-MEL (QFF/QF)

 

[casanovawa]

Just got back from an 8 week trip partly in Asia/Europe as well as ducking down to Tunisia so doing a bit of recovering before booking more travel, but then had some Krisflyer miles expiring on the weekend so booked J flights MNL-ICN-ALA (Almaty, Kazakhstan) so will probably do about 4 weeks going around those Stans in June 2005 with a bit of time in the Philippines before... Maybe might add Georgia/Azerbaijan/Armenia at the end before heading home but yet to book those flights?

Feb/Mar 2025 maybe duck to India/Sir Lanka/Nepal?

Apart from that will probably spend several weeks/a month in Thailand and also Vietnam throughout the year....

Throw in a few other places along the way?

 

[drron]

The first week of january is the end of our Christmas Thailand trip.
February. Sydney for 55 years since graduation.
March. Week in North Island NZ.
May maybe a Singapore - Mumbai cruise followed by 2 weeks in Singapore and Thailand. cruise will probably be cancelled but the post cruise trip will be done anyway.

Then a gap until our family Christmas trip. Probably in Samoa.

All now firmed up. Added to above is end January 3 days on Gold Coast.
May cruise now cancelled but we already had awards BNE-SIN so now 5 days in SIN. 5 days in Bataam and 5 days in Bangkok. Was able to get awards SIN-BKK and BKK-SIN-BNE. J on SQ.

August /September Awards BNE-BKK on JQ Then BKK-DOH-MAN ( QR via AA miles) for 2 weeks in UK Before Cruise Southampton - Lisbon for 2 weeks.
then 3 nights in LIsbon,4 nights in Zurich before awards again through AA on QR ZRH-DOH-BKK. The DOH-BKK in F.
A few nights in BKK and as then school holidays paid J on SQ BKK-SIN-BNE..

Christmas pretty definite as Samoa and we will fly there on VA as their flights there and back are day flights and QF there is overnight.

 

[Peanutbladder]

First 2 months of 2025 now fixed:
Nagoya and Singapore in Jan and in early Feb onto Tampa.

Later on in the year should be India and China and even a holiday if I can swing it !!

 

[Tiki]

It's a trip with Wild Frontiers, called Turkey: Eastern Borderlands

Turkey: Eastern Borderlands (New Tour) | Wild Frontiers

Explore the diverse history and changing scenery of eastern Turkey, where ancient civilisations have sculpted the landscapes and cities leaving a rich legacy of striking architecture, varied culture and delicious cuisine.

www.wildfrontierstravel.com

Hmm a trip report? Maybe. I'm not very good at that sort of thing.

This is an amazing part of Turkiye! I did the eastern part with a friend by car as a circle from Kars and also passed by Malazgirt which is where Alparslan made his first conquest in Anatolia. Then to Tatvan and the same route you show. This was last Oct, weather was nice.

I did southern Turkiye in May 2024, also amazing! Couldn't find anyone to travel with so I did it with local minibuses, a couple big buses and taxis to get to Gobeklitepe. The guesthouse in Karadut was very friendly, family run place called Isik Pansyon and one of the boys serves as a guide to Nemrut Dagi. It's quite a hike uphill. I also went to Diyarbakir and Mardin, then to Sanliurfa. There are fun folklore nights at some of the hotels, I was at Abraham Hotel, bookable of QF Hotels. Sadly there are still buildings destroyed by the earthquake along the route and Gaziantep Castle is still being repaired. But the people were wonderful everywhere, no wonder I consider Turkiye my 2nd home and keep going back, hence staying in the miles and points game!

 

[bPeteb]

Start the year in Busan Korea. We fly to Seoul on Dec 24. We'll spend 13 days between Seoul, Jeju, Busan and Gyeongju.

well this could be interesting!

 

[OZDUCK]

If anyone has been to Lyon - how many days would you think it demands? We will be there, God willing, in early June next year. I had thought about a couple of days for the city and then another day or two for 'day trips' by train to surrounding towns.

 

[clifford]

I had to cancel a trip to Europe in April as my wife is now having surgery in March.

I was going to visit relatives in London and then spend some time in Croatia (Dubrovnik and Split). I was flying QR ex MNL and thankfully they have a pretty good refund policy for biz class tickets, so I wasn't out of pocket all that much.

I was a little disappointed to have to cancel, as QR have just put their new A350's on the MNL-DOH run, rather than the old 2-2-2 777's. Oh well, there's always nex time....

 

[SuePa]

This is an amazing part of Turkiye! I did the eastern part with a friend by car as a circle from Kars and also passed by Malazgirt which is where Alparslan made his first conquest in Anatolia. Then to Tatvan and the same route you show. This was last Oct, weather was nice.

I did southern Turkiye in May 2024, also amazing! Couldn't find anyone to travel with so I did it with local minibuses, a couple big buses and taxis to get to Gobeklitepe. The guesthouse in Karadut was very friendly, family run place called Isik Pansyon and one of the boys serves as a guide to Nemrut Dagi. It's quite a hike uphill. I also went to Diyarbakir and Mardin, then to Sanliurfa. There are fun folklore nights at some of the hotels, I was at Abraham Hotel, bookable of QF Hotels. Sadly there are still buildings destroyed by the earthquake along the route and Gaziantep Castle is still being repaired. But the people were wonderful everywhere, no wonder I consider Turkiye my 2nd home and keep going back, hence staying in the miles and points game!

Thanks for that info Tiki. It's good to know.
I went to Turkiye earlier this year with Intrepid and saw a poster with the stone heads that piqued my interest. So, when I saw this trip and it fit perfectly with the other trip I'd already booked, I jumped at it. I'll just have to make sure I'm fit enough to get up Nemrut Dag!

 

[VPS]

If anyone has been to Lyon - how many days would you think it demands? We will be there, God willing, in early June next year. I had thought about a couple of days for the city and then another day or two for 'day trips' by train to surrounding towns.

I could easily spend 3 days in Lyon just going to the market and touring around but definitely no less than two full days just for Lyon

 

[Dmac59]

Just got back from 10d in Tokyo (first time), loved it so will head back to Japan late next year.

April: PER - Fremantle 1 week break
May: BNE - State of Origin 1
July: CNS -Port Douglas 1 week break
October: SYD -NRL GF (Hoping)
November: KIX - Osaka/Kyoto

 

[burmans]

NZ in January, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey in May/June. Followed by Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh in Sept/Oct.

All redemptions, Qantas to NZ, Velocity (SQ), Air Canada (Turkish/SQ) for the Caucuses, and Velocity (SQ) for the Sept/Oct trip. All J except to NZ.

 

[Flyerwin]

Bali booked for now during QF double status points period a few weeks ago. Never been there. Kids flying U (only one way, on way back it’s J plus points), we’re flying J both ways.

 

[AIRwin]

Just booked VA flights for 2 weekend trips to SYD in February before the end of the Black Friday sales and triple points promotion

 

[OZDUCK]

I could easily spend 3 days in Lyon just going to the market and touring around but definitely no less than two full days just for Lyon

Thanks - I might push it out to three days in town if possible.

 

[Warks]

Just got back from NZ having completed the fourth of the 10 Great Walks of New Zealand now. I started on these with the teens about nine years ago but have had a six year hiatus. Now keen to do the rest.
Just did the Tongariro Northern Circuit, a four day walk. Not to be confused with the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing which is a very long day walk. We shared the track with that walk for some 10km through the high volcanic country and there were hundreds of people doing that crossing on a Wednesday. Our huts were limited to 20 persons plus another dozen campers so we never had many on our track.
My original plan was to do the Milford Track but I've never been able to get on as all places are swept up in minutes every year like a Taylor Swift concert.
But add another Great Walk to my travel plans for 2025, hoping for Milford, or Routeburn, but if not Abel Tasman.

 

[Flashback]

This one slipped me by...... current bookings for 2025 are:

• Jan - finishing off Christmas in Lake Tahoe trip and arriving in Spain (was cheaper to end there) on NYE, then off on a road trip for a few days
• Jan - Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay (IYKYK)
• Feb/Mar - Perth (and the far surrounds)
• April - Georgia
• May/Jun - Sri Lanka
• August - Greenland (expedition cruise)

Plans to be nutted out still for Georgia and Sri Lanka, thinking of maybe hiring a car in Sri Lanka and road tripping but need to see how viable that is.

 

[RooFlyer]

Plans to be nutted out still for Georgia and Sri Lanka, thinking of maybe hiring a car in Sri Lanka and road tripping but need to see how viable that is.

A number of we AFFers have used a driver and Tour person ‘Lucky’ with good results. Can also suggest good accommodations etc.

Not sure if he is still in business, but if it’s of interest I’d search Lucky and Sri Lanka here and see what the most recent hit is.