2026 travel plans

[Flashback]

Well, I have nothing planned for after May.

I'm struggling to find any decent J airfares from Asia to Europe, but hopefully something will come up in the next few months.

Things aint what they used to be, that's for sure.

Define decent? MNL to MXP has J fares for around $3k return for most of the year...

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm struggling to find any decent J airfares from Asia to Europe, but hopefully something will come up in the next few months.

I had a quick look at TK ex Australia to Europe for next year, and they were, from bad memory c $4,000 or so. May have screwed it upo, but I'm getting my TA to look closely when she comes back from hols.

 

[Forg]

I didn’t think my musings were worthy of their own thread, so I’ll plonk them (and associated questions) here.

My wife & I a’re in the planning stages of getting a house built, so haven’t wanted to go away for extended periods as the builder’s really tardy & we can’t afford the chance of stretching things out by not getting back to them immediately with answers to any query. So it’s been a while even since considering it.
We were probably going to do a US trip next, but now I think we’ll wait ‘til they open their borders up to tourism again.

Now we have quite a few places we’d like to go in Europe, but they’re relatively separated from each other. We’ve already had a couple of Europe & a couple of UK trips, and on those I did what I’d do for a road-trip heading out from Sydney, and planned to check-out as many things as possible along the way … basically chose a few things we really wanted to do & found things to look-at & places to stay etc while traveling in between those “keystone” places.

But this next one is looking like maybe I’ll plan a bit differently. Maybe arrive in a place & spend 4-5 days there just looking around locally there, then probably use a train to head straight to the next place where we’ll spend 4-5 days. Not even really trying to find things to look at in between, obviously not a rule set in stone but a bit different to previous trips which were mostly planned around moving most of the time - and which probably means more surprise locations BUT also means lost time in prepping to leave & finding your way to accommodation & that initial sussing-out of the local transport yadda yadda. Effectively going to maybe 5-6 places for 4-5 days apiece, rather than passing-through a bunch of places but not necessarily having time to check ‘em out (but sometimes you do).

Kinda thought it’d be interesting to ask what youze frequent travellers thought on the difference - going to “a few places” but for “a longer time”, as opposed to yelling Road Trip (albeit needing to pre-book accommodation along the way)?

 

[markis10]

so haven’t wanted to go away for extended periods as the builder’s really tardy

Problem solved


Works with family members being tardy packing their bags for that trip as well

 

[Forg]

I suspect the scale of required jolts might bring the grid down …

 

[Clayton]

Kinda thought it’d be interesting to ask what youze frequent travellers thought on the difference - going to “a few places” but for “a longer time”, as opposed to yelling Road Trip (albeit needing to pre-book accommodation along the way)?

Mrs Clayton and I tend to prefer picking a few interesting places and staying for 4-7 days before moving to the next place. Tend to pick 2-3 places on a Europe trip and often build in a 14 day cruise as well.

2026 plans consists of Vancouver, then 23 day Viking Ocean cruise to Tokyo, via Alaska.

Booked SQ J flights a few months ago.

 

[chitown_boy]

So far, 26 sectors ticketed:
January: Bali - mainly Ubud
February: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima
March: Vancouver?
April: Bangkok, New York
May: Gran Canaria, New York, San Francisco, Sevilla, Cadíz, Barcelona
June: Glasgow, Barcelona
July: Madrid, Barcelona

 

[Warks]

I mentioned before a trip in August to Sweden, Portugal plus Madeira then Prague/Vienna/Bratislava but I've found there's a cheap flight from Bratislava to Plovdiv, Bulgaria, a place I've long wanted to visit so that's in play now. It's Wizz Airlines though and it's somewhat seasonal so not flying every day. Will see. Then we can take the train to Istanbul and fly home via BKK.

 

[sydney slug]

Testing out 2 knee replacements in Furano in late January - first Premium Econ trip since 2007 but both are daytime flights. Price was half J class.

RTW in Business in May, wedding to attend on the East Coast before visiting the charred remains of my aunt's house in Pacific Palisades. Visiting brother in New York, son in London, conference in Barcelona, clockwise road trip to San Sebastian and back via Toulouse, weekend in Bologna then home from Milan via BKK. Main carrier United; weird ticketing by Air NZ and Austrian about $2,400 cheaper than official Star Alliance pricing and not flying either carrier.

 

[Berlin]

Besides the odd Domestic trip, we’ve booked Sydney to Frankfurt return on Cathay in late May, 8k each in J. Quick trip to Berlin for a concert and to see some old friends, then a drive via Prague, Munich and my parents’ place back to Frankfurt for yet another concert. Then back home, exactly 3 weeks total.

Then hoping to head to the US later in the year, ideally for hubby’s birthday in October. Thinking LA and Vegas, the a hop up to Ohio to finally show him Cedar Point (yay!) and then maybe a couple of days in Texas before heading back home. If Qantas has random J specials to the states at any time, we’ll make a move.

Other than the above and potentially an alternative to the US would be going back to mainland China which we will otherwise consider for Christmas next year. We loved our trip two years ago and can’t wait to explore more of this amazing country (and to practice my shaky Mandarin). Definitely Xi’an this time and then we will see- will try to get one or two Domestic Business class flights in as those are AMAZING. If booked well, one can enjoy 3 hour trips on wide bodied planes for around $500 a person. Crazy modern airports with nice lounges, flat beds with slippers for a 3 hour flight and generally decent food and service. Highly underrated for some reason, we loved every single flight and airline.

 

[oznflfan]

14 nights in Europe, fly to London 4 nights, just relaxing, then Eurostar over to Paris, then pick up hire car for 10 days and drive in counter clockwise loop France to Belgium and back to CDG, then back home. WW1 and WW2 sites, memorials and museums. Leaving beginning of February 2026. Will be cold, but rather visit those sights in the bleakest of winter.

Possibly Speedway World Cup end of August in Warsaw, but TBC, 50/50 if I go. Attended last one in Wroclaw late July 2023 and was fantastic.

Both long trips from Alice Springs.