Sydney to London stopover suggestions

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bagman

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Hi there
Flying to Scotland next year ( via London) with 5 adults plus 2 1/2 year old and 4 month.
That distance requires a stop I reckon, bearing in mind the age of the youngest member of our group.
Any suggestions apart from the obvious Asian stops ?
I’m trying to breakdown the journey as sensibly as I can.
My wife and I will be in Business and the others in PE seats, including the 2 1/2 year old.
If I stop off in Singapore for a day, which flight would be best for the onward journey to London ?
I see Singapore have an early daytime departure along with the usual nighttime options.

Looking for your suggestions taking into account that the stopover is all for the 2 youngest members.

Many thanks for your advice and suggestions

cheers
 
The issue of a stopover is a difficult one... by the time you land, clear immigration, collect bags, file in to a taxi, get transported to the hotel, check-in, unpack, find food, bathe, try and go to sleep... you'll be two to three hours into your onward flight. And of course all the same things in reverse on the way back, except another two hours sitting waiting at the airport for boarding. If the child has their own seat they should be able to sleep comfortably, especially if you can get one of the inflatable bed cubes (they fill the gap, at seat level, between the child's seat and the seat in front).

otherwise, if a stopover really is essential, Singapore would be the place to do it. Clean, efficient, compact. but the hotels aren't necessarily cheap. Although if flying Singapore airlines they might have their $1 stopover program available.
 
Hi
Thanks so much for those very helpful suggestions.
Much appreciated and gives me food for thought.

Cheers
 
Whilst I've never had a "stopover" on the way to europe, aside from its recent issues, Hong Kong has always been my preferred route on the basis of being nearer (not much) to the half way point than SIN. Especially on the return, SIN is too close for an overnight flight to ever be comfortable. A recent award flight on EK going via asia and DXB did show that splitting the flight into 3 segments was actually quite relaxing. Again we didn't do stop overs, but if you chose to, it breaks the journey nicely.

I do however agree with the sentiment regarding the effort of a stop-over. If time isn't an issue and you were to take a day or two for the stop(s), then it wouldn't be such an issue though.
 
I don't know your airline preferences, but one option is Sri Lanka. Negombo, a seaside city which is close to the airport (about 20 minutes by taxi) has a range of resort type hotels where the kids can run around at least - we stayed at the Camelot Beach Hotel in Feb. It's about half way to London (10 hours from Melbourne), which makes it a good point to break
 
I don't know your airline preferences, but one option is Sri Lanka. Negombo, a seaside city which is close to the airport (about 20 minutes by taxi) has a range of resort type hotels where the kids can run around at least - we stayed at the Camelot Beach Hotel in Feb. It's about half way to London (10 hours from Melbourne), which makes it a good point to break
I second the idea, but UL has no PE seating. OTOH, their business class on the A330s is quite good and there is the possibility of saving $$ on the flight package.
And Negombo has hotels in almost all price ranges.

Happy wandering
Fred
 
If you do look at Singapore, I recently did a trip MEL-SIN-FRA (and then onto New York). I arrived into SIN mid evening and left again for FRA just before 2pm the next day. There are a similar (slightly earlier) flights to LHR leaving around 9am and 12:30pm. Whilst it does take longer to get to London, I really enjoy these "day" flights from Asia as you arrive in London and it's not too long before bed time (instead of first thing in the morning on the overnight flights) but each to their own. I believe you can do similar via KL, Hong Kong, Japan, Bangkok and probably China as well. The big plus is you don't miss a night in a proper bed.

(Oh, full disclosure though 1) I did choose this based on award availability and 2) I live in Singapore, so whilst technically a "layover" as far as my ticket was concerned, it was nice to go home, do some laundry, sleep in my own bed etc.... so that's a different scenario to yours and that of most.)
 
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Thanks so much for all these very helpful suggestions. Gives me plenty to work on.
Hope Santa is good to you all !
Cheers
 
A less obvious Asian stop over is Taiwan.
Indeed, the China Airlines (which is Taiwanese not Chinese) PE product looks good for the money (assuming sale prices still available) & J is brilliant for the money (and can be cheaper than PE on the likes of QF or CX or SQ).
 
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