Hey there, JFC-ers,

I’m hopeful that by the time you receive this edition of the Detour, you're all safe and well, and none of us have been blown away by the latest storm barrelling through the UK and Ireland. Needless to say, the red weather warnings for high winds, snow and torrential rain are not filling me full of optimism for a weekend free from travel chaos. 

But thankfully, in just a week’s time, I should be heading off to sunnier climes in Vietnam. And when I get there, I’ll be armed with a gazillion recommendations from you, lovely readers! 

Having taken your suggestions to heart, we’ll be spending a few days in Ho Chi Minh City before heading north to Hoi An, staying at An Bang beach. One of the most remarkable things I found when booking accommodation in Vietnam is just how far your money goes. I’d always heard it was very affordable for visitors from Europe and North America, but I hadn’t quite realised I’d be getting rooftop pools, welcome drinks, and afternoon teas included!

On top of a spot of luxury at bargain prices, I’m really looking forward to experiencing Hoi An’s lantern festival, which takes place each full moon. The town switches off electrical lighting for the day, illuminating the streets instead with colourful paper lanterns hung between its historic buildings.

Outside the city, we’ll be heading to the dramatic Marble Mountains and their caves, as well as dragging ourselves out of bed early for a sunrise trip to the ancient My Son Sanctuary. While I’m not one for comparing apples and oranges, one review did call it “the Angkor Wat of Vietnam,” so I’m expecting to be impressed!

But there’s another place that comes up in lots of tours and blogs that I’m just not sure will be worth the hype — The Golden Bridge. Sure, a long bridge held up by giant hands looks cool in drone pictures, but is it as awesome when you’re standing on top of it? The fact that it’s also part of the Sun World Resort amusement park makes me even more sceptical. 

That said, I do love a cable car ride! And it would be wasteful of me not to go and bring back a full review for you all, for better or worse.

Happy travels and safe landings,

I come from a long line of procrastinators and improvisers, so planning for a trip is… not exactly my favorite thing. Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel! I just hate making plans.

It’s been six months since I booked my flight to New Zealand, and I spent about five of them wishing a travel angel would come down from the heavens and deliver me a perfect pre-made itinerary for my visit. 

That never happened, sadly. But I did sit down and plan my trip. So, to all the other New Zealand-bound lazy planners out there: Let me be your travel angel. Use my outline as your own.

North Island

I knew I wanted to hit both the North and the South Island, especially since I had a full two weeks to work with. That left me a little rushed, so I broke one of my usual rules and skipped the post-flight rest day. 

Instead, I’ll be landing in Auckland around 9 AM, picking up my rental car, and immediately heading out to Rotorua. The landscape there is supposed to be pretty incredible, shaped by some wild geothermal activity. We’re talking geysers, hot springs, sulfur pools, all kinds of stuff. You can book guided tours of the coolest spots, but I decided to just pick up a ticket to Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland and do some wandering on my own.

Rotorua is also pretty close to the next two places on my list: Hobbiton and the Waitomo Glow Caves. 

You could probably do a whole Lord of the Rings-themed itinerary in New Zealand, but I decided to limit myself to the Hobbiton set. You can’t just walk around here, unfortunately, and the tour slots fill up pretty quickly, so I wouldn’t procrastinate on this booking.

As for Waitomo, how could I possibly pass up a subterranean cave lit by eerie blue glowworms? That’s a unique experience!

There are actually a few different caves at Waitomo, each of them requiring a reservation. You can supposedly bundle the main glowworm cave with another one, but their website wouldn’t let me do it. More power to you if you can figure that out, though.

I’ll be wrapping up my time up north by driving down to Wellington and catching the ferry to the South Island. That’s about six hours from Rotorua, so I’m making it a travel day—If you happen to know that area, hit me with some recommendations for places to stop along the way!

South Island

The South Island is the bigger of the two, so this part of the trip involves a lot more driving. As soon as the ferry lands in Picton, I’ll be hopping back in the car and driving down to Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. The sun will be down by the time I arrive, most likely, but that just gives me a chance to do some stargazing in the dark sky reserve.

The area around Aoraki/Mount Cook is one of the prettiest places in New Zealand, right in the middle of the Southern Alps. I’m giving myself a whole day to poke around the park and do some hiking before moving on to…

…the next national park, Fiordland. While Aoraki has your typical gorgeous alpine views, Fiordland features more varied landscapes, with mountains, waterfalls, and even some rainforest. Oh yeah, and fjords. Milford Sound is the most famous one, but there are a handful of others if you’re pining for a fjord-heavy vacation.

After wrapping up the fjords, it’s time to make the drive allllllll the way back up to Picton. That’s a 12-hour schlep spanning nearly the entire South Island, so I’m splitting it up into two days. Consider this another shameless request for recommended places to stop!

North Island (Part 2)

After taking the ferry back to Wellington, I’ll have a couple of days to make it back to Auckland before my flight home. That’s just enough time for one more big stop: Tongariro National Park.

I’m technically breaking my promise here — Hobbiton was supposed to be my only Lord of the Rings stop, and the volcanic landscapes of Tongariro are where they shot the Mordor scenes. But hey, it’s not my fault Peter Jackson chose to film at all the prettiest places in New Zealand!

From there, it’s just a drive up to Auckland and a 13-hour flight back to San Francisco. Easy-peasy.

This itinerary is my gift to you, lazy planners. You’re welcome!

Hi Mike! You’re not alone in asking us this kind of question recently, and it’s one that can get pretty complicated. From someone who is very familiar with the route between the UK and Sydney (AKA my adopted homeland and my, well, actual homeland) I’ve got a few tips for you. 

In the past, when I’ve wanted to save a few pennies, I’ve turned to Chinese airlines to get me from A to B — they are generally a lot cheaper than European, Middle Eastern and other Asian options. And while they do often fall down in convenience (my 8-hour-long stop in Guangzhou airport comes to mind), they are, in my experience, a fairly comparable inflight experience to their long-haul counterparts. 

But I know not everyone wants to fly via China, and so for your question I’ve turned to the other routes to get Down Under. You’ve essentially got 3 options — stopping over in the Middle East, Asia, or North America (or if you’re made of money, in Perth).

The first two options are likely your best bet, price-wise — once we take away Chinese airlines, the cheapest prices we see on the London to Sydney route are with Emirates (stopover in Dubai) and Singapore Airlines or Lufthansa (which both take you via Changi airport). But you can also stop over in Hong Kong or Istanbul, depending on when Cathay or Turkish put their prices down. 

Because you’re hoping to stretch out your stop-overs, Turkish Airlines is particularly worth a mention. They’re the only airline of those above that has a dedicated stop-over program, where you actually get a free 1-night hotel stay in Istanbul. To apply, you must have a 20+ hour layover in IST, and you must apply at least 72 hours before your first flight via email. They did have other perks included in the past, but these have vanished post-Covid. Qatar Airways also has a similar stop-over program, but instead of a free stay, your night’s accommodation is heavily discounted. 

To work out which option will work best for the dates you’re planning, use Google Flights’ ‘Multi-City’ tool, which lets you play around with stop-over length and sub out different cities to see which may come up cheapest. You can check our article on building multi-city trips for more. 

What I will say, though, is that adding long stop-overs into what can also be done as a simple round-trip ticket will almost always jack up the price of the overall trip. Even if you do manage to snag a free hotel room, it’s likely that you’ll be paying more overall on the return leg.

For example, if you decided to plan your 2-3 day stopover in Singapore or Hong Kong, it’s likely you’d be flying with Singapore or Cathay Pacific. But a week in Thailand on the way back will mean you’re likely at the mercy of Thai Airways (unless, of course, you don’t mind extra layovers along the way). All these mixing and matching of airlines will, in general, be more expensive than just choosing one airline and sticking with them. 

That being said, I think the idea of splitting up what is a very long trip (and gets longer every time, it feels like!) is definitely the best way to go if you have the time! Another option for you could be a more DIY approach, similar to what we explain in the multi-city trip guide. This could look something like booking return flights to Asia, and then onwards flights to Sydney and back between your Asian dates. 

Using the Google Flights map view, you just need to add your dates and see what takes your fancy. In this example, I’ve used the airline filter to exclude low-cost European airlines, as well as Chinese airlines, to help you get an idea of the routes and prices available. 

Bangkok is a great jumping-off point for the rest of Southeast Asia. And since you’re hoping to spend some time in Thailand on the way home, it could offer you the most flexibility in terms of destinations and timing, without forcing you to spend a crazy amount. From Bangkok, you can take advantage of the cheap one-way fares to see somewhere else en route to Sydney.

This approach definitely involves a lot more logistics when it comes to planning, but you might avoid the hiked-up prices of the more traditional carriers that operate on these routes. Best of luck in planning, and have a wonderful time in Aus! 

Do you have a question for our Flight Finders? Let us know below!

• Beware all those who dare to fly Spirit Airlines, in particular those who picked up questionable tattoos in their younger days.
  
  
• While Storm Éowyn may have brought disruption across the UK and Ireland, it did offer a silver lining for passengers flying across the Atlantic this week. A BA flight from LA to London reached near subsonic speeds of over 800mph, cutting the flight time by an hour!
  
  
• A new obsession for travel-loving public transportation nerds has entered the room: welcome, Chongqing.
  
  
• And finally, if you think you find air travel stressful, spare a thought for Mittens the Maine Coon, who found herself making three trips across the Tasman Sea in just 24 hours. Just imagine the tails she must have to tell!