AUSTRALIA!
Nov. 14th, 2023 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerFor literally months now Hawk and I have been kicking around the discussion of where to go for a year-end holiday. I say "kicking around" but most of the kicking we've done has been kicking the can down the road. We've put off the hard work of planning it time and again.
Oh, we agreed early on our basic desires; that was the easy part. We knew we wanted to go someplace 1) warm, preferably 2) overseas, and ideally 3) that we haven't been to before. That leaves open a world of choices, right? But planning them is a challenge. We kept putting it off. And, of course, the longer we put it off the tougher the choices got. Availability dwindled and prices on what was left increased for the in-demand Christmas/New Year travel window.
We took a fresh look at it the past few days. We came up with a series of concrete ideas. One by one, as we dug in to start the planning, they all fell apart. It would take too long to get there for the roughly week-long travel window available, or the prices were too high— like, double what a trial booking in February costs— or both. Then, finally, one idea panned out.
AUSTRALIA.
Warm weather? Check. It's summer there.
Overseas? Heck, yeah.
New to us? Heck, yeah. We haven't been within thousands of miles!
Reasonable to get there? United Airlines flies nonstops twice a day between San Francisco and Sydney. Fares for the busy holiday season were over $3,000 per person... but I found good rates redeeming miles for the trip, knocking the effective cost down by more than half.
Finally, is there stuff to do there we like? I mean, Australia's a huge country. We're just going to Sydney, but it looks like we'll find plenty that's up our alley by spending a few days visiting the city and then several days at various parks within about 2 hours drive. The details are all still TBD but we saw enough stuff, with availability and reasonable prices, to commit to the trip.
Australia!
Oh, we agreed early on our basic desires; that was the easy part. We knew we wanted to go someplace 1) warm, preferably 2) overseas, and ideally 3) that we haven't been to before. That leaves open a world of choices, right? But planning them is a challenge. We kept putting it off. And, of course, the longer we put it off the tougher the choices got. Availability dwindled and prices on what was left increased for the in-demand Christmas/New Year travel window.
We took a fresh look at it the past few days. We came up with a series of concrete ideas. One by one, as we dug in to start the planning, they all fell apart. It would take too long to get there for the roughly week-long travel window available, or the prices were too high— like, double what a trial booking in February costs— or both. Then, finally, one idea panned out.
AUSTRALIA.
Warm weather? Check. It's summer there.
Overseas? Heck, yeah.
New to us? Heck, yeah. We haven't been within thousands of miles!
Reasonable to get there? United Airlines flies nonstops twice a day between San Francisco and Sydney. Fares for the busy holiday season were over $3,000 per person... but I found good rates redeeming miles for the trip, knocking the effective cost down by more than half.
Finally, is there stuff to do there we like? I mean, Australia's a huge country. We're just going to Sydney, but it looks like we'll find plenty that's up our alley by spending a few days visiting the city and then several days at various parks within about 2 hours drive. The details are all still TBD but we saw enough stuff, with availability and reasonable prices, to commit to the trip.
Australia!
no subject
Date: 2023-11-15 12:12 pm (UTC)~Sor