am i crazy????

carang

carang

Registered User
ok i know that most of you would probably answer in the affirmative if i didn't clarify this post with a question....

so here it is....

hubby and i are FINALLY taking the kids on our first FAMILY HOLIDAY! yippee!

except, i didn't buy the airtickets last week and they were about $1500 per person cheaper than they are now.

so, what we are considering is this:

hkg-syd-hkg

via virgin atlantic.

problem... the tickets have now increased in price. before i thought that we'd get 4 seats and then each of the kids could have one to themselves. NOW, though, it looks like we'll save about $3000 if we hold the "baby" (think 19 month old 25-28 lbs) on our laps instead.

the flight is a night flight, non-stop there, but the return is an afternoon flight, non-stop.

any comments? should i just "suck it up" and buy the extra seat, just for the space?

also, if any of you are from oz... will it be too hot to camp most of the time we're there? we are going on nov 1st-ish for about 3 weeks. planning on driving up to brisbane and then down to melbourne.

thanks for the help guys!
appreciate it!
 
Cara,
how much are the tickets from Virgin??
cause I receive regular newsletters from Cathay and lowest economy ticket to Sydney is only around $5140 (before tax) if you leave HK before 5 dec. I could pass you the details if you like.
We just returned from our family holiday in Melbourne, my daughter (22mths, weight 25lbs) and we bought her a sit. Believe me, it is worth every penny. It was GREAT to have the extra room especially when she slept cause we could take away one of the arm-rest, she slept flat on her back. She even wet her pants and sit.
And you need room for your meal. On the way to Melbourne, she pushed her dad and coke splashed all over her sit. On the way back she pulled the coffee cup and my meal tray and we ended up with coffee all over her sit AGAIN (yes, accidents do happen).
Anyway, have a WONDERFUL trip and don't forget to take lots of photos.
 
the virgin tickets are $4900 plus taxes.... which are about 50% of the ticket price!!!

for the 4 of us, with 4 seats, it's about $17,000 + taxes = $25,000!

for 4 of us with 3 seats, it's $14,000+ taxes +$21,000!
 
i've now found flights on vietnam airlines...

not direct, stop over in ho chi minh, 4 seats... $20,100...

completely confused what to do now.....

HELP! i know my son will be stellar on the flights, but my little girl is a handful at the best of times....i think i'm going to have to go for the 4 seats....
 
I can't help with the airline advice, but in terms of camping etc. it should not be too hot in November, although the past few years the weather has been getting really unpredictable in Australia (and everywhere else).

We had snow in the Yarra Valley (Melbourne) for Xmas 2 years ago!

You should find November weather great for camping, obviously warmer toward Brisbane - should be great swimming / beach weather without being too hot. Nights should be balmy.

Toward Melbourne you should find warmish sunny days, but usually with a fair bit of rain around (nothing like HK though!!), and the nights will still be a bit fresh.

Either way, the coastal drive is great and there are some great camping spots. You will have no trouble finding places as it will be outside of school holidays.
 
Thanks, Rach...

I'm thinking that once we land, we will head up to Brisbane first so that it will be early november, then head down to melbourne towards the end of our trip...

now, trying to find a good place to rent camping equipment...

what was travelling like before the internet???? i can hardly remember!

ain't it great!
 
I always paid extra and purchased a seat for my under-twos but then found they'd only sit/sleep on my lap. The extra seat was good for a bit of extra room.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend driving from SYD to Brisbane then to Melbourne. You'll spend most of your holiday driving ! With frequent sanity stops for children, you'd be looking at a good 7-10 days just in driving. Have a look for some cheap domestic flights or sometimes you can get add-ons from CX or QF. With the price of fuel these days, it will probably be cheaper.

Sometimes people visit Australia and don't realise how big it is. I remember talking to some tourists in Cairns who were going to drive to the Blue Mountains (which are in NSW). They just had no idea of the distance involved. They were horrified when I told them it would take up to a week to drive there.

The weather that time of year is lovely. It will be quite cool at night in Melbourne. Take some warm jumpers if you're camping. Friends have been known to need jumpers over Christmas in Melbourne.
 
You will also find heaps of camping supplies along the way - even the smallest towns tend to have well stocked shops, in case you forget/lose/break something.

A lot of caravan parks have great camping facilities - i.e. grounds away from the vans with camp kitchens etc. Obviously the internet is your best resource - but the 'Big 4' caravan park chain has a good reputation, and you get discounts if you join up as a member.

Good luck with the planning - you will have a great time!
 
thanks jane but i'm from canada, so i do understand the distances... we like the drive. i fully expect to spend a lot of the time on the road, then we can stop when and where we want...

we want to take our time and really get to see the place, it might be the only time we ever go, who knows?

thank god the kids are fairly good in the car already, we spend easily 2 hours driving in hk everyday as it is.

we plan on driving in the morning after breakfast (kids wake up around 6 am anyway, so might as well eat and go.) and then stopping around lunch to find a place to park/explore with stops in the middle...

i'm now looking at the campervans. i originally thought they were too expensive, but when i add up all of the camping equipment we'd need, it might be better to have the camper... the only thing that's making me hesitate is trying to park it!

i guess that there would be enough places around to park them, though, right?

(ps> your post made me think of someone who wanted to rent a mo-ped to "drive around canada" for a week... we told him he might be lucky to make it to the next town!.... or my M_I_L telling all her friends that she'd driven across canada when in actual fact, she barely made it 1/5 of the way!)
 
Cara,

I hired a campervan to do W.A. last year - probably travelled the same distance you are planning to do on the East coast.

I found the camper really easy to drive and park after the first day, and i was used to an automatic small car (camper was manual). They all have great power steering.

We had a fantastic time and it was great to be able to pull over anywhere and have everything at your fingertips, especially a fridge! Most campers have spare batteries that will last if you are unplugged for 12 hours, then recharge as you drive the next day.

By the way, we hired a pretty cheap and nasty camper, and it was still great - but there are some amazing ones available. The volxwagon ones looked the best for families.

Whatever you get, budget for the full insurance options - well worth it if you run into any trouble.
 
If you are crazy, so am I. We will be flying from HK to the US with our (then) 19 month old on our laps, and that flight door to door is about 20 hours, daytime/afternoon flights. Unfortunately we will not be able to afford to buy her a seat so we will have to take turns - and she is a handful and a half these days.

Good luck to both of us!
 
It sounds AWESOME - the weather should still be a little "cool" - but nice enough to get some good days and even to be able to go to the beach and stuff - particularly up towards Brisbane.

Campervans are great too. When I was 6 and my brother was 4, my family did that all over New Zealand for two weeks, had a great time! Yes, there'll be a bit of driving - but it's not that bad! Both Brisbane to Sydney is only about 12 hrs - I've done it overnight many times. And you'll probably be stopping at a few places in between as well - so it's not going to be 12 hours straight up. Then Sydney to Melbourne is probably around 10 hours or so - but again, you can be stopping along the way and everything.

I remember my campervan trip to NZ so clearly, even though it was 20 something years ago now! I've always wanted to do it again. It was great being able to pull over on the side of the road and still get a decent nights sleep!! And not to have to worry about finding bathrooms on the road! (that can be a pain a lot of the time!!)

Is this your first time to Australia, or have you been before??
 
nope, both hubby's and my first time. my brother was there for a year about 10 years ago and met his wife there (she was also on a holiday)


argh!
now, i'm stumped....i've read some HORRIBLE reviews of quantas and virgin atlantic...

anyone have anything good to say about these airlines???

we are trying to decide now... do we go for 3 seats and lapping our girl in premium economy? or do we go for 4 seats in plain old economy???

anyone have any suggestions?
 
My theory on (most) reviews is that you only ever hear from the whingers. And lets face it, there seem to be a lot out there :)

Air travel outside of business/first class is always going to be challenging, especially with kids.

I have never had a major problem with Qantas, I no nothing of Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Blue, which flies a lot of cheap domestic routes in Australia is okay, but I would prefer Qantas any day (but would usually expect to pay a little more). You may find yourself on a Cathay flight anyway as they code share out of HK.

Personally, if I found myself in your shoes, I would probably not buy the extra seat (we are living on a very real tight budget) and then spend the whole flight kicking myself over it (and having my husband kick me for it too!). You might need to file the extra expense under "Life is too short not to....."
:flower:
 
that's what i'm afraid of...

i know if we buy the seat, then the flight is going to be empty and we'd have the seat anyway...

if i don't buy the seat, then it's going to be packed and i'll be grumpy the whole way for not buying the seat...

i think that we might suck up the cost (we don't do this very often) and get 3 premium economy seats... hopefully they won't be full and we will get an extra seat anyway....
 
Hi Cara - I would personally take the three seats and hope for the best. I did a 10 hour flight recently and though it was not the best of times, it had to be done and we got through it fine. Tired and crabby but we were so over it the next day! I had a stop over for four hours too which I would not recommend just to get the four seats.

I have only flown Cathay and Thai with our daughter and they are wonderful. On a recent short haul flight they had extra seats and blocked it off for us so that we had more space. I would recommend requesting the staff at check in rather than the office as they seem to be much more in tune with what parents need! Also don't forget asking for priority tags on all luggage so that you don't have to wait around too long at the other end.

The way I look at it, I had more money to spend on doing some extra nice things on the holiday.
 
I've never flown with kids but I've flown home to Sydney on both QANTAS and Cathay and can't complain about either. I usually find the QANTAS flights cheaper than Cathay. Look for flights on www.zuji.com.hk

For domestic airlines i've flown both virgin blue and Qantas and again no problem for these short haul flights.
http://www.virginblue.com.au/
http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/dyn/home

This Australian website http://www.whereis.com/ has maps of Australian cities, towns and travel destinations with driving directions and traveller information.

Enjoy your trip!
 
thanks for all of the advice folks...

last night after hours of searching the internet, i realised that if we sprung for the premium economy and we are springing for the nice campervan.... this will cost us almost $100K!!!!!

that's just to ridiculuos for us...we've decided to suck it up and go for the night flight, direct on virgin with only 3 seats in economy. we'll see when we get to the airport if they can block a seat and failing that try to upgrade then (i've heard it's MUCH cheaper to do it that way...we'll see)... if not, we'll suffer for 9 hours and then be done with it!

thanks again for all of the sage advice. i appreciate the time you have taken to respond!
cara
 
Cara, in the many many many flights we did before daughter no.1 turned 2, we never paid for a seat and always got one so fingers double crossed for you as well. I adore the service from Virgin Atlantic, find Qantas' service a bit on the rude side but mostly ok as well. If you get to the airport on the really early side, you have more of a chance of them blocking a seat for you as well. I always do my best to be holding at least one baby under the arm at check-in and look a bit harrassed at the same time...they sometimes take pity...lol...you'll have a great time, its a lovely time of year to go to Australia.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top