I’m proud to call the tiny sugarcane farming community of Ingham, Australia, my hometown.
It boasts blue skies, sandy beaches and Australia’s longest single-drop waterfall. But its location — on the northern end of the state of Queensland — is an issue for me.
Lured by the will to explore Europe, I left for London 17 years ago, on a two-year working holiday visa. I had no concept that a handsome English stranger I met in a bar one evening can be my future husband. It’s the rationale that I’m now a everlasting resident of the UK, raising two young boys who speak with British accents and don’t know what Vegemite is.
Our yearly return to Australia involves multiple long-haul flights and a 10-hour time difference. So we book stopovers to interrupt up the gap.
We attempt to stop somewhere latest every time. Here’s what we’ve got found to this point.
Stopover: Seoul, South Korea
Pros: Seoul’s street food, kid-friendly Korean Air
The cinema-themed Hotel28 provides popcorn and gift packs for youths on arrival. The mini bar is free too. It’s in the center of the buzzy Myeongdong district, full of Korean barbecue, fried chicken, noodle and seafood restaurants. Across the corner on the Myeongdog Night Market, we sampled street food like fried baby crab while watching K-pop buskers.
The writer, MaryLou Costa, and her two children in Seoul, South Korea.
Source: MaryLou Costa
Attending to Seoul was a cinch on Korean Air, which lets parents pre-book kids’ meals like pizza, hot dogs and barbecue chicken. Plus, they supply kid-sized headphones for the in-flight entertainment.
If there is no connecting flight to your destination on the day itself, Korean Air features a free night’s stay on the five-star Grand Hyatt Incheon. We took advantage of this on the way in which back from Australia. The stay included an enormous breakfast buffet, where we feasted on Korean food and Western classics before boarding the 14-hour flight from Seoul to London.
Cons: Traffic and translation issues
Nearly half of South Korea’s population lives within the Seoul metropolitan area, so traffic in the town is intense. Our taxi ride into the town took an hour, however the ride back to the airport — in rush hour — was 3 times as long. We arrived half-hour before our flight departed, and we weren’t allowed to envision in. Korean Air offered us a free latest flight to Australia — every week later. It still pains me to take into consideration how much this oversight cost us.
Many individuals speak English, but when you could have food allergies, I like to recommend writing your needs down in Korean, using a translation app, or potentially rethinking your stopover location.
Stopover: Bangkok, Thailand
Pros: Low cost flights turn it into an Asian getaway
Bangkok is an important stopping point between London and Brisbane. From there, it doesn’t cost much to succeed in Thailand’s famous coastlines.
We took a 1.5-hour flight to the beach town of Krabi, where we spent every week on the ShellSea Krabi resort. Our four-month-old slept in his pram by the pool while our oldest drank mocktails, took Thai boxing lessons and picked up shells from the beach. We ate outdoors under homemade gazebos and took in a neighborhood music festival.
From Bangkok, the family took a side trip to Krabi, Thailand.
Source: MaryLou Costa
Back in Bangkok, we swam in our hotel pool and visited the night market, where we tried banana fritters and barbecue skewers, and our oldest ate a complete bag of fried insects for dinner.
Cons: Bangkok’s busyness
Bangkok might not be everyone’s selection when traveling with two young kids. The never-ending traffic makes it difficult to walk around, and the air quality is questionable.
Nonetheless, we did not have the airport journey issues we experienced in Seoul. As a bonus, our flights to Krabi left from Don Mueang International Airport, a less busy airport within the northern a part of the town.
Stopover: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Pros: Attractions galore
Home to the world’s tallest constructing, the Burj Khalifa, and one among the world’s biggest waterpark, the Aquaventure Waterpark in Dubai was an exciting place to take our then four-year-old, and it was a no brainer to construct family days around those two attractions.
MaryLou Costa’s family breaks up the gap between the UK and Australia with stops, like this one to Dubai where they hung out at Aquaventure Waterpark.
Source: MaryLou Costa
Staying on the 25hours Hotel was an attraction unto itself. The lobby is a hive of activity, and the rooftop pool overlooks the architecturally impressive Museum of the Future.
We were there during Ramadan and joined the fast-breaking iftar buffet on the hotel’s important restaurant, which featured an array of curries and sides, in addition to a grill outside doling out freshly carved doner meat, served with jeweled rice and salads. It was popular with local families, who piled in for the special meal.
Cons: Pricey
Dubai is dear. A family day pass to Aquaventure is around $260, while entrance to the Burj Khalifa, combined with the Dubai Aquarium, cost one other $243.
Stopover: Singapore
Pros: Late checkout, selection flights
Our stop in Singapore was pre-children, nevertheless it’s one we may repeat because it was such a straightforward place to go to. We splashed out for a club room on the Mandarin Oriental, which included late checkout, a Champagne breakfast, and a complimentary dim sum afternoon tea. Late checkout would definitely turn out to be useful with the children, especially to shower and alter before the following flight.
Singapore also has essentially the most connections to Australia of any Asian city we have traveled through. Changi Airport appears like it was designed to maintain kids busy, with its butterfly garden, koi carp ponds and free massage chairs.
Cons: Lacks the excitement
Clean, easy to get around, a wide range of food options and a superb level of English — it’s hard to think about cons for a stop in Singapore. If I needed to be picky, I’d say it isn’t as buzzy as Seoul and Bangkok, and it’s costlier too.
