In mid-December we paused the road trip to spend the holidays in the Virginia Beach, VA area near family and friends. Even though it’s the new year, we’re not getting back on the road for now. Well, we are – it’s just not going to be roads in the US!
Shae and I are heading overseas for a month to the southern hemisphere. We’ve got some incredible adventures coming up, so here’s what we’re up to.
Perth, Australia
What We’re Doing
The reason this trip came about is because several months ago there was some great award availability from the US to many regions overseas including Asia and Australia when booked using United MileagePlus miles. We’ve been to Australia a couple of times, but never to Western Australia and there’s something there that Shae’s had her heart set on seeing for many years – quokkas.
If you’ve never heard of quokkas, they’re the cutest little marsupials that always look happy. They can only be found on a couple of islands off the coast of Australia and only one of them is easily accessible – Rottnest Island. They roam wild there and there are so many of them that there won’t be any concern about missing out on seeing their cute faces!
Who We’re Flying With
The initial routing for the flights we’d booked to Australia wasn’t the best, so we got lucky when Qantas temporarily had some great business class award availability that we could book through Alaska Airlines, so we rebooked with them. We therefore flew to Dallas last night, then we fly Dallas-Melbourne-Sydney tonight, staying in Sydney overnight before continuing on to Perth the next day. This was booked for 55,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles + $50.30 per person, so it’s a great deal to fly the entire way in business class. The Dallas to Melbourne leg is blocked at 17.5 hours, so having lie-flat seats for the entire way will make it far more comfortable.
Where We’re Staying
Sydney
We have an overnight stay in Sydney and we’ll be staying at the Four Seasons Sydney. I booked this through the American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts (FHR) program. Between Shae and I, we have three personal Amex Platinum cards. Each of these have a $200 credit towards FHR stays and we had a couple of credits that needed to be used up before the end of the year.
The cost for the night was $289.55 with tax which is far more than we’d normally spend on a hotel night. However, the $200 FHR credit which would’ve otherwise gone to waste reduced that to $89.55 which is much more reasonable. FHR bookings come with free breakfast for two, plus we’ll get a $100 property credit which should cover some drinks at the bar. It’s not often you get to stay at a Four Season hotel for less than $100 out of pocket, so this opportunity was too good to resist.
Perth
We’re then staying at the Hyatt Regency Perth, booked for 8,000 World of Hyatt points per night. I earned Globalist status with Hyatt again last year and along the way earned 4 suite upgrade awards. I’ve applied one of those to our booking, so we’ll have a one bedroom suite for our week-long stay.
During our time in Perth we’ll be taking the ferry to Rottnest Island for the day a couple of times, but we’ll also be staying there overnight for one night. We left that booking until much later than was ideal though, so the only accommodation option on the island was to book an entire 14 person dorm room which wasn’t cheap, but it’ll be worth it to extend our time.
Ningaloo Coast, Australia
What We’re Doing
After staying in Perth for ~10 days, we’re taking a short flight north to Exmouth for 4 nights. We’ll rent a car so that we can explore the area as it’s near the Ningaloo Coast where you can go snorkeling with turtles, manta rays and more at its reef.
Who We’re Flying With
The only airline flying between Perth and Exmouth is Qantas. Flights seemed expensive considering the relatively short distance (I think it was ~$300 round trip per person), so we booked these flights using Flying Blue miles – the loyalty program of Air France and KLM.
The cost was 17,000 miles + $91.80 per person. Flying Blue is a transfer partner of multiple bank transferable points programs like American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, etc. At the time, Amex was offering a 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue, so I only had to transfer 28,000 Membership Rewards in order to have the 34,000 Flying Blue miles needed for the booking.
Where We’re Staying
Exmouth doesn’t have a ton of options when it comes to accommodation. There are a few holiday parks and a few Airbnbs; our best value option was one of the holiday parks which has good reviews on Hotels.com and we went for a studio suite with a kitchen in case we want to make meals there.
Singapore
What We’re Doing
After spending four days at Ningaloo Coast, we fly back down to Perth where we’ll be staying overnight by the airport. The next day we fly on to South Africa, but we’ll be stopping overnight in Singapore.
I’m excited about this because I got to visit Singapore a few months ago while on the Frequent Miler 3 Cards, 3 Continents challenge. I really enjoyed it there, so I’m glad that Shae will get to experience it too.
We’ll be visiting Gardens By The Bay, exploring Changi Airport which is a destination in and of itself, doing a hop-on, hop-off bus tour around the city and more.
Who We’re Flying With
As you might guess given our stopover, our flights from Perth to Johannesburg are booked on Singapore Airlines via Singapore. We booked our one-way tickets in business class for 70,500 Singapore Airlines Krisflyer miles + $92.73 in taxes & fees per person which is great value for 16 hours of flying time with Singapore Airlines. Similar to our flights booked with Air France/KLM Flying Blue, we transferred Amex Membership Rewards Points to my Krisflyer account to book these flights.
Where We’re Staying
We’re only in Singapore for one night, so I booked us a stay at the Shangri-La Singapore. That’s where I stayed on my 3 Cards, 3 Continents trip and it was a nice hotel in a good location for where we’ll want to visit.
I booked this stay through the American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts (FHR) program too. The cost for the night was $327.89 with tax but which gets reduced to $127.89 thanks to the $200 FHR credit. Once again, we’ll have free breakfast for two included, plus we’ll get a $100 property credit which should pretty much cover lunch or dinner and a drink like their very good Singapore Sling.
Johannesburg, South Africa
What We’re Doing
Seeing as we were flying so far to get to Australia, we figured we might as well make the most of being in the southern hemisphere. We therefore decided to add Johannesburg, South Africa to our trip, although we’re not actually going to be staying in Johannesburg.
Instead, we’ll be renting an SUV and driving ~5 hours east to visit Kruger National Park. Kruger lets you do self-drive safaris, so we’ll be able to drive our rental car through the park to see the lions, zebras, buffalo, rhinoceroses, antelope, warthogs and much more.
It won’t be just me and Shae either. Her mom and stepdad are going to be joining us for the week as going on safari will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them.
Who We’re Flying With
This is a continuation of our Singapore Airlines flights mentioned above.
Where We’re Staying
We’d originally booked a stay at the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate. Protea Hotels is one of Marriott’s brands, so we’d booked the stay using Marriott Bonvoy points and my Titanium status meant we’d get free breakfast, be eligible for a room upgrade, etc.
A couple of months after booking our stay I received an email from the hotel advising that this particular property was going to be leaving the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program. While our booking would still be honored, we wouldn’t be eligible for free breakfast, room upgrades, etc. That made a stay there less enticing, but we got incredibly fortunate.
Over the last year Shae happened to make friends with someone who has a home in Marloth Park which is just outside of Kruger National Park. They offered to have us come stay with them instead and it’s a large enough house for Shae’s mom and stepdad to stay there too, so that’s what we’ll be doing.
Seeing as their home is right on the edge of the park, their yard gets visited by all kinds of animals. They get zebras, warthogs and more, so we’ll get to enjoy that experience on top of the self-drive safaris we’ll be doing.
We’ll have to be careful though. They can’t go for a walk after dark due to all the animals; for example, they’ve seen lion footprints in their yard the next morning. Even during the day we’ll have to be careful as they recently posted a photo of a large scorpion in their yard!
Doha, Qatar
What We’re Doing
After spending just over a week in South Africa, we’ll be heading back to the US. We’ll be flying on Qatar Airways and have an overnight layover in Doha. We sadly won’t have a chance to see anything though; we get in late at night and leave fairly early the next morning.
Who We’re Flying With
As mentioned above, we’ll be flying with Qatar Airways. Both legs of our flight with them – Johannesburg to Doha and Doha to Miami – will be in business class and it should be their Qsuites product. That’s thought by many to be the best business class experience anywhere in the world, so I’m excited that we’ll finally be able to experience it – not just once, but twice.
We were due to fly in Qsuites to Dubai a couple of years ago, but confusion regarding the 72 hour timing of COVID tests meant we weren’t able to catch those flights. It all worked out fine in the end as we were able to book First Class with Emirates literally at the last minute, but I’ve been keen on flying in Qsuites ever since.
Once we land in Miami, we’ll have a short hop up to Norfolk, VA on American Airlines.
We booked these flights using American Airlines AAdvantage miles which cost 70,000 miles + $95.87 per person. That’s great value considering it’ll give us ~25 hours total in business class with Qatar Airways and then domestic First Class on American Airlines from Miami to Norfolk. Considering the direction we’re flying, it also means that this’ll be a round-the-world trip – my second in less than 6 months!
Where We’re Staying
For our overnight in Doha we’ll be staying at the Hyatt Regency Oryx Doha. It’s a category 1 property in the World of Hyatt program and it’s at standard pricing for our night which means it cost us 5,000 points. It seemed to be the best combination of value and convenience because 5,000 points is cheap and it’s nice and close to the airport. There is a hotel actually at Doha airport which would’ve been more convenient, but it wasn’t bookable with any points we have and the cash price was $250-$300 which was far too expensive for what we need considering the short stay.
What’s Next
We fly to Melbourne this evening and then to Sydney after a short layover. We’ll be posting all about our adventures on the blog over the coming weeks, but just before that we have a few other posts to publish sharing what we did in December which we hope to get done this coming week. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook to follow along with our international trip in real time – we can’t wait to share all the fun we’ll be having 🙂
See All Posts From This International Trip
- Lions & Quokkas & Scorpions, Oh My: A Month In Australia, South Africa & More
- We Were Denied Boarding To Australia – Here’s Why
- Flight Review: Lufthansa Business Class – Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) To Frankfurt (FRA)
- Flight Review: Eurowings Discover Business Class – Frankfurt (FRA) To Mauritius (MRU)
- Some Thoughts On Mauritius
- Hotel Review: Hilton Mauritius Resort & Spa
- Hotel Review: Le Méridien Ile Maurice (Mauritius)
- Restaurant Review: Sunset Filaos In Pointe Aux Piments, Mauritius
- 20 Fun & Interesting Things To Do In Mauritius (+ Many Bonus Ideas)
- Hotel Review: Holiday Inn Mauritius Mon Tresor
- Flight Review: Air Mauritius Economy Class – Mauritius (MRU) To Johannesburg (JNB)
- The Awesome Drive Between Johannesburg & Kruger National Park
- 50 Animal Photos From Kruger National Park In South Africa Taken With Our Phones
- Kruger National Park: 13 Tips For A Successful Self-Drive Safari
- Elephant Kisses – Meeting Tswale In South Africa
- Kruger National Park: 30 Photos Taken With Shae’s Nikon Camera
- Doing A Kruger Park Bush Braai With Royal Safaris
- Marloth Park: Like Living In The Best Zoo Ever
- Hotel Review: InterContinental Johannesburg O.R. Tambo Airport, South Africa
- Flight Review: Qatar Airways Business Class (Qsuites) – Johannesburg (JNB) To Doha (DOH) To Miami (MIA)
- Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Oryx Doha, Qatar
[…] A few days ago we shared details about an international trip we were about to go on, visiting Australia and South Africa, with quick stops in Singapore and Qatar along the way – see this post for more. […]