Those who have emigrated to Aus - did you do a stopover on your way?

[Harrogatemum]

Hi All - some of you will know that DH is an Aussie and we are moving to Brissie permanently early next year.

He wants a "pull your dick" holiday (can you tell he is Australian?) on the way there.

He fancies either a few days in Dubai followed by a week on a beach in Asia (my preference from experience is Thailand) OR a few days in West Coast America followed by a week on a beach somewhere like Fiji.

My question is has anyone who has emigrated stopped over on the way there and if so where and for how long? And who did you fly with/book it with?

Of course we also have to take the children into consideration.....twin boys who will be 3 and a baby girl who will have just turned 1.................

Any help any of you can give me gratefully received, I dont even know if any of the airlines let you do more than one stop?

We did a week in Singapore on our way out with dd1 who was a few months off two. Stayed at Swissotel Merchant court - FAB.

short walk to metro station , right on the river for bumboat rides, across from Merchant court - great places to eat. Everywhere was accessible.

You could stay on Sentosa Island - we did a day trip there.

Zoo is fab, great shopping, the hotel had fab spa ( for you to relax and chill whilst dh takes the children in the pool - lovely pool for adults and a sizable kids pool.)

We loved it - very clean, everything ran on time- train etc, very friendly.

We flew singapore Airlines - fab - especially with kids. Easy to get transfer to hotel. ALso had a courtesy bus that did a few drop offs around the city including Raffles.

What about west coast US and Hawaii - Fiji is experiencing a bit of upheaval at the moment and might be worth a miss. Samoa as an alternative - or NZ?!?!

West Coast US - longer flying time.

If you went Emirates - they do three legs - Dubai, Singapore, then Aus. Might be worth checking them out.

Loved San Francisco.

Don't do Fiji at the moment.

Send your clothes etc. on ahead of you and only take what you need for the stopover holiday bit, we did a stopover with 3 large suitcases and none of the taxis etc. could really cope with emigration luggage!

We didn't. But only because we did 3 day in Singapore on 05 when we came here on holiday.

Also dh just wanted to get here, so did I, tbh!

We went with Singapore airlines too. We got 40K's of allowance each (ring the airline & check what you get, as it can depend on visa type) instead of normal K's. We nearly came with Malaysian, but they charge 17gbp for each K over the standard!

Singapore also let you take car seats etc, but they have to be in the allowance. Malaysian charged extra for seats etc.

There was NO way we could have emigrated on the standard allownace.

thanks lots for all your answers ladies!!!

We're emigrating to Perth after Easter and are flying Emirates, stopping over at Dubai and then the Seychelles. (Are going to these particular destinations as we'll be visiting family there.)

Helloooo HM, you're finally going then are you? How exciting!! We stopped over in Singapore as well when we went to Aus in 2002. Had a fab time but of course it was pre baby. Fantastic idea about the holiday on the way there, i'm very envious!! Hopefully we'll see you before then but good luck with the planning.

oh, we flew with singapore as well who were fantastic!

My best friend left for NZ 6 months ago. She did Emerates to Dubai where she had about 4/5 days and which she said was absolutely wonderful and Singapore and then onto Australia, doing various stops before going over to NZ.

It took her the best part of 3 weeks to get there but a great holiday on route and she really did rave about Dubai.

oooh Nottsmum - that trip sounds fab!! Is it all booked?

And helloooo notsogummyanymore, yes the decision has been made, just tarting up the house, just had double glazing done, typical of us to get it sorted when we are going to leave it!

We've got flights on hold! Everything's crossed that we exchange contracts on our house on Tuesday next week and then we'll book them!

Can't believe that we're so close to going!!