Flights what do you prefer.

[Guest Guest 47403]

What do people recommend or prefer?

 

1. Get it all out the way in one go having as short a stop over as possible.

 

or

 

2. Have a decent stop over 12hrs+ sleep, shower ,dip in the pool freshen up then carry on.

 

With young kids I'm erring on the side of get it all out the way in as short a time as possible, just interested in what others prefer.

[Guest Andy]

What do people recommend or prefer?

 

1. Get it all out the way in one go having as short a stop over as possible.

 

or

 

2. Have a decent stop over 12hrs+ sleep, shower ,dip in the pool freshen up then carry on.

 

With young kids I'm erring on the side of get it all out the way in as short a time as possible, just interested in what others prefer.

 

Get it all out of the way in one go especially with kids, no doubt about it.

[Drumbos79]

We travelled with a 2 year old to Oz last month - non- stop flights from Glasgow to Dubai, Dubai to Singapore, then onto Melbourne.

Left Glasgow at 930pm which in hindsight was a mistake as the second leg of the flight was tiring through lack of sleep on the first flight.

The jet lag was awful doing it this way as opposed to the last time we travelled and stopped at Singapore for 2 days.

 

If going non-stop with young children I would travel the first leg during the day and the second leg at night, unless you fly from London and can travel 14 hours straight at night to begin with.

 

What age are your kids?

[Lindor]

Definitely get it over with as quickly as possible! First time I came here I had a 7 hour stopover, managed to find a lounger and slept on and off, (clutching bag, phone in bra with alarm set to go off every 30 minutes!) also had a 10 hour stopover, Emirates put you in a hotel (like a Premier Inn) bus picks you up drops you off at hotel, they give you food and drink and breakfast in the morning and the bus takes you back to the airport! I couldn't sleep but it was good to get the kit off and lie down after a 7+ hour flight! I'm speaking as a person travelling alone though, it might be better for little ones to have a proper sleep half way there!

[Guest Guest 47403]

We travelled with a 2 year old to Oz last month - non- stop flights from Glasgow to Dubai, Dubai to Singapore, then onto Melbourne.

Left Glasgow at 930pm which in hindsight was a mistake as the second leg of the flight was tiring through lack of sleep on the first flight.

The jet lag was awful doing it this way as opposed to the last time we travelled and stopped at Singapore for 2 days.

 

If going non-stop with young children I would travel the first leg during the day and the second leg at night, unless you fly from London and can travel 14 hours straight at night to begin with.

 

What age are your kids?

 

They are 3, 5 and 8 interesting what you say about first leg in the day always considered first leg at night was better, done it before with a long 3 day stop over and it was fine, won't be in holiday mode next time though and our free accommodation in Dubai has moved back to England

[Drumbos79]

I would say a night flight is definitely better if you can do a 14 hour or so leg. We only done a 7 hour first leg which meant waking up at 430am uk time and feeling tired the rest of the journey. If you can go from England to Singapore or similar distance then I'd go for a night flight.

[nikki244]

We prefer a 12 hour stop over at least. Did the trip with four young kids last time, and booked transit hotel for 12 hours. For us it was a life saver. The kids were great, and dh and I needed the sleep so that we could still be functioning when we arrived. The time we did the journey all in one hit was the worst ever...we could barely function at the other end, and the kids were so tired and crying in the airport.

 

I don't think we'll ever do the journey without sleeping in between flights again. It all just felt so much more civilised.

[Drumbos79]

We prefer a 12 hour stop over at least. Did the trip with four young kids last time, and booked transit hotel for 12 hours. For us it was a life saver. The kids were great, and dh and I needed the sleep so that we could still be functioning when we arrived. The time we did the journey all in one hit was the worst ever...we could barely function at the other end, and the kids were so tired and crying in the airport.

 

I don't think we'll ever do the journey without sleeping in between flights again. It all just felt so much more civilised.

 

We are heading back next year and your plan sounds great. It took us literally 6 days to recover from jet lag doing it straight through. It takes so long to recover having young kids.

 

Where did you stop over?

[Arbrodin]

When we came over on holiday, with our 6 and 8 yr old, we did Heathrow to Kuala Lumpa, very short stop, less than an hour I think, then on to Sydney. I think this was better than if we had a longer stop, they coped better than I did, we did try to plan their sleep etc on the journey, and they had plenty to occupy them.

[Guest Guest 47403]

I would say a night flight is definitely better if you can do a 14 hour or so leg. We only done a 7 hour first leg which meant waking up at 430am uk time and feeling tired the rest of the journey. If you can go from England to Singapore or similar distance then I'd go for a night flight.

 

Yeah night flight to singers, as short a stop over as possible sounds good.

[dmjg]

I totally agree with Nikki.

 

When we immigrated with an 18 month old we flew straight to Hong Kong from London. By the time we got there we were exhausted and he wanted to run. We just didn't care and he was 100 yards away at times as he ran with us too tired to move. He did that for three hours before the flight to Melbourne. It was tough.

 

Going back for a holiday to the uk a few years later, we again did it in one shot. The oh took the 6 month old baby by herself and I took the 4 yo a few weeks later. Both of us were fine.

 

However coming back as a whole family we had a nine hour layover in Singapore. We booked into the transit hotel for eight hours. All we had was a carry on bag each, we never saw our main luggage from Manchester to Melbourne.

 

We walked into the transit hotel, we had a huge room with a king bed, a single bed and a cot. I think it was one of their disabled rooms as there was no step anywhere, lots of open space and a huge shower. We used this as a group and all went to sleep for about 5 hours. It was fantastic.

 

We were then able to leave our carry on bags in the room and stroll down to the terminal for some food and an explore of the terminal without worrying about lugging bags. It was very civilised.

 

We were able to wait until 30 minutes before the flight and not have to sit squished in the waiting room for long before boarding. This made the second flight much easier to bear and I think it also knocked a few days off the jet lag too.

[Guest km75]

We went at Easter with a four and six year old. We flew Etihad, leaving Heathrow about 8pm and had a minimal stop over in Abu Dhabi - worked well - one child slept first leg and other child the other. On the way back we left Sydney about 4pm, and again one slept one and one the other. Worked for us! This time we're going Emirates and again leaving about 8pm. Four/five years ago we had a 10 hour stop over in Dubai which was also ok (all of us got a little sleep), but I think get it over and done is the best way unless having a decent stop - when our eldest was 18 months we had 5 nights in Penang which was great. Good luck, it wasn't as bad as we thought last time, so hoping for the best!

[Guest Guest 47403]

I totally agree with Nikki.

 

When we immigrated with an 18 month old we flew straight to Hong Kong from London. By the time we got there we were exhausted and he wanted to run. We just didn't care and he was 100 yards away at times as he ran with us too tired to move. He did that for three hours before the flight to Melbourne. It was tough.

 

Going back for a holiday to the uk a few years later, we again did it in one shot. The oh took the 6 month old baby by herself and I took the 4 yo a few weeks later. Both of us were fine.

 

However coming back as a whole family we had a nine hour layover in Singapore. We booked into the transit hotel for eight hours. All we had was a carry on bag each, we never saw our main luggage from Manchester to Melbourne.

 

We walked into the transit hotel, we had a huge room with a king bed, a single bed and a cot. I think it was one of their disabled rooms as there was no step anywhere, lots of open space and a huge shower. We used this as a group and all went to sleep for about 5 hours. It was fantastic.

 

We were then able to leave our carry on bags in the room and stroll down to the terminal for some food and an explore of the terminal without worrying about lugging bags. It was very civilised.

 

We were able to wait until 30 minutes before the flight and not have to sit squished in the waiting room for long before boarding. This made the second flight much easier to bear and I think it also knocked a few days off the jet lag too.

 

Roughly how much are the transit hotel rooms? Is this the one with the swimming pool on the roof?

[dmjg]

Roughly how much are the transit hotel rooms? Is this the one with the swimming pool on the roof?

 

I think we paid about $Aus120 all up. It was in a mixture of pounds and Aussie credit card though. A Singapore dollar is worth about 90% of the Aussie one. That was for 8 hours in a triple.

 

No idea about the pool, with a baby and a toddler, it wasn't even on our list of priorities. :laugh:

 

But it might be next time.

 

https://www.harilelahospitality.com/transit_hotel_reservation.html

 

ETA - scroll down for room rates

[dmjg]

You will have to walk through the whole airport with your cossies, but why not if you have the time???

 

http://www.harilelahospitality.com/services_pool.html

[Guest]

Get it out of the way.

 

We go for the night flight out of Heathrow, land in Singapore about teatime their time, hit the pool (usually skytrain between T3 to T1), spend a couple of hours there, shower, freshen up, feed child, let him play in the softplay in T1 also while we grab a coffee then go board for the next leg, again, a night flight from the local timezone.

 

Check pool opening hours is the only thing. Depending on when you arrive it may be closed or closing if you land late evening. It is open till 11pm and then again from 6 or 7am iirc.

[Guest]

Roughly how much are the transit hotel rooms? Is this the one with the swimming pool on the roof?

 

Depends which terminal you land in. Singapore airlines for us arrived in T3, there is a transit hotel in that terminal, yes. But the transit hotel with the pool is in T1, which is a hop on the skytrain and then a few minutes walk to it at the end of the terminal through the duty free shopping area.

 

We only ever used the pool, never booked in for a room as never wanted that long a stop over or to sleep. It was a decent price for the pool, towel and free tee or coffee included. So got to shower, chill out by the pool side and so on.

[Guest]

You will have to walk through the whole airport with your cossies, but why not if you have the time???

 

Sky trains run at Singapore every few minutes. Excellent service between terminals. Didn't take us long to get from one terminal to another at all.

[LKC]

We've done it both ways. When the girls were tiny, we preferred to leave UK at night, get to Singapore and have a 12 hour stop (for a sleep in the transit hotel, something to eat and so on) and then fly to Sydney to land at about 8pm which meant that by the time we got to the hotel it was dinner and then bed time which meant that the jet-lag was kept to a minimum.

 

This last time we went to the UK, the kids were a bit older (5 and 7), and we found that doing it in one leg was fine. We got the night flight from the UK and the afternoon flight from Sydney, and they both slept well and were beautifully behaved. It meant that we arrived back in the UK/Sydney first thing in the morning, but actually it was fine. We all managed to stay awake all day, and went to bed as normal. Would probably do it this way next time, unless there was somewhere that we fancied visiting on the way/way back for a few days.

[Guest The Pom Queen]

We had three kids in tow and we had a 12 hour stop over in Singapore and slept for 8 hours at the Transit Hotel, had a shower, freshened up and felt so much better on the 2nd leg. If I was to do it again I would probably have longer in Singapore

[Guest]

What do people recommend or prefer?

 

1. Get it all out the way in one go having as short a stop over as possible.

 

or

 

2. Have a decent stop over 12hrs+ sleep, shower ,dip in the pool freshen up then carry on.

h

With young kids I'm erring on the side of get it all out the way in as short a time as possible, just interested in what others prefer.

We went back to U.K. last year no kids found the trip over all in one go fine only had a short stop in Singapore about an hour i think. Return trip was hell no aircon working in the plane very hot everyone was boiling. Somehow my partner slept most of the Heathrow/Singapore leg don't know how it was so hot. Next leg wasn't so bad. However we were completely exhausted when we got to Melbourne. Add in the fact that we had a four hour train trip after the flight seriously didn't think that out to well. Next time on the return trip we're having a stop over for at least twelve hours. Took us at least a week to recover from the jetlag. Take my hat off to anyone that does it with kids.

[Peach]

I've done it with the kids and a 12 hour stopover and with the kids straight through. I find both variations hellish and arrive knackered either way. I think next time we'd go for straight through..

[VERYSTORMY]

I do this trip on my own every month (well same flight time as I work is east Africa) I would not even consider a stop over unless I have to.

[nikki244]

We are heading back next year and your plan sounds great. It took us literally 6 days to recover from jet lag doing it straight through. It takes so long to recover having young kids.

 

Where did you stop over?

 

We flew Cathay Pacific on the way to the UK (they had a special on at the time so it was a really good price), and stopped over in Hong Kong.

On the way back we flew with Singapore Airlines and stopped in Changi Airport.

 

i just remember the previous time when we were coming out here, and we'd been awake for 36 hours, and then had to hire a car and drive an hour or so with hubby falling asleep at the wheel...we had to pull over and swap places, as fortunately I was slightly more awake than he was. All this coupled with four very young kids made it an absolute nightmare.

 

This time with the stopover we were still jet lagged, but functioning so much better, able to do the drive no problem, able to organise the kids much better, and we all arrived with smiles on our faces. In fact the lady who was the cabin crew on our domestic flight at the end of the journey was so amazed that we and the kids were all still smiling and in good moods...all due to having a few hours of sleep, a nice shower, and a leisurely breakfast before getting on the second flight, rather than feeling harassed, and rushed etc...

[Gareth 666]

I personally think if you're gonna do a stop over then you may as we'll make it at least 2-3 nights. Just 12hrs would feel like an extended period of limbo and not bring able to see some of the interim destination would leave me thinking I'd missed the opportunity to see somewhere new or different.

 

On our recent trip we had 3 nights in Singapore on the out bound, partly because we live the place (OH says if we had the money and no Aussie visas then she'd happily live there) and partly to break the journey up and start the time difference acclimatisation process. The homeward journey we flew Sydney to Singapore then onto Heathrow with a couple of hours in the lounge in between. Even with the luxury of club/business class we all felt worse after the homeward flights. We had our 13 & 8 year olds in tow.

 

I'm not sure if it would have made a difference stopping over on the homeward journey instead of outbound or if we would've just felt crappy for the first days of our holiday instead of when we were back home. My godparents however have a son in Sydney and have made a few trips over the last 10 years or so. They're both retired so time isn't an issue but they've never done a stopover. Every trip they've made has been with Emirites and has been through Dubai but they've never been outside the airport. I see this as such a waste. Now they say they're not going again as the flights take so much out of them, both ways.

 

The next time we make the long hop it'll probably be one way but we'll still use it as a chance to grab a few nights somewhere new en route, possibly Tokyo for a change.