Holiday in between UK and Australia

shebanjoed

My friend who lives in Australia wants to meet up for a holiday next year somewhere in between Australia and UK. She has mentioned Thailand, Singapore and Dubai.

As the Scottish contingent take their hols during school hols none of us want a long haul journey. Dubai appears to be 7 ish hours.

Can anyone recommend any other places? Obviously we would go for Spain/France etc. easy to get to and a lot cheaper(!) however in the spirit of friendship and missing our friend we are trying to come up with alternatives.

Thanks.

callum9999

shebanjoed wrote: »

My friend who lives in Australia wants to meet up for a holiday next year somewhere in between Australia and UK. She has mentioned Thailand, Singapore and Dubai.

As the Scottish contingent take their hols during school hols none of us want a long haul journey. Dubai appears to be 7 ish hours.

Can anyone recommend any other places? Obviously we would go for Spain/France etc. easy to get to and a lot cheaper(!) however in the spirit of friendship and missing our friend we are trying to come up with alternatives.

Thanks.

Dubai is hit and miss depending on what you want to do. If it's going to be during the Summer holidays, then you should probably be prepared to spend most of the holiday indoors in shopping malls etc. - the heat is almost unbearable (by which I mean, after half a year basking in the Australian summer I couldn't handle the heat in Dubai and felt faint after a 10 minute stroll! - and it's not much better at night).

Maybe somewhere like Turkey? It's awkward to find a place suitable for both if you don't want to go long-haul yourself. As it is, Dubai is much closer to the UK than Australia! If you don't want to go any further than Dubai, I'd personally say you might as well just go to Spain etc. The trip from Australia to Dubai is long enough that I don't think a few more hours would really matter (and although I'm biased because I hate the place, I don't think travelling so long just to go to Dubai from Australia is worth it unless you're a major shopaholic).

Bennifred

Have you considered the other half of the world - USA or Canada?

shebanjoed

We didn't really fancy Dubai and after reading the post I def don't fancy it. I did look at stopovers and noticed New York, LA and San Francisco. It would be for a week, possibly Easter, and to be honest Spain would be ideal. However as my lovely friend is also paying for the flights (lovely and very rich friend) I also don't want to sound ungrateful.

Thanks for the advice, that's helpful.

hcb42

shebanjoed wrote: »

My friend who lives in Australia wants to meet up for a holiday next year somewhere in between Australia and UK. She has mentioned Thailand, Singapore and Dubai.

As the Scottish contingent take their hols during school hols none of us want a long haul journey. Dubai appears to be 7 ish hours.

Can anyone recommend any other places? Obviously we would go for Spain/France etc. easy to get to and a lot cheaper(!) however in the spirit of friendship and missing our friend we are trying to come up with alternatives.

Thanks.

If neither of you want to travel, how will Spain/France work for your friend, that is almost identical to travelling to UK (when coming from AUS!)

Not sure of the relevance of the "Scottish Contingent...?"

However, FWIW I met my sister last Christmas at Las Vegas, also did Grand Canyon/hoover dam etc. About 17 hours for them ( I recall from the last time I did the same journey) and about 11 hours for us.

shebanjoed

Travelling to America sounds fairer (and cheaper) and more interesting. We will be travelling from Scotland.

peachyprice

If you're thinking if Easter, Dubai would be ideal it's mid 70's no nowhere near too hot to go out in, but then I don't find it unbearable in summer. I actually really like it, but you seem to have decided it's out.

The weather in Europe in March is too hit and miss IMO. Same for East coast USA. West coast will be far more pleasant.

If you're going to expect your friend to come all the way to Spain from Australia they might just as well come to the UK for the amount of time it's going to take them and the fact that it won't be a sunshine holiday anyway.

callum9999

shebanjoed wrote: »

We didn't really fancy Dubai and after reading the post I def don't fancy it. I did look at stopovers and noticed New York, LA and San Francisco. It would be for a week, possibly Easter, and to be honest Spain would be ideal. However as my lovely friend is also paying for the flights (lovely and very rich friend) I also don't want to sound ungrateful.

Thanks for the advice, that's helpful.

California could be a good choice come to think of it. You get direct flights there from both the UK and Australia.

If it's at Easter then I'd imagine the other poster is right about it not being too hot, but I really hate Dubai! There isn't really much more to it than everyone already knows about (ridiculously big and posh shopping malls and hotels) so I have no idea why people like it so much on here! Don't just take my word for it (we all like different things) but it sounds like you weren't keen on it in the first place.

Almo

As others have said, Spain or France is no different to the UK when you're coming from Australia. Obviously your friend can make her/his own choices but as someone living in Australia I would not be at all keen on the idea of meeting 'halfway' in Spain! Also, if you don't want to fly long haul because it's school holidays be aware that it is also school holidays for Australia (at least it is in Victoria, I haven't checked all states) - term 1 finishes on 28 March so your friend might reasonably give the same objection.

The US sounds like an ideal midway point but it would have to be West Coast, generally speaking.

pelirocco

California would be the best bet , not least because it is a wonderful place to visit . personally I didnt like Dubai and found it far too hot in May for me, spent the whole time in the pool to keep cool , and tbh could have done that at the local pool at home lol

harz99

Fairly obvious from the places the OP's friend suggested that the friend envisages meeting halfway, not travelling all the way to the UK or an equivalent EU destination!

From the places suggested Dubai is by far the closest to the UK; any of the Emirates would be of similar distance if Dubai itself is the sticking point.

It would be useful to know where in Aus the friend would be travelling from, as it's a big country so flying time for the friend could be +/- 5 hours depending on destination.

Finally, it might also be worth considering Canada, maybe even an Alaskan cruise out of say Vancouver?