After leaving Istanbul, we headed to Göreme, in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey. The Cappadocia area is known for its unique geography and rich history. Our main reason for visiting the area was to see the famous caves and “fairy chimneys” and take a world-famous hot air balloon ride.
Trying to cram a lot into a small amount of time, our first 24 hours in Göreme involved lots of activities with little sleep: we got to the hotel (which was partly built into the volcanic rock) around 8pm, dropped our stuff, and headed to dinner at this cool restaurant we found within walking distance, Topdeck Cave Restaurant.
After landing in Abu Dhabi-AUH from our flight from Washington, D.C., we popped into the Etihad Arrivals Lounge after going through passport control/customs. We had our chauffeur already scheduled, so we really only had the time to head to the lounge for some water. We couldn’t stop ourselves from trying a quick snack, too — pita and hummus and a few bite-sized sandwiches.
At around, the lounge was mostly empty. Interestingly, it looked very similar to the Etihad lounge at IAD, with the same decor: dark wood with bright white and light blue leather upholstery.
In the lounge, there’s also a shower area and Jeffrey almost [...]
First off, here’s the video we shot with my drone that I impulsively bought at the Apple Store in Greenville earlier today. It shows the Harleston Village around Beaufain, Smith, Rutledge, Coming etc…
All of the pictures were shot around 5-6pm on Saturday 10/8.
As part of our quest to fly on Etihad’s A380 in their “First Apartment” from Abu Dhabi-AUH to Melbourne-MEL, we had to find a way to position to AUH for the flight over. We decided it would be fun to spend some time in the UAE (we quickly regretted this decision as soon as we stepped into the desert in 117°F heat) and found award availability from Washington-IAD direct to Abu Dhabi-AUH. Best of all, it was operated by one of their new 787s and featured their “Business Studio” class of service.
Here’s a map of our route for the 13 hr 10 min flight that covers a distance of 7,088 miles (11,407 km):
CHECK-IN
We landed on [...]
After getting to Dulles way too early for our flight out to Dubai, we were extra-eager to finally arrive at the Etihad First and Business Class Lounge. This was one of our (many) highlights of our upcoming trip, and it didn’t disappoint. The Etihad lounge is located at A16, right next to their gate. Because they have just one gate at Dulles, Business & First passengers can board directly from the lounge which is super, super awesome (and a first for us!).
As soon as the sliding doors [...]
(Updated 9/1/16):
Added SFO-SIN Added TLV-SFO Removed IAD-DXBI recently researched and completed a list outlining the longest Delta flights in the world and was surprised to see that Delta is considered to be one of the biggest airlines in the world based upon a number of metrics. However, I also became curious about the other U.S. based carriers.
Other posts in this series:
Top 7: Longest domestic US flights Top 10: Longest Domestic Flights in the World Top 12: Longest Non-Stop Delta Flights in the World Top 15: Longest Fifth Freedom Flights in the World Top 10: World’s longest non-stop flights Top 16 Longest Emirates Fifth Freedom Routes: Coming to a City Near [...]The first award redemption of our Around the World trip to Dubai/Australia was booked using American Airlines miles.
We used 60,750 American Airlines AAdvantage miles each (a total of 67,5o0 – 10% rebate since we both have the AAdvantage Aviator Red MasterCard) and booked the following routes in Business Class. We booked before the March 2016 American AAdvantage devaluation, but this award only increased 2,500 points to 70,000 total (link to new award map here).
While we would never have paid the cash rates, it’s always nice knowing that your miles are getting a lot of value as the airfare for this route hovers at around $9,700 per [...]
While we were in Istanbul, we were bound and determined to get the full experience of visiting an authentic Turkish bath. We began researching the different options after we’d arrived in Istanbul and quickly found out that the true Turkish baths have separate male and female sections (that makes sense… not trying to be ogled by strange men). But, after scouting out TripAdvisor and a few other websites, we gathered that many of the “true” Turkish bath visits involve excessively awkward experiences, compliments of lots of old-person nudity.
Throw in a language barrier, and we (hesitantly) opted for the more conservative route with a much more touristy [...]