Making Plans

Making Plans

Opera on the Harbour - April 2015
From Left: Ian McCarry, Diane McCarry, Michael Mead, Diane Mead
What will do on our 2017 holiday? - in the beginning

 After a great time on an APT tour of Myanmar in late 2016,  the McCarrys and the Meads decided to plan a trip in 2017.
Kuthodaw Pagoda, Mandalay, November 2016
It all started with a discussion on a possible trip down the Mississippi on a Paddle Steamer but then evolved into "Why don't we go to some very different".
"How about a train trip on the Trans Siberian Railway, -that's different".

From there, the creative juices flowed and we reasoned to go on the Trans Mongolian and begin in Beijing which is far better accessed as a start point from Sydney than Vladivostok.

So we searched and found we could include Shanghai with a non-stop flight and then why not go by the Fast Train to Beijing.

Then our creative juices followed... "Let's have a relaxed journey without lots of transfers and airports - train & cruise ships were the way to go". The more & more we investigated options the more our plans grew, ending up with our being away for 3 months, however we will see a multitude of amazing things with a relaxed approach and timeframe.

And the Final Result....
The countries and cities we will see are:
  • China (Shanghai & Beijing)
  • Join Trans Mongolian Railway 
    • Mongolia
    • Russia (finish in Moscow)
  • Fast train to St Petersburg 
  • Then using trains & local Ferries 
    • Finland
    • Estonia
    • Sweden
    • Denmark
  • Then a 15 nights cruise on the Serenade of the Seas starting in Copenhagen
    • Norway (Kristiansand & Oslo)
    • Iceland
    • Halifax, Nova Scotia
    • USA (Boston) 
  • Next an 11 day AMTRAK holiday :
    • Toronto (& Niagara Falls)
    • Canada (thru the Rockies with overnight stopovers and excursions)
  • Topping it off with back- to- back cruises on the 'Celestial Solstice'.
    •  First 10 night Hawaiian Cruise.
      • Depart Vancouver
      • Hawaii (all 5 Islands - one each day)
    • Then 17 nights Tahitian Treasures sailing back home
      • French Polynesia (Tahiti & Bora Bora) 
      • New Zealand (Auckland & Bay of Islands)
      • Sydney

The blog will chronicle some highlights of our Grande Tour and record some points of interest.
And big thanks to Cassandra at Landmark Travel in Manly for pulling much of this together!

Wish us luck...
MM

Comments

  1. Unknown24 July 2017 at 00:13

    Looks fantastic when do you go

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown30 July 2017 at 15:29

    Woot wooo ... your trip looks amazing .. where are you now?? we look forward to hearing all about your adventures!
    love and kisses
    Gary and Jenny xoxox

    ReplyDelete

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