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I’m looking for some hints and tips on some niche destinations you can travel to with Avios. Places that aren’t necessarily on the usual tourist trail (but ideally places where I won’t get held ransom for my Avios points!!)
I’m not fussed how many stops I need to make, where I need to start the trip in UK/Europe, or how many airlines (but ideally would like the longer legs in business). Really struggling to get my mind away from the obvious places like NYC, Tokyo and Singapore.
To make things more interesting, let’s imagine we all had unlimited Avios to use to make things more interesting. Aspirational trip ideas more than welcome.
@warrior1 – welcome to HfP, but your first question is a bit of a big one. It rather depends what you want from a holiday. The only thing I can tell you is that my family also has no interest in the obvious places, nor ones crowded with tourists. We don’t want to be in big bed factories or eat in hotel restaurants. We aren’t interested in sitting by a pool or on the beach, but prefer adventure, hiking, sports, sightseeing of historic sights or nature/wildlife, local life etc. If you don’t need a beach, a first choice would be China – so much to see and do, easy to get there on Avios, very cheap once you are there (except in Shanghai, expensive and less to see) incredible food, wonderful people; it’s a proper ‘wow’ destination. Another non beach destination is Argentina although BsAs is becoming more touristy and Mendoza rather overrun and fake, but it’s a huge country and areas like the NW remain unspoilt and have natural landscapes to rival the big US national parks, but empty, free and then add in low cost, great food and wine. Similarly for Chile and Uruguay.
For beach but lots of other activities, we like the Pacific coast of Mexico; most tourists are hanging out in Cancún. I love Australia and plenty of less well trodden places to visit there, but my wife isn’t so keen! We both love South Africa, or at least the Cape, but avoid the obvious like the Garden Route and do the West Coast instead.
Have a look at Iberia network: Senegal, Ecuador or Bolivia (with Iberia+LATAM). Bolivia is certainly not over run (even in Uyuni it’s not crowded). Bolivia has beautiful nature/ food/culture.
Then you have Accra with BA from where you can visit a lot of West Africa with a tour guide (or even on your own if you are adventurous enough).
Also look at Qatar Airways’ network too (although that’s increasingly difficult to get on Avios).
Even from Tokyo, you are only 2-3 hours away from Okinawa/Ryukyu archipelago (using Avios on JAL). Some islands have zero foreign tourists. Ishigaki is also great for beach type place with not too many tourists.
I also like Taiwan, especially rural and southern Taiwan (can be done with Cathay from Hong Kong or JAL from Tokyo).
The “special” Avios redemption is the multi-carrier award. That can give great value and, of course, by its nature means the whole world (almost) is open to you.
I don’t know of any “magic” oversized redemptions, like the old BMI scheme which also allowed breaks in the journey. Vladivostok being “European”, but you had to go via Japan. Or Nepal being in a much cheaper band than Bangkok – so Mad-BKK-Katmandu in F was the same miles as Madrid-BKK in economy!
Agree with JDB – avoid the obvious! The UK example: Skip Stonehenge and visit Argyll, or Callanish, or Orkney
@warrior01 I agree with @JDB – can you give us more info as to what you want from this trip – are you a city break person? Do you love beaches? Do you want to escape into the mountains to hike and commune with the birds? where have you been in the past that you loved? This sort of information will help us give you better advice!
Have a look at Iberia network: Senegal, Ecuador or Bolivia (with Iberia+LATAM). Bolivia is certainly not over run (even in Uyuni it’s not crowded). Bolivia has beautiful nature/ food/culture.
Normally I’d agree 100% (I went last Easter, and it’s *stunning*), but I’d maybe recommend giving Ecuador a wide berth for a little while, given the insane number of assassinations in the last couple of weeks.
Oh, yes completely slipped my mind about Ecuador. Good that I didn’t book just yet! 🙂
Being flippant I’d take a look at itineraries that @Cat books and then go in the opposite direction. She has a knack for choosing wonderful places to go but I don’t think any of them has been trouble free. On the other hand they do fit the non-tourist-trap criterion. Or just go at a different time of year 😀
Thanks all for the suggestions. Definitely going to be researching Okinawa and the more unusual Iberia destinations.
I have a thing for islands. I find they usually have unique cultures and atmospheres that I’ve always enjoyed discovering. I’ve been looking into seeing if I can get to Gan in the Maldives (with UL), so would need to get to Colombo first, and also looking into doing some island hopping in the Pacific with FJ – just need to figure out how to get to Nadi first with Avios and then choose from the myriad of islands they fly to.
Return on Qatar for 180k avios
to Sydney/Melbourne etc.
Fiji Airways then onto Nadi.so Mad-BKK-Katmandu in F was the same miles as Madrid-BKK in economy!
Wow!
NAN-FUN (Fiji to Tuvalu) on FJ might be a great example. It’s just under 650 miles so should be Band 1, Tuvalu is about as niche a country as you get and it’s presumably quite cheap compared to the ~£325 cash price. Unfortunately BA.com doesn’t know about FUN so I have no idea if it’s actually bookable with Avios!
Maldives – Avios on BA to Chennai then onwards on UL to Colombo and the Maldives.
Oh, yes completely slipped my mind about Ecuador. Good that I didn’t book just yet! 🙂
😂 I mean, I meant that as a warning to OP and anyone reading this thread, but I did quote you, so I can see where it looked like I was aiming that at you @meta! Sorry.
Being flippant I’d take a look at itineraries that @Cat books and then go in the opposite direction. She has a knack for choosing wonderful places to go but I don’t think any of them has been trouble free. On the other hand they do fit the non-tourist-trap criterion. Or just go at a different time of year 😀
😂 Have I mentioned that my dad is convinced that I’m Red from Good Omens?
I would agree with JDB about Argentina. We’ve just been using a 241 companion voucher on Iberia from Madrid, great use of avios! We travelled around the country a bit and it’s awesome…and incredibly cheap at the minute!
I don’t think Argentina is incredibly cheap any more – prices are rising rapidly. Hotels who quote in US$ have basically doubled in price.
I’ll be able to confirm that in a few days.
I don’t think Argentina is incredibly cheap any more – prices are rising rapidly. Hotels who quote in US$ have basically doubled in price.
I’ll be able to confirm that in a few days.
The Milei effect?
Huge value using avios for domestic and regional fligbfs in tve Americas, don’t think they’ve suffered yet fro the regional partner devaluations we’ve seen in Far East?
AA has moved to dynamic pricing so the same flight can be anywhere from 10k to 44k avios!
I don’t think Argentina is incredibly cheap any more – prices are rising rapidly. Hotels who quote in US$ have basically doubled in price.
I’ll be able to confirm that in a few days.
@qc – once again hotels haven’t doubled in price!a) you are booking at the last minute in the height of the Argentinian summer holidays.
and
b) you were looking at an exchange rate between the election rounds without realising how it worked and/or appreciating that it was a wholly unsustainable blip. The extraordinarily huge spread between the official rate and the MEP was not one on which to base any holiday budget. As it happens, the gap is widening again (such that you get a favourable US$ exchange rate), but there’s no knowing what it will be when you get there later this month or I’m there next month.
Overall, when we were there last Feb/Mar the exchange rate ARS/GBP was around 440, today it’s over 1,440.
NAN-FUN (Fiji to Tuvalu) on FJ might be a great example. It’s just under 650 miles so should be Band 1, Tuvalu is about as niche a country as you get and it’s presumably quite cheap compared to the ~£325 cash price. Unfortunately BA.com doesn’t know about FUN so I have no idea if it’s actually bookable with Avios!
It’s bookable with AA miles :0 15K each way.
Went there last August.
Flew from FiJi to other islands but using AA miles all the time so not sure if that helps.
JDB: “Overall, when we were there last Feb/Mar the exchange rate ARS/GBP was around 440, today it’s over 1,440”
Can you just imagine how awful it would be to be trapped living in a country with such currency instability.
JDB: “Overall, when we were there last Feb/Mar the exchange rate ARS/GBP was around 440, today it’s over 1,440”
Can you just imagine how awful it would be to be trapped living in a country with such currency instability.
Yes, it’s truly terrible, particularly for the less well off in the cities. In the countryside it’s quite a different story, as it is for anyone who has earned enough to save anything which they will have done in US$. What’s so impressive is just how positive and resilient they are; many take the view that the state can’t be relied upon to help them, so they’ll sort themselves out and they are very good at it. Healthcare and education systems are relatively good.
It’s a strange country that has gone from being one of the five richest in the world to being bankrupt, so very different to those countries that have risen from nothing in recent years to becoming relatively better off.
In BsAs one just sees so much wealth, new restaurants swisher than London ones opening and being incredibly hard to book, new expensive apartments, new cars etc. Domestic tourism is strong as it’s so expensive to go abroad.
In the recent elections there was a big recognition that all the handouts (ie vote buying) was completely unsustainable, so now it’s a question of whether the current pain introduced with shock and awe will be politically tolerable and show results quickly enough.
JDB: “Overall, when we were there last Feb/Mar the exchange rate ARS/GBP was around 440, today it’s over 1,440”
Can you just imagine how awful it would be to be trapped living in a country with such currency instability.
It’s effectively UK on steroids. Look at the GBPUSD rate long term and we are on track thanks to encouraging BTL, nimbyism and brexit.
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