World Traveller: 7 Continents, 90 Countries, 871 Days Overseas
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Official Name: Turkmenistan
Established: 1924 (Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic ) / 31 August 1991 (Independence from PSUSSR)
Population: 5.6 million (2022 estimate)
Religion: Muslim (93%)
Official Languages: Turkmen
Capital: Ashgabat
Order of Visit: 77
Planned First Visit: 30 May 2023
Planned Last Visit: 03 June 2023
Duration: 5 Days
Must Do: To be discovered!
Cities to be visited: Dashoguz, Darvaza, Ashgabat
Published: 28 March 2023 | Updated: 24 February 2024
So today marks the start of the 50 day countdown to my Europe 2024 Adventure with my neice to Finalnd, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Monenegro, and Croatia.
If you don’t count Turkey than this is my first visit to Europe since 2013 and boy has the world changed since then.
In addition to the Eastern Europe, Croatia & the Balkans tour with G Advantures we will be visiting Finland (just a short 20 hour stopover) and Singapore.
I’ve booked Hilton stay in Helsinki as a nice way to help recover from the 25 hours from the plane leaving Melbourne to landing in Helsinki. This is why we are stoppinghere for 20 hours instead of flying onto Germany as since a long day in economy seats and Jetstar and Finnair we definitely need time to recover!
I’ve also booked a Crowne Plaza stay for our last stop in Singapore hotel to finish with another nice hotel before our real to reality at the end of this 33 day trip.
With the trip now getting so close I’m getting very excited to be on the road. I’m also very much looking forward to sharing this adventure with my neice and seeing Europe through Darby’s eyes.
So after much discussion and thought I decided that at the end of my Ecuador December 2024 tour with my neice that I would stay on for my first leisure cruise 🙂
While technically I have done a cruise with my 12 day Antarctica Classic in Depth back in November 2012 that cruise is a bit different from a leisure cruise with on board pools, spas, and shows. So given I’ll be around Maimi next year I had a lot an found that their is a 10 Night Southern Caribbean Holiday leaving Boxing Day (26th December 2024).
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The next big step in my trip with Erin to the USA and Ecuador late November 2024 has been successful with the first flights booked from Melbourne to Los Angeles.
As this trip is a graduation and 18th birthday gift to my niece I want to make it as special as possible so I used Qantas Frequent flyer points to book business class seats for us both 🙂
Attempting to use points to fly to the USA for anything other than economy especially for 2 people is almost impossible. But 30 seconds after flights opened for booking for Friday 29 November 2024 I quickly grabbed two seats on Fiji Airways FJ934 Melbourne to Nadi (Fiji) which is a 4 hour 40 minute flight, then after a 2 hour 25 minute transit we switch to FJ810 Nadi (Fiji) to Los Angeles which a 10 hour 10 minute flight.
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With two big international trips coming up in 2024 with my nieces in April 2024 (Europe with Darby) and December 2024 (Ecuador and USA with Erin) my mind has focused on how I can help them prepare.
So I started considering what I had learned over my many trips.
What were the mistakes that easily could have been avoided?
How could I keep my costs under control by being prepared?
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Nathan's Insights 