Continuing the discussion from Travel Thread (Part 1) - #10028 by The_Ant.
Previous discussions:
Classic Qantas.
Waited until everyone dumped their points ahead of devaluation and then drops a stack of redemption seats. Absolutely tons of awards for Paris and LA especially
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In the cute little Qantas lounge at cute little Hobart waiting to get to big smoke Melbourne. Then onto bigger smoke, London. Iām on my British passport and she who must be obeyed is on her new Aussie one. If it kicks off on Friday only one of us might be allowed on an emergency flight back home 
. On a serious note, MIL had a stroke on Sunday and family has been told to prep for the worst. Probably a funeral to attend soon.
Sorry to hear.
Having been through similar recently I sympathise with you.
We all have British passports so use them when travelling as necessary especially the UK.
And the Hobart lounge is horrible and Qantas have been going to upgrade it for years but it always seems to miss the cut
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I think it was the upgraded one. In a different spot to where it used to be. Emirates in Melbourne is a bit posh thoughš. And thanks for the thoughts. I know you went through similar.
Onwards to Dubai now then meet the old gang in pomgolia.
Buckle up over the Andes.
When booking our trip we were first looking at 14 hours in Sydney. Agent changed it to a 4 hour wait in Melbourne instead. But it meant Gatwick instead of Heathrow.
Gatwick is a s#ithole.
Itās fine as an arrival airport but terrible to depart from
Well thats not encouraging Ace. I was talking about arrivals. That means Iāve got worse to look forward to. 
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We flew from Gatwick to Venice this year. Stayed at the airport hotel the night before and were very impressed with the airport process - speed and ease - there. Hopefully all goes well for you.
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Same problem as many SNL sketches. One joke, repeated endlessly. I may be doing this one an injustice because I stopped watching half way through.
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We have always found Gatwick to be far superior to Heathrow for departures.
Guess we do not use the First Class Lounges like you though.
Gatwick has a first lounge but itās ordinary. Yes lounges are a big part but we used to go through Gatwick regularly and it always seemed that because it was predominantly a LCC airport a lot of the infrastructure was poor and o had a run of 3 flights out of 5 where either checkin terminals, xray or gates were down and it took forever to get through. The last time my bags didnāt even make it to the aircraft 
If everything goes well then yeah itās fine, I just havenāt had a good run in recent trips
I never had that problem, and used it a lot to fly into Europe, cheaply into Spain and Portugal
Actually preferred Luton as it was the most accessible and easy to use, again with cheap flights into all parts of Europe. Ryanair was what I used the most from Luton or EasyJet from Gatwick.
Both had some oddities though; caught flights into Poznan Poland regularly and was the only non-Pole on the flight most times. All announcements on the plane were only in Polish, no English at all. When the plane arrived, I was the only Foreigner going through immigration, which had two gates open for Foreigners, and one only for 200 or so Poles.
The joys of business travel.
Luggage from our flight was shared on carousels 8 & 9 so most passengers were in between them trying to see what chute the cases were coming down. Then along with about 40 others weāre waiting in turn to tell the besieged Emirates hostess that everyone ās smaller holdall type bags had gone missing. After a few calls on the 2 way sheās told ā Sorry, all the small bags are way over there on a trailerā. Just like the old Hobart days, go and help yourself. Head for the exit, 3 drivers decided to park their disabled cars at the end of carousel 4 leaving a gap for 2 people at a time. Be something like 700 or more passengers with luggage waiting to squeeze through. Leaving the āGā on Anzac Day would be easier. Admittedly our flight did go round a couple of times so there must have been a problem somewhere. But here now and the weather in pomgolia is pretty good.
Perhaps mercifully missed much of the season in the northern hemisphere with the better half. France and Canada (Mrs has passports for both and friends/family in each) plus Denmark & Greenland thrown in. A few random thoughts:
Denmark - didnāt stay long nor see a whole lot; but Copenhagen was very pleasant. Easily walkable/bikeable. Made a short side trip via train to Sweden (Malmo) for a day, wasnāt bad but not as nice as Copenhagen. Coffee prices outrageous - looking at AU $10-12 for a small espresso!
Greenland - incredibly scenic, especially the flight over and into Nuuk. Nuuk itself isnāt a pristine Scandinavian type town it might be pictured as; quite industrial around the port area and somewhat disappointingly litter seemed a significant problem. Took a boat trip through the fjord past mountains, icebergs, and glaciers which was absolutely stunning - not much exists aside from the landscape! Weād have loved to add smaller settlements like Ilulissat or Kangerlussuaq but limited time and additional costs were prohibitive.
France - spent time in Paris, La Rochelle and Montpellier. Typical tourists in Paris - Eiffel Tower, Seine cruise, walking by the Louvre etc. Really enjoyed Versailles and appreciated how āunmodernā for want of a better word the city was: not that it wasnāt but more the way the historical integrity of the buildings and streets had been maintained. La Rochelle and surrounds is wonderful (perhaps helped by having Mrsā family as tour guides). Top notch seafood & cheese plus visits to Ile DāAix and Ile De Re - both very worthwhile if in the area. Last few days in Montpellier & Camargue, neither great nor bad but also copped a heatwave and didnāt really feel like doing much!
Just Montreal in Canada, after getting past the weirdness of 2 official languages found it wonderful. Easy to get around, plenty of sights and green space. Lucky enough to spend a couple of days in the forest between Montreal & Quebec City - scenic surroundings there and on the drive.
Stans locked in for next year which has been on the list for a while.
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Enjoy. Have had some fantastic trips through the Stans and absolutely superb
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Good to know, cheers. Any particular favourites? Was Issyk Kul and the mountains of Kyrgystan that got me hooked on the idea, doing a tour through there, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan but intending to add an extra week in either Kyrg or Uzb before or after
Our last trip we flew into Ashgabat, Turkmenistan from Istanbul. I absolutely loved the place and you feel like you are in another world. Huge white marble buildings everywhere, weird architecture and huge green parks but there are these massive highways with little to no traffic. We took a couple of short tours around the city and ride the cable car and the huge Ferris wheel that offered great views. Very touchy about photos especially around government buildings and police will confiscate cameras. You also must be on a tour to enter the country and they are very strict about it. We did several day tours from Ashgabat. One out to Nisa and the Darvaza crater which was the absolute highlight of the trip IMO and one out to the ancient city of Merv which was unreal.
Uzbekistan is completely different, tourist everywhere especially Bukhara and you will get charged a āphoto feeā of around $1-2 at most places but you can ignore it and itās not strictly enforced. Bukhara and Samarkand are absolutely stunning though and worth a few days each. Uzbekistan has has pretty decent scenery and o did enjoy Termez which is right on the Afghan border. Tajikistan is almost entirely mountains and a very beautiful country, itās also the most different to all the other Stanās IMO. Dushanbe is really like a big town and the drive to Lake Iskanderkul is one of the best Iāve been on. The scenery through the mountains and valleys was just stunning, every bend gave way to another jaw dropping view. The Lake itself is just the most amazing colour and no photos do it justice. Kyrgyzstan is small but packs a punch, feels a lot more ābasicā than the others. Lots of plains and basic homes but as you climb up into the high country you will see some unbelievable sights especially around Kyzyi-Oz and the lake region where we stayed in a Yurt camp near lake Song-kul. Issyk kul is beautiful and Bishkek is ok for a city. Kazakhstan has its beauty but not as much as the others IMO.
It really depends on what you are into but probably for natural beauty and scenery Iām leaning towards Tajikistan and Kyrzgyzstan whilst for the history Iām taking Uzbekistan. Overall though personally Iām ranking them
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Tajikistan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan