chris28house

Hi Everyone,

I think my brain needs a break from all of the travel deals I've been reading up on. I have never traveled to Asia and was wondering what people might think about a 9 day trip including Hong Kong (or Tokyo) and Nepal.

I'd be flying from Grand Rapids, MI in late April.

I have 80k Amex plat points and 120k MR points.

Is this trip feasible, and how might you do it? I don't care what I do in Hong Kong as long as I get to be around the people and eat street food. In Nepal I can figure out a few day trips. Hopefully 3 full days in each country.

Appreciate your insight.

EmailKid

Well the first thing that comes to mind is that it's an awfully long time to spend in a cramped coach seat for a six day visit

I've done it once to visit a friend in Cebu, Philippines, but would never do that again @:-)

Even eight days isn't that much time to give a body time to recover, and I was a lot younger when I did that.

Also, Hong Kong is not a cheap place to visit.

segacs

Are you planning to trek in Nepal? If so, you'll need a lot longer than 9 days. If not, you could easily spend 3-4 days each in Pokhara and Kathmandu and see some awesome stuff.

Would Hong Kong be a stopover on your way? IMHO I'd do the whole 9 days in Nepal if I were you (including time to get to/from), since you probably won't have much time for two countries.

I was just in Nepal in November. Ping me if you want more info about my trip!

kenwood

There isn't much street food left in Hong Kong. The government has been cracking down on street vendors for many years.

Hong Kong and Toyko are some of the more expensive cities in Asia.

eigenvector

You are going to need a regional hop first to get to ORD, EWR or DFW, then the long-haul to HKG. That will have you arriving in Hong Kong on the evening of the 2nd day. Hong Kong is fairly compact with excellent public transportation, so you can see and do a lot in 3 days. Your 3rd, 4th and 5th days are spent in HK. On the evening of the 5th day you take the Dragonair nonstop flight to Kathmandu. You have the 6th, 7th and 8th day in Nepal. Land transport is slow and inefficient in Nepal, so you likely don't leave the immediate area around Kathmandu. On the 8th day you take the redeye back to HKG on Dragonair, connecting to a late-morning flight back to the US. This should put you back at home late on the 9th day (since you cross back over the international date line).

Seems feasible, although rather a lot of flying. You would probably do it as two nested tickets (GRR-XXX-HKG R/T with HKG-KTM-HKG nested). Finding award space that matches your highly constrained itinerary, though, would be an impressive stroke of luck.

chris28house

Thank you all for your replies! I have a lot of pondering to do now.

I was thinking Airbnb in Hong Kong for a few days is about $50-100/day depending on where you stay.

Each time I think about Hong Kong, I know I only really want to go to Nepal.

Since I can't afford the time away from work this year for Everest Base camp (planning 23-24 days to accomodate flights), maybe spending all of my time in Nepal, doing some light trekking, experiencing the culture, and possibly getting a flight into Lukla would help stave off my thirst to trek to Everest.

There seems to be a lot of reasonable excursions in Nepal (Kathmandu, and other areas) which would probably keep me very busy. Ive yet to find a really good points deal on a flight, so I will have to keep my eyes peeled.

EmailKid

That sounds like a solid plan ^

I'm guessing as far as Everest goes, even going to the base camp will involve some major bucks @:-)

Good luck, hope it works out for you

eigenvector

If you can get your points into Aeroplan, space is usually plentiful on TK IST-KTM. That's the best Star Alliance route into Nepal. Otherwise you find your way into DEL via YYZ, EWR, FRA, LHR (etc) and connect through there on AI.

EmailKid

From everything I've read on FT, you do NOT want to connect in India @:-)

And you really don't want to fly AI either, but the sheer difficulty of dealing with Indian airports is something to avoid. From what I read, at all costs.

And yes, second largest population on earth, largest democracy (in theory) in the world, and yet ....

eigenvector

DEL is pretty mediocre over all but the T3 international-international transfers are much improved these days with a dedicated transfer pathway. Not on par with the wonderfully efficient European and Asian hubs, but there are few long haul flights into Kathmandu - KE from ICN and TK from IST is basically it. Another option is to get to KUL on your points and take an LCC from there.

segacs

I flew TK from Kathmandu connecting in Istanbul (on an Aeroplan ticket) in November. Flights were fine. Worth noting that there's a free stopover or free tour program in IST if you have a long layover.

chris28house

It seems like Delta Skymiles has the best deal for DTW - KTM. 80k points. The best I could find with Aeroplan is 100k points.