The Combination Traveler

When I travel I like to squeeze in as much value as possible, for my time is always at a premium.  This comes from my years working in the restaurant industry, where “vacation time” doesn’t really exist.  For those ten years, taking a vacation meant saving as much money as possible to pay for my vacation, as well as the time missed from work, plus making sure all of my shifts were covered by other staff.

These days – as then – when I have the time to take an extended holiday my preference is to maximize the experience by choosing more than one destination to visit.  By using one long stretch of vacation to visit two (or more) locations that are geographically closer to one another than either one is from my departure point, I save valuable travel time.  I have implemented this approach on several trips in the past with much success, and it’s something I recommend to others when they are considering an extended vacation, particularly one that involves traveling great distances and/or when when they are unable to decide between two destinations.

What I call “The Combination Traveler” approach is also a great technique for comprimising with your traveling companion if you have different ideas on where to take your holiday.  If you and your friend or spouse just can’t decide on whether to go to Australia or Thailand, for example, why not consider a trip to both?  All you need to do is grab a map and get started.  With some additional planning up-front you, too, can become a successful Combination Traveler.

My husband and I want to take two, one-week vacations next year.  We know one is going to be in Alaska for a wedding, but for the second we can’t decide between Australia and Thailand.  He wants to take advantage of the many tours of Australia that include wine tastings, outback adventures, and Great Barrier Reef excursions (not just a geologist, he’s a “reef guy” who always wants to dive into shark-infested waters … to relax).

On the other hand, I prefer to “dive” into the cuisine and culture of a place totally out of my element, and I have my heart set on taking advantage of one of several Thailand holidays.  Thai cuisine is at the top of my list of favorites, and I want to experience authentic food … so I can ruin forever my love of stateside versions, I suppose.  I also want to visit Thailand to learn more about the history, and to see first-hand some of the amazing Thai architecture, particularly the Buddhist temples.

Recently I sat down with a notebook, a pen, and a calculator and began doing some basic math in hopes of convincing my husband that we can have the best of both worlds in 2011.  Using Houston as our departure point (and my example for you), here is some number-crunching a la The Combination Traveler:

Houston, TX to Cairns, Australia

• Flight Distance: 8,506 miles/13,689 km (one-way); 17,012 miles/27,378 km (round-trip)

• Flight Time: 17 h 1 m (one way)

Houston, TX to Bangkok, Thailand

• Flight Distance: 9,258 miles/14,000 km (one-way); 18,516 m/28,000 km (round-trip)

• Flight Time: 18 h 31 m (one-way)

Using the numbers above, if we were to take two separate trips to Australia and Bangkok, each departing from Houston, we would end up flying 35,528 miles (55,378 km) and we would be in the air for over 71 hours.

Ouch.

Next, I calculated time and distance by combining a trip to Australia and a trip to Thailand into one extended holiday departing from and returning to Houston.

Bangkok, Thailand to Cairns, Australia

• Flight Distance: 3,741 miles/6020 km (one-way); 7,482 miles/12,040 km (round-trip)

• Flight Time: 7 h 29 m (one way)

A trip starting and ending in Houston, that includes a flight from Cairn, Australia to Bangkok, Thailand, ends up being 21,505 flight miles and 43 hours 1 minute of flight time.  By combining these two dream vacations into one, we shave off over 14,000 air miles and almost 30 hours in the air!  Sure, the trade off is less time in each location, but consider this: the next time we are ready to travel to a third area, geographically convenient to either of the two previously visited, we can start all over again with the Combination Traveler Technique.  We can revisit Thailand for a few days on our way to China or Vietnam, or we can swing back through Queensland before embarking on an excursion elsewhere in Australia, or moving on to Indonesia or the Philippines.  By utilizing the Combination Traveler approach, we not only get more vacation in less time, but we can then revisit places we enjoyed and use them as a springboard for traveling to new locations for future holidays.

This post was sponsored by Qantas Holidays, who also provided photos.  The opinions expressed are solely those of the author.