East or west pros and cons

Hi all,

I'm considering a trip focusing on NZ and Aus, but may use the Great Escapade or other round the world type deals.

So, what are your oppinions, pros and cons for doing this:
a) Lon -> east via HK or Singapore, down under, back via LA/SF
b) Lon -> west via LA/SF., down under, back via HK/Singapore

I may or may not do stop overs at some of these places, but I may be able to get better prices using the round the world type tickets. It would also count towards my daughter's wish to "do a round the worl trip".

At the moment, I'm just trying to work out whether the timezone change thing is better done in a particular direction.

Thanks in advance,

No easy answers from me on E v. W - what does previous experience tell you? For me its the length of the flight and time to recover, plus other factors like time of arrival and ease of getting onto local time, that seem to be the prime issues, not the direction.

In terms of routing, I'd head east and spend most of my time in Asia and Australasia, simply because I spend a lot of time in the US.

[preiffer]

Do both - RTW would be a lot more fun in one trip

It is suggested that East to West is easier on the jet-lag front, but then again as the flight to Austalia/New Zealand is so long, I doubt that would make much difference. I prefer to land PM, that way at least you can have some sleep and really start to the trip the next day

I'm not sure it really makes much difference whether you go east or west - especially if you are going to stopover. Heading westwards is perhaps a bit easier for the first leg, but after that all bets are off!

For what it is worth my eastbound trip to OZ in April left me with no jet lag.

I left London for Dubai at 20.40 on a Thursday. Slept for about 90 minutes on the flight, arriving in Dubai about 7am local. I then had four hours lounging in Dubai before the near 14 hour non-stop to Brisbane, arriving there at about 6am on Saturday morning. I guess I slept for about three hours in total on the long flight. The only things I drank on the flights were sparkling water and champagne. I ate but nothing "heavy".

I just had a normal first day in OZ and went to bed at the usual time locally, dosed with Nytol.

I slept like a log and woke feeling fine. I sat around waiting for jet lag to arrive and it didnt.

For that reason I am doing the same flight numbers and will follow the same regime when I head back next month.
y) y)