We've dragged our girls to glaciers and typhoons and they still ask where's next. Planning family trips 4 months out, from Wisconsin.
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Our Philippines trip in October 2024 took 35 hours, 30 minutes and 17 seconds door to door. We ran a stopwatch from the Uber pickup to the houseboat in Coron, by way of Chicago, Taipei, Manila and a prop plane to Busuanga.
Would you sit through that for a lagoon?
Milford is the day a Queenstown plan hangs on, so it's good to see it from someone who lives there. Did you drive in or take a bus?
If the Milford Track was on your February list, you've probably missed it. Huts opened May 13 and mostly sold out within half an hour, with about 13,500 people in the online queue. DOC says to keep checking for cancellations.
Worth checking before Thanksgiving. An adult without a REAL ID, passport or other accepted ID can pay TSA $45 for ConfirmID, good for 10 days, and it still might not verify you. Travelers under 18 don't need ID to fly domestic. Anyone in your house still on an old license?
No REAL ID for Thanksgiving travel? How TSA ConfirmID works app.com/story/news/2026/11/0…
The Skyline luge sits up on Bob's Peak, and the rules go by height. Kids 110 cm and 6 or older can luge on their own, and at 120 cm and 7 they can ride the chairlift alone too. I'd measure before booking.
ALT A navy @4MonthsOut card. Skyline luge, Bob's Peak, Queenstown. The rules go by height. On their own: luge at 110 cm and 6 or older, chairlift at 120 cm and 7 or older.
Driving on the left after a long-haul flight is a bad mix. NZ's transport agency warns that travel times run longer than you think on narrow, winding roads, so day one in our plan has zero driving. Stay in Queenstown, walk to dinner and pick up the car the next morning.
There's no fuel and no shops on the Milford Road between Te Anau and Milford, and DOC lists public toilets in three spots: Te Anau, Knob's Flat and Milford. I'd fill the tank and memorize that list before leaving town.
Photo: W. Bulach via Wikimedia Commons
ALT A line of cars waiting at a red light outside the Homer Tunnel portal on the Milford Road, with bare rock and alpine grass above. No people visible.
Three hours for a two-hour drive, plus an hour at Milford before the boat, sounds right. Every pullout on that road looks tempting, and the boat won't wait for any of them.
New Zealand’s Fiordland is one of the most beautiful areas in Aotearoa. This post deep-dives into the best stops when you self-drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound / Piopiotahi.
hannahhendersontravel.com/te…
#NewZealand #Aotearoa #RoadTrip
Sunset in Queenstown on Feb 12 is 9:01 PM, and on Feb 25 it's still 8:40. A Wisconsin February is dark before supper. I'd plan those evenings around late dinners and slow mornings, not 7 AM starts.
Too loose for two weeks?
The TSS Earnslaw has crossed Lake Wakatipu since 1912, and the 90-minute cruise lets you look into the engine room. It's the first-afternoon plan I'd pick after a long flight, since nobody has to drive and a working coal engine beats another lookout.
ALT The TSS Earnslaw steamship, white hull and red funnel trailing smoke, crossing deep blue Lake Wakatipu. No identifiable people.
New Zealand can fine you NZ$400 on the spot for undeclared food, and MPI holds you responsible for the bags of anyone under 18 traveling with you. Before landing, we'd empty every backpack of granola bars and declare the used hiking shoes too.
Disney's airport bag transfer now covers nine Value and Moderate resorts, including Coronado Springs and both Port Orleans. You register with BagCheck at least 24 hours out and fly American, JetBlue, Southwest or United. How many bags does your family check for a Disney trip?
What we'd skip on a repeat Iceland trip in October is the Glymur hike. We turned back about 2 miles in after my uncle took a fall, and he was fine. I'd give that morning to Hraunfossar and Barnafoss, the waterfalls we saw the day before.
South Island, and it isn't close. Our version would be about two weeks around Queenstown and Fiordland, which leaves 16 of your 30 days for whatever we'd miss.
Spring break is about four months out, so this is when I start looking. If your family went somewhere last spring break, where did you stay, what did it cost a night, and what would you change?
New Zealand wants an NZeTA for every traveler. The official app charges NZ$17 each, versus NZ$23 on the website, and handles up to 10 people at once. Add the NZ$100 visitor levy and a family of four pays NZ$468. Allow 72 hours.
On our October 2023 glacier day in Iceland, the kids were 7 and 5. We covered 7.25 miles in about seven hours on Breidamerkurjokull with a guide, ice spikes, a zipline and a blue ice cave. Nobody complained, and the whole day ran close to nine hours.
Flying to New Zealand from the US costs a calendar day, the way Oct 12, 2024 vanished in the air on the way to the Philippines. In February, Queenstown is 19 hours ahead of Wisconsin, so a 6 PM call from home lands at 1 PM the next day there.
Milford Sound gets up to 7 meters of rain a year, so any plan there should assume a wet day. We'd pack rain suits like the ones we wore at Seljalandsfoss in Iceland. If it pours, the cliffs should be running with waterfalls, and I'd be fine with that.
ALT Mitre Peak and the steep forested walls of Milford Sound reflected in calm water under a clear sky. No people.
