I once again kept the family in the dark as we bounced along destinations as part of Secret Trip 2.0, and the kids loved it.

View other posts in this series:

• A Brief Programming Note: Secret Trip 2.0 Is Here
• Trip Introduction: Secret Trip 2.0 is Back with New Players (this post)
• Secret Trip 2.0 Destination #1
  • Air France Lounge LAX Review: Great Food, Poor Location
• Secret Trip 2.0 Destination #2
• Secret Trip 2.0 Destination #3
• Secret Trip 2.0 Destination #4
• Secret Trip 2.0 Destination #5

This trip occurred in June 2026.

Reason for the trip

Do I really need a reason to surprise everyone with travel? I’ve already mentioned some of the “why” in our initial post, but as a quick summary to catch you up:

• Nearly 11 years ago, I took Jenn on what I called “Secret Trip“, a round-the-world adventure lasting about a month. She had no idea where she would be going next aside from the clues I wrote for her that she received on the day we departed to the next destination.
• Last August, I got plenty of reminders on my news feed about where I was 10 years ago. That got me reminiscing a bit about the good old days.
• Thus, I wanted to repeat things. There was no way we could find a whole month off to travel this time, so we planned for about half that amount of time. Of course, we would bring the kids along too.
• The point is more like a sampler appetizer–try out different options because you never know what you might like. These will be short stays at each stop, but we can always come back and explore it in more detail in the future.

Why Australia?

Given just two weeks, I knew it would be a waste to fly around the world. The point is to explore places, not spend time on a plane moving around. We hit up Europe with some regularity and Japan is a frequent destination for us–those wouldn’t be interesting destinations for me. And while South America or Africa would be intriguing, it would be hard to hide if we needed travel vaccinations or take a pill to strengthen our stomachs. I can’t ruin the surprise before getting there! Thus, I settled in on Oceania and South East Asia.

I wanted to spend plenty of time in each destination, but I had a problem with award flights. Getting to The Land Down Under is not easy with awards. But with some persistence and elite status, I got the flight to Sydney, Australia. Of course, I really wanted to just go directly to Melbourne, but Delta didn’t fly the LAX-MEL route on the day I wanted to leave. They also didn’t release upgrade space, so Sydney it was with a one-day stopover.

Not ideal, but it works as a nice refresher for the adults. Jenn lived here for three months and I came to visit her for a week.

The detour gave us three full days in Melbourne, with two tours planned for our short stay. Wouldn’t you know it that the time just flew by?

Why Bali, Indonesia?

From here, I really wanted to go to Fiji, but I had another award routing problem. It’s not exactly easy to get to Fiji on award flights. So, after striking out on awards, I decided the predictable option was also the easiest choice. We moved on to Bali, Indonesia. And it would have been great to meet up with a friend who was getting married in Bali literally right before we showed up, the travel gods didn’t cooperate this time.

While the Alila Villas Uluwatu would have been lovely, I actually didn’t want that in Bali. We’ve done nice villa-like properties before, like at the Ritz-Carlton Maldives or the St. Regis Bora Bora. But I wanted something more cultural on our brief visit. Thus, I settled on the Andaz Bali. It’s located right on Sanur Beach, just a short walk away from town.

We still got out on a tour of the area, and the kids loved their time here. The food is excellent and they really enjoyed visiting the monkeys (without having to deal with them at the hotel).

Why Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?

Ever since visiting Singapore, my own intrigue has actually been visiting Malaysia. The countries were once one, and I thoroughly enjoyed Singapore. Surely, Malaysia should be just as enjoyable?

It didn’t start that way, with Char too short to use the automated immigration gates at Kuala Lumpur, forcing a long wait to clear immigration. She was unfortunately too old to use the family lane and immigration officers are strict about enforcement, even if the family line is empty.

But once in the country, we had a good time. Alex in particular loved the food, which is on the spicier side. Even Char, who wasn’t much of a spice fan enjoyed it.

I have a lingering fear of heights, but I don’t let it get in my way. So, when I noticed that there was a Park Hyatt in the world’s second-tallest building, I felt like we needed to go. Our room was well above ground floor on the 110th floor. Sure, I didn’t like stepping too close to the windows, but I had to at least get shots of the views.

Why Taipei?

Our last destination was another one out of necessity. Award travel can be like that sometimes. Sometimes the best way to get award seats is to grab it when a new route is created. In this case, China Airlines came up with a new TPE-PHX route and had availability for when I needed it. Score! I just had to get to Taipei to take advantage of it.

Jenn and I have been to Taiwan before, and all we end up doing is eat. This time was no different. In fact, I had things planned but we ended up just scrapping the plans given the heat. That’s fine by me–we’re sure to be back again.

Flights

As you read above, my intent was for as efficient a routing as possible. Thankfully, I found all the flights I needed, though that route between Kuala Lumpur (KUL) and Taipei (TPE) was the trickiest.

Delta One LAX-SYD

Let’s start by saying there are cheaper ways to fly in business class, but nothing else opened up on other airlines. I also purchased economy class using awards on other airlines and played the upgrade game, constantly checking the price to see if something reasonable appeared, but no dice.

In my case, I had just requalified for Delta Diamond and had 4 Global Upgrade Certificates (GUCs) to use. With GUCs on Delta-operated flights, you can either book economy and instantly move up to Premium Select with a waitlist to Delta One, or you can book Premium Select and instantly move up to Delta One. I chose the latter route, but on the day of travel, the former likely would have worked too given the cabin wasn’t full.

I paid 148,700 SkyMiles plus a GUC per person to fly in Delta One. Like I said, it’s hard to find reasonable business class pricing to get to Australia. Paying outright for Delta One would have cost $5,168 or 335,700 SkyMiles, or paying cash for Premium Select would have been $2,145 per person. I’m glad to have paid SkyMiles instead.

This got us into the excellent Delta One Lounge at LAX and we used the awesome Check-In Facility. We also got a chance to check out the Air France LAX lounge, which was also nice.

Virgin Australia Business Class SYD-MEL

To get between Sydney and Melbourne, it’s just a simple 90-minute flight. But that said, award prices aren’t exactly optimized in Australia on short flights. I found award rates flying Qantas that would have cost 12,500 Avios + $37.50 US per person for business, but the problem was the timing of the flight leaving too early in the day. If there’s anything I learned, it’s that I don’t want to make things too challenging immediately after a long flight. We were only in Sydney for one day, after all.

Instead, I looked to Virgin Australia. And while the airline partners with Air Canada and United, award pricing was miserably high. So, I just outright booked it with cash ($400 US for business class). Yes, it’s a little higher than I would prefer to spend, but with a lot of luggage in tow, I would have had to purchase an upgraded fare anyways.

There are no seatback monitors in this plane, so it feels a bit lacking but service was nice.

Garuda Indonesia Business Class MEL-DPS

This one ended up the simplest flight to book. Why? Because I had plenty of Flying Blue miles and there was a very convenient routing from Garuda Indonesia to fly their business class. I had heard good things about the service with Garuda Indonesia, and I’m happy to say that’s correct. Service was indeed stellar. As an added bonus, we got the Pokémon Air Adventures plane for some cute Pikachu theming at each seat.

This 6-hour flight cost only 28,000 Flying Blue miles per person! For what you’re getting, it’s absurdly cheap. I told you this one was a no-brainer.

Singapore Airlines Business Class DPS-SIN-KUL

Here’s another simple decision for me, but it’s simple for a wrong reason. I had expiring miles to use up with Singapore Airlines. These were leftover from a canceled trip to Japan during the COVID era, and I extended once for 12 months when I had elite status temporarily. Of course, you can use the miles for journeys that take place up to a year after they expire, but if you cancel the trip for any reason, the miles go poof instantly.

That said, I probably would have still considered flying Singapore Airlines anyways given how inexpensive the rate is within South East Asia. Business class on this journey was only 21,000 Singapore KrisFlyer miles + $24 US per person. Sure, it’s not as convenient as a stopover, but that’s fine. Singapore Changi Airport has plenty of things to keep us occupied.

The flights were a bit more limited compared to what we know from Singapore Airlines. The SIN-KUL leg in particular was pretty bare bones because of the very short distance.

Malaysia Airlines Economy Class KUL-TPE

And now for the most difficult leg for me to figure out. I had issues with this one because of the timing of the flights. All of the Taiwanese airlines (China Airlines, EVA Air, Starlux) had flights that went out in the afternoon, arriving late into Taiwan. Starlux didn’t even fly the route daily and offered nothing on the day we needed to travel. And connecting flights would rob more time for us to enjoy Taiwan.

So, I ultimately settled on Malaysia Airlines. I ended up paying $300 US per person for economy, which included plenty of checked baggage allowance. Business class would have cost three times the price. We don’t always have to fly up front, especially on shorter flights and when the price just doesn’t make sense.

Malaysia Airlines economy class was pretty pleasant. We got a hot meal sitting in economy on a 5-hour flight and the chair was comfortable enough. We’ll share more of our thoughts on it when we get around to this one.

China Airlines Business Class TPE-PHX

On our flight back to the U.S., we chose China Airlines and their A350-900 cabin. To stick with the theme we apparently had on our flights, this one also had a Pikachu theme. Yeah, of course that was totally planned.

Finding award space for four on a transpacific flight is hard, but that new route to Phoenix was fortunately timed. However, I did have to glitch the system a bit to make the award seats appear… more on that when I talk about the flight itself. I paid 72,500 Flying Blue miles + $103 US per person for the routing.

And since we’ve flown EVA Air, Starlux, and now China Airlines pretty recently, we’ll offer up our thoughts on how the airlines compare.

Hotels

Four Seasons Sydney

Can I be honest up front? I wanted to stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney, but it just wasn’t going to work out. If you have a business rate (which you can gain access to by just having their Hyatt Business credit card) and a professional email domain, you can get deeply discounted cash rates at the Park Hyatt Sydney. It’s the one place that comes off the top of my head that discounts business rates so heavily–you’d think they would want as much money as possible from businesses that have cash to spend, but I digress.

The problem? The room couldn’t fit 4 people, and their team I was in communication with was less than helpful at finding a suitable resolution. So, I thanked them for their time and instead chose the Four Seasons Sydney. Frankly, that was a far better decision in the end because while I got the impression children weren’t as welcomed at the Park Hyatt, they absolutely were at the Four Seasons. There’s even a special room where kids can load up on stuffed animals, activity books, and candy (with their parents’ permission).

Our room also overlooked the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. And the suite I booked additionally had access to their club lounge. The cost? It was about $800 all-in, but I booked via Delta Stays, where I had a $250 hotel credit. That dropped the price to just $550 net, which for an awesome suite was money well spent. No regrets at all on this decision!

Intercontinental Melbourne

And now for the “cheapest” hotel of the trip, at least in terms of quality. The Intercontinental brand is always an odd one to me because it feels like it should be more than what it ultimately is. These hotels tend to be a bit old, perhaps even outdated in some senses, but still can be located in a good part of town. And that mostly sums up our experience with this one. You stay here not to spend time in the room but out in the city. And for that measure, it worked well for us.

On the plus side, one standard room fit all four of us, so we didn’t need two rooms–that’s a bit of a pain. If we had stayed at the Park Hyatt Melbourne, we would have needed two rooms there. This stay at the Intercontinental Melbourne cost us a total of 140,000 IHG points for the 3-night stay. If you were to convert it to cash, based on our 0.64 cent/point valuation, that’s the equivalent of paying about $300/night for the stay in USD. That seemed fair.

Andaz Bali

So, I mentioned above about the room having its own pool and a desire to be closer to the city. What I didn’t mention was that while I booked a suite (with a suite upgrade award), the hotel further upgraded us to a villa. And rather than pay with points, I ended up paying with cash. I booked a cash rate that was only $325/night and you can see your money goes a lot further here than it did at the Intercontinental Melbourne.

The food at the Andaz Bali is excellent and a strong reason to consider this hotel over other Hyatt options in the area. It’s interesting that Hyatt has such a limited footprint in most cities, but in Bali, you have an overabundance of options. There are so many options, it can be overwhelming. We’ll try to help identify what stands out here, and hopefully the next time we’re in town we can do the same for other Hyatt options.

Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur

This Park Hyatt sits atop the Merdeka 118, the second-tallest building in the world. And all of the hotel sits on floors 75 and up. Put it this way, you enter on roughly the second floor, then take an elevator up to the lobby on the 75th floor. Typically, with other skyscrapers following this model, you then go downstairs to your room. Here, you take another elevator further up.

The pool is on the 99th floor and our room was on the 110th floor. We’re probably never staying this high up in a building again, so it’s nice to give it a try.

I booked a base suite outright (again using a suite upgrade award) and paid 54,000 Hyatt points for the 3 night stay. At our current valuation of 1.6 cents/point, that’s the equivalent of paying $288 US per night. It’s crazy how cheap luxury hotels can be in Kuala Lumpur.

Shangri-La Far Eastern Taipei

Finally, we went with the Shangri-La in Taipei, Taiwan. Why this one? Well, I had debated the Hyatt Regency at TPE Airport but I wanted to be actually in the city. If we stayed outside the city and by the airport, I feared we would just linger around in the hotel room all day. I also considered the Grand Hyatt, which we’ve been to before but never wrote about it, but that hotel officially doesn’t allow 4 in a single room. I’m trying to avoid that as much as possible, especially on a quick overnight stay.

So, since I had another Delta Stays credit to use (yeah, I have too many of those), I booked the Shangri-La in a room that included lounge access. The cost of the stay was $430, but after you apply the $200 Delta Stays credit I had, that dropped the rate to $230 net. While the hotel itself wasn’t too fancy and a little distant from the trains, it still fit our needs.

Thanks for reading along

Much more is to come from this trip, with far more detail about practically everything we did. But before we get to all of that, we just wanted to extend our thanks to you, the reader. We’re appreciative that you want to read along on our adventures. Hope it helps you when planning your own adventures!

As always, we will give you the good along with the bad to help you make an informed decision for yourselves.

Thanks!

Suggested reading:

• All other trip reports
• I Got Pickpocketed and Lost Nothing
• The Travel Gadgets That Make Our Travel Easy