KEEPING COSTS DOWN: RELOCATING FROM AUSTRALASIA TO PARIS

After finishing up our road trip from Queenstown to Auckland (see our posts both here and here), with spring beginning in the northern hemisphere we decided that we wanted to relocate to Europe for the remainder of our year abroad. While our decision to initially head to Paris, France was partially based on our affinity for the city (and for buttery pastries), targeting a major flight hub like Paris can also help you to minimize your flight costs, which is can be particularly effective on long-haul flights.

Being in Auckland – about as far away from France as you can get – our immediate issue was one of logistics. How could we best move ourselves halfway around the world with minimal discomfort for ourselves and our children (ages 5 and 7)? While we would fully recommend using an app like Skyscanner to try to find the best and most convenient flights for you, for us the best balance of affordability and convenience was offered by Air Tahiti and by routing ourselves through LAX. Routing through a major hub like LAX can also serve to minimize costs (we’ve now done it twice on this trip), particularly when both your transfer city AND your final destination are major hubs. And it allows you to stop at the In-N-Out burger location that is very proximate to LAX (recommended). In this case, in late March 2024 we were able to purchase a flight from Auckland to LA followed by a flight from LAX to CDG after a one day stopover in LA for a total cost of 3,100 USD for our family of four.

For our family, having now done some serious long-haul flights with our children, we very much prefer having a stopover at an airport hotel after a long flight as opposed to trying to continue on to the final destination. While there is no avoiding the jet lag you will face traveling to the other side of the world, having a hotel stay to break up the unpleasantness of long flights makes it more bearable, especially for our kiddos.

About us:

We are a digital nomad family (with two kids aged 5 and 7) who have been traveling the globe and world schooling our children since August 2023. To find out more about us, click here.