Where is a good stopover on the way to/from New Zealand?

[Grotty]

We are going to New Zealand next February to visit my husbands family. Our 2 girls will be 2 and 3 then and we want to break the trip up with a week on a beach somewhere, but where?

Can anyone recommend somewhere to stay or places to avoid? Thailand, Indonesia, Fiji, Hawaii?

[jonbateson]

We stopped in KL and stayed a night at the hotel in the airport, they have a lovely pool, restaurants etc it worked well for us, our children were almost 3, and 7 months. We did an overnight flight which I would also recommend.

[Jessie]

Can you stop over in Hawaii? If so, go there. We went when my son was 1 and it was amazing, but we flew from Vancouver on our very complicated route to NZ (we decided to see a bit of the world en route....).

[legalalien]

Don't fly back via hawaii or the US. The jet lag will be horrific.

You can go to a beach in NZ. I'd reduce the stopover time to four days and do Singapore, staying in Sentosa if poss.

[legalalien]

Or, skip the stopover and do what jon says, transiting KL. you can sometimes get business class flights on Korean Air for much the same price as economy on Air NZ or Singapore Air.

[Jessie]

I don't think you can stop over in Hawaii anyway. For practicality and ease, from my own experience of doing the route with child and without, the easiest place is Dubai.

[Convex]

Singapore, Thailand are our bet

We went to Cambodia (short flight from Bangkok) and would recommend that too

[Pickle]

We never stop! Get there as quick as possible, hand kids over to grandparents and relax! On the way back to London we overnight in the Singapore Airport transit hotel. So glamorous.

I would sort out which airline you are using, then work out a logical stop from there. Dubai would be nice if flying Emirates, Singapore on SAL etc. I just got back having flown Air NZ for the first time in the 12 years I've lived here which was great (loved the inflight safety video and chilled out nature of the flight attendants), my stop was LA, which would also lend itself well to a week's holiday in that part of the world.

Have fun x

[Grotty]

Thank you all for advice. We don't tend to stop, as like you pickle we usually just want to get there, but this time we thought it would be nice to have a week on a beach with the kids. When we're in NZ, as lovely as it is, its hectic and busy and we're never alone, so figured it would be nice to have another holiday on the way home. Its not really about breaking up the flight. However, the price of flights is huge, especially as we pay nearly full fare for the girls now, so we definitely need to choose an airline first based on cost and then see if there is anywhere easy to stop. I like the idea of Cambodia though...

[Convex]

It was seriously good.