Pacific Paradise – Day 0/28

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Paradise Found!

Well, this is the BIG one! Probably the most varied and lengthy holiday we’ve ever taken! As you can guess from the title of this Post, our 28-day jaunt, near and around the Pacific Ocean, involves land, air and yes (a lot of) sea! We had originally planned to do this one a few years back, but ‘you-know-what’ got in the way! But on a positive note, at least we’ve had plenty of time to pack! 😉

Our Pacific Paradise officially began today by heading to Heathrow by taxi. Tomorrow, we’re taking the Virgin flight to San Francisco and spending three days there exploring the city, including Alcatraz (Yes, we have got a return ticket!). Next, it’s back on a plane to take us to Tahiti where we’re spending two more days in our own apartment, thanks to Booking.com. We then pick up the Oceania Regatta for an 18-night cruise exploring French Polynesia (taking in the islands of Bora Bora, Rangiroa and Nuku Hiva). Then, we head north towards the Hawaiian Islands for our first ever visit there, spending four days practising “Book ’em Danno”! 😉. We round it all off in Los Angeles with two days in Venice Beach, before flying home to Heathrow, again courtesy of Virgin. Phew! 😁

Hilton Garden Inn Hotel

But before ‘Paradise’ comes ‘practicality’ and we’re staying overnight here at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel at Heathrow. Compared to where we’re heading, it’s not the most glamorous of locations, but it ‘does the job’.

For tonight only then, our bed for the night is room 7010 with a charming view of… err, the Airport! 🤔

The Hotel is located in Terminal 2, and we’re travelling from T3. It’s been a while since we knew Heathrow like the back of our hand, so it made sense to have a practice run (or ‘walk’ in my case!) to see how long it took to get to the Virgin Check-in.

Easy-peasy! In less than a mile, and just 35 minutes later, we’d completed the trip there and back, where the only frustrating part had been queuing for the lifts! We picked up our evening meal from Pret and that was us done for the day!

Next stop?

Assuming everything runs to time, then tomorrow, we head for Heathrow Airport, T3 and Virgin VS19 scheduled for takeoff at 12.10pm. Eleven hours (and 5380 miles) later we touch down in San Francisco for 3.05pm, local time.

Daily Post?

I’ll be Blogging as often as I can – hopefully daily – but as you might expect, there are more than a few technological challenges along the way, mostly down to the typical intermittent internet once we’re at sea.

Next Post? Live from Heathrow Airport. 👍👍😊. See you then!