gcstern

I'm planning to travel to Bali alone from San Francisco. As a lively 66 year old female, I must confess that I get tired when traveling. I would like to break up the 24 plus hour flight by staying a night at one of the stopover points. I'm not concerned with sightseeing. Just ease of getting to a reputable hotel and back to the airport. Any suggestions?

Kathie

If you can go to LA and take Singapore Air non-stop to Singapore, overnight in Singapore, then fly on to Bali, that would be the best, quickest routing. Singapore Air often has specials where you can get a couple of day stopover in Singapore very inexpensively. If you've not been to Singapore (or even if you have) take a look at the deals they are offering. A couple of years ago someone was able to stay at Raffles for about US$100 a night on a Singapore Air special.

gcstern

Thanks. This is very helpful!

susncrg

The shortest trip to Bali from SFO, though not the nicest airline, is China Airlines nonstop to Taipei, then nonstop to Bali. You could look into a stopover in Taipei, if you don't want to do it in one shot.

filmwill

Keep in mind that the nonstop to Singapore from LAX is business-class only. If you can afford it, it's truly a sight to behold. You'll probably not want to get off the plane.

The only other flight on Singapore from LAX is via Tokyo/Narita.

Robbietravels

You could also break up the trip by doing an overnight in Tokyo or Bangkok even tho going via Singapore is the most direct route. I don't know about SF but from LA, we flew LA-Bangkok-Indonesia on Thai Airlines. The Novotel is right at the airport in Bangkok, frequent free shuttles to the hotel 6-8 minutes away. If you go in the winter you will likely have to stop in Tokyo (Naraita) due to winds and needing to refuel.
Keep in mind that jet lag is usually not bad going west, its coming back east that's the killer.

Kathie

Filmwill, the Singapore Air from LAX is biz only? I know that's true of the non-stop out of Newark, but I though the LAX flight was still 3 classes of service.

rhkkmk

another possible alternative is korean air...not sure if they fly from SF, but they have good service thru seoul to denespar (bali). you can stop overnite as i am doing at the hyatt regency at the seoul airport....

look at ANA, japan air, china air, eva air, thai from LA, malay air, garuda, singapore for services that might help you

Kathie

I just checked SIngapore Air, and they have Economy from LAX to SIN in October and November. Perhaps Filmwill has heard something about that changing.

Also consider Robbie's suggestion of Thai Air, non-stop from LAX to Bangkok. Overnight there one way and take a stopover the other.

DonTopaz

Can't believe no one has mentioned the most comfortable solution through Hong Kong, which is also probably the shortest route.

Cathay Pacific has a flight leaving San Francisco at 1.35 in the afternoon, getting in to Hong Kong at 6.55in the evening. You can then stay overnight (either at one of the airport hotels or in the city itself), then take the Cathay Pacific flight to Bali the following morning at 10.05. Very good airline, good times for your purposes.

Kathie

Yes, that's a good option, rizzuto, especially since Cathay Pacific flies out of SFO.

gcstern

Thanks to you all.

filmwill

Kathie, yes. Since last year Singapore #37 (the only current nonstop from LAX) is all business-class only (on the Airbus A340-500.)

They do have quite a few other flights via Narita on their 747s.

I would double-check to make sure what you're seeing as direct doesn't have a stop in Narita.

filmwill

Coincidentally, on an interesting side-note, it's virtually *impossible* to get award seats on that flight. Just an interesting FYI.

Kathie

Oops, you're right, Filmwill, the flights I was looking at do make a stop at Narita. But the price is $678 RT. I would guess there are taxes on top of that price, but what a deal!

Scotters

Kathie - that price is including taxes (198 plus taxes of 481), a fantastic price if you can still get seats when you want to travel. From LA to Bali it is the same price.

Kathie

Scotters, very interesting. I was just checking on one-stop vs. non-stop flights so didn't follow through to see if the prices quoted included taxes. The dates I checked which were mid-Oct through the end of the first week in November, there were seats for all of the dates they showed (my original dates +/- 3 days).

traveler318

I recently flew from SFO to Bali on Cathay, with a stop over in Hong Kong. It worked very well. CX has two flights per day, one leaving just after midnight which wouldn't work for you as it arrives early morning, and the other leaving mid day and arriving about 7 pm in Hong Kong. You can then overnight and take Cathay's flight to Bali the next day around 10 am. The other option I considered was via Narita. I think that only JAL flies to Bali from Tokyo. There were other options we looked at, but in my opinion, these were by far the best from SFO to allow a stop over. Flying SFO to Tokyo is the shorter flying time than SFO to Hong Kong, but the flight from NRT to Bali is about 8 hours whereas the flight from Hong Kong was about four hours.

Having flow numerous times from both SFO and LAX, I'd say you should any advice that has you going from SFO to LAX to catch your flight (unless of course, you are flying on an award and can only get one from LAX). First of all, it is the wrong direction, and adds to overall flying time. Not to mention the International Terminal here at SFO is so much nicer.