Kia Ora!
Welcome to our monthly travel adventure newsletter.
Here we will share exciting updates, travel stories, what we’ve been up to and tips to fuel your own wanderlust!
In This Issue
- A Warm Welcome
- Destination Spotlight
- Travel Tales
- Movember 2023
- Travel Tips & Insights
- Upcoming Adventures
Hello and welcome to the second edition of our travel newsletter!
We hope this newsletter finds you all well.
As another month comes to a close, it’s time to recap and see what we’ve been getting up to in November 2023.
From flying across the world to Abu Dhabu to growing a moustache for Movember and handing in our notice at our jobs, we’ve been busy!
Important Jess & Ben date: November 10th marked a whole year spent in New Zealand, which is seven months more than we initially planned to be away for.
Our adventure just continues unravelling and revealing more things that we want to do.
Not to mention, New Zealand is cool.
It’s a pleasure to have you join us on a journey across the world!
Enjoy the read and safe travels,
Jess & Ben Travel
Destination Spotlight: Where We Have Been
Christchurch, New Zealand
November sees us spending our last two weeks in Christchurch, wrapping up everything at our jobs at The Church.
We have loved our time in Christchurch. We made some great friends (who we already can’t wait to catch up with), made some fun memories, and had the pleasure of helping open a new bar- an opportunity that doesn’t happen often.
We have written a few articles on things to do in Christchurch to help you out if you ever visit, which you can click on below.
Abu Dhabi, UAE
As of mid-November, we have been in the hot and sandy Abu Dhabi!
A place of interesting culture, scorching heat, and the final Formula One race of the season, which we had tickets to!
Our flights to Abu Dhabi were good. Christchurch to Auckland (1h25m), Auckland to Sydney (3h), and then Sydney to Abu Dhabi (14h30m).
We got to enter the country using the brand-new Terminal A too.
Fun Fact: part of the new Mission Impossible movie was filmed there!
We then had similar flights back, but we stopped in Melbourne rather than Sydney. The flights back we not as smooth as they were going over either: we had a three and a half-hour delay on the tarmac in Melbourne due to the Air Con unit not working on our plane, and lots of turbulence all round. Anyway…
Our schedule was fairly full in Abu Dhabi!
We wanted to see and do as much as we could and had four-day Formula One tickets.
We have given you an overview of our trip below.
We also made some daily vlogs while we were there on our Instagram so go check out @jessandbentravel to see those.
Overview of our Abu Dhabi Trip:
Day 1- Yas Mall: shopping and lunch to get over the jet lag
Day 2- A day by the pool
Day 3- Qasr Al Watan (The Presidential Palace) and sunset on The Corniche
Day 4- F1 Day 1- Pitlane walk
Day 5- F1 Day 2- Free Practice 1 & 2
Day 6- F1 Day 3- Qualifying
Day 7- F1 Day 4- Race Day and Foo Fighters
Day 8 – The Louvre, Saadiyat Island
Day 9 – A Desert Safari
Day 10 – Hudariyat Beach in the morning, The Emirates Palace in the afternoon/evening
Day 11 – Saadiyat Beach for some sunbathing on our last day
Travel Tales: Our Favourite Moments
Formula One – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2023
Without a doubt our favourite experience this month must be the Formula One.
We had four-day tickets for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where we saw the season finale in style.
We watched Max Verstappen claim his 19th win of the season, we saw Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris with our own two eyes, and we walked through the pit lane and saw the mechanics working on the cars in the garage.
After the days spent at the track, there was a concert every night. The best by far was the Foo Fighters after the race on Sunday!
Desert Safari- Abu Dhabi, UAE
When we booked flights to go to the UAE again, seeing the desert and a few camels was high on the priority list for both of us. So, we did it! Booking through Viator, we used Emirates Tours for a half day tour which included dune bashing, seeing the camels, an Arabic BBQ, and evening entertainment.
Visiting The Louvre
An unexpected highlight for Ben, but it is certainly up there! Jess loves an art gallery and museums are a must do when travelling, as we’ve said before.
So, there was no way we weren’t going to go this time especially as our entry was also included with our F1 tickets.
The Louvre in Abu Dhabi is one of the most fascinating buildings we’ve been in.
Designed by Jean Nouvel, it features a 180m dome as the roof which is designed to create a ‘raining light’ effect underneath it. This building is extremely photogenic too!
It is also home to hundreds of artefacts from all across the globe that takes you on a journey through the history of humanity. Not to mention, the incredible artworks inside.
For our Abu Dhabi trip, we did some daily vlogs on our Instagram so go check that out on @jessandbentravel to see the action!
Movember 2023
As you have seen on our Instagram and from last month’s newsletter, Ben has taken part in Movember 2023 which raises awareness for men’s mental health, male suicide prevention, and cancer research.
Thank you to all who donated, it means so much to us both and those who the money benefits.
If you would like to donate, the link is still active and you can find it here: Ben’s 2023 Movember Page.
Travel Tips & Insights
Here we share our best travel tips and hacks that we have uncovered on the road. From top tips in the local area to finding hidden gems, we’ve got you covered.
We want our travel journey to benefit the world and our readers.
Top Tips- Things We Have Learnt
Packing Cubes
If you are doing any sort of travel, buy and use packing cubes.
These have made our lives so much easier as everything is separated in our bags, rather than just rolled up and stuffed in.
They may sound unnecessary but they are life changing.
Combatting Jet Lag
Going from New Zealand to the UAE presents a 9-hour time jump. We wanted to be able to hit the ground running in Abu Dhabi, so we tried our best to not be too tired.
How do we approach the problem of jet lag?
- Change your watch and phone to the time zone that you are going to as soon as you can. We did this when we were at the gate for the flight. For example, when we were at the gate about to board our 14-hour flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi, we changed our clocks to Abu Dhabi time.
- Plan your sleep around your journey and the time in your destination. We had two shorter flights and then one long, overnight flight. We did not allow ourselves to sleep on the first two shorter flights, and then we tried our best to stay up for a few hours on the long flight. The theory was that we would be able to sleep for 6-8 hours, and then land at 5am in Abu Dhabi to just start our day. It was mostly successful!
The only downside to this method is you actually have to be able to sleep when you need to and sometimes flights don’t make that easy.
Jess has an almost fool proof habit of wearing a neck pillow, ear plugs, eye mask and noise cancelling headphones.
Our Recommendations in Abu Dhabi
- Go to the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque
- Visit Yas Island – Home to Yas Mall, Yas waterfront bars and restaurants, Ferrari world, Yas Waterworld and more!
- Spend the day on Saadiyat Island – Spend the morning at the beach then head to the Louvre in the afternoon.
- Have a drink at Etihad Towers- the observation deck is 300 metres high
- Visit the desert – You can book the same Desert Safari Tour that we did by clicking here.
Upcoming Adventures: What’s On Our Horizon
Stay tuned for what’s ahead for us!
We have flown back to New Zealand for another summer season!
Last month, we mentioned something about the West Coast. We are going to live and work there for the summer. We are both extremely excited about this as the West Coast is an area where we have only been briefly and haven’t had much chance to explore yet.
We are excited to spend the summer hiking and engaging in many adventure activities!
Christmas is also around the corner; we are extremely excited to spend our second Christmas in the sun. The picture above is from last year! We do miss our friends and families in the UK at this time of year, but we have a network of great people out here to enjoy the festivities with.
We have a busy December planned. Keep an eye on our Instagram to stay in the loop!
Thank you for being part of our travel community. We hope to inspire your wanderlust and help you to take that leap of faith into living your best life.
Jess & Ben Travel
So nice to read all your adventures! Hope you guys have a great christmas and a amazing new year!
Thanks! We’re glad you’re enjoying it! The same goes to you guys