Europe

Not to brag, but we totally saw this sale coming 💁🏻‍♀️

Eindhoven

Netherlands

Tbilisi

Georgia

Sharm El-Sheikh

Egypt

Amman

Jordan

Bodrum

Turkey

Yerevan

Armenia

Kutaisi

Charleroi

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Batumi

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Frankfurt

Stuttgart

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Munich

Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, and more ⛰️in €100s-€190s rtn

Is this the sale we've been waiting for?...

Egypt, Georgia & Armenia 🗺️ in €90s-€180s rtn

Wanna hear the brutally honest truth about this airline?...

Paris

France

Aarhus

Leipzig

Brussels

Dresden

Turkey, Armenia, and Georgia 🌇 in €60s-€260s rtn 

London Luton

England

Georgia & Armenia 🍷 in £70s-£190s rtn  

Arrive a couple of hours early at the airport to bounce above the vortex…

Luxembourg

New Delhi

India

Baku

Azerbaijan

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United States

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Greece

Cape Town

South Africa isn't just a country; it's practically a whole continent squeezed into one incredible, diverse package. Where else can you start your day spotting the Big Five on safari and finish it sipping world-class wine near Cape Town, all while marveling at the sheer majesty of Table Mountain?
From the dramatic coastal drives of the Garden Route to the buzzing, complex history woven into every street corner, this place demands your full attention and rewards you with breathtaking scenery and adventures at every turn.
Prepare for epic views, mind-blowing food, and a destination that constantly reminds you that life is far too short not to own a pair of binoculars. Bonus points for spying the tiny penguins!

South Africa

Adventurous Travelers, assemble! South Africa delivers a jam-packed itinerary where you can start your day spotting the Big Five on safari and end it sipping local wine at the foot of Table Mountain. Think dramatic coastal drives and a rich, complex history alongside mind-blowing nature.

Johannesburg

Mumbai

Hong Kong

Boston

Montreal

Canada

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Thailand

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United Arab Emirates

Singapore

Seattle

Chicago

Washington DC

Atlanta

Nairobi

Kenya

San Francisco

Las Vegas

Los Angeles

Philadelphia

Miami

Tampa

Mauritius

Mahé

Let’s face it, your current desktop background is probably a picture of the Seychelles, so why not make the jump from screen-saver fantasy to actual reality?
Visiting this tropical haven means trading your office chair for a sun lounger beside postcard-perfect beaches, where giant granite boulders meet impossibly clear turquoise water. It’s the kind of escape that’s both ridiculously luxurious and genuinely wild, where you can spend the morning snorkeling vibrant coral reefs and the afternoon greeting ancient giant tortoises. 
Forget fighting for towel space; the only thing you’ll be wrestling is the urge to never, ever leave, proving that sometimes, the most cliché paradise is actually the best one.

Seychelles

Forget fighting for towel space; the only thing you’ll be wrestling in the Seychelles is the urge to never, ever leave, proving that sometimes, the most cliché paradise is actually the best one.

Greece, Singapore, South Africa and more 🌿 in €130s-€590s rtn

Finally… the Pegasus prophecy has been fulfilled 🔮

Edinburgh

Scotland

Kuwait City

Kuwait

Manchester

Almaty

Kazakhstan

Birmingham

Muscat

Oman

London Stansted

Shymkent

Sharjah

Abu Dhabi

Georgia, Egypt, Armenia and more ☀️ in £70s-£310s rtn

Georgia was on my bucket list, this flight alert couldn't have come at a better moment!

Postcard from Vasi

While Georgia was always somewhere I wanted to go, I thought booking ATL (Atlanta, Georgia) to TBS (Tbilisi, Georgia) was extra hilarious. Everyone I met got a kick out of the fact that I was visiting Georgia from Georgia. Tbilisi was an amazing city, with great food, sights, and history. It's also close to the Armenian border, which made a day trip extra easy. Definitely worth the long flight.

Postcard from Harry

Dear all at JFC,

I've had my eye on Tbilisi since before the pandemic, and I expected getting there from Glasgow might not be so easy. In fact, the Edinburgh via Istanbul connection looks ideal! Since I joined JFC, I've been waiting for Georgia to come round -- as soon as I saw this in my inbox I knew I had to jump on it! Premium membership has already paid for itself now :) Thanks for all your hard work getting these amazing deals through to avid travellers like me.

Postcard from Ben

thank you very much for this great deal. My subscription has already paid off!

Postcard from Wouter

Thanks a million for this opportunity! Looking forward so much for my trip to this amazing country 🤩

Postcard from Josi

Sending my virtual postcard to enter your giveaway as seen on your Instagram. 
I’ve not booked a deal recently but have an upcoming trip to Mexico in January that I booked thanks to JFC, very excited! 

Postcard from Val

Panama

Hey there, Travellers,
It's time to invoke the "c word" again &mdash; chaos. Anyone planning to travel over the next couple of weeks should be prepared for potential travel chaos, as storms, strikes, and government shutdowns could well change your plans.
In Europe, flights to, from, over, and around France will feel the impact of <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/furious-ryanair-boss-warns-100-000-passengers-could-have-flights-cancelled-next-week-13442651">air traffic control strikes</a> from October 7th - 10th. Meanwhile, in the USA, an ongoing government shutdown could result in delays at TSA checkpoints and even lead to cancellations.
And here in the UK and Ireland? Let's just say I'm currently listening to the wind and rain batter my windows thanks to the first named storm of the season. Dublin Airport has been cancelling flights all day, while airports in the UK are poised to follow suit.
On the plus side, if we can't go anywhere right now, it's the perfect excuse to make plans for the future. Let us know where you're off to next <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/articles/detour-206-georgia-love-story-plan-for-chaos#comments">in the comments</a>!
Happy travels and safe landings,

Katy - Editor of The Detour

My Love Affair with Georgia (the Country, Not the State &mdash; Though I&rsquo;m Sure She&rsquo;s Great Too)

The Detour Editor Katy is a budget travel aficionado who has already travelled to more than 50 countries. Whether she's at home or on a foreign adventure, she has a particular talent for stumbling upon tasty Georgian restaurants.

By Katy

This one&rsquo;s long overdue. Honestly, it&rsquo;s only taken me so long because it&rsquo;s nearly impossible to know where to start. Like any good romcom, there have been a few (mostly entertaining) bumps in the road during my relationship with Georgia. So, I&rsquo;ll just start at the usual place: the beginning.
This love story begins like most life-changing romances: with a good meal.
Back in 2018, I visited Stockholm for the first time. I have a friend there (hi, Noora!) who insisted that we must go out to her local Georgian restaurant for dinner. &ldquo;Sure,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;Never had Georgian food before.&rdquo; Little did I know that it&rsquo;d begin a years-long obsession that I&rsquo;m yet to find a cure for.
I have no memory of what I ate that night beyond <a href="https://www.tasteatlas.com/beyond-adjaruli-khachapuri-varieties-youve-probably-never-tasted">khachapuri</a>. But that&rsquo;s all it took. Turns out a simple cheese bread can unlock doors, change worldviews, and shape the way you live forever. Okay, I&rsquo;m maybe going a little over the top here, but what can I say? I&rsquo;m in love!

From that point on, I took every chance I could for an hour or two in the company of a cheese-filled dopamine boost and the heady delights of an orange wine. The butterflies in my stomach (or was it hunger?), the wonder of discovering something new and different every time&hellip; Like the early days of any romance, I was always left wanting more.
From then on, I&rsquo;d carve out time to savour even the smallest taste of Georgia whenever I could &mdash; and sometimes, I even felt like it was seeking me out, too. From Scotland to Estonia, Lithuania to T&uuml;rkiye, we began seeing the world together. Georgia loves to travel too, it seems.&nbsp;
A year after first tasting that stringy liquid gold encased in its soft, bready vessel, I finally decided it was time to take our relationship to the next level. I needed to experience the real deal, so when Jack&rsquo;s sent me a &pound;38 return trip from London to Kutaisi (I was a just member back then!), I couldn&rsquo;t say no.&nbsp;
But unfortunately, that trip wasn&rsquo;t to be. As talk of Coronavirus spread around the world, the idea of travelling solo to a completely new country where I&rsquo;d have zero language skills wasn&rsquo;t appealing. Instead, I still made the trek to London, where I would have caught that flight, and consoled myself with some khachapuri&nbsp;there before hunkering down at home for a year and a half.

Fast forward a couple of years, and it was time to try again. In 2022, I discovered that I was not the only one among my group of friends who had been harbouring a fascination with the Caucasian country. And after a couple of years mostly stuck at home, we were ready for adventure.
By that time, I had begun working at Jack&rsquo;s, so I knew all the hacks for finding cheap flights. Since that convenient London-to-Kutaisi route hadn&rsquo;t made it out the other side of the pandemic, I had to get creative. With nothing but small backpack bags stuffed to the brim, we budget airline-hopped from Edinburgh to Katowice, and then over to Kutaisi. Anything to reach my beloved Georgia!
After a late landing and a long immigration queue, we finally emerged from the airport and dashed to catch our 3.5-hour coach to Tbilisi. It&rsquo;s important to note at this point that, due to the slight delay in arriving, we hadn&rsquo;t managed to pick up a Georgian SIM in the airport, and none of our phones supported an eSIM.
After about 50 minutes on the bus, we ground to a halt just before entering the highway. And good job, too, because ahead of us there had been a landslide. Every car on the motorway was stuck with no escape.
Thankfully, we were able to get off the road and into a local town to wait until the road was cleared. Cue hours of expensive communications with our Airbnb host using roaming data, shockingly rustic railway station loos, knocking on the window of a 24-hour pharmacy for water (and chocolate), and playing in the snow.

After a restless night aboard the coach with 40-odd others, it became clear that the driver had no idea when we&rsquo;d be able to move again. Thankfully, the one passenger who spoke both Georgian and English knew of a 6am commuter train, headed to Khashuri, which would perfectly circumnavigate the closure. So off we went.
Tickets acquired, we made our way towards the <a href="https://wander-lush.org/trains-in-georgia-country-tips-map/">beaten-up, single-carriage Soviet relic</a> on the platform. It was still dark, there was no indication that this train would take us where we wanted to go, and we couldn&rsquo;t speak the language. As I grabbed the handles by the door to pull myself up into the unlit train, my husband jokingly (but somewhat prophetically) went full horror movie and whispered the words, &ldquo;Welcome to the abattoir.&rdquo;
That&rsquo;s when the stench of raw meat hit me like a ton of bricks. 
<a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/articles/my-love-affair-with-georgia-the-country">Keep reading...</a>

Travel Tales

On travelling First Class with kids...

"I haven't flown first class before, but our family had a fantastic experience when we ended up on a Lufthansa 747 at short notice in business class from Frankfurt to Mexico City. The flight was not full, and I had selected bassinet seats in the mini cabin because we actually had two lap infants. However, we ended up with the entire section of 12 seats completely to ourselves, with control over all window shades and IFE screens, our own personal flight attendant, use of any bedding we wanted from any of the seats -- all curtained off from the rest of the massive plane!&nbsp;
What we experienced must be what it's like to fly private! So yes I agree that actually flying private is the only way to consider that you've purchased peace &amp; quiet... but maybe try to go in as a group of friends and book up a mini cabin section of business class on planes that have such a setup! 
Otherwise, kids should be able to travel with their parents/accompanying adults in whatever seats the airline will sell them. However, our experience was that United Polaris was much too private in each seat to be very enjoyable traveling as a family with small kids. Business class cabins with a more open layout give parents better ability to monitor and care for their young one, and suite style seats should be much better suited to those wishing to zone out from whatever is happening in the rest of the aircraft." - DaringSightseer12881

On conscientious, community-focused travel&hellip;

"I write a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/shropshire-slow-travel/marie-kreft//9781804692639">guidebook to Shropshire</a> (new edition coming out in November).&nbsp;It's in Bradt's Slow travel series, so it does encourage self-powered travel above all else. 
But even after flying to a destination, I think we can be better (or more responsible) tourists by taking time to learn about the people, history and culture of the region we're staying in; trying out a few words of the language (even if we look silly - it shows willingness); visiting 'lesser known' attractions rather than just the crowded must-sees, and shunning big/international businesses in favour of smaller restaurants and hotels, local producers and tour guides, so we put our money directly into a local economy and maybe help to keep skills and jobs alive.&nbsp; I don't think there's anything wrong with being a tourist, by the way, especially for people who are curious and sensitive about how they go about their travels." - Marie

Plus, one Traveller in our Facebook community needs your help!

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<div dir="auto">"Looking at 10 days in Panama - ideas on where to stay, what to see, transport/guided tours. Thanks." - Yvonne</div>
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So, dear readers, have any of you been to Panama? <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/articles/detour-206-georgia-love-story-plan-for-chaos#comments">Share your top tips</a> for making the most of 10 days in the country, so we can make sure Yvonne has an amazing trip!
Do you have a question you'd like us to answer in The Detour? Just let us know below 👇

Reader's Corner

All the important (or silly, or strange) travel news from across web this week.
<ul>
<li>Follow in Jane Goodall's steps with a visit to <a href="https://www.pinyourfootsteps.com/gombe-national-park-walking-with-chimps/">Tanzania's Gombe National Park</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2025/09/30/talks_underway_on_repatriation_flights_after_play_c/">Passengers have been left stranded</a> after Icelandic budget airline PLAY went into administration this week, only 6 years after the country's last low-cost carrier, Wow Air, faced the same fate. </li>
<li>Let the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20250926-nine-of-the-worlds-most-unforgettable-train-trips">world's most iconic train routes</a> inspire your future travels. </li>
<li>Here's how <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/jet2-holiday-summer-2025-viral-song-meme-b2837336.html">Jet2 and&nbsp;that song</a> became this year's inescapable summer meme. </li>
<li>And finally, plane diversions can happen for many reasons, but <a href="https://local12.com/news/nation-world/ryanair-flight-fr8718-flight-diverted-after-strange-passengers-freak-out-before-eating-flushing-passports-cincinnati-lavatory-law-enforcement-alleged-asylum-strategy-compensatation-ultra-low-cost-carrier-ulcc-business-incidents-travel-incidents">passengers eating their passports</a> has to be one of the weirdest we've ever heard.</li>
</ul>

Travel News

For the Love of Georgia & Planning for Chaos

After a restless night aboard the coach with 40-odd others, it became clear that the driver had no idea when we&rsquo;d be able to move again. Thankfully, the one passenger who spoke both Georgian and English knew of a 6am commuter train, headed to Khashuri, which would perfectly circumnavigate the closure. So off we went.
Tickets acquired, we made our way towards the <a href="https://wander-lush.org/trains-in-georgia-country-tips-map/">beaten-up, single-carriage Soviet relic</a> on the platform. It was still dark, there was no indication that this train would take us where we wanted to go, and we couldn&rsquo;t speak the language. As I grabbed the handles by the door to pull myself up into the unlit train, my husband jokingly (but somewhat prophetically) went full horror movie and whispered the words, &ldquo;Welcome to the abattoir.&rdquo;
That&rsquo;s when the stench of raw meat hit me like a ton of bricks. As I moved through the first compartment, I was greeted by huge plastic containers full of mystery cuts of mystery animals, accompanied by grubby older guys in dusty work clothes. I quickly averted my eyes and made my way onwards through the darkened compartments.
Eventually, in the second-last of 8 compartments, I found a couple I recognised from our bus and joined them&mdash;this felt safe. Ish. We sat down on the solid bench seats, knowing we had a couple of hours of discomfort ahead of us, but at least there would be safety in numbers, right?

A few minutes later, the train started squeaking ominously along the platform, still in complete darkness. Sleep-deprived and basing our whole onward journey on the word of one seemingly kind man on the bus, we began to accept that we may be chugging along to our deaths.
&mdash;
Now, you may be wondering if this can possibly still be a love story, but stick with me. Every relationship has its ups and downs, and this was definitely a bumpy patch. But it does get better&hellip; eventually. Hang in there.
&mdash;
The lights in the train compartment flickered on and off for the next two hours. All we could see out the windows was the occasional glowing neon cross on the hillside, which only added to the discomfort.
But when the darkness lifted, and the sky became navy blue, we could make out the snowy, <a href="https://youtu.be/BoP-KlDyoRI?si=VY9wPv1t8CK962vt&amp;t=14">mountain landscapes of the Imereti region</a> around us. It was breathtaking. Snow-dusted trees scaled from the valley below to the peaks above us, churches and monasteries now peeking out as the sun rose through my rose-tinted glasses.
The train meandered on for a couple of hours, occasionally stopping at another tiny station in the middle of nowhere to squeeze on yet more commuters. Eventually we pulled into a relative metropolis and the train&rsquo;s final stop, Khashuri (population: 28,000).
Holding our breath, we manoeuvred our way off the train past containers of meat and into the snow. Relief &mdash; we had made it off alive!&nbsp;
And then we remembered that we still had to get to Tbilisi.

<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en">CC image</a> courtesy of Dāvis Kļaviņ&scaron; on <a href="https://flic.kr/p/2p4YR3u">Flickr</a>
That was a whole other ordeal. One that definitely made me wonder if my affections had been misplaced. There were no onward trains to the capital, so we decided we&rsquo;d see what our fellow airport coach survivors were planning. The word on the street was&nbsp;&ldquo;marshrutka&rdquo;, a kind of <a href="https://relentlessroaming.com/georgia-transport-guide-marshrutka/">minivan/taxi hybrid</a> common in ex-Soviet countries.&nbsp;
When we approached the marshrutka drivers pitched up at the station, they welcomed us in, then suggested that we all put our bags in one vehicle and travel in another. Alarm bells started ringing, so we politely declined that offer, and opted instead to trudge 20 minutes through the calf-high snow to the bus station&hellip; which turned out to be boarded up. Not a bus in sight.
In front of the station, however, stood another marshrutka, magically containing some of our earlier coach and train buddies. So, we gave in and hopped aboard. We asked the driver how much the ride would cost (7 Georgian lari, around $2.50/&euro;2.20/&pound;1.90), then, realising we still hadn&rsquo;t been to an ATM, decided we&rsquo;d worry about how to pay the driver once we got to Tbilisi.&nbsp;
Ducking through the door, it was immediately clear this would be a cosy ride. The seats were narrow and it seemed like the van was already nearly at capacity. But as we squeezed to the back, our fellow passengers flipped down previously invisible bench seats where the aisle used to be. A cosy ride just got cosier, but thankfully nobody on board had questionable hygiene &mdash; other than us, by that point.
Remarkably, the marshrutka ride went off without a hitch (there are plenty of articles online that prepare you for a ropey ride), stopping only a few times along the route upon request, and we arrived in Tbilisi around 1.5 hours later. I say &ldquo;Tbilisi&rdquo;, but it was actually a more like a sea of marshrutkas surrounded by a market, the city visible in the distance.

We bundled off and asked the driver where we could find an ATM. He gestured into the distance, around a corner. Sleepless and bleary-eyed, one of my friends volunteered to go and find cash, while the rest of us stayed with the driver as collateral.&nbsp;
After a long five minutes, he returned successful, and we were free to finally explore Tbilisi. We attempted to put our limited brainpower together and form a plan for reaching our accommodation. Ultimately, the lack of SIM struck again, and negotiating with the local taxi drivers was our best option.
The gang of drivers saw us coming a mile off &mdash; foreigners with no clue and few options. They quoted high, I haggled until we settled upon a price for the two cars we&rsquo;d need to carry the five of us. I&rsquo;d pay for both once we arrived. Sounded easy. But in the maze of the old town, one of the drivers lost his way, ultimately dropping off my friends 5 minutes away and requesting payment before they left.
They paid. I also paid for them. We had been conned, like everyone warns you might happen with taxis in foreign lands. We later learned that using the Bolt ride-share app was the best way to avoid this &mdash; again with the needing data!&nbsp;
But honestly, by that point, we were just grateful to have arrived. We were finally in Tbilisi, the quiet rabble of butterflies in my stomach beginning to flutter once again.

The winding streets of the old town revealed a glorious mix of old and decaying, colourful, modern, and lush with every turn we took. Street art, stained glass, old tram cars converted into caf&eacute;s and bars. Even the street cats and dogs looked healthy, and happy to be there.
Despite the lack of sleep, we pushed on. Dropping our bags at the apartment, we more or less went straight back out the door. Our first stop? The artsy bar across the road with a roaring log fire, coffee, wine&hellip; and khachapuri.
Over the next few days, we learnt that there was more to Georgian cuisine than just the khachapuri (though we still shared one with every meal). That was great news for the vegan in our group, of course. His choice of stuffed bread product was the lobiani &mdash; essentially a khachapuri, but stuffed with beans instead of cheese.&nbsp;
Another favourite was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20220406-pkhali-georgias-versatile-vegan-appetiser">pkhali</a>, a brightly coloured assortment of vegetable and walnut p&acirc;t&eacute;s, usually accompanied by cornbread. Vegetables and walnuts are a recurring theme in Georgian cuisine, especially aubergines, peppers and mushrooms. Every meal is a vibrant feast for the eyes before it even hits your lips.
And of course, you can&rsquo;t leave Georgia without trying khinkali, a usually delicious, soupy dumpling. Unfortunately, we made a poor choice of touristy restaurant for khinkali on that first trip, just heading to a central spot beside the <a href="https://georgia.to/en/places-to-go/tbilisi/meidan-bazaar/">Meidan Bazaar</a>. But more recently, I visited colourful <a href="https://www.instagram.com/cafe_daphna/?hl=en">Cafe Daphna</a>, and I have no notes. 10/10.

I&rsquo;d be remiss not to mention the wine and chacha in Georgia, too. They&rsquo;re pretty proud of their wine, to say the least, resulting in a never-ending battle with Armenia over who invented it in the first place. Either way, the wine culture is really old (like 8000 years old), and their traditional techniques of fermenting and ageing wine in a clay qvevri buried in the ground are still used today.&nbsp;
We knew a bit about the wine culture in advance, but what we didn&rsquo;t realise was that it meant the city would be truly littered with wine bars. Even our Airbnb had a wine cellar below it, run by the family who owned the apartment. And almost every bar or restaurant we visited had a signature wine, often made on the family farm in the Khaketi region.&nbsp;
Chacha, the local spirit, is made from the grape skins, seeds and stems that are leftover after pressing the grapes to make wine. It&rsquo;s kind of like a brandy, and oh boy, does it give you that warm fuzzy glow!&nbsp;
The best risk we took on that trip was buying a large, unmarked plastic bottle of wine from a stall in an underpass. It turns out that cheap and cheerful homebrews can really put a smile on your face in Tbilisi. What I&rsquo;ve since learned, however, is that you&rsquo;re not meant to drink that wine on the trains. Oops.

That first trip only really allowed enough time to explore Tbilisi, with a brief overnight in Kutaisi before our flight home. As first big trips away with a new love go, this one was pretty great, and the effort involved felt more than worth it. I&rsquo;d say we appreciated each moment we spent with Georgia even more from those early bumps in the road.
As I boarded the first of our no-frills hops home, I knew I would have to return &mdash; and soon.
And return I did, in 2024, this time with family. Learning from the previous traumatic journey, we splashed out on flights directly to Tbilisi. We based ourselves there again, this time for a full week, while building in time for day trips further afield to visit wineries, monasteries, cave cities, and more. We saw beyond the big cities, soaking up more of the country&rsquo;s ancient history (and wine).&nbsp;
Once again, we ate a khachapuri and drank a qvevri wine with every meal, and it was every bit as good as that first cheese-filled bite in Stockholm, if not better. We walked the same streets, revisited caf&eacute;s and galleries, maybe even saw the same street dogs. And somehow, I still want more.&nbsp;

The week after we left in October &lsquo;24, Georgia held a new election, the results of which did not go in favour of the more liberal, European-leaning parties. There have been demonstrations outside the parliament building every day since, some of which have turned into full-blown riots.&nbsp;
For now, Georgia still seems safe to visit, although I&rsquo;d advise anyone considering going to keep tabs on the news, and ensure that your travel insurance will be valid if the situation on the ground changes.&nbsp;
Hopefully this is just another bump in the road for Georgia, and for our relationship, not least because I&rsquo;m already planning my next visit. I&rsquo;ve got grand plans of experiencing the <a href="https://wander-lush.org/rtveli-georgia-wine-harvest-events/">Rtveli </a>harvest festival, visiting the country&rsquo;s only fish market in Batumi on the Black Sea, and, of course, returning to Tbilisi. And once I tick those off, I&rsquo;ll be checking back in with the absolute bible of all things Georgian travel, <a href="https://wander-lush.org/category/caucasus/georgia/">Wander-Lush</a>, for more ideas.
What started as a fleeting fancy for a tasty slice of cheese bread has turned into a full-blown long-term relationship &mdash; albeit, a rather long distance one. But Tbilisi&rsquo;s mark on my heart (and stomach) is enduring.

My Love Affair with Georgia (the Country, Not the State — Though I’m Sure She’s Great Too)

Serbia

Namibia

Rwanda

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Behind the scenes with Head Flight Finder Tristan on his last day at Jack's Flight Club</h2>
As you know from our recent birthday celebrations, JFC just turned 8 years old. But today, we&rsquo;re talking about something that happened 7 years ago &mdash; Head Flight Finder Tristan joined the team as employee #4!&nbsp;
Over the years, he has shaped the way Jack&rsquo;s Flight Club works. From teaching us all what makes a good flight tip, to developing the ways we find them, and even something as small as the font we use to write your emails, he&rsquo;s been involved in it all.&nbsp;
That said, all good things must come to an end, and Tristan has decided to move on. In fact, today is his last day at JFC, so I made sure to grab him for a very unofficial exit interview.
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/3e94112c8649a8f35c142b17d702b5eb23c37cf9" width="500">
<h3>Let&rsquo;s start at the beginning &mdash; when did you join Jack&rsquo;s Flight Club and why?</h3>
September 2017. I was already a member, and I saw Jack do an Ask Me Anything on Reddit some months earlier, about four or five months before I joined. And then in one of the emails I saw that they were looking for someone to help with the customer service and flight finding. I thought, &ldquo;I work in customer service and I would like to work from home, and I really like what Jack's Flight Club is doing,&rdquo; so I thought I would apply.&nbsp;
I had to record an excruciating video explaining why I thought I was the right person for the job&hellip; But, I got it and apparently, I was!&nbsp;
Back then, I was working with Jack directly all day, every day. Just passing messages back and forth, with him teaching me things, giving me lots of deal introduction reviews. It was like a really small family in those days.
<h3>Obviously, it was quite different when you started. And then we grew! What was the turning point?</h3>
I think it must have been the second half of 2018 up until the end of 2019. The company really exploded at that point, we went from 100K members to 1m+! And tons of people joined the company in that time as well, there were so many gaps to fill. That&rsquo;s when I started officially managing the flight finding team.
It's only been five or six years since the team really grew, but it feels like a lifetime ago at this point. Tons of people have been here for ages now. Danni (Head of Social Media) joined a few months after me, Genora and Andreia (Flight Finders) are both approaching their 5th anniversary.&nbsp;
<h3>How has your job changed over the years?</h3>
Back then, I was doing a lot of typical managerial stuff. Nowadays, it&rsquo;s a lot more technical/design/programming stuff! Big picture things.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;m really proud of the tools we&rsquo;ve managed to develop. When you're doing flight finding, there's a lot of repetitive work, scouring Google Flights and comparing fares, unless you have something like our Dealbot to help you. Developing that meant we were able to expand to all the departure airports that we have without exponentially growing the size of the team.
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/80d7eb85dd7d5ba44d984d18bb5cf8b4d4141db1" width="700" height="475">
Whenever we have a tech issue and Dealbot isn't working, it can be really annoying for everyone and slows the team down. I kind of think, &ldquo;I'm sorry, it went down, but also thank you for reminding me how useful it is!&rdquo; It&rsquo;s great to have built tools that genuinely help the team.&nbsp;
I also like that I was able to update the design of the emails. That happened in September 2021. We modernised it quite a bit, got rid of that grey background! And more recently, we changed how the free emails look. I&rsquo;m proud of that one because it introduces a lot of content and customisation. I&rsquo;m always really happy if I can improve the member experience, really.
<h3>And now onto the tough questions &mdash; how many flight tips do you think you&rsquo;ve sent over the years?</h3>
I mean, over a thousand, that's for sure. Because I was the only flight finder other than Jack in 2017 to 2018. If I was sending a deal a day on average, For say three solid years, and a lot of days, I would send, two or three or four. So it's probably over 2000 at this point. Jeez!
I&rsquo;ve booked a few of those myself, of course. Toronto twice, Vancouver, Tanzania. &pound;10 return to Madrid as well. I&rsquo;ll have to do more once I&rsquo;ve left JFC &mdash; I&rsquo;ll still be following the flight tips!
<h3>Do you have a favourite deal of all time?</h3>
My favourite deal of all time is probably one I mention a lot &mdash; it was a Qatar Airways business class airfare to Malaysia and Thailand. And that one always sticks in my memory because I remember the rush I felt after finding it and how excited I was and how quickly I wrote that email.
It was incredible. It was four to five hundred pounds return, roughly. And Qatar's business class! A lot of people managed to book that one, so that was really nice. And the Vueling 2p flights to Vienna, or any time I found somewhere cool in Asia for less than &pound;350. That always made me really, really happy.
<h3>Have you learned about anywhere particularly cool over the years?</h3>
That's such a difficult one, because there&rsquo;s been so many. I might have to say, Iceland, where you can dive in a crack between the tectonic plates. These aren't a huge secret any more, I guess, but it&rsquo;s super cool.&nbsp;
And there's a lake in Rwanda, Lake Kivu, which is <a href="https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/lake-kivu-the-ticking-time-bomb-that-could-one-day-explode-and-unleash-a-massive-deadly-gas-cloud">at risk of exploding</a>. It's really high in carbon dioxide and methane, and it could just explode without warning. It's very unlikely to happen, thankfully, but it might.
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/25e7ac682e8a2c75300521fda6194bbe733538b4" width="653" height="435">
And then there&rsquo;s the place in Kenya where there&rsquo;s a <a href="https://www.thesafaricollection.com/properties/giraffe-manor/">hotel inside a park</a> and the animals are just roaming around. The giraffes will just walk past your hotel room!&nbsp;
Or basically everything about Namibia, like the <a href="https://www.tcsworldtravel.com/article/skeleton-coast-exploring-namibias-desert-beaches">Skeleton Coast</a>, which is just covered in carcasses of old ships. There&rsquo;s some really amazing accommodations you can find there, but they're extraordinarily expensive and only for the richest people I think. It's a bucket list kind of a thing. Namibia is definitely one of those countries I want to visit as soon as I can.
<h3>What are your top five travel tips?</h3>
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Learn to <a href="https://jacksflightclub.com/travel-hub/one-bag-packing-hacks-to-change-the-way-you-travel">live out of a backpack</a>. Learn the one bag strategy. I know that was popular with our readers, because bag fees are so expensive these days. You can save a lot of money if you can live permanently from a backpack. Especially in a country like Mexico, where laundrettes are super cheap.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">My favourite Ryanair thing: check in as late as possible, and you're way more likely to get a seat with extra legroom or at the front of the plane. Those are the ones you have to pay for and if everyone else has already got their seat, they have to give you one of those.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Always <a href="https://jacksflightclub.com/travel-hub/is-it-safe-to-book-with-smaller-otas-on-momondo">check the OTAs</a> (online travel agencies). Not just because you might save some money, but also because they might include something that the airline wouldn't include usually, like bags.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The magic of <a href="https://jacksflightclub.com/travel-hub/how-to-find-and-book-cheap-multi-city-flights">open-jaw flights</a> would have to be one. If you're spending a lot of the time on your trip going from point A to point B, and then back to point A, you could waste a day or two of your precious holiday doing that. So, if you can just fly home from point B, or, even better, go on a little further to point C, and then fly back home, that's a fantastic option.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Just learn to roll with the punches and be open to anything. When I was doing the <a href="https://jacksflightclub.com/travel-hub/trans-european-race-updates">Trans-European Race</a>, it was kind of like, &ldquo;I have to get here. I've got a bus, I've got a train, there's this other option that we can go for, this route, or that route&hellip;&rdquo; I just had to keep things flexible, have a spontaneous mindset and then make the most out of any situation. So&hellip; be optimistic! Nothing can get you down if you have that mindset.</li>
</ol>
<h3>What is the most underrated place that you visited?</h3>
You might like my answer for this one. I'm trying to think if there's anything else that might compete with it. Hmm, underrated&hellip; No, I think it would have to be Georgia because it's just incredibly beautiful. When I was there, there were so few tourists. There were some, but it was nothing like as full as any big European city I've been to, anyway.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/6f2d32c18437dd2e046c9af0c02f28afcb8c396c" width="676" height="507"> Tristan taking a nap on a cliff in Gudauri
An example of something I found really cool was the stairways that they have in the houses, and this concept of community and mix of cultures. And then the countryside is just amazing. Seeing the prehistoric caves. The views in the Caucasus, of course, and I didn't even get a chance to do some of the hikes in the west of the country, which looked really, really cool.
And it's super cheap. The only slightly painful part is that it's kind of a bit more expensive to fly to than other spots in that area.
If I was gonna do a runner-up, it&rsquo;d be Novi Sad in Serbia. That's an easy one. I mean, it's not somewhere you would go out of your way to visit as a Western European person. But if you're going to Serbia anyway, or you're in that region and looking for a stopover, I recommend Novi Sad. It's lovely.
There are some really beautiful buildings there. It's a small place where, to my understanding, Serbians go as a weekend getaway. There was this memorable moment where we went to get some sandwiches from a lady that just runs this sandwich place, kind of hole in the wall type thing that stays open late. She was such a character, and it was really fun ordering from her with her broken English.
And the atmosphere in the city was really, really nice in general. People out eating and drinking really late into the night. I think we finally got there and left the hotel around midnight, and there were still tables everywhere, the middle of the street full of people socialising. The people also seemed really happy that we visited, they were kind of surprised to see us, but they were happily surprised.
<h3>Now for a few quick-fire questions&hellip;&nbsp;</h3>
Window or aisle seat? Window
Is it okay to take your shoes off on a plane? Always! Everyone does it that I can tell, and it's just not comfortable to keep them on. I have super comfy travel shoes and my feet still get uncomfortable on a long plane journey. So yeah, absolutely. Unless your feet smell, in which case, it's never acceptable.
Top travel hack? Take an insulated water bottle. Especially for hard hikes and hot countries, having ice-cold water is worth it.
How many countries have you been to? Doing some quick maths, I&rsquo;d say it&rsquo;s around 25.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/1afb653ef224623b1262891df423c3965ba36538">
<h3>What was your silliest travel mistake?&nbsp;</h3>
Probably not keeping my passport on me when I was going into the border crossing into Serbia. I left it in my bag, which was in the trailer attached to the bus, instead of on my person.
Or recently, I missed two flights just because I didn't check in at the right time. It has to be more than three hours before, or more than one hour before at the airport. And for whatever stupid reason in my head, I didn't do it, and then I got stung buying new flights for much more money. I did that twice in a week &mdash; it wasn&rsquo;t great.
Oh, and one time, I just booked the flight for the wrong month, and then I didn't realize until I got to the airport. Then there&rsquo;s machine washing my passport two weeks before I was gonna go do the Trans-European Race. Good one.
<h3>Wow, so even a pro traveller can have made a few mistakes in their time! Okay, now onto the final question&hellip; What will you miss most about working at Jack's Flight Club?</h3>
It's hard to say anything other than the people that work here. Especially the people who I have had the opportunity to see go from their first day here to where they are now, see how they've developed. Getting to see that process and then have my very small amount of influence on it is always the best part of the job for me and the most rewarding for sure.
<h3>There you go, that&rsquo;s you off the hook! Interview over. Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom with us all, and for being a huge part of team JFC all these years. You&rsquo;re going to be sorely missed!</h3>
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/4bed80b4e2e62e0bbe5a8f9622146b15ba0e5f71">

Travel Hacks, Flight Tips and Amazing Fares

Iceland

Japan

Colombia

How to do Christmas differently this year: 5 unexpected places to get festive

Cuba

Spain

Ireland

Peru

Halloween is around the corner, so it&rsquo;s time to share some of the JFC team&rsquo;s creepy travel experiences. A few of them, you might want to recreate for yourselves, others&hellip; not so much.
<h3>Lauren says&hellip; </h3>
&ldquo;<a href="https://jacksflightclub.com/travel-hub/welcome-to-the-weird-world-of-atomic-tourism">I'm a sucker for anything remotely abandoned</a>, I find it so fascinating to see how buildings are just left to decay. These are some of the most interesting and spooky that I've visited:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A derelict <a href="https://diplomatictimes.net/2018/12/22/cubans-still-embrace-derelict-abandoned-sports-complex-in-havana/">sports complex</a> in Havana, Cuba, still used by locals despite its decrepit condition.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Tenerife&rsquo;s abandoned <a href="https://therealtenerife.com/posts/the-abandoned-leper-village-of-tenerife/">leper village</a>, built to control an outbreak but ultimately never populated thanks to revolutionary treatments.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The now-famous <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/la-manuela-hacienda-ruins">holiday home of Pablo Escobar</a>, a shell of what it once was after being blown apart by a bomb in 1993.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/0fe770a0dc6a6d95295c08ca00814c4f17670903" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<a href="https://www.chescaislost.com/legend-wistmans-wood">Wistman's Wood in Dartmoor</a> National Park is also one of my faaaave spooky places. It's so quiet and eerie! The trees are so unusual and twisted, but just remember to keep your eyes peeled for the hellhounds&hellip;&rdquo;
<h3>Akasha says&hellip; </h3>
&ldquo;I once went exploring around <a href="https://adamxphotos.com/2018/08/22/explore-220-ballyvourney-de-salle-college-county-cork-ireland-september-2017/">Col&aacute;iste &Iacute;osag&aacute;in</a>, an abandoned Christian Brothers boarding school in County Cork, Ireland.
The school had a brutal reputation for abusing its students, and you could feel the sadness as you walked around it. The desperate messages scrawled on the walls only made it all the more eerie and depressing.
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/0eee9b95e5ee061de9fa0136e579d429a544501f" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
It was also known locally as a place where people would go to do seances and perform rituals. I&rsquo;d thought those were just rumours, until I got there and saw the open books on the floor about exactly that.&nbsp;
It was also one of the filming locations for a film called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_for_a_Raggy_Boy">Song for a Raggy Boy</a>. The storyline had some uncomfortable parallels with the school&rsquo;s own history, which only made the experience all the more grim.&nbsp;
<h3>Fran says&hellip; </h3>
&ldquo;We were doing a late <a href="https://blog.atlasobscura.com/trips/night-hike-pitch-black-in-the-amazon">night walk in the Peruvian Amazon</a>, near the three-border point with Colombia and Brazil. It was super dark, and we only had a tiny torch on our head. It was two of us, plus the guide, and thousands of tiny spider eyes staring at us.
At some point, we heard some noises coming from a bush close by and our guide froze, whispering, &ldquo;it may be a jaguar, don't move.&rdquo; I thought to myself, &ldquo;bye mum, it's been fun.&rdquo;
He got close to the bush, stomping on his old hiking boots and shook the leaves with his machete... it was a tapir mum with her baby! Our guide got SO excited and said it had been three years since the last time he saw a tapir. Took me a few seconds to start breathing again!&rdquo;
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/f8653772b4742a9fe2e54fd25eb118d1277fda2b" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<h3>Robin says&hellip; </h3>
&ldquo;I fell asleep on a <a href="https://travelnevada.com/outdoor-recreation/sand-mountain-recreation-area/">remote sand dune mountain in Nevada</a> whilst star gazing.&nbsp;
I woke up in the middle of the night, no moon to light the sky, and panned my torch about. There was a quick, reflected flash from two forward-facing predator eyes away in the distance, on the crest of another dune.&nbsp;
My heart rate elevated. &ldquo;They don't have cougars in Nevada, do they?&rdquo; I wondered&hellip; (<a href="https://www.ndow.org/species/mountain-lion/">they do</a>).&nbsp;
I panned the torch around again. The eyes are closer than before. I start walking slowly away&hellip; Probably just desert fox. Probably.&nbsp;
I try the torch again. Four eyes now.&nbsp; Loping. Even closer, only another ridge away. Probably just curious. Probably.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/2aaaa8b2605ac22f7e32ce07bd6134cedde0b693" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
Confident walking away quickly turns into a terrified, careering run down 400ft of sand dune in the dark back to the safety of the car. Foxes (probably) laughing.
<h3>Katy says&hellip; </h3>
&ldquo;After a late flight into Georgia earlier this year, our coach transfer to Tbilisi got held up by a landslide on the motorway around 50 minutes into a 3.5hr journey. There was no way around it, so the driver parked up in the main square of a small town in central Georgia for the night.&nbsp;
We were free to leave and find somewhere to stay for the night, but we quickly realised that accommodation in <a href="https://wander-lush.org/things-to-do-in-zestafoni-guide/">Zestafoni</a> was few and far between&mdash;especially at 11pm. Plus, with snow up to our calves, none of us fancied abandoning the warmth and occasional Wi-Fi of the bus.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/d6e583e7984d7d3ac1e66067684e8d67bfd512a3" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<h6 style="text-align: center;">&ldquo;I &lt;3 Zestafoni&rdquo;</h6>
After a restless night aboard the coach with 40-odd others, it became clear that the driver had no idea when we&rsquo;d be able to move again. Thankfully, the one passenger who spoke both Georgian and English knew that the first commuter train out of there would leave at 6am, headed to Khashuri, which would perfectly circumnavigate the closure. So off we went.
Tickets acquired, we made our way towards the <a href="https://wander-lush.org/trains-in-georgia-country-tips-map/">beaten-up, single-carriage Soviet relic</a> on the platform. It was still dark, there was no indication that this train would take us where we wanted to go, and we couldn&rsquo;t speak the language. As I grabbed the handles by the door to pull myself up into the unlit train, my partner jokingly said the words, &ldquo;welcome to the abattoir.&rdquo;
And that&rsquo;s when the stench of raw meat hit me like a ton of bricks. As I moved through the first compartment, I was greeted by huge plastic containers full of mystery cuts of mystery animal, accompanied by grubby older guys in dusty work clothes. I quickly averted my eyes and made my way onwards through the darkened compartments.
Eventually, in the second-last of 8 compartments, I found a couple I recognised from our bus and joined them&mdash;this felt safe. Ish. We sat down on the solid bench seats, knowing we had a couple of hours of discomfort ahead of us, but at least there would be safety in numbers, right?
A few minutes later, the train started squeaking ominously along the platform, still in complete darkness. Sleep-deprived and basing our whole onward journey on the word of one seemingly kind man on the bus, we began to accept that we may be chugging along to our deaths.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/bda9fe02b599a64ba6e13d57cf0ba9addc4c6f1b" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<h6 style="text-align: center;">My friend Mary, tired and suspicious of our surroundings</h6>
And then the light in our compartment came on. And then it went off. And then it flickered for the next two hours. All we could see out the windows was the occasional glowing neon cross on the hillside, which only added to the discomfort.
Then the darkness lifted somewhat, and the sky became navy blue, allowing us to make out the snowy, <a href="https://youtu.be/BoP-KlDyoRI?si=VY9wPv1t8CK962vt&amp;t=14">mountainous landscape of the Imereti region</a> around us. It was breathtaking. The train meandered on for a couple of hours, squeezing in an unfathomable number of commuters along the way. But eventually we arrived in Khashuri, victorious.&nbsp;
Holding our breath, we manoeuvred our way off the train past containers of meat and into the snow. Then we remembered that we still had to get to Tbilisi.

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