Machu Picchu is indeed awesome. And Peruvian food impressive - my daughter describes the Peruvian approach to dessert as follows - “first they bring out a pre-dessert, then the main dessert, followed by a post-dessert”. Consider combining with Galapagos makes for a great get away.
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Thanks all. Here is what I am thinking. Tell me if you think it is an overkill.
Multi country trip. Planned itinerary below. Business Class tickets for all legs costs $11,300 per person. Will stay at 5 star hotels throughout will do 3 special dinners one in each country.
Nov 1st: Fly from New York to Sydney. Arrival November 3rd. Sleep 3 nights.
Nov 6th: Fly from Sydney to Hong Kong. Sleep 2 nights in Hong Kong.
Nov 8th: Fly from Hong Kong to Tokyo. Sleep 2 nights in Tokyo.
Nov 10th: Fly from Tokyo to New York.
Again. If you think this is overkill I will drop Hong Kong and only do Sydney and Tokyo.
Sydney because she once talked about going to Australia on day. Tokyo because I received a lot of votes for Tokyo in this thread and from my friends. 
That’s a lot of flying for two or three days at each location. I’d consider picking one place and really exploring the area.
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Too much time in airports!!! I vote reduce the spots. Airports aren’t very romantic. 
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I will be the dissent vote. I love it. But I am a go, go, go traveler
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She loves airports. Her favorite thing is to spend time at the lounges after exploring duty free.
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She’ll enjoy Hong Kong airport and Narita (or Haneda) in Japan then!
In all honesty, I would not be able to keep up on your draft itinerary though. Business class will help, but that first long leg to Sydney will still take a toll - at least it does for me. Takes me a day or two to back on schedule.
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Each person is different.
I consider flying a necessary means to an end: to get me to my destination, so once I’m there, I spend my time at that destination, instead of thinking of/unpacking/packing to another destination.
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We flew direct from Newark, NJ to Hong Kong for 15.5hours. Then I allowed 2 days in a 5 star hotel just to acclimate, lounge at the pool, manage jet-lag, etc.
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Definitely one or the other for Hong Kong vs Tokyo. They’re practically the same.
My Japanese friend who lives in Tokyo doesn’t recommend a vacation in Tokyo. He likes Kyoto.
All sounds like amazing options.
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Australia and Asia are 2 continents and I would do one or the other in the time you have. 2 nights essentially mean only 1 whole day of exploring and you wouldn’t be able to get a feel of the place before having to go to the airport again.
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East Coast to Australia is a long way but fortunately only 8 hours time difference in November (edit: but 9 hours if you leave Nov 1 before US returns to standard time). Even so you’ll be tired the first day or two. Hong Kong isn’t so happy a place nowadays after the crackdown, so personally I’d skip it despite fun memories from my honeymoon.
I would spend longer in Australia and Japan and try to find somewhere outside the big cities to visit as well, maybe at the start to relax and adjust to the time change. The Blue Mountains would be ideal for that.
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Everyone is different but I’d prefer to spend more time exploring either Australia/NZ or Japan rather than multiple shorter stops in staying only in the major cities.
FWIW I don’t love air travel/airports (view it only as a means to get somewhere) so YMMV.
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I think both things can be true: airports and train stations are a means to an end, and not all airports and train stations are created equal.
If I’m going to be stuck in an airport for a while, an airport like in Singapore or Tokyo will make that time very enjoyable. Train station? Tokyo station! It’s like a great shopping and dining area attached to an efficient and clean train station.
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Okay. Great feedback as always. Thank you all.
Based on this, I decided to drop Hong Kong from the equation and only do Sydney and Tokyo. Business Class ticket cost dropped to $7355 per person and with this we will be able to dedicate 4 full days to Tokyo.
So it will be Sydney and Tokyo.
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What about Sydney, Tokyo, and Kyoto? I have never been to Kyoto but I have heard such good things and maybe still a less intense itinerary than the Hong Kong version? It looks like there is a bullet train which in itself could be interesting.
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The Singapore airport is a destination all unto itself. I could - and have - happily spend hours there
I have done Singapore for business before and fell in love with the city and the airport. Reason I dropped Hong Kong was to do Hong Kong/Singapore as a separate trip in a few years.
I will also book Safari in South Africa or Kenya for another year.
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If you’ve never been to Japan you have to go to Kyoto. My favorite experience there was going to the Moss Garden temple. It’s a little complicated to book an entry, but it’s on my top ten of beautiful places. In Japan you should also look into booking at least one night in a traditional ryokan with a meal and a hot bath.
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I’m sure you will have a wonderful time. I have loved my trip to Japan and Okinawa. Business class is great, especially on ANA.
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Oh gosh, I understand wanting to do an epic journey however the amount of cab/airport/plane time involved in flying NYC to Australia, and then Australia to Japan, and then Japan back to New York…you will be spending just as much time (if not more) with your suitcases in hand, than in the countries exploring them.
For your 9 day trip I would highly, highly recommend picking either Australia or Japan; you’ll be able to get a taste of either country in that amount of time (it will take you a full day on either end for travel so that leaves you with only one week at your destination).
I just returned last month from 3 weeks in Japan, my first trip back since traveling there 10+ times in the '90s and early '00s; if traveling to Japan for just one week (or even just four days as your current plan is considering) I would not suggest Tokyo the entire time. Japan is multifaceted, and Tokyo is certainly one significant facet, but in many aspects can be a narrow view of Japan. That said, if you do decide to go to Japan for four days, I wouldn’t press you to go too far from Tokyo (Shinkansen or not) because then you’re back to spending so much of your trip just in train stations and airports.
Australia is fantastic as well and you could easily fill 1 week there, too. Either country would be brilliant as a brief anniversary trip!
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I love airports and train stations and transit in general. But the last overseas trip I took was a “fly to one destination and stay there” deal. Post covid, some things weren’t back to normal yet, the risk of the puddle-jumper flights getting canceled and not rebooked in a timely way was too great and would ruin the timing. So I flew a non-stop. Got off, spent a week in a city I’d been to many times before.
AND IT WAS MAGICAL. Enough time there to get theater/ballet/concert tickets; enough time to double back on a particularly fun restaurant to try something else; enough time to browse an obscure part of a museum I’d seen many times but had not ventured to the “seldom seen” exhibits.
I think doing Australia and Japan on the same trip- unless you have a month- is really going to compress your “sit and chill and eat pastry” time.
I’m not going back to the old me! Why whiz through a city in two days just to get to the airport in time to fly to another city so I can whiz through that?
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