Route notes
Why this routing works
This five-week economy itinerary is built as a broad Pacific loop from Washington DC, first crossing to Pago Pago and then continuing overland to Apia before the long-haul onward flight to Auckland. That surface break separates the two Samoa stops without forcing a backtrack by air.
From Auckland, the routing steps west to Sydney, then uses a second surface sector to reach Denpasar Bali. Keeping Bali as an overland continuation from Sydney creates an open-jaw in the middle of the trip, after which the itinerary turns back across the Pacific through Honolulu and on to Washington DC.
The pacing leaves room for longer stays where they matter most in the sequence, including eight nights in Auckland before the Australia and Indonesia segment and four nights in Honolulu before the final flight home. In February, that order keeps the longest transoceanic sectors spread across the five weeks rather than clustering them at one end of the trip.