Hey everyone!
You spend 7-15 minutes planning a beautiful 12-18 hour Ultra Long-Haul, expecting an epic arrival — and land in the exact same lineup as everyone else, behind three other heavies at LHR, LAX, or OMDB.
Somewhere out there are airports with jaw-dropping 3D scenery, tricky terrain, or approaches that deserve way more respect than they get — and almost nobody flies there. I want to find them.
I’d love to know:
- Departure → Arrival (ICAO)
- Aircraft
- What makes it special (scenery, terrain, approach, atmosphere — anything)
- A screenshot, if you’ve got one — I always enjoy seeing a heavy parked somewhere it clearly doesn’t belong
One request: try to skip the usual classics. The goal is routes most of us have never even considered flying.
I’ll be following the thread, and once it’s had some time to grow, I’ll pick one of the community’s favorites, fly it on the Expert Server, and come back with a full trip report — screenshots, fuel planning, ATC included.
Genuinely curious what hidden gems this community has been sitting on
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Two routes I would definitely recommend are EDDF-RJTT on the Lufthansa B747-8. You get to see high mountains, the Gobi desert, Chinese countryside and as a highlight the Mount Fuji on the decent to Tokyo . The route back RJTT-EDDF goes over the North Pole at 85 degrees north over glaciers.
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Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll definitely take this into account! Have you ever tried this route on the A380 too, or do you prefer the Queen of the Skies 747?
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I suggest KORD-RCTP. You can either go up north towards Alaska or cut across the pacific and see the islands.
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Yep! I flew the A380 on route once in infinite flight, but I like flying the 747 on it more.
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LGW-PUJ ( Gatwick to punta canta) and FRA-PUJ (Frankfurt to punta canta) are really good , the scenery while arriving is beautiful
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My suggestion of a hidden gem is: ATH-EFL (Athens to the island of Kefalonia) while it’s a short haul flight that doesn’t even touch 30,000 feet, it’s a nice regional flight that passes above the city of Athens, past turquoise waters surrounding islands and coastlines and eventually landing at a nice small airport on a green island with an approach above nice beaches hence breathtaking scenery.
Except from that flight I’d recommend any flight to the Ionian sea since it has many green islands compared to the Aegean sea which are also surrounded by turquoise beaches and coasts as said above, but preferably flights from the south-east are slightly better since you pass above even more coastal scenery with mountains
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My suggestion is KPDK-WSSS in a Delta A350-900, what a flight 
Note: this flight is only possible on the casual server. Poster is not responsible for any crashes received while attempting this flight
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I would recomend Caracas venezuela
LEMD/LIRF/LPPT ↔ SVMI (limited due to sanctions​
)
A332 Privalige or A339/A350 Ibrojet
Charter Flight
You will never forget the mountains to the right of you when you approach, Intresting airport layout, and beach view the whole approach,
although i do this route very often, I don’t have very nice screenshots srry
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Aircraft has no light how do yall enjoy it
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One of my favorite routes that I love to do is DXB-MIA in the Emirates B772LR. The route takes you across northern Africa, the Atlantic ocean (a bit boring lol), and then the nice scenery of the northern Caribbean and South Florida. It’s a bit long at around 15 to 15:30 hours, but the scenery is quite nice.
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One I’ve done is LTFM-ZMCK(Ulaanbatar, Mongolia) on the new Turkish A332. It takes you over the mountains of Georgia and Azerbaijan then onto the Caspian, then flying over Central Asia before reaching the Gobi desert for your approach in to an airport that basically in the middle of nowhere.
Another one is LEMD-SEQM (Quito, Ecuador) using the Iberia A350 but mainly because of the approach in takes you close to the mountains around the airport and loops you around one tall mountain in the south of the airport to get you lined up with the runway less than 2 miles away
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For me a hidden gem for flights to the US is Buenos Aires (spelling may be wrong) or São Paulo to JFK. These routes are flown by AAL and DAL on the 777-300ER and A330-900/300. So generally newer aircraft that are a blast to fly. Both sit just around 10 - 10.5 hrs and are perfect for flights during the day or overnight. It is special because both departure airports have special departures that are really fun to hand fly especially from the flight deck. JFK is always a cool approach as well especially if you get “unlucky” with winds and get to fly the approach into rwy 13L. Relatively short taxis for both airports and never too busy for either. This is definitely one that I would suggest you try if you are in need of a new route. Hope this was helpful!
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