Howdy all!
Hey Sanbot,
First off; that trip looks awesome on a map! But yes, the routing doesn't look ideal to me, and that typically also means it ends up a lot more expensive. There's two things that jump out at me.
Firstly that hop over to the US from Asia, and then hopping back. Typically round the world tickets tend to be cheaper if you follow the same direction. Not always mind you, and if you are planning on overlanding a bunch of this, there might not even be a standard ticket you can get, but it seems like a strange spot to put that North American visit. I'd put it after South America, then head to back to Australia from there (that is your base I assume?).
Also, any reason for a flight back to Australia after Ireland? I'd go with Ireland to Africa, then from there to South America (or North), then the other America and back to Australia.
Mind you, I'm not sure how this works out weather wise!! Have you gotten any quotes for the trip yet? Often I find that trip plans change based on those
Some cool destinations though!!
Cheers,
Sam
Just looked at the map again and it looks like someone took a pen and squiggled all over the map
I put America at the start of my trip because I want to be in NYC for christmas and NYE. And I got Taiwan early on coz I have a mate who I will meet up with in september. As for why Australia after Ireland. This being my first trip I am not sure how I would go for a year so I plan to put a break in between.
I obviously havn't thought about this enough so I will go back to the drawing board.
I havn't been able to get a quote on the trip because I can't seem to find a website that will quote airfares going into 2012. Any suggestions?
I havn't been able to get a quote on the trip because I can't seem to find a website that will quote airfares going into 2012. Any suggestions?
Yep, this can be tricky as tickets can usually only be booked 10 months ahead of time... so even for one year trips, usually that means the dates of the last few stops are either not booked in, or all booked in earlier, and you have to change the dates when on the road. I have no idea why airlines don't just fix that
Hi Sanbot,
Looks like you've just got a wish-list at this point. Good place to start, but the details of the Round World Ticket are going to have a big impact on what you can do (unless as stated above you aren't doing it that way).
From Australia I took a Round the World with One World in 2006. It was quite reasonably priced considering, and if you get the most expensive model it does allow quite a lot - but they count flight legs so to get the most out of it you want to have no flight changes / transits, or as few as possible. You used to be allowed 20 flights in total with limits per continent and only switching continents once (meaning no crossing the Pacific / Atlantic twice).
Some advantages of One World from Australia are that it includes Lan Chile and Tahiti Nui which allow passage from Sydney to Santiago, Chile without going through North America on the way. You can stop in Tahiti and Easter Island on the way over (what I did). Also as One World includes Qantas there is the option of crossing the Indian Ocean without Asia - from Oz to South Africa. But there is no crossing (I think) from South Am. to Africa without Europe and/or North America.
However the partners constantly change so who is in it now might be different.
The other Round World providers are Star Alliance and Sky Team.
I find the best way to organise one is by visiting the websites of the individual airlines that are members, checking out their routemaps first and thinking about what works for you (which means works best since you can't have everything!) You can go to the OneWorld, Star Alliance and Sky Team websites for the conditions applicable to each fare: what you need before you start planning - but the individual airline sites are better for routemaps.
The conditions can be a bit complex at first, but read them carefully and you'll get what you are and are not allowed to do.
Then eventually you end up with a proposed destination routing made by yourself, and take it to a travel agent. If you're in Sydney there's a really great one in Chatswood called Variety Travel. If you go to a big chain one you'll likely pay more (despite what they say). STA Travel might be worth asking though.
It might have changed but on complex journeys in particular, website tickets were in general more expensive. Others may disagree I guess. The travel agent can quote your ticket price, but may not be able to book the later flights in 2012: meaning the seat. You might have to do that on the way round, or a travel agent will do it for you later (while you are travelling).
When you get there expect a look of disbelief if your round the world is a big one, and that quite possibly you got it all wrong because there's some condition you forgot or misunderstood. That's okay, go back and plan again! (Planning is fun anyway).
What I kept in mind with mine was that from Australia, it is South America, the Caribbean and Africa that are in general the most expensive places to fly to, as well as islands like Easter Island. If you wish to travel later, Asia, Europe and North America are cheaper for direct flights in general (thus my attempt to include expensive flights on the Round World since the price is either based on kilometres or number of stops, regardless of where they are - better value for money).
In one year you really can't see the whole world (I try not to visit an average sized country for less than two or three weeks as the minimum required for a 'taste' of that country; longer if possible). Even for a city or an island I reckon five days to a week is about the minimum for a first time visit.
In the end you may have to make some compromise on climate.
I very much doubt you'll want to have a break back in Australia after six months - you're likely to be having a ball that you don't want to end!
This reply got suddenly large!
Wow! Thank you for the extremely detailed response! I am so grateful for people who take such an effort to share and help out others.
You made some good points about the RTW tickets and I like your idea about including the expensive flights into the RTW ticket. You also helped ground me in what I can and can't do hehe
Okay. So I've had another stab at doing an itinerary and I believe I've come up with something that is more doable (its also possible doing this via oneworld). I've decided to split it up into 2 RTW trips. My logic behind the trip is to schedule locations based on combination of temperatures, high/low seasons and what the RTW ticket can allow me to put in. Wherever possible I also try not to double up on locations but as you can see its not completely possible.
Generally speaking here are the dates starting in 2011:
Sep/Oct: South America
Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan: North America
Jan: Spain/Egypt/Jordan/Jeruselum
Feb/Mar/Apr: Asia/Pacific
Apr/May: South Africa and Serengeti
May/Jun/Jul/Aug/Sep: Europe/Russia
Sep/Oct: China/Tibet/Nepal
Nov: New Zealand
So this is and this is .
Would really love to hear some further feedback. In particular:
- Is the South American leg a good order to do the countries in?
- When travelling around Europe, should I make my own way, or include that into the RTW ticket?
- Are there other parts of the trip that I can exclude from the RTW ticket e.g. for the 2nd part, should I just get a flight to Johannesburg and arrange my own transportation for the rest of the way?
- If making my own way which parts of Europe are generally cheaper to purchase airfares and which regions are best to travel by train?
- The other option I was thinking of was driving around parts of Europe. Is this doable? Easy enough? Which countries?
- Should I rearrange the order I do the countries in Europe in terms of paying less for transportation?
- I've given myself 14 days to do Moscow and the trans/Mongolian/Beijing train ride. Is this enough?
Thanks for reading through all that! Looking forward to hearing some feedback. I am sure I will have many more questions...
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