Hi,
Hi there,
First things first, what kind of ticket are you going to be buying? It might be worth looking at a RTW ticket which will allow to make the stops you mention before flying back to (I assume to the UK?) from NZ via the United States. Purchasing the flights separately might be quite expensive. With a RTW ticket you could easily do a London-Bangkok-Bali-Sydney-Auckland-London routing, I should think it's one of the most typical!
Two months is pretty tight to squeeze all of that in - if you do see it all it's going to be a very whistle-stop trip (which is fine of course if you're happy with that). Don't forget that Australia is pretty much a continent rather than a country and if you want to see things in different parts of the country on that timescale (say, Sydney, Melbourne, Uluru/Ayers Rock) you will need to fly internally, and in Australia that comes at UK (high) prices. If you're dead-set on seeing all of that in 2 months, then...
Day 1. Fly from London to Bangkok
Days 2-5. Visit Bangkok - plenty to see and do, some of Asia's best food
Days 3-8. Make a side trip to Ko Chang, for instance, for some lovely beaches and relaxed island life. December will be lovely for weather. From Bangkok you can fly to Trat and then take the ferry, or take a bus and then the ferry.
Days 9-10. Make a side trip to Ayutthaya - historical capital with lots of beautiful temples
Day 11. Fly from Bangkok to Singapore (some budget airlines like Tiger Airways and AirAsia are good for this sort of thing).
Days 12-13. Visit Singapore.
Day 14. Fly from Singapore to Denpasar, Bali
Days 15-22. week in Bali - what you do here depends on your tastes! You could just chill on a beach, visit Ubud (a very built-up but still pleasant town with a good art and restaurant scene). Don't listen to people who tell you Bali is "overcrowded" and "ruined". Yes, Kuta is pretty concreted and grim in places but Bali was always a densely populated island even before tourists arrived, and its culture is still pretty much intact. In Bali you could also consider doing some SCUBA diving - Amed in the east of the island is brilliant for this.
Day 23. Fly Bali-Sydney or Bali-Melbourne
Days 24-44. Australia. I can't possibly suggest an itinerary for this - there is so much to do depending on what you like! Sydney and Melbourne are cities worth visiting, Uluru/Ayers Rock is spectacular, Tasmania is gorgeous (in fact I'm moving there in 2 months!), the Great Ocean Road is stunning etc. etc.
Day 45. Fly Sydney-Auckland, Sydney-Christchurch, as you prefer
Days 46-60. Two weeks in NZ. Same goes for that, perhaps even more than Australia! Superb hiking, rafting, kayaking - NZ is paradise.
That's a very basic first suggestion. I wrote a travel blog of my first journey on the travelblog.org website. If you search for "will-and-alex" you will find lots of entries on Thailand, Bali, Australia and New Zealand. Let me know if you want more information on something in particular!
All the best with saving for your trip!
Will
I would suggest that you consider doing either Australia and New Zealand, or South-East Asia.
There's nothing wrong with trying to fit more in, and Will's itinerary is a great starting point if you're sure that's what you want to do. However, you need to be realistic about it. With your time restrictions, internal flights in Australia will be a necessity and they will not be cheap. Is that a cost you're willing to absorb?
If you want to be able to stop and enjoy yourself while you're away, rather than be on the go constantly, you'll be seeing fewer places in each country.
You really need to sit down and figure out what your priorities are for this trip. Do you want more beach time? More exploring? Adventure and activities? Or do you prefer cities? What are the places that are absolute must-sees for you?
How you answer those questions will greatly impact where you go within each country and how long you stay there.
Jen
Like the others, I'd scale it back a bit. If it were me I'd aim to spend most time in NZ and stopovers both going and returning in south east Asia - eg Bangkok and Singapore.
My reasoning is that NZ is easy going for first time travellers but packed with variety, and a month or six weeks is about right and you wouldn't need any internal flights.
That there-and-back-with-stopovers flight should be cheaper than a RTW ticket too, I hope.
For maximum variety I'd do Bangkok and HK/Taipei for the stopovers - a quick taste of the orient in there.
Absolutely wouldn't attempt NZ in two weeks, personally! :-)
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