Hi! So I have been planning my round the world trip and I think I have finally got my route of where I want to go planned: India (flying into Delhi and out from Mumbai), Sri Lanka, Bangkok, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Oz (Darwin and Alice Springs), New Zealand, Fiji, Cook Islands, South America and Costa Rica! So I have got this priced up with one company and they have quoted about £4,000! Now this is without the cook islands and Sri Lanka included. However, if I want to make a date change, it will be free.
I have now priced it all up myself with everything and it is roughly the same... Do I just do it myself?? If I wanted to change a flight it would cost me but I do want to try and keep to my itinerary time scale to fit it all in!
Hi,
One advantage of NOT booking all the flights separately yourself is that if you do, you won't be covered if you miss a connection somewhere.
One thing strikes me about your itinerary. Are you flying all of those legs? For example, does this £4,000 include a Bangkok-Laos flight and a Vietnam-Cambodia flight? If so, I think you're potentially missing out on a lot of *much* cheaper and fun overland travel. Flying from Vietnam to Cambodia is not really necessary unless you are *really* pushed for time. RTW itineraries certainly allow you to do some segments of the route overland. For instance we had London-Bangkok, then Bangkok-Singapore overland, then Singapore-Melbourne, as part of our ticket.
Your routing is pretty expensive as you have included some generally very costly destinations (Cook Islands, Costa Rica) - this is never going to be cheap! Our RTW ticket cost just over £1,000 for London-Bangkok---Singapore-Denpasar-Melbourne-Sydney-Auckland-Los Angeles-New York-London. For flights around Asia there are some excellent and very cheap airlines like AirAsia which you can use. You'll find a simpler routing which avoids out-of-way stops much cheaper. You can then fly to your more "exotic" stops like Sri Lanka and Laos from "hub" airports like Mumbai and Bangkok.
All in all, I think RTW tickets are great, but they are only "cheap" if you follow very standard routings. In SE Asia, anything outside Singapore and Bangkok (and possibly Denpasar) is pretty much "non-standard" and will be pricier. Have you tried the "multi-city" tools on sites like Kayak and Travelocity?
Good luck with your planning!
Will
Hi Will! Thanks for your advice :-) Much appreciated! I will be making my way from Bangkok to Singapore via Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia overland - via train, bus and boat! I am looking at finances etc and looking at potentially taking out the more expensive places such as the Cook Islands and Costa Rica. I will def try those comparison sites you have suggested :-) Sarah
Hi Sarah,
I'm quite a fan of round the world tickets, and like Will paid a little over £1000 for mine... I have added flights to China, India and Sri Lanka on along the way as I've decided to go new places but they have been minimal cost...
There is the potential to save a little money on your trip but I suspect its expensive because you're going to S.America (I would recommend booking one flight at time as you need them though so you don't have to worry about date changes (as you will almost certainly want to change thing around once your away)
A break down of your flights (based on flights I have bought (with a few I've just look up on Skyscanner for you)) if you book them yourself (*all approx) is:-
London -> Delhi ~ £300
Mumbai -> Colombo ~ £100
Colombo -> Bangkok ~ £150 (shockingly cheap I know, this is direct with Sri Lanka airlines (who are amazing from my experience) you can do it for ~ £100 with Tiger if you don't mine a 10+ hour lay over in the middle)
Thailand (north) -> Laos -> Vietnam -> Thailand (south) -> Malaysia -> Singapore is best enjoyed by land, budget maybe £250 max for all your travel here
Singapore -> Darwin ~ £400 (JetStar have this flight for £110 but also claim there is only +1 hour time difference, I suspect its a typo on their part)
Sydney -> Auckland ~ £150 (I assume from your plan you wouldnt want to venture down to Melbourne etc?) this is likely to be subject extra baggage and fee though, Aus domestic airlines are full of hidden costs
Christchurch -> Fiji ~ £250
Fiji -> Cook islands ~ £400 (rtn)
Fiji -> Santiago ~ £900 (south america is always the expensive bit!!)
Costa Rica -> London ~ £800
that all comes in around the £3500 (with almost half of it being on s.america) but does include Sri Lanka, the Cook Islands, and your transit around SE Asia. it allows you to take as long as you want over it too, its a big old itinerary... I suspect your RTW would expire before you made it home!
I hope this helps you weigh up your options...
Nick
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