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Round the world in 12 months, anyone done it? Advice needed.
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Currently saving up to go round the world, would love to do 12 months if I had enough.
My suggested route would be:
- London
- Amsterdam/Prague
- Thailand (as a base point - would love to make this the focal point of the trip)
- SE Asia, still open to suggestion/persuasion where next!
- Australia
- Chile
- South America (again, open to persuasion but Brazil is a definite must)
- Miami/New York
- London
Still in the early stages of planning. Just looking for general pointers from people who have been there, done that. Places to avoid, places that are a definite must.
Also, where's the best place to pick up one of these open RTW tickets? Travel agents or is it better doing online?
How much should I be looking at for a ticket similar to the one outlined above?
:thumb:
My suggested route would be:
- London
- Amsterdam/Prague
- Thailand (as a base point - would love to make this the focal point of the trip)
- SE Asia, still open to suggestion/persuasion where next!
- Australia
- Chile
- South America (again, open to persuasion but Brazil is a definite must)
- Miami/New York
- London
Still in the early stages of planning. Just looking for general pointers from people who have been there, done that. Places to avoid, places that are a definite must.
Also, where's the best place to pick up one of these open RTW tickets? Travel agents or is it better doing online?
How much should I be looking at for a ticket similar to the one outlined above?
:thumb:
Post edited by JustV on
0
Comments
I bought a RTW ticket over the telephone with the group which includes Virgin, Air New Zealand and Singapore Air, and I'm fairly sure that they cover those locations (but check on their website, www.thegreatescapade.com). For the time of year we left it cost £1450, which included all taxes but it depends where you go - the base price is around £950. StarAlliance also do a RTW ticket, so it might be worth checking with them their price too. Make sure you have all your dates sorted before you call them otherwise they'll find it tricky to give you a price, and be prepared to be on the telephone for a while! You can also do overland sectors, which means that you fly into one city and out of another which is great for places like Australia where you'll probably want to move around a bit. Also, if you do want to move around, unless you can add internal flights really cheaply, look at local airlines - they tend to be better value. Give STA travel a go, but I really wouldn't take their price as the 'best' - they were pretty useless when we contacted them, and found tickets much cheaper elsewhere.
As far as SE Asia is concerned, I would say definitely visit Vietnam - it's amazing, really cheap to get around and the people are really friendly. We flew into Bangkok then went overland from there to Cambodia - Siem Reap then Penom Penh, then on to Saigon (HCMC). I didn't like Cambodia much, but Angkor Wat is spectacular, as are the other smaller temples in the area, so probably worth seeing. Once we were in Vietnam we got a coach ticket for $24 which took us from HCMC in the south to Hanoi in the north - about 2000km on hop-on hop-off coaches, and I would say DEFINITELY pay the extra for sleeping beds because it's horrible otherwise!
Also, when you're costing your trip, bear in mind that not only will you have to buy visas once you're out there (take lots of passport photos!), there are lots of assorted costs before you go - particularly innoculations and malaria tablets, which do add up.
Am happy to help if you've got any other questions - let me know!
Oh yeah, for ideas of things to see - try wikitravel.org - it's a pretty good resource.