Round the world travel...

Which of you guys have undertaken a round the world trip? How long was it for, and where did you go?

Taking a year or so out has long been an ambition of mine, though with the other half only just starting her new job it is a few years away from reality. I have however had a breakthrough...she has agreed that we can take a year out in roughly four years time (I'll be 29 then) once she has made decent headway in her career.

2016 is obviously a long, long way away, but that won't stop my imagination running wild!

How straightforward/difficult did you find the planning to be?

Cheers

Not done it myself, but my kid brother and his missus spent a year travelling, getting home last summer - he was 25, so a much better age to do this type of thing than 17/18 year olds on their gap year (who mostly see little through the alcoholic haze).

His itinerary (from memory):
Flew to Rio, then spent about 4 months on a guided tour of South America, ending at Machu Pichu. Best place they went was Iguazu Falls on the Brazil-Argentina-Uraguay border.

Went on to New Zealand, partly to do the extreme sports thing (bungee jumps, parachuting) and partly to tour round - apparently a fantastic country.

Moved on to Fiji for a beach holiday

Then Australia, initially touring the east coast before spending some time working on a farm near Melbourne and then visiting freinds over near Perth.

They intended to stop off in Singapore and Malaysia on the way home, but ran out of money.

I'm very envious of much of what they did, although I think I'd have tried to get to Africa as well.

That's the problem, dummy - there are so many places that hold a huge appeal. I'd love to get South Amercia, Asia and Africa in but logistically it might not be that easy or practical over the space of a year. Plenty of research is needed, for sure.

I've done it myself and ended up in Australia for the last eight years.

In all honesty, how realistic do you think this will be in 4 years time? Your missus will be embedded in her job, as will you, you may even be married and have kids by then???

I hope you can and do go as I don't think I've ever met anybody who has regretted the decision to travel.

Best of luck.

I've been embedded in my job for the past 7 years...can't wait to get out for at least a year!

We have spoken about kids etc before, and both agree that we don't actually want them until early 30's. Nothing to worry about on that front!

She will have dumped you by then

But back on topic, I did two world cruises and have pretty much been everywhere in that time.

Great places: The East. Loved everywhere I went - Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tonga, Philippines, Borneo and Thailand. Great places all of them (although I didnt like the phillipnes and Thailand as much as the others).

Australia and South Africa are fantastic too. Same goes for large parts of America.

Places I didnt like:

South America (went to Rio, Acupulco, Columbia) and didnt particularly enjoy them. I have been to a few of the Carribean Islands since and they are great holiday places (Margerita is increcible and you can go see the Angle Falls in Venezuala as well as Pirahna fishing on the Orinoco).

India - just didnt appeal to me.

Places that are alright and worth a visit at least once - the middle east (Oman etc), Kenya.

Hope that helps.

Did a RTW trip in my year out between under-grad and post-grad studies.

Did about 6 weeks in the States:

Few days in NYC, couple in Boston, then the Trek America 'Southern Sun' tour which took 21 days from NYC and took in Philly, Washington, Smokey Mountains, Memphis (tho I think they now go to New Orleans again), Lynchburg (for Jack Daniels), Texas (Dalls, Austin, San Antonio), border hop at Ciudad Acuna, a cowboy camp in Arizona, Grand Canyon, Zion NP, Vegas, then LA.

Then went up to San Fran, did a 3 day trip with Green Tortoise to Yoesmite, few more days in San Fran before heading back to LA.

Then we flew to Oz for 7 weeks:

I went straight to Oz and stayed with a friend for 2 weeks in Melbourne, my mates all spent the 2 weeks in NZ and said it was awesome. We met up, few days in Melbourne, flew to Alice Springs for a few days for Uluru etc, flew to Cairnes for Great Barrier Reef, then worked our way down the east cost for the Whitsundays, Frasier Island, Noosa Everglades, then Sydney for a week before flying off to Asia.

Landed in Singapore:

Stayed in Singapore for 4 days, then took a tour through Malaysia (Melakha, Cameron Highlands, Kuala Lumpur) then into Thailand, few days on the beach in Ao Nang, scuba diving in Phi Phi, then up to Bangkok for a few days, flew to Chiang Mai to see the Golden Triangle, elephants etc, then back to Bangkok for a few days before heading to Hong Kong for New Years Eve (05/06) then home!

In summary, loved the States, it's nowhere near as bad as the stick it gets once you're over there. The people are better educated and a million times n nicer than they're given credit for, for example. Also you can hire cars so cheap - I visit family in Florida every year and it costs £25 a day for a convertible Ford Mustang!! Grand Canyon and Monument Valley are stunning, New York is ridiculously cool, Vegas will blow your mind (not your wallet, if you're careful), and San Fran/Yoesmite is a mixture of all those put together.

Wasn't as blown away by Oz as some, liked everything we did there but never felt a yearning to stay there longer. Preferred Melbourne over Sydney (I've since noticed you are very much a 'Melbourne' or a 'Sydney' person), Whitsundays are beautiful, Fraser Island is awesome fun and Uluru (if you can't climb it) is slightly underwhelming compared to Grand Canyon.

Asia is mad, liked Singapore although most people find it too sterile having travelled the opposite direction and done Thailand etc first. Scuba diving in the aquarium shark tank was fun, as was the night zoo safari. Thailand is Thailand, believe what you hear and HK was a wikid place to spend NYE.

I'm wondering where the heck you got that price for a Ford Mustasng but agree if you shop arounf you will get flights (harder now but still doable) and cars cheaply

TopHat24/7 wrote:In summary, loved the States, it's nowhere near as bad as the stick it gets once you're over there. The people are better educated and a million times n nicer than they're given credit for, for example. Also you can hire cars so cheap - I visit family in Florida every year and it costs £25 a day for a convertible Ford Mustang!! Grand Canyon and Monument Valley are stunning, New York is ridiculously cool, Vegas will blow your mind (not your wallet, if you're careful), and San Fran/Yoesmite is a mixture of all those put together.

I've been to the US a few times - haven't made it to Monument Valley yet (it's on the list, along with the other areas north and east of the Grand Canyon), and haven't been to NY (will go eventually, but I'm a bit take it or leave it). Grand Canyon is simply the most unreal place you will ever see, while Yosemite isn't far short. SF is one of the nicest cities I've ever been to (and visiting Alcatraz at dusk just made it incredibly atmospheric and a bit creepy).

Vegas?
One of the oddest places I can think of. Some fantastic things (the shows in particular have incredible production values) and some slightly seedy things (lots of people handing out flyers on the street for things like strip joints). Definitely somewhere worth going once, but I think one of those places everyone has to make up their own opinon about.

Thomond wrote:I'm wondering where the heck you got that price for a Ford Mustasng but agree if you shop arounf you will get flights (harder now but still doable) and cars cheaply

Yeh you have to search around a bit, have used Travel Supermarket and CarHire3000 before who do the deals with Dollar, Avis, Hertz etc. £25 a day is the best I've got, have paid £29 before too. That's for seperate pick-up and drop off too as I usually visit friends in Miami first then head to the east coast where the family are so drop the car off at Tampa.

Flights I'm having real trouble with this year. Last two years I've spent £420 and £385 on return flights, this year I can't find anything cheaper than £490 which is way more than I want to spend.

Fists, I have to agree with PerryGee that four years is a long time to be saying this. Any number of things could happen between then and now.

I don't think there's anything wrong with telling yourself before I'm 30 so long as you are serious about it however. It gives scope for change - the freedom to go a year or two earlier if possible instead of having a concrete time in your head when you will go, which could mean you just end up talking about it, putting it off and when the time comes, having some excuse not to do it.

If it were me, I'd feel more like it will happen if it was within the next four years rather than in four years. Not really sure why, just a psychological thing to make me get on with it rather than saying 'not yet, do it later'.

I remember before I first went travelling. My friend and I would just talk about it in the pub after a few beers but the next morning I would think 'can I really drop everything and do that?' and I wasn't sure if I could.

One sunday morning however my friend called me and said 'if we're going to do this, we need to talk about it whilst sober'. So we did, something just switched in my head and we booked some flights without thinking about the consequences.

It just felt like nothing was important enough to stop me going. All the thoughts I'd had before of should I really quit my job, should I perhaps be buying a house instead, is this all a waste of money - they all evaporated and I just had clarity.

Booking the flights seemed as natural and inconsequential as buying a Twix.

Just keep putting your money away until you get that feeling mate.

As for taking in South America, Africa and Asia in one trip. Why not? You've clearly got plenty of time to plan it so get the necessary jabs and there is nothing stopping you doing those continents in one go. Flights might sting a little but you'll save while you're there.

Speaking of planning, bear in mind that the things you plan will almost certainly not be the things you will be talking about when you get home. You might be sitting in your office dreaming of hiking along The Great Wall right now but you'll probably have far fonder memories of the time when a group of locals invited you to join them in a lunchtime game of cards on the street corner while constantly topping up your glass with beer, pronouncing your name badly and looking confused if you say you're from anywhere other than London.

People make travelling, not places. And unexpected occurences are far more memorable than a scheduled visit to something you've seen on TV.

About the cheap Ford Mustangs. We walked into a Hertz in San Francisco to rent the cheapest car they had, to take us down to LA and on to Vegas. Expecting a Kia or something equally as ludicrous, they told us that for an extra two dollars a day we could have a soft-top Mustang. It had a Nevada number plate so I guess we got the good price because we were taking it back to where they wanted it to be.

Hi mate, thanks for the input.

Yeah it is a 'before I'm 30' thing, I put it across badly there. She said 'not within the next two years' which is fair enough, and suits us as we need to actually save a large amount of money first! So yeah, it may be three years, it may be four - a lot depends on her work situation etc.

It's definitely something we intend to do, so for now it is a case of saving, reading about plenty of places and just generally looking forward to that moment when we pack our bags and head off.

We will likely give Africa a miss, actually. After having a chat we feel that there is so much to see in Asia that we'd perhaps rather spend some more time there so as not to rush things (we would probably like two months in China, for example), and almost leave Africa as our final frontier (though of course there will be stacks of places we will still not have visited).

We already have a couple of the Lonely Planet guidebooks, and she has just bought a Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam one (something I was happy about as it shows she is definitely interested and that it's not just me dragging her along haha).

I get what you're saying about people making the trip. I absolutely agree. I love interacting with people of varying nationalities and cultures, I've not had any huge culture shocks in that way just yet but things as simple as meeting up with some French people in a Croatian hostel has provided some of the highlights of my trips in Europe. We have places that we would love to see, as anyone that travels does, but that certainly isn't the be all and end all.

Don't you drive an M-series BMW Fists? Could sell that to fund at least 6 months away, maybe 12 depending how new/well-spec'd it is!

I do mate, however it is a company car so no chance of me flogging it Haha.

Haha, pity....better get saving then! You know what they say, look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves........

Personally I love Africa but it's worth skipping for a RTW trip as it's simply too big and too much to do to accommodate it. Plus it's a substantial and costly diversion in terms of ticket prices. We did the standard US-Oz-Asia-Home ticket and wanted to see South America but the cost was huge and flights very restricted (only a couple of airports fly there [LAX, JFK, Miami, Paris, London, Madrid]), can only imagine how expensive trying to squeeze in Africa would be.

Yeah and there is of course so much to see in Asia. We will probably plan to go East, as the trans-mongolian railway holds a pretty big appeal with us in that direction - through Russia, Mongolia, China and then down in to South East Asia before making our way over to NZ/South America etc.

Did 10 months back in 2007 and was by far and away the best thing that I ever did. Went to Thailand, Fiji, Oz and NZ. The plan was to carry on to South America but ran out of money. Ryegret not doing more of Asia as I heard a lot of great stories from people who had been to Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, etc.

If you're planning to work in Oz make sure you get there before you are 30 as I don't think that you can have a general working visa after that age. I spent around £15k not including flights, but that was doing whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.

Big spender!

Yeah we intend to see a fair bit of Asia and then the plan will be similar to yours in heading over to South America.

Were you staying in backpacker hostels or slightly more upmarket places?

To be honest, we did mainly backpackers (tho a few hotels in Asia where they were dirt cheap) and we spent £4.5 in 4.5 months. In 2012 £1.5k per month probably isn't a ridiculous budget if your looking to do lots of the activities (sky diving, scuba diving, bungee jumping, rafting, tours/trips etc).

Asia, esp Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam, are substantially cheaper than Oz/NZ so your money will go further there plus there are less expensive activities to do (most of the extreme stuff is NZ).

Sky diving and bungee jumping? I'm not mad!! Haha. I'd love to do them, I imagine they'd be an incredible thrill, but I simply do not think I could get the courage to put myself in such a position. I'd be terrified before I made the jump, despite the fact that I know sky diving in particular would be amazing once terminal velocity had been achieved!

I think we would look at perhaps one month in NZ, with the other 11 being split between Asia and South America. That at least should see any budget go that little bit further.

That was the thing it wasn't like big spending but I did do anything I wanted. When you put it into perspective, the scuba course for example cost almost a 1000, bungee jumps around 300, sky dive the same, then you have treks and tours etc, it doesn't work out that badly.

Stayed in hostels as I was on my own and wanted to meet people. Plus you get the best knowledge of in these places. Backpackers seem to know every nook and crannie of a country.

I would definitely go sooner rather than later if I was you otherwise there is always the chance of it becoming the what if.

I reckon we will go as soon as we have saved the money, so realistically three years time I'd say. I'd dearly love it to be sooner, but as I say, need to be realistic.

Also with regards to the lonely planets, I found them quite off the mark when it came to evaluating the cost of things, I'm not sure if that was due to me (going to the wrong places/getting ripped off). So would save for more than you would think.

Agree re LP, good tool to get an intro/basic understanding of a country (culture/customs, what to see etc) but I wouldn't rely on them too heavily. Plus they're often out of date re the best nightlife - that's where backpackers really come into their own!

Couldn't agree more TopHat the amount of knowledge and little secrets that backpackers and hostels have is quite astounding.