Round the World

[the big bang]

hey guys, myself and mrs. TBB are currently 'penciling' in a round the world holiday to take place either Dec 2013, or possibly, if we need the extra year to save money, Dec 2014.

when i say penciling in, i literally mean it, because we have changed our minds on what we want to do several times already, and still really don't know what would be the best way to go about it. we'll have a 7 or 8 year old travelling with us, so partying isnt really a massive part of the trip.

does anyone have a link to a good site that makes it easy to plan and budget for? we dont really just want to get one of the "round the world' packages that a place like Flight Centre have, coz that pretty much takes you to 5 random cities and thats it.

we want the trip to last for at least 6 weeks, but as long as possible if our funds can manage it. and want to visit a lot of cities/countries. a shortlist of cities/countries we have at the moment are

Paris
Munich
Rome, Venice, Pisa
Malta
Egypt
Athens,Barcelona
Dublin
London
Mexico
Venezuela
Rio
Santiago
Madagaskar (or any other place that one might recommend we might get the full on "Africa Safari" feeling?)
then onto the USA and Canada, which i've got a fair idea of exactly what we'll be doing whilst there.

still very open to suggestions and whatnot.

a few things I've been wondering, say for instance in Europe is it cheaper to catch trains everywhere instead of flying. or if there isnt much difference in price, would it be a good idea to train it anyway just to break up the flights we'll be taking from continent-continent?

any help,questions, feedback and suggestions are more than welcome.

cheers guys.

[redandblack]

In Europe, it is by far best to go by train, probably with a Eurail pass.

Train schedules can be checked on several sites. I find the German Rail site


http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query. ... col=http:&

very good.

I'll post more later.

[Dirko]

OK first of all, generally speaking it's cheaper to fly in one direction i.e Adelaide - Sydney - Los Angeles - New York - London - Cairo - Abu Dhabi - Perth - Adelaide for example.

You need to plan your holiday in such a way to not backtrack. So on that itinerary I'd head to Africa first, then over to Europe, then Canada, the States & work your way down to South America and then home. Of course you can do it the other way!

You've got most continents sort of covered except for the whole of Asia?

6 weeks isn't a real long time to squeeze stuff in either. Have you thought about just doing a continental holiday? ie just the Americas or just Africa etc etc?

So much to ponder

[Jim05]

Eurail passes a great.
I actually prefer driving though and some of the prices of Airfare on low cost carriers are unreal.
We took a lot of cheap flights in Europe to the big cities and then hired a car and drove a fair bit.
Definately try to get to St Petersburg, the visas were a bit of a pain to get but well worth it
Been to Europe several times and still havnt seen 1/4 of it.
Havnt been to the Americas but let me know what South America is like, going to 2014 World Cup in Brazil for 8-12 weeks

[Jim05]

OK first of all, generally speaking it's cheaper to fly in one direction i.e Adelaide - Sydney - Los Angeles - New York - London - Cairo - Abu Dhabi - Perth - Adelaide for example.

You need to plan your holiday in such a way to not backtrack. So on that itinerary I'd head to Africa first, then over to Europe, then Canada, the States & work your way down to South America and then home. Of course you can do it the other way!

You've got most continents sort of covered except for the whole of Asia?

6 weeks isn't a real long time to squeeze stuff in either. Have you thought about just doing a continental holiday? ie just the Americas or just Africa etc etc?

So much to ponder

Agree 6 weeks will fly, would be very rushed. Dont want to spend half your holiday in Airports or flying.
We started planning a similar trip to yours and it got way too hard, too much to ponder so we now focus on continental holidays, had 4 weeks in Asia early in year and back to Europe in 2012 for a month before South America in 2014

[redandblack]

Yes, I'd agree that you might find that 6 weeks is a short time to pack all of that in. Each flying day is a day 'wasted' and there's a lot of flying in that itinerary. Each flight means a transit to and from as well.

[mighty_tiger_79]

having not done a round the world or overseas trip

6 weeks - i would focus on just a couple of locations

[Psyber]

In the UK you get good car hire deals from Enterprise Car Rentals in Hammersmith.
I paid GBP 21.00 per day, but that was for a very small Peugeot 107.
Watch that the software in any GPS you hire is up to date though.

[Dutchy]

You can fit in plenty in 6 weeks!

In 5 weeks we did London, Scotland, New York, Toronto, San Fran, LA, Vegas and Hawaii with a mixture of flying, driving and training. No more than 5 days in one place, great memories

[Dirko]

You can fit in plenty in 6 weeks!

In 5 weeks we did London, Scotland, New York, Toronto, San Fran, LA, Vegas and Hawaii with a mixture of flying, driving and training. No more than 5 days in one place, great memories

Yeah but you only covered a small bit of the UK, a little of the States & Canada.

BB wants to cover Europe, Africa, Central America & South America too!

That's a whole new ball game!

[redandblack]

Cities are great, but there's another wonderful world out there beyond the cities.

[Q.]

Cities are great, but there's another wonderful world out there beyond the cities.

Agree. Each to their own, but I'd recommend using the 6 weeks to see a couple of countries in depth.

[AFLflyer]

I also recommend not to take on too much, you will spend most of your time in 'transit' and major cities.
my 2x least favourite things to do, whilst on holidays

[the big bang]

thanks for all your suggestions guys. taking everything on board.

someone mentioned instead of trying to do it all it 6 or so weeks, to break it up in a few seperate holidays so we can spend more time in each place. i had thought about this, and would just about prefer it, but it's the young lad that would hinder that plan. he starts school next year, so will be in year 1 or 2 at the time of our holiday. with xmas holidays being around 8 weeks, he wouldnt miss much school with my current plans. but with every other end of term holiday period being only 2 weeks, i wouldnt want him missing a full week or two of school to start every term. we could just do it every xmas holidays for a few years in a row though i guess, but i'd probably get impatient and not want to wait a year between each holiday.

the popular opinion on here is that 6 weeks wouldnt be long enough. i could stretch it out to 8 weeks, depending on the money situation. but now with eveyones different input, i'm probably more confused with what i wanna do!

[redandblack]

Try 6 weeks in just Europe, or 6 weeks in America.

You'll have a ball and get to see things away from the cities. The great outdoors of the US and Canada, or the culture and atmosphere of Europe.

Not so many airports and queues.

[Dirko]

the young lad that would hinder that plan. he starts school next year, so will be in year 1 or 2 at the time of our holiday. with xmas holidays being around 8 weeks, he wouldnt miss much school with my current plans. but with every other end of term holiday period being only 2 weeks, i wouldnt want him missing a full week or two of school to start every term.

We're off to Sabah next March. All 3 of my kids are out of school for 2.5 weeks. We take a reader or two and usually the older daughter gets a "project" to do whilst away. The kids learn more by being overseas and learning about different cultures etc then they do sitting in class....

Also travelling outside of school holidays etc is cheaper. Remember our Summer is winter for the North so bank on cold weather....

[Pat Malone]

hey guys, myself and mrs. TBB are currently 'penciling' in a round the world holiday to take place either Dec 2013, or possibly, if we need the extra year to save money, Dec 2014.

when i say penciling in, i literally mean it, because we have changed our minds on what we want to do several times already, and still really don't know what would be the best way to go about it. we'll have a 7 or 8 year old travelling with us, so partying isnt really a massive part of the trip.

does anyone have a link to a good site that makes it easy to plan and budget for? we dont really just want to get one of the "round the world' packages that a place like Flight Centre have, coz that pretty much takes you to 5 random cities and thats it.

we want the trip to last for at least 6 weeks, but as long as possible if our funds can manage it. and want to visit a lot of cities/countries. a shortlist of cities/countries we have at the moment are

Paris
Munich
Rome, Venice, Pisa
Malta
Egypt
Athens,Barcelona
Dublin
London
Mexico
Venezuela
Rio
Santiago
Madagaskar (or any other place that one might recommend we might get the full on "Africa Safari" feeling?)
then onto the USA and Canada, which i've got a fair idea of exactly what we'll be doing whilst there.

still very open to suggestions and whatnot.

a few things I've been wondering, say for instance in Europe is it cheaper to catch trains everywhere instead of flying. or if there isnt much difference in price, would it be a good idea to train it anyway just to break up the flights we'll be taking from continent-continent?

any help,questions, feedback and suggestions are more than welcome.

cheers guys.

6 weeks isnt long but you will still get a taste of everything and no doubt give you some ideas on where you want to focus future travels. I have done 6 months travelling asia, 6 months backpacking europe, 2 months backpacking uk, 2 months america/caribbean, and am off to do south and central america in feb for 6 months. so from spending almost 2 years abroad i still wouldnt have seen half of it.

To fly to South America it is actually really cheap from Spain, usually Madrid. Milan, Frankfurt and Paris are usually the cheaper hubs to fly into in Europe so look here. With such a short amount of time I would look at flying most places, as has been mentioned one way flights arent always much more than the train. An alternate to eurorail is busabout. Greek Islands are really cheap and good. Would also recommend Morocco if you are heading to Egypt, it would probably work out cheaper to fly further South in Africa from London however so consider that.

Munich is a beautiful city, although I wouldnt waste my time with Pisa, especially the leaning tower (its not overly impressive and will take a whole day of lining up). Get out of Dublin and across to Galway, it is a lot cheaper and really nice.

Figure out where you want to have Christmas and go from there but prices are relatively comparable on whether you are flying from Australia to London, Frankfurt or Buenos Aires.

[Q.]

the young lad that would hinder that plan. he starts school next year, so will be in year 1 or 2 at the time of our holiday. with xmas holidays being around 8 weeks, he wouldnt miss much school with my current plans. but with every other end of term holiday period being only 2 weeks, i wouldnt want him missing a full week or two of school to start every term.

We're off to Sabah next March. All 3 of my kids are out of school for 2.5 weeks. We take a reader or two and usually the older daughter gets a "project" to do whilst away. The kids learn more by being overseas and learning about different cultures etc then they do sitting in class....

Also travelling outside of school holidays etc is cheaper. Remember our Summer is winter for the North so bank on cold weather....

Coolest parents evaaaah

[Footy Chick]

In year 2 he isn't exactly going to miss out on much - and what he learns on his trip is going to be far more valuable than what most schools teach in the long run.

Best to do the longer trip now, rather than when he's in year 6 or 7 and heading toward high school.

[Dirko]

Coolest parents evaaaah

I know