Phew ... now the easy part ... just saving up over £12K !!!

Well I have done the hard bit, which is to find a route around the world that will take me to visit many of my friends, visit many of the wonders of the world and avoid the danger spots or pure tourist traps.

 

Finding accommodation when I am out and about should be less of a nightmare, and as long as I take a blanket and sleeping bag a few nights underneath the stars will not kill me, so long as it isn't in a blistering heat or frozen driven winds of course.

 

So now all I have to do is manage to save up a mere { mere, yeah right !! }  £12 to £15K to cover the day to day costs, get my travel jabs plus all entry visas required and then wait.

 

Upon completion of the route I was still slightly disappointed that I had to miss key places, people or regions, but even accepting that this is a once in a lifetime trip the costs to get to some places, including overland transport and hotel / hostel accommodation, was just beyond my means for this very demanding budget.

 

I suppose if by some bizarre twist of fate, { all winning lottery tickets and official "Make Dickon a world hero" donations greatfully accepted, ha ha } life was to suddenly drop into my lap a large fortune then I guess I could make a few changes to cover all the wonders of the world and visit each and every one of my international friends, but failing that this is a very viable route that even when you include all the accommodation and living costs will still end up being less than some people are prepared to spend on buying a new car !

Round The World Route 2.1 - ( this time with accurate costings ! )

WAVE GOODBYE TO THE UK FOR A LONG EPIC JOURNEY

LON>DUS - London to Dusseldorf, Germany > Airberlin ( opodo ) = £21
DUS>MAD - Dusseldorf to Madrid, Spain > Iberia ( ebookers) = £48
MAD>SAO - Madrid to Sao Paulo, Brazil > Swissair ( opodo ) = £270
SAO>GIG - Sao Paulo to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil > Varig ( lastminute ) = £65
GIG>LIM - Rio to Lima, Peru > Aerolineas Argentinas ( lastminute ) = £258
Overland to Cuzco and Manchu Pichu www.gapadventures.com/ = £400
CUZ>LIM> Cuzco to Lima, Peru > Taca International Airlines ( lastminute ) = £40
LIM>GYE - Lima to Guayaquil, Ecuador > Avianca ( lastminute ) = £185
Land and sea to Galapagos Island www.galapagosislands.com/ = £960
GYE>BOG - Guayaquil to Bogota, Colombia > Avianca ( lastminute ) = £135
BOG>MDE - Bogota to Medellin, Colombia > Avianca ( lastminute ) = £80
MED>PTY - Medellin to Tocument, Panama > Avianca ( lastminute ) = £174
PTY>CUN - Tocument to Cancun, Mexico > Mexicana de Aviacion ( lastminute ) = £208
CUN>MEX - Cancun to Mexico City, Mexico > Mexicana de Aviacion ( lastminute ) = £102
MEX>JFK - Mexico City to New York, USA > US Airways ( opodo ) = £128
NYC>LAX - New York to Las Vegas, USA > US Airways ( lastminute ) = £87
LAS>LAX - Las Vegas to Los Angeles, USA > US Airways ( lastminute ) = £42
LAX>HNL- Los Angeles to Honolulu, Hawaii, USA > Hawaian Airlines ( priceline ) = £100
HNL>AKL - Honolulu > Auckland, New Zealand > Air Pacific ( princeline ) = £295
NAN>AKL - Nadi to Auckland, New Zealand > Air Pacific > ( travelocity ) = £140
AKL>SYD - Auckland to Sydney, Australia > Aerolineas Argentina (opodo) = £100
SYD>BNE - Syndey to Brisbane > Jetstar Star ( direct ) = £40
BNE>DRW - Brisbane to Darwin, Australia > JET Star( direct ) = £77
DRW>SIN - Darwin to Singapore, Malaysia > JET Star( direct ) = £10
Overland Singapore to Bangkok, Thailand > Malaysian Trains = £35
Overland Rtn to Angkor Wat > www.apriltravel.com/ = £181
BKK>HTK - Bangkok to Phuket, Thailand ( Rtn ) > Bangkok Airways ( lastminute ) = £119
Overland to Hanoi > www.gapadventures.com/ = £525
HAN>MNL - Hanoi to Manila, Philipines > Cathay Pacific ( opodo ) = £228
MNL>HGK - Manila to Hong Kong, China > Cathay Pacific ( opodo ) = £57
HKG>NNH - Hong Kong to Nanning > China Southern Airline ( lastminute ) = £249
HGK>PVG - Hong Kong to Shanghai > China Eastern Airways ( lastminute ) = £136
Sea Ferry - Shanghai to Tokyo > Shanghai Ferry www.shanghai-ferry.co.jp= £110
TYO>ICN - Tokyo to Seoul, Rep S. Korea > United Airlines ( ebookers ) = £166
ICN>PEK - Seoul to Beijing, China > China Eastern Airline ( ebookers ) = £248
Overland to Moscow via Mongolia > http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm#Fares= £350
MOW>ATH - Moscow to Athens, Greece > Olympic Airlines ( ebookers ) = £234
Overland to London across europe > www.budgetexpeditions.com/ = £1000

Total - Rail, Coach, Flights, Trips ( & excursion inclusive accomodation only ) about £7600

ARRIVE HOME EXHASUTED, BROKE BUT WITH LIFE CHANGING MEMORIES ! ! !

Still to find .. airport / hotel transfers .. food .. accomodation .. spending money .. clothes

Warping The Route

After hours more searching on the Internet I am fast thinking that there is a Travel Agency conspiracy against anyone hoping to follow the noble idea of travelling around the world in any kind of progressive order that does not run very similarly with the classic "U.K. > U.S.A. > Australia > Hong Kong > U.K." route.

 

No matter which website I use, be it from a specific airline or a generic travel agent search engine, the answers invariably keep coming back the same, if you want to go to anywhere exotic or out of the way then be prepared to pay an arm and a leg and heaven forbid that you even dream you will go from there to anywhere else except back to where you came from unless your a multi millionaire.

 

I will not even begin to say how irritating it is to have to laboriously task through seven almost idential flight searches from one location to the next, as flight costs often can vary drastically from one day to the next, even when you are talking nine months away.

 

Nor need I relate in full detail how much time is taken up by switching from a myriad of major airports of both the source and destination country to try and find a cheaper alternative to the first price shown. 

 

What baffles me more is that almost without exception it is cheaper to buy a return ticket to somewhere and then once you return home to fly out again to a new destination than is is to fly from one destination to the next. Certainly this is the case with Tenerife and Brazil.

 

Despite Tenerife being almost half way between the U.K. and Brazil it is much cheaper to buy a return ticket to Tenerife and then a single to Rio De Janeiro than it is to attempt to use Tenerife as a stop over between the one and the other.

 

However what I found to be complete lunacy is that when you try to book a flight to Rio De Janeiro the sites and airlines show a two leg journey changing planes at Porto in Portugal. Now although the cost of a single flight from London to Porto is very cheap, the cost of a single flight from Porto to Rio is more than the cost of an entire flight from London to Rio using Porto as just a stop over.

 

How can it be more expensive to buy just one leg of a journey than it is to buy both legs of the same journey in one go!

 

It reminds me of the advice that a good friend of mine gave me about flying to Singapore. He said that it was cheaper to contact a Malaysian travel agent and buy a return ticket from Singapore to London and then use the return leg to fly out there, than it was to contact a UK based travel agent and buy a single ticket from the UK to Singapore.

 

'Frustrating' ... 'illogical' ... 'insane' ... 'warped' ... 'chaotic' ... 'complex' ... there are many words that you could use to describe the travel industry but personally 'straight forward' would never be one I would chose to use, unless used with the prefix or 'not'.

 

Thus it is, that despite my prior hopes of completing an always progressive route around the world, I am fast thinking that perhaps it will be cheaper to simply make a list of all the places that I really want that are not in the middle of nowhere and just have fun in visiting them all in no specific order.

 

When I first laid out my route a friend commented that it must have taken me many hundreds of man hours to work it all out and I foolishly boasted that I had  completed it in just a few hours. Oh, how the pride comes before the fall. I fear that a hundred man hours will be the very least it will take me to fashion a viable route around the world.

Fighting The Travel System

I never thought that just trying to organise a route for a round the world travel would be so time consuming and frustrating.

 

The route that I chose seemed to be one that captured a flavour of where I wanted to go, included most of the fabulous archaeological and historical buildings of the world and some of the many wonderful international friends that I have made in the last few years from around the world.

 

But what started out as a simple matter of choosing where and when has become a mammoth task in itself.

 

Firstly the travel agencies and airlines want you to go one way round the world only, and attempting to go "the wrong way" seemed to be the my first big mistake as the list of places and cheap flights has already diminished to less than half of what was available had I gone the correct way around.

 

Next I found out the hard way that no one really expects or wants you to fly when you have a gap year or around the world ticket. Instead what they all assume, and almost force you into accepting, is to fly across the oceans but when it comes to overland they really want you to travel native.

 

Now although I agree that airports are a very modern method of travel and that they miss much of the real heart of the countries they are in, the desire to have to queue up at literally hundreds of train stations and bus stops to try and navigate my way across entire continents with only the most basic of the Spanish and French included in my foreign language arsenal is a very scary prospect.

 

Next was the disappointing fact that on a so called round the world ticket they only expect you to want to take a few actual flights, most suggesting as few as six stops on the entire journey. So again, unless you are planning to cross much of the the journey overland, a round the world ticket is little more than a carefully selected offering of city stops all sequenced in one general direction with a compulsory onward flight home from the final destination.

 

A real kick in the pants was the cost of flying to remote or 'untouristy' locations as the airlines available for those parts are few and far between, the chance of getting an flight from there to anywhere except where you have just come from is slim to none and the cost of the ticket is through the roof.

 

As an example a flight to Tenerife can be found as low as £80 for the 2,900 km journey, but a trip to Bamako in Mali, which is where you would need to land to reach Timbuktu, is not that much more than this in distance and also hardly different in its general direction or flightpath from the UK, but clocks up a staggering 600% increase on the average cost with the added downside of almost no onward destinations outside of Africa.

World Trip Route - Version 1.1

It has taken me many hours to check out times, routes, flights and train times and available accompanied overland tours, but I think that I have come up with a fairly decent route.

 

I admit to cheating with my route, as I really want to include Egypt ( Great Pyramids ) and Mali ( Timbuktu ), but the rest of the route makes the best use of a round the world theme and also should allow me to meet quite a few of my International friends at the same time.

 

However if it is too costly I can always remove the travelling to Africa both times and then the route becomes more direct.

 

The cost will still change as September is many months away, but I am hoping, by booking early and avoiding first class flights, 4 or 5 star hotels and any sporting/shopping elements, that I should be able to it afford it, assuming that I save what I have estimated.

 

The hardest part was making a sensible guess for the duration of each visit.

Too short in days could mean missing a connecting flight or weekly train.

Too long will mean that I will have to stay in hotels for more nights that I need to and this will increase the price.

 

The route is as follows ( Starting and finishing in U.K., London ) :-

 

Mali, Bamako, Timbuktu – Canada, Halifax, Oak Island - U.S.A., New York, Niagara Falls, Boston, Washington DC, Mount Rushmore, Grand Canyon, New Orleans – Mexico, Mexico City, Morelia, Teotihuacan, Cancun, Chichen Itza -  Cuba, Havana - Dominican Republic, Puerta Plata, Santa Domingo – Panama, Panama City – Colombia, Bogota, Barranquila, Cali – Ecuador, Quito, Galapagos Island, Guayaquil – Peru, Piura, Lima, Machu Picchu, Cusco, Arequipa – Hawaii, Honolulu – Fiji, Nadi - New Zealand , Auckland, Rotarua, Napier – Australia, Sydney, Ayres Rock, Alice Springs, Cairnes, Great Barrier - Indonesia ( Java ), Jakarta – Singapore – Malaysia, Sarawak – Cambodia, Siem Reap, Angkor Wat – Thailand, Phuket, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Khong – Laos, Pakbeng, Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, Vientiane – Vietnam, Hanoi – Philippines, Manilla, IloIlo, Cebu – Taiwan, Taipai - Ja pan, Tokyo – Republic of South Korea, Seoul – China, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Kowloon, Nanning, Beijing - Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar – Russia, Moscow – Egypt, Cairo – Italy, Rome – Greece , Athens, Meteora, Kavalla – Turkey, Gallipoli, Istanbul – Bulgaria, Black Sea Coast – Romania , Bucharest, Brasov, Cluj Napoca – Hungary, Budapest – Austria, Vienna - Czech Republic , Prague – Germany, Berlin – Holland, Amsterdam – Belgium, Brussells – France, Calais

 

The first part is mainly flights into and out of the Americas and then flying to various Pacific Islands.

 

The second part begins when I reach Bangkok and from there is a long overland trek by train.

 

Heading up and across Russia to reach Europe I will travel, and then fully across Europe to the French port of Calais ( via a quick stop over in Egypt ) just a few days after my 33rd birthday.

 

Now that I have made my route, I have to agree it with the travel agency who will advice me of which types of ticket to purchase and when will be the best time to order the tickets.

 

I am very excited about this trip and I hope that it will be a truly amazing trip of a lifetime.

Round The World Trip - Route ( Version 1.1 )

Mali	Bamako
Mali	Timbuktu	Timbuktu
Canada	Halifax
Canada	Oak Island	Oak Island
U.S.A.	New York
U.S.A.	Niagara Falls	Niagara Falls
U.S.A.	Boston	Boston
U.S.A.	Washington DC	Washington
U.S.A.	Mount Rushmore	Mount Rushmore
U.S.A.	Grand Canyon	Grand Canyon
U.S.A.	New Orleans	New Orleans
Mexico	Mexico City
Mexico	Morelia	Morelia
Mexico	Teotihuacan	Teotihuacan
Mexico	Cancun
Mexico	Chichen Itza	Chichen Itza
Cuba	Havana	Havana
Dominican Republic	Puerta Plata
Dominican Republic	Santa Domingo	Santa Domingo
Panama	Panama City	Panama City
Colombia	Bogota
Colombia	Barranquila
Colombia	Cali
Ecuador	Quito
Ecuador	Galapagos Island	Galapagos Islands
Ecuador	Guayaquil
Peru	Piura
Peru	Lima
Peru	Machu Picchu	Machu Picchu
Peru	Cusco
Peru	Arequipa
Hawaii	Honolulu	Hawaii
Fiji	Nadi	Fiji
New Zealand	Auckland
New Zealand	Napier
Australia	Sydney	Sydney
Australia	Ayres Rock	Uluru
Australia	Alice Springs
Australia	Cairnes
Australia	Great Barrier Reef	Great Barrier Reef
Indonesia ( Java )	Jakarta
Singapore	Singapore
Malaysia	Sarawak
Cambodia	Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat
Thailand	Phuket
Thailand	Bangkok
Thailand	Chiang Mai	Bankok To Hanoi
Thailand	Chiang Khong
Laos	Pakbeng
Laos	Luang Prabang
Laos	Vang Vieng
Laos	Vientiane
Vietnam	Hanoi
Philippines	IloIlo
Philippines	Manilla
Philippines	Cebu
Taiwan	Taiwan
Japan	Tokyo
South Korea	Seoul
China	Shanghai
China	Kowloon
China	Nanning
China	Beijing	Forbidden City
Mongolia	Mongolia	Beijing to Moscow
Russia	Moscow
Egypt	Cairo
Italy	Rome
Greece	Athens	Athens to London
Greece	Meteora
Greece	Kavalla
Turkey	Gallipoli
Turkey	Istanbul
Bulgaria	Black Sea Coast
Romania	Bucharest
Romania	Brasov
Romania	Cluj Napoca
Hungary	Budapest
Austria	Vienna
Czech Republic	Prague
Germany	Berlin
Holland	Amsterdam
Belgium	Brussells
France	Calais