http://www.jimmys-adventures.net/trekking-france/
Is this route for my round the world trip sensible?
I hope somebody with travelling experience can help me here – i am planning a RTW trip in 2011 (way off i know, but i want to literally do the world and also i need that much time to save for this!) i am planning on leaving the uk to travel by ferry to Paris to join a camping group that will take me for 6 weeks through France, Monaco, Spain, Italy, Vatican City, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romainia, Hungary, Czech Rep, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switerland, Holland & Belgium.
i then intend on getting the ferry back to uk and flying to Cape town>>Jo’Burg>>Kenya (to safari for a week) then flying to Cairo to see the pyramids.
from Egypt flying to India, then flying to Russia to get the Trans Sib Railway thru Mongolia to China, taking a 3 week trek thru China to Hong Kong, then fly to Thailand from there to OZ & NZ, then to america to do a 3mth trek thru 30 states!
and then home!!! is this too ambitious for my first travelling experience? im going with my [then] husband.
I’m not sure the camping trip is relevant… but anyway. When you fly a RTW you have to stick to one consortium of airlines. Well, you don’t have to, but it makes it far cheaper on full-fare airlines (but see below). This would be OneWorld, StarAlliance, or (I think) SkyTeam. This restricts you to where you can fly, and upon which routes. Most tickets have a general “no backtracking” rule – ie you must keep flying in either an eastwards or westwards direction. So Africa-India-Moscow probably wouldn’t be allowed. There are exceptions, however. A further restriction says that you must only do so many hops within a country or continent. Overland hops are generally permitted but again you can’t backtrack. The rules I’ve mentioned are neither exhaustive nor do they apply to all tickets.
Travelbag have an excellent planner at http://routeplanner.travelbag.co.uk/staging/rtw/
This shows you your options as you go, so you can plan your next leg of the trip from the options it gives you. But bear in mind that 4 years’ time may see a different set of routes and airlines – and, of course, prices.
Despite what I’ve said, looking at your itinerary, I’m not convinced that a round the world airfare is necessarily what you need. It might be cheaper to book individual segments. It’s worth investigating both options.
Did you know you can fly round the world mostly on low cost airlines? Oasis from London to Hong Kong (from £280 inc tax return), which I’ve done, beats BA any day with better leg room and virtually zero chance of losing your luggage.
Your trip is certainly do-able, maybe with some itinerary alterations. Sounds good!
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