Part 3: Narrowing it down
A visit to Trailfinders, one of the most highly recommended RTW specialists in the UK, provided some good information on the next stage of planning the trip.
Round-the-world flights generally start from and terminate in London. Unfortunately this scuppers my plans to go overland from the UK to China. Instead I'll probably have to look at London to Moscow, overland to China, and to take further flights from there.
RTW flight tickets typically use one or more alliance of airlines. Each alliance tends to best serve particular regions of the world, so before I get anywhere near buying my ticket, I need to have a good grasp of which countries and regions I'm going to want to be spending most of my time. I was also a little surprised that the chap at Trailfinders thought I was being overambitious with my list of destinations for a year's trip. This put me back a bit, as I hadn't even decided that I'd take as long as a year for the trip.
Neverthless I'm now focusing on the countries and areas I'm most interesting in for piecing something of an itinerary together. For me, the culture and history and future superpower status of China make this country central on my itinerary. Japan also, with it's seemingly unfathomable culture, but highly appealing hi-tech and anime exports will also be featuring highly in the earlier stages of my itinerary. The Chinese visa may present something of a limiting factor in the duration of my stay in that country, whereas in Japan I suspect the sheer cost of everything will making a number of decisions for me.
South-East Asia continues to be altogether more vague, and I'm still uncertain which countries I'm most interesting in visiting, and which should feature on my itinerary. This region features heavily in the routes of many RTW travellers, but I need a better grasp of what's on offer and what will interest me in particular before making any firm decisions.
Although very much a RTW staple, Australia and New Zealand are going to have to figure prominently in my itinerary. Although I wasn't initially so interested, I'm now wanting to check out our distant-yet-near neighbours, and see how similar or different life is to that in Mother England. There are, after all, plenty of Aussies and Kiwis in the UK, and the more I get to know their national psyche (although I don't know it that well), the more I'm attracted and interested to the prospect of going Down Under. It is also, as I said, at the heart of almost every RTW trip, and makes for a fine route across the Pacific.
Thereafter everything goes a bit grey. The Trailfinders chap said I'd be pushing a year if I was looking at South America, so I'm none too sure whether to plan it in at this stage. It's also problematic as regards RTW tickets, as it's relatively poorly served, and I don't currently know very much about the area at all.
I may have to return to Trailfinders or similar with an updated plan, and see how they advise me to proceed. I'll also be spending time checking out the online travel forums, fishing for some ideas and tips, while the rest of the time I shall endeavour to keep my nose in a Rough Guide book for some destination or another.
Round-the-world flights generally start from and terminate in London. Unfortunately this scuppers my plans to go overland from the UK to China. Instead I'll probably have to look at London to Moscow, overland to China, and to take further flights from there.
RTW flight tickets typically use one or more alliance of airlines. Each alliance tends to best serve particular regions of the world, so before I get anywhere near buying my ticket, I need to have a good grasp of which countries and regions I'm going to want to be spending most of my time. I was also a little surprised that the chap at Trailfinders thought I was being overambitious with my list of destinations for a year's trip. This put me back a bit, as I hadn't even decided that I'd take as long as a year for the trip.
Neverthless I'm now focusing on the countries and areas I'm most interesting in for piecing something of an itinerary together. For me, the culture and history and future superpower status of China make this country central on my itinerary. Japan also, with it's seemingly unfathomable culture, but highly appealing hi-tech and anime exports will also be featuring highly in the earlier stages of my itinerary. The Chinese visa may present something of a limiting factor in the duration of my stay in that country, whereas in Japan I suspect the sheer cost of everything will making a number of decisions for me.
South-East Asia continues to be altogether more vague, and I'm still uncertain which countries I'm most interesting in visiting, and which should feature on my itinerary. This region features heavily in the routes of many RTW travellers, but I need a better grasp of what's on offer and what will interest me in particular before making any firm decisions.
Although very much a RTW staple, Australia and New Zealand are going to have to figure prominently in my itinerary. Although I wasn't initially so interested, I'm now wanting to check out our distant-yet-near neighbours, and see how similar or different life is to that in Mother England. There are, after all, plenty of Aussies and Kiwis in the UK, and the more I get to know their national psyche (although I don't know it that well), the more I'm attracted and interested to the prospect of going Down Under. It is also, as I said, at the heart of almost every RTW trip, and makes for a fine route across the Pacific.
Thereafter everything goes a bit grey. The Trailfinders chap said I'd be pushing a year if I was looking at South America, so I'm none too sure whether to plan it in at this stage. It's also problematic as regards RTW tickets, as it's relatively poorly served, and I don't currently know very much about the area at all.
I may have to return to Trailfinders or similar with an updated plan, and see how they advise me to proceed. I'll also be spending time checking out the online travel forums, fishing for some ideas and tips, while the rest of the time I shall endeavour to keep my nose in a Rough Guide book for some destination or another.
posted by Daniel at 5:18 pm
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