Planning A Round The World Trip

Traveling around the world, stopping wherever you want to, and seeing all those things that you have always wanted to see must be the dream holiday for many people.

If this is your ideal holiday, then there are likely to be only two times in your life when you have enough time on your hands to do it, and they are when you are young and when you are old. The rest of the time for most people there are too many work and family commitments.

When you are young a major advantage is that you can get by with very little; sleeping out under the stars is no problem. When you are older you do tend to enjoy a few more creature comforts, but then the advantage is that you are likely to have a little more money so that you can afford them.

The most economical way to travel the world is to buy a round-the-world air ticket with multiple stops. You don’t need to stick to a single airline as there are a number of airline networks that integrate flights from several different airlines, for instance “Oneworld” uses BA, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Quantas, Cathay Pacific and others.

There are a number of rules you need to follow when you book a round-the-world. There are a maximum number of stops, typically 16 or 18, generally you need to travel east to west or the other way without backtracking, and you must finish your journey in the same country that you started it from.

You also need to book all of your flights before you begin your journey, though you can change them subsequently if you wish to modify your itinerary, and usually a round-the-world ticket is valid for a maximum of one year. You also need to consider when to go as well as where. You should research the climate of your important destinations and plan your timings accordingly.

Also bear in mind that some places are very much cheaper than others. You may wish to include Tokyo in your itinerary, and why not, but bear in mind that it is the most expensive city in the world. Also you can travel overland; you don’t have to fly everywhere.

Planning a round the world trip is both interesting and fun, so take your time and do it well in advance. You will probably need to do some careful budgeting to ensure that you don’t run out of money. When you pay for your ticket, use an online reward card where you can collect credit card Avios points that you can use towards your hotel costs, and remember that it is much cheaper to spend time in South-East Asia than it is in North America.

This is a guest post by Claire Chat a new Londoner, travel passionate and animal lover. She blogs about Pets and Traveling in Europe. If you want Claire to write you specific content, you can find email her here or contact her on Twitter (Claire_Chat).