Travelling Round the World

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So this summer i plan to get a round the world ticket i think and travel a bit!

I'm thinking of Australia, New Zealand, maybe West Coast USA and im in the research stage at the minute, so trying to get as much info as possible.

Has anyone bought one of these tickets before?

I haven't traveled as such before, and although i'm traveling with someone that has, any general backpacking/travel advice would be great.

Also, any particular advice on travel to, and in Australia, New Zealand and USA?

Any advice at all would be usefull at the minute, and i have searched the forums first! This is the only thread i could find, and it has some useful sites on it, a good start!

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17907056&highlight=round+world+ticket

p.s. budget £3000

p.p.s. ive said the word advice so much its started to lose its meaning...
 
Budget of 3000 , how long do you plan on travelling over , 3k won't last long certainly not in Australia.

Only other brief thing I can mention as I have to go to work , is buy a decent SIDE loading backpack not a toploader. you should be paying about 90GBP for a decent backpack.

If get chance i'll add some more advice for you later on
 
This isn't meant as a plug, but I used travelnation.co.uk for my multi-stop round the world trip last year and these guys were so helpful and accommodating, you can plan your trip to a T. Their staff are all seriously very well travelled and even if you're not going to book through them, they can offer you a ton of useful information about your destinations
 
Why do those three places? They're just warmer, safer versions of the UK.

Do something that's different to your life. Travel around Asia or South America.
You'll get so much more out of it, AND your budget will last a lot longer
 
I did this about 8 years ago with STA, cost £1200 for a round the world ticket, which allowed me to go London - South Africa - Australia - New Zealand - Fiji - LA - Home.

I'd recommend 2 things!
Dive with sharks if you go to SA.
Go to Frazer Island if you are near Brisbane.

Have fun and enjoy!
 
Personally I would not bother with the west coast of USA but would rather go to south America instead. That said, Ive only been to LA and I really didnt think that much of it but that was off the back of going to Vegas and Hawaii which was fantastic.
 
I booked with STA in November for a 4 month RTW ticket leaving March 31st. Cost me £1400 all inc.

This includes..... Manchester -> Bangkok overland Singapore -> Cairns overland to Sydney -> Christchurch overland Auckland -> Nadi -> Los Angeles overland to San Francisco -> Manchester!

All of that from March 31st to July 26th. As said it cost £1400, which included my VISA's sorted for Australia and USA, 2 nights free hostel in Bangkok (Lub D), and some youth travel card.

Got quotes around diff places, and they all wanted a good £200-£300 more, managed to haggle STA down to top end of £1300's then with credit card fee's it just nipped onto £1400!

Planning to have between £4000-£4500 for the 4 months I'm away which should see me through nicely i'm hoping!

I just need to plan out what stuff im doing whilst in each country!
 
I went travelling, just over 7 months from end of july 08 - end feb 09.

Booked with sta travel and did -

eng > bangkok (3 months to get to singapore airport) singapore > cairnes (2 months east cost oz) > melbourne > christchurch (1 month nz) aukland > fiji (18 nights fiji) > fiji > LA (2 weeks from la > san fran) san fran > NY (5 days NY) > home

Included the flights and
first night hostel in bangkok and transfer
oz experience travel bus in oz
nz - bus and accom (YHA vouchers)
everything in fiji - 6 islands, all food and activities
all accom and travel in west america, about 1/2 of the meals, some activities
3 nights accom in NY and some activities

This cost £2500

Budget was £20 a day

I ended up spending 10k in total. I would say definately do SE asia, very cheap and amazing. Fiji is also a must. I didnt rate NZ as much as a lot of people but loved Oz. Definately do fraiser island and witsundays and islands by yacht. I did 2 nights on a boat, witsundays etc then volunteered on another boat for 3 nights. (so got a $500 for free) had to help cook, clean etc but got hammered with everyone on all nights, did snorkelling etc and also helped with sails and stuff that other people didnt get to do.

Fiji was exactly how you see it on postcards, white beaches, palm trees, boiling water. Swam with sharks, ate mangoes and bananas off the floor, fished with the locals, saw loads of islands, stayed on a boat overnight, visited castaway island... (all for £450 all inclusive for 18 nights!)

I miss travelling :(
 
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Best advice i can give you is dont get conned into transporting anything that isnt yours across borders. No matter how skint you are. Just ask that that chap who took those drugs into china... ohh wait hes dead...

Other than that enjoy it, it will be a great experience.
 
Im planning on going around Thailand/Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos and found www.travelfish.org to be of a major help :)

Did that last year for 7 months, absolutely loved it. Didn't do Cambodia though.. it was originally part of the plan but everyone we spoke to in Thailand and Laos slated so I skipped it and did 5 weeks down under instead.

Thailand and Laos are the best places to party and Vietnam had the best food!
 
I went traveling last year. Booked through flightcentre.

Did London -> Bangkok overland Singapore -> Melbourne overland Cairns -> Fiji -> San Francisco -> London.

Cost about £1400. Was quite a good deal as that was back when the oil prices were higher, although they're going back up again now.

Very useful having branches all over as well as you can go in and tailor your flight loads of times with different people to get the best possible deal and they were very useful. We booked a couple of things through them in Australia as well and they were very good there too!

And yea, as mentioned, if that 3k is for your whole travels and not the flight then you wont be away for long. Go to Asia instead!
 
I've just returned from 1 year travelling. You can read about it on our Blog here: www.sodworking.co.uk

NZ was our favourite country and yes as others have said, 3k is not a lot to go on. NZ and OZ are very pricey compared to the SE.Asian countries.
You could certainly do Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (awesome) in 3 months and should be able to stick to your budget.

We got our Round The World ticket from STA. They were very reasonable and can give you great advice on things to do when you're there. They didn't try and push the whole Oz drunk thing on us, which was nice too.
 
Why do those three places? They're just warmer, safer versions of the UK.

Do something that's different to your life. Travel around Asia or South America.
You'll get so much more out of it, AND your budget will last a lot longer

Safer?:confused: The US is far more dangerous than here (regarding people) and all of them have much more dangerous animals and climates!:p

I agree to an extent, but not SE asia, go somewhere different like South America not just the tourist trail if you actually want to do something different.

Maybe on your round the world tour go to the US, then travel through South America and head over to NZ and Auz, followed by a brief stint in SE asia or Japan or even India/Sri Lanka to be a bit different.
 
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