Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was surprised to see how cheaply it can now be done. As low as $1300, with only one stop, but a little bit more will get you some pretty exotic destinations.
That $1300, I found pretty quickly by adding together the one-way fares between San Francisco and Colombo, going out over the Pacific and back over the Atlantic. Technically around the world, but no more interesting than the cheaper RT going back the same way.
One tantalizing flight would be Houston-Bangkok-Colombo-Johannesburg-Houston, for a total of 506+134+464+636=1740. A nice way to see all three of the major developing world zones.
I fouind these fares for November 2015, and could probably reduce them even more by twiddling the dates.
No, I have never considered it, not as you described it though it would be entertaining of course.
The reason I am not interested is because I like to jet off to a region and explore it, then come back home. So I will fly to east Europe and travel around, or to Thailand and hit up Malaysia or take the route over to Vietnam, or just go to one country like to India.
But I do not think I would like to fly so much just to hit up a few distant cities just to say I circled the world during my trip.
I don't think it interests me that much, as the more I travel the more I like to try and do as much distance overland as possible. It just seems to be an important part of getting to know a new country or region and it makes me appreciate the human and physical geography more. I once took a Greyhound from Northern ON to Vancouver, BC. I flew back home after the trip in a mere 4 hours. I compared the two journeys and realized that even if you understand the amount of distance you cover flying, some aspect of that awe is still lost if you don't experience it on the ground.
I would probably at most, do something like flying into Istanbul, and out of Tel Aviv or Amman, after travelling everything in between, or in Bangkok and out of Shanghai in a more extreme case.
RTW typically can extend to one yr with as many as 12 stops. and can run $2000 -$3000.
We will be stop in regional hubs where we can take commuter flights and rail from there. (and spend 1-2 months in each hub area)
Will start ours in Amsterdam and have 'before' and 'after' trips around Europe for special seasons (wine / flowers / markets).
Planning to do most of our RTW in southern Hemisphere cuz it is so expensive to jet there.
Ours is using Star Alliance award travel.
That's something that I wouldn't mind doing. I would not just fly around the world, never or barely leaving airports, just to say that I flew around the world!
Last edited by prospectheightsresident; 05-11-2015 at 08:30 AM..
Until my wife's health curtailed travel, we went on paid RTW trips every other year for a decade, earning enough frequent flyer miles in the course of the trip to pay for extensive travel in the alternate years, all of it in business or first class with an average cost of roughly $275 per flight.
There are various sorts of RTW air tickets - the ones (like we used) that are sold by member airlines in the major alliances (Oneworld, Star Alliance, Skyteam) a couple of tickets sold by individual airlines, "point-to-point" tickets that one does oneself, or packaged tickets arranged by some of the specialty travel agents such as Airtreks. The alliance-based tickets all are good for a year, offer up to 16 flight segments (a limitation of e-ticketing) and are priced VERY differently depending on where you start and end the circuit. For example, an economy-class 16 segment four continent Oneworld ticket bought and started in the US costs $5299 plus taxes and fees. The same ticket, bought and started in Paris is US$2830; in Sydney US$3099. For US residents, the additional advantage of starting and ending overseas is that combined with the year-long lifespan of the tickets, starting abroad means you can use the ticket for three or more separate "vacations" (or business trips) in the course of the year. For example, fly (using miles or something cheap) to your start point, visit (say, western Europe) then start the RTW ticket and fly home. Then use the miles or segments allowed by the ticket over the next several months - weekend in New York? How about the Caribbean or Alaska? - then later travel to, say, Asia or Australia, then on to, say, South Africa, then back to your start point, and fly home on the miles you've earned in the course of the RTW trip.
My wife's immediate family is so well traveled. A few have been to all 7 continents and a handful has been around the world. Some have lived in France, Spain, Australia for extended times. I'm jealous of their travel experience whenever we get together of I'm watching TV with my wife and she is like so and so has been there. it is crazy but that is what they like to do.
I think travel should be more about the experience than just saying you have been somewhere. We have a friend that travels with her parents all over Europe for a month each year usually on a cruise. She has been to some amazing places but after awhile I think it becomes a blur.
Travel shouldn't be like the "Amazing Race" you have to take some time to soak up the atmosphere.
When I went to Australia several years ago, I had a round-the-world where I flew in one direction over the Atlantic and on the way back over the Pacific. The ticket allowed for one stop (meaning not a transit stop) on the way back.
The only RTW I ever bought, the first overseas stop was Seoul, it took us seven months to get from there to Bangladesh, where we learned of an urgent medical matter back home, so we bought a ticket home from there and cashed in the unused part of our RTW. So that trip went around the world. Once we had left India, though, we would have gone fairly quickly, as there wasn't much we wanted to spend much time doing from there on. The only remaining air sections were Bombay-Istanbul and London-USA.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
