Starting to plan our RTW trip for July 2013-September 2014 need advice!
Replies: 14 - Last Post: Aug 1, 2012 6:57 AM Last Post By: iamthewalrus
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Starting to plan our RTW trip for July 2013-September 2014 need advice!
We are starting to plan out our route and need some advice of places/things that are a must! We are a late 20's American couple planing on being gone through either end of August or Sepemtber (work pending). We will have $45,000 so we are on a budget. As of now this is what we are thinkingJuly-end September
-Central America
3 days -Mexico (flying here) making our way to Belize may stop in Tulum for a few Days
10 days -Belize, we have been here before and did ruins & cave tubing & cayes, thinking of Hopkins & Placencia & Punta Gorda
on the fence about Hondoras?? Should we go and for how long and where?, need advice
17 days Guatamela- Livingston, copan, antiga, xela (plan on taking 1 wk of spanish lessons), need advice
21 days Nica- mainly San Juan del Sur and some time in Granda and Leon, need advice
14 days Costa Rica- we have been here before (arenal, jaco, manual antonia, puerto viejo) we want to spend wk in puerto viejo and make our way to panama on that coast
14 days Panama- interested in islands, need advice
14 days colombia- need advice
14 days ecuador- need advice
14 days Peru- need advice going to Macchu for sure not sure how long..
we would leave South America first week of november and head to Fiji
14 days Fiji (to just relax)....advice?
14 days New Zealand-advice
9 days Austrailia -advice
5 days Tsmania (is it worth it? or spend more in austrailia?)-advice
then about a week before xmas fly to south east asia....where is the cheapest to get to...Bangkok/Singapore/KL/etc...we would like to do Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and maybe phillipines (cost pending and things to do) from end of Dec-end of march/early april. We then would like to spend 3 weeks in Indonesia until end of April.
May 3 weeks in India
end of May-?? Africa, we want to do a safari and dont know which kind/of how long/or which companies/etc. Visas will factor in too. We expect to our timeline in africa will depend on our safari and how long it is and when we need to be there. I would expect to spend about 6 weeks in Africa.
Morocco 2 weeks in end of July
Spain 2 weeks in August
Greece 2 weeks in August
then not sure what else to do...cost big factor..thinking of maybe Italy/Turkey/Istanbul/Paris/London
Alot of Europe will be depending on money and time. We probably will fly home to USA through London bc of costs.
Any help would be great!! Thanks!
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hion first reading i think you are trying to fit way too much in a year. hoping to spend time in each continent in a year means a lot of travel, very few days to relax, no flexibilty, only getting a tiny sense of each country not to mention expensive airfares. my suggestion would be to drop Oz, Nz and maybe even Europe.....for the allocated time to these and the expense of being there i personally dont think it would be worth it. on the plus side allowing 4 months for South East Asia is good though only 3 weeks for India is not so good
its hard to give helpful budget advice as i dont know if your airfares, visa's, vaccinations & travel insurance will coming out of the 45,000 or if this is just a daily travel budget. these costs will blow a sizable hole in your budget.
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Thanks for tips! Also forgot to mention we just did our honeymoon in Thailand & Indonesia in April, we were gone 3 weeks and loved it!How long do you suggest for India? Any certain cities/things?
As for money. The $45,000 will need to cover the following chicago-fiji, fiji-nz, nz-austrailia, austrailia-se asia, asia-india, india-africa, africa-spain. We will take cheap flights in asia (airasia or like) or trains/buses (all over central/south america & asia). Yes we will need visas, from research we will only need to pay for vietnam, india, turkey, african countries. We have free flights for all our other flights.
Thanks!
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india is such a massive country, you could spend your full year travelling there, your best bet is to pick an area, according to what you are interested in.....for example if you want to see the Taj Mahal, fly into Delhi and stick to the north of the country. i think all those flights will still take a lot from your budget and will on your current plan make it very hard to complete. like i previously said i do think it is better to drop a few places and have more money to really enjoy the countries you end up in.5
Hi, as ger says, you seem to be trying to fit in too much in a year and a bit. Long term travel is not the same as short-term travel and you need have some down time, plan on having a week of doing nothing sat on a beach or in a cool town every couple months at least. Also the faster you travel the more money you spend so travelling more slowly saves you money, is less taxing on your body (and mind), more relaxed and ultimately allows for a better trip where you get to dig your teeth into the places you're travelling to. Try to cut out a good chunk, at least 30% of destinations.To answer things more specifically
+July-end September
-Central America
3 days -Mexico (flying here) making our way to Belize may stop in Tulum for a few Days+
- You say you're from the US, why not travel overland to Mexico? anyway, easy enough to fly into cancun and make your way to Belize.
+10 days -Belize, we have been here before and did ruins & cave tubing & cayes, thinking of Hopkins & Placencia & Punta Gorda
on the fence about Hondoras?? Should we go and for how long and where?, need advice+
- your going to have to visit Honduras after Guatemala on your way to Nicaragua. Stop in Copan Ruinas and if you're divers in the Bay Islands.
17 days Guatamela- Livingston, copan, antiga, xela (plan on taking 1 wk of spanish lessons), need advice
- forget the spanish lessons, you won't learn much in a week, and what you will learn you can easily learn by yourself on the street so to speak. Forget Xela. visit Atitlan and Tikal and seriously consider Semuc Champay.
21 days Nica- mainly San Juan del Sur and some time in Granda and Leon, need advice
- 3 weeks is good for Nicaragua but why spend it mostly in San Juan del Sur. Granted it's been years since I've been there but it's not the best place in Nica. Make sure to spend a few days on Ometepe
14 days Costa Rica- we have been here before (arenal, jaco, manual antonia, puerto viejo) we want to spend wk in puerto viejo and make our way to panama on that coast
- Consider visiting Tortuguero, the 2nd best place in Costa Rica and on the Caribbean coast. (the best place being Corcovado but it's the other end of the country)
14 days Panama- interested in islands, need advice
- Bocas del Toro are lovely for a few days (and form what I can tell will be right up your street). Boquete for coffee and hiking, Panama City, if you can head out to San Blas for pure bliss.
14 days colombia- need advice
-first bit of advice, spend more time. Tayrona, Cartagena (check out Totuma volcano, good fun), Medellin, Coffee zone, Bogota, Popayan, San Augustin, and then to Ecuador.
14 days ecuador- need advice
- Otovalo, Quito, Banos, Cuenca, Vilcabamba
14 days Peru- need advice going to Macchu for sure not sure how long..
-Again spend longer - you're obviously going to be rushing through the north but stop off at least at one place along the way. I really like the Lord of Sipan Museum near Chiclayo and the most common stop is Trujillo/Huanchaco. In the South make sure to visit Arequipa, Colca Canyon and obviously Cusco and the Sacred Valley area (including Machu Picchu). If you want to do the Inca Trail make sure to book months in advance as permits are limited. Peru is also a good place to visit the jungle - Puerto Maldonado is a good place for this.
we would leave South America first week of november and head to Fiji
-Shame you're missing out on Bolivia being so close but so be it.
14 days Fiji (to just relax)....advice?
Don't know Fiji, can't help
14 days New Zealand-advice
-Never been but from what I know it seems a shame to go all the way to NZ and not spend at least a month
+9 days Austrailia -advice
5 days Tsmania (is it worth it? or spend more in austrailia?)-advice+
- First the pedantic bit - Tasmania is part of Australia. Then it seems like an awfully short period of time to spend in Australia given the cost and effort taken to get there. I tend to agree with ger above you may as well cut out both NZ and Australia from your trip. Also I'd love to go to Tasmania and hear it's a pretty cool place but it seems odd on your itinerary. You don't seem to go that much for the more off the beaten path destinations so would have thought you'd rather spend your 2 weeks along the East coast of Australia.
-There are budget flights from Australia to SEAsia so have a look. 3 months may be ok for Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam but no more. If you want to cover all countries mentioned consider closer to 5 or 6 months.
May 3 weeks in India
-As ger says, you could easily spend a year in India
end of May-?? Africa, we want to do a safari and dont know which kind/of how long/or which companies/etc. Visas will factor in too. We expect to our timeline in africa will depend on our safari and how long it is and when we need to be there. I would expect to spend about 6 weeks in Africa.
-Visas won't be as much of an issue as you might think. Have a look at the overland companies like Dragoman, Intrepid, ATC, Kumuka, G Adventure, and others - you'll find that they offer a Nairobi to Cape Town tour which lasts 6 weeks which would be perfect for you covering many of the main sites, safaris, culture, towns, nature...etc.
Morocco 2 weeks in end of July
- It'll be hot but 2 weeks is ok.
Spain 2 weeks in August
- again 2 weeks is ok, of course you could easily spend longer
Greece 2 weeks in August
-ditto (for what it's worth I think ger is correct here again, maybe cut Europe and come back some other time)
then not sure what else to do...cost big factor..thinking of maybe Italy/Turkey/Istanbul/Paris/London
-Another pedantic bit but obviously Istanbul is in Turkey. Turkey's great, but then again so's Italy, Paris, London.... Incidentally make sure not to jsut stick to main cities in Europe, there is so much more.
OK, there you have it. Hope this helps.
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Cool itinerary, I made some changes to it though. Just a suggestion. Less is more. No need to go back to countries you've already been to. I think it still adds up to 12 months I just cut out a lot of countries. Think about the fact that you should get used to a new time zone, culture, language, currency, food in each country. Adjusting takes time.Mexico - 2 weeks to 1 month minimum
Perhaps you've already been here?
Belize - 1 month
Honduras - why not? 2 weeks
Guatemala - 1 month
Bring a phrasebook instead and listen to some Pimsleur style lessons/mp3s prior to your travels
Nicaragua - 1 month
Panama - 2 weeks
Colombia- 1 month
Ecuador- 1 month
How will you cross the Pacific? Up to the U.S again?
Fiji - 1 week
New Zealand, Australia or Singapore etc. - 1 day/week
Just to transit, you've already tasted two very distinct parts of South East Asia so no need to go back just yet.
India - 3 months
Africa - 1 month
Spain OR Greece - 1 month
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It may seem like a lot but we have seem similiar other couples year itenary and they have done about similiar amount of countries. We have abour 14 months. We cant justify cutting out an entire continent, and Fiji for 2 weeks of nothing sound great to us. We understand we need to stay put for some time but cant stay in the same city/country for months.We loved Thailand & Indonesia, and want to go back and visit the areas we didnt make it to.
India interests me for maybe 3 weeks, I am quite sure I couldn't do it for a few months.
This trip for us to see most of the world and hopefully realize what we want to do with our lives going forward, what we really need in life, and decide where we want to settle down. We are both in our late 20's with great jobs but we feel like we are working/working/working and for what...and that is why we are doing this trip.
Thanks for all your tips. We still plan on visiting Central America, South America, Asia, Africa, Austrailia/NZ, and little of Europe.
Thanks again!
11
New Zealand - rent a car and drive around the South Island, Making sure you take in Milford Sound.Australia (note the spelling) - 3 days in Sydney, 3 days Uluru, 3 days Cairns. If you have longer, fly to Darwin and do Kakadu and Litchfield national parks.
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In 9 days in Australia,you re not going to 'see Australia'.At best you are going to see one small part of it.......even that itinerary suggested above means 2 extra flights and rushing from one place to the next.
That can be expanded to most of your other destinations too (though less obviously than Oz in many cases).I've been to nearly all the countries you mention,most for much longer and in much more detail than you plan,and i am under no illusion that I have seen 'most of the world'.
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There is a lot to reply to in that post:$45,000 should be plenty. I spent a year RTW in 14 countries, not exactly holding back budget-wise, and it cost me $20,000 - including flights.
On that point, I wouldn't overplan too much in advance. By that I mean have a loose idea of what you'd like to do, where you'd like to go, but leave yourself the flexibility to improvise, and adjust on the fly - as that's the beauty of a RTW. You'll meet other travelers with first-hand recommendations you may not have considered, or a place on your itinerary may not be exactly what you had anticipated. This allows you the freedom to spend more time in the locales that grab your heart, or conversely, move on from the ones that may not. The balance of really soaking in a few great areas versus skimming a lot of cool ones can be a difficult and delicate thing. In any case, the level of planning that may be warranted in a two week vacation should be sidelined, as a RTW offers a level of freedom from structured itineraries where ad hoc decisions are encouraged.
What worked for my friend and I was flying in on one date, with a gap period, and a ticket to move on a stated date. Example - we flew into Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and had an onward ticket from Cape Town, South Africa to Mumbai, India 3 1/2 months later. What happened in between was up to us, and although we had our plans and ideas, it always worked out different - and better - by having the flexibility to react and adjust accordingly. We did that on various continents.
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