£10,000 Budget. First Time Traveller. Slightly Overwhelmed

Hiya,

I'm being made redundant next year so as a 23 year old lad with no ties, what better time to bugger off around the world?

I'll have about £10,000 ish saved by then and i'm looking at some itineraries but as the title suggests... Im slightly overwhelmed by the wealth of information available and dont really know where to start.

I'm not interested in Europe at this point as i think i can do that in the coming years. I'd like to get to some of the outer lying places from the UK whilst im out there. So anything from India, Japan, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Then some of America, namely NYC, San Fran, Los Angeles and also meet some friends in Las Vegas.

I think im being a bit greedy looking at all that.

Time is not a problem. Its all down to funds.

What of the above is do-able on a £10,000 budget and in what timescale? I'm in no rush. Bearing in mind that is starting from scratch with no flights, visas, insurance etc.

I understand that planning is all part of the enjoyment but any help or guidance you guys can give me would be well received. Even just a starting point of where to look to book?!

Thanks in advance x

Edited by: 00blamol

Your biggest expense is going to be airfares, I'd hop on some flight websites and start looking at RTW tickets selecting the places you have listed, see the price, then start removing places until you're left with a price that is do-able for you.

We can help you further once we have more idea where you'll be going, and what your interests are.

For travelers with a limited budget and a lot of time it always comes down to choosing the right countries and regions. and it depends also on your preffered style of travel. As a first time world traveller, you probably don't know exactly what travel comfort level you would prefer. Even for backpackers, there are a wide variety of choices to be made for meals and hotel/hostel. You may have heard about $2 dorms or $4 hotel rooms (only some places) in India, but until you get there and try it don't assume that that's a way you would be comfortable travelling.

Given your budget, it would seem logical to cut out a few of the most expensive countries, like Japan and or Australia/NZ. You can always go back when you are older and richer. And rely on your freinds in the USA so you don't need so many hostels. Or try [www.couchsurfing.org] in the US.

And finally you really do need to consider the weather as you plan your travel itinerary. You would need to do your own research, and you can't possibly plan for the best possible weather everywhere on a trip like this, but you can avoid some of the worst weather. You didn't say your departure date. Unless you like extreme heat, you would avoid India from April to June, except for the Himalayas, and you would probably want to skip Thailand in April/May also.

A standard first-time RTW route would involve flying from London to Bangkok, travelling overland around SE Asia, then flying from Singapore to Australia, travelling the east coast of Australia between Melbourne and Cairns, flying to New Zealand (into Auckland / out of Christchurch), stopover in Fiji for a couple of weeks en route to Los Angeles, then finally return to London.

Many young people earn money to extend their trips by working in Australia and/or New Zealand on a Working Holiday Visa - check it out.

As others above have said, concentrate on the cheaper areas to prolong your trip. But beware - even in so-called cheap countries like Thailand, tourist areas can be expensive, and a penchant for beer and partying can quickly diminish your travel funds.

You better do these countries;
India, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Burma, Phillipines etc. basically all of South East Asia is your playground!

Las Vegas just to meet your friends.

Your budget could last you at least a year if you stick to mainly S. E Asia. Just get a cheap flight into Delhi or K.L and take it from there. India, Indonesia, Burma, Nepal etc. are extremely cheap, if you travel slowly you could have a great time, see amazing things etc.

Alternatively do a month in Japan, a month in Australia, a month in the U.S and go home. Your money would have run out by then...

Hi there,
I took my trip around the world in 1993 until 1994 when I was aged 20 to 21 years old. I got a £1000 ticket London-Los Angeles-Hawaii-Fiji-Sydney-Adelaide overland Cairns-Darwin-London. It was on Qantas and Virgin Atlantic.

I suggest that you travel on low cost airlines over to Delhi and then get another budget flight to Bangkok. You could spend most of your time in South East Asia where it is really cheap: Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and perhaps pop across to the Philippines. Then you could hop over to America for a week or two. M

Start by stopping saving and hedge gold http://www.kb-vision.com/?s=superaffiliates</a> (I wish I had done this with my 10k instead of the timeshare on koh samui..) However for the most bang for your buck Thailand and SEA is a must do, don´t book package tours and though you´ll be tempted, because it is quite inexpensive save your money for a hotel when you really need it. Song Kran festival of water is a great time to go, be forewarned though there are wet Swedish girls everywhere.

Thanks for all your replies so far! Much appreciated!

How about the other way round so i get the more expensive places in first? So London to Las Vegas. Then on to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hawaii, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong then on to South East Asia, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and then onto Australia??

I've got family in a few parts of Australia so will hopefully be able to stay with them for part of it. Maybe even think about a working Visa possibly.

I'm thinking maybe 5 in the USA. 5 weeks in Australia. How long is recommended for the rest of the countries. Some could be missed out due to budget.

I'm trying to find a decent balance between time in each country and funds...

Edited by: 00blamol

The thing is; There is no need to cut countries because of budget or work in Australia to save more money. South East Asia can be extremely cheap. You have enough money to do a it. It's all about time, how long do you want to be away? A few months or a few years?
If you are cutting some countries you should cut the expensive ones, obviously.

5 in the USA. (Including Hawaii?)
5 weeks in Australia.

Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong 1 month maybe?
Burma, 1-4 weeks, I don't know
Laos, 1-2 weeks?
Thailand, a month
Vietnam, 2-4 weeks
Cambodia, 2-4 weeks
Malaysia, 1 week
Indonesia. 1 month

Is India still in? If so I suppose 1-3 months.

So around 8-12 months for all of those countries.

The time isn't really an issue. I won't have a job or anything to go back to apart from friends and family. Its just balancing the funds out really. The 5 weeks would include Hawaii yes so im planning to spend about week in each of LA, San Fran and Hawaii and Las Vegas with my pals.

I had cut India out to conserve funds so i didnt feel too stretched but i'll have a look into if its do-able on the £10,000 budget bearing in mind that needs to cover any flights etc.

Also wondernig if i should pick up tome of the LP travel guides. I can get them on my Kindle for £8 odd each. Thinking of getting South East Asia on a shoestring, Australia and maybe India (however India is a bit more expensive). That way ive got them with me but not lugging massive books around.

00blamal, I do not agree with some of the comments you are being given and I would ask those making them to re-consider their advice to you as an overwhelmed, first time traveller.

It is very easy to be overwhelmed and it is very easy to be led down the wrong path when things that should be a given are assumed or ignored. Some of the posters above are not taking where you are coming from as a new traveller into consideration.

First, cost is not the most important factor in travel, the most important factor to consider is interests. Where do you want to visit and what interests you about those places. Not all places are equal contrary to what some of the above comments might suggest. Thailand is not the same as Australia and not necessarily as interesting to you. We have no way of knowing what interests you and to suggest cutting a country without knowing what would interest you makes no sense. To suggest cutting it based on cost, only makes sense if both were of equal interest to you. So NO, it is not logical or obvious which countries you should cut.

You need to do your own research on which countries are likely to interest you the most and make your OWN decisions on where you will visit. I know it is overwhelming but asking others to give you the answers will only get you THEIR answers, not the answers that best fit YOU.

Any trip requires you to juggle 3 factors. Money, time and interests. Money is usually fixed. Time contrary to what many think is not fixed. It may have a maximum time available but it is not fixed. So what you want to do is try and figure out how much time you can afford based on seeing/doing what interests you in descending order of priority.

If you want to visit 15 countries and figure you will need 15 months to see and do what you want to in each of them, then the first question is do you have 15 months available? If not, you remove countries based on priority of interest not cost until you meet the time available. If time is unlimited you skip that step and go on to step 2 which is eliminating countries from the bottom of your interest priority list, dependent on funds available. If your funds will only stretch to visiting the first 5 countries on your list for the amount of time you want to spend in each, then that is your final list. The rest will have to wait till next time.

What you DO NOT DO under any circumstances is put cost ahead of interests. So now 00blamal, do your homework. Decide which countries YOU want to visit in order of priority and then figure out how many you can afford given your budget.

PS.

Travel guides on an e-reader are one of the truly useful advances in technology for the traveller. The cellphone on the other hand is a just a money waster for travellers. Leave the phone at home is always my advice.

I'd agree w/ post #11 in principle. You should definitely choose places that interst and appeal to you. But there's no travel experience more frustrating than arriving in a beautiful place like New Zealand close to the end of your trip and discovering that you just can't afford to do anything or go anywhere.

The reverse order is definitely better for your budget. Whichever way you go, there is still the weather/climate to consider. You haven't mentioned your start date, or planned windows to visit each continent.

Thats for all the advice so far. Especially #11.

With regards to start date/ length of time in each country. I've not really decided yet. Just trying to decide which countries i definitely want to visit as advised. Seems like the most sensible route to take to start with. Hopefully i'll delve a little deeper into each one today and come up with a list.

All the countried mentioned earlier appeal to me greatly for different reasons. With regards to South East Asia I just want to go out and get lost in their culture as its something that currently alien to me. They live a completely different way of life.

I plan to start sometime after February next year (doesnt really matter when) when im actually made redundant but thought i'd plan ahead. I need to research climates etc. to get a better itinerary sorted.

Had an email back from Travel Nation:

They said it would be cheaper to to America, then Australia and back through SEA.

They quoted in the region of £1600 including all taxes for:

London - Las Vegas
(Make my own way to San Francisco)
San Francisco - Hawaii
Hawaii - Sydney
Sydney - Bali
(Make my own way round SEA to Shanghai)
Shanghai - London

If i took Hawaii out i'd be looking at a price of under £1400 apparently he said.

So, only question is from Bali - Shanghai taking in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Beijing.... Do-able without flights?

I may ask them if they could make the return leg from Shanghai instead and do the coast of China too.

Yes, the region is totally doable by local budget airlines, and without your RTW company. It's usually cheaper that way, because the budget airlines mostly don't make their fares available to RTW travel companies, and definitely you'll have more flexibility. But remember, even w/ budget airlines, normal rules for advance booking still apply. So, the further you advance book, the less you're likely to spend on airfare.

For starters try [www.airasia.com] and [www.tigerairways.com]. These do offer some flights to China, but China also has it's own discount airlines which fly to a few places in SE Asia, so there's plenty of competition to keep fares low. Also Indonesia has a few budget airlines of it's own.

Surely you didn't mean land travel all the way, by ferry from Indonesia to Malaysia? It's doable via Sumatra but would be a huge headache, very time consuming, and would cost more than a budget flight from Jakarta or Bali.

I did mean overland. Not really started looking at the logistics of it yet though. Might be easier to book the individual flights as and when we get to South East Asia?

How much of it it do-able by land when i get to Thailand to go through, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos etc?

Blaine

Edited by: 00blamol

You can do everything overland once you get to Singapore or Malaysia, all the way through to Vietnam if you want. It just takes time and patience. It's only the getting out of Indonesia part which is best by air.

And sure, you can book your air travel locally to add flexibility. And if you skip the travel agent and book air several weeks in advance, it can be so cheap that it competes with bus or train travel. Also, if you want to use trains in Thailand, make sure to book several days in advance. Buses are easier, but the trains seem to fill up.