3 months to see what we can

3 months for me is a ridiculously short time to try and do a RTW trip.

I'd choose the area that you want to visit most (and that you have the budget for...how much can you spend,all-in?) and have the 3 months there.

A RTW like this will cost you a fortune in flight tickets etc. and give you very litle time in each destination.

BTW if you decide to do the Europe trip,there is no need at all to do a busabout (or any other) tour.

Easy to organise yourself,cheaper and you have the freedom to go where you want,how you want and when you want...

Same as above. 3 months is far too little time. You want to visit 8 European cities in 3 weeks? That is around 2.5 days per city, assuming you have some kind of teleporter taking you from one place to another. The reality is you are going to lose at least half a day travelling even between cities in a single country (woke up, had breakfast, checked out, got to the train/bus station, waited for bus, travelled, arrived late due to a delay, found your new accomodation, checked in, found somewhere to eat). It is usually suggested that you need at least 3 full days in each city. Plus at the minute you are flying from capital to capital so fast you are missing out plenty of interesting places between each one of your stops.

Your budget makes a huge difference. Western Europe is expensive, Japan even more so.

As you said from UK you can realistically visit all those cities in Europe as part of a long weekend using budget flights. For that reason I would suggest going to Asia now while you have 3 months which makes it worth the more expensive long haul flights. A month in China and a month in Thailand. Plus either a couple of weeks in Japan if your budget can afford it, or if not spend a month heading down overland from China to Thailand through Vietnam and Cambodia sounds a lot more realistic and enjoyable than your itinerary.

BusAbout is really only good for you if you are travelling solo and do not want to be alone. Basically, you will not see a lot but will have a fairly enjoyable drinking tour. You only have a short time in each city based on your itinerary and on most of the days you will be to hung over to go out sight seeing. If you only want to see the inside of Pubs and Clubs, then busabout is for you.

Maybe 3 months in South East Asia is a good option. You have a good choice of countries to add to your itinerary, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. I wouldn't try to see all of them in 3 months though. If you do have the urge of adding another destination for a couple of weeks, maybe start looking at options to stop over on the way/back, Like Turkey.

Hi,

Thanks for all of your comments, quite limited on time (as its difficult for us to get off work and also people have said allow approx £1k per month so keeping it shorter will obviously make it cheaper) so wanted to fit as much in as possible.

Hadn't really thought about timescale in each destination in europe but you are right wouldn't want to only have a couple of days in each and realistically it actually spent travelling. The bus-about tour wasn't exactly the countries I wanted to see anyway but some of the ones listed were compulsory. Just felt it was an easy way to get from A-B as they literally drop you outside the accommodation where you can book through the one company for everything. Please can you advise what sites are best to use to organise something like what they offer ourselves?

And also is it best to book flights separately or use a company to do the whole trip? We wouldn't want to go really over the top exploring, really just get a flavour of the countries so thought a few weeks in each would be okay but may need to rethink.

Any further info on best places to start looking so that we can actually look and think about what we really do want to see where and then perhaps we can knock some bits off to reduce all the travel.

Thanks
J

I know that you want to see as much as possible, but trying to fit too much in will just mean you are spending all your time travelling and still not really seeing a whole lot. Have a read through some of the other RTW itineraries people have posted and suggestions they have been given about why sometimes less is a lot more.

Does 1k a month include flights? If not 3 months might be a stretch. Either way you are going to struggle to spend a lot of time in Japan, USA or Western Europe on that budget.

I would suggest (based on the fact you had Thailand and China in your itinerary I assume you want to visit these places) something like:

Return flights London to Thailand(approx £550)
1 month in Thailand - Bangkok, Changmai, some islands in the south (approx £750)
1 month Cambodia and Vietnam (Siem Reap - Phnom Penh - Ho Chi Min - Hue - Halong bay - Saignon) (approx £700)
1 month China - (Hong kong, Shanghai, Xian, Beijing) (approx £750)
Airasia flight Beijing - Bangkok (£100)

That is a really rough itinerary and costs. There are plenty of other places in all those countries you could and might want to visit along the way. You may want to take China out and just stick to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Or maybe vietnam doesn't appeal and you skip that flying straight from Cambodia to China. There is also the option of Laos. Or you could do Singapore - Bangkok. There are so many options you need to go away and decide what is best for you. Based on your budget and your suggested itinerary I would say SEA is the best place for you to go.

Yes...that is the only real alternative on that low a budget (esp.if it includes flights)..Western Europe,Japan or USA will be too expensive.

people have said allow approx £1k per month

Which "people" have said that? That's a comfortable budget for SE Asia, and doable in China, but not really enough for Europe, Japan and the US. With 3 months and that budget you could do a nice tour of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and China.

Keep the US for another trip - presumably you will be able to get 3 weeks leave at a later date. And if you live in the UK, you can visit all those cities in Europe for a long weekend at some point - I wouldn't use you precious 3 month break visiting European cities when you could go further afield.

why?