Mixing RTW tickets and Overland Travel

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fijibitter
fijibitter

Hi all,
My Wife and I are hoping to take roughly a year to travel around the world. Our basic plan was to do as much overland travel as possible in the first portion of our trip. Route (provisional) as follows:

Overland (train) London >>>Moscow>>>Beijing>>>>>Lhassa (dependent on Tibet Situation)

4X4 to base camp>>>Kathmandu

Fly Kathmandu >>>> Bangkok

Overland through Thailand, Cambodia Vietnam

Fly to Fiji Spend 2-3 months with family save some cash.

Fly Fiji>>>>New Zealand>>>>>Argentina

Overland>>>>Chile>>>>Peru

Fly to Mexico>>>>London.

We have a Budget of roughly £19,000 $38,500.( with money set aside for RTW ticket) WE plan to travel Between September 2008 and September 2009. My questions are:
1. How does the budget seem. (assuming next to nothing spent in Fiji)
2. Suggestion on saving money on RTW ticket (looks like £1,800/ $3,500)
3. Cost of budget flights from Peru to Mexico
4. Alternative routes (Including Everest) if Tibet is a problem

Any suggestions on routing welcome. My aim is to save cash and I’m open to any suggestions. I have played with the idea of buying an around the world ticket in Bangkok and not using it all. I.E. finishing in London. (don't know if this would save cash or not or even if it is allowed)
Also thought about getting a basic ticket:

London>>Moscow>>> (don't use this bit) Bangkok>>>Fiji>>>L.A>> drive into Mexico then take additional flights to Peru overland into Chile and Argentina, back to Mexico, Drive to LA>>>Home

.
The above idea was because you can get a basic London>South pacific>>>USA ticket for about £1100 $2,200. I don't really know if these ideas are workable or not, or if they are just plain stupid!!!

Any help much appreciated!

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bunglegirl
bunglegirl
  1. If you can't go to Tibet (I suspect that after the Olympics it will be open for visitors again) you could take a train through China (pick you route*) to Vietnam and work your way to Bangkok. From Bangkok it's easy to fly most places.

*Routes from Beijing could be along the East coast or West to Xi'an, Chengdu, Kunming and points in-between.

With some RTW tickets (maybe Star Alliance?) overland routes are counted into your total mileage which would be a waste for anyone doing a lot of overland.

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fijibitter
fijibitter

Thanks for your reply. I was planning to travel from Beijing by train to Lhassa. So should get to see a fair bit of China!

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bunglegirl
bunglegirl

You won't see too much of China on the route from Beijing to Lhasa. You could stop in Xi'an but that route goes North of even Chengdu... I'm sure there's stuff to see in every city of China but that route bypasses a lot of the more common places Western tourists visit. It sounds like you're going to make your way to Lhasa from Beijing rather than sitting on the train for 3 days so that's a good thing! Just keep your options open and if you really want to go somewhere in China an extra day off your path might be worth it. I hopped on the train to Lhasa from Golmud because I was in Kashgar (far northwest) and it's a really nice train.

Here's a map of main train routes in China to help you plan.

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fijibitter
fijibitter

Cheers for the maps. Will spend some time looking at options in China, like you say may well take a few detours along the way.
Thanks again.

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