Round The World Travel

I think that breaks up into 3 reasonable sections - Africa (I would go overland through Mozambique, Tanzania up to Kenya and Ethiopia), South-East Asia and South America/Carribean. You'd need about a year I think, maybe 9 months with 3 months per region. Dubai could just be a stopover on the way to South Africa or from South Africa to SE Asia.

I would skip Ibiza and Gran Canaria and do those from home another time (assuming you usually live in the UK), Hawaii might be expensive to add in.

Flights would be about £1500 maybe, assuming you only do about 5 main stops then overland the rest of the way.

hi there -

my husband and i spent 3.5 months in SE Asia last spring. we booked the major flights but found it very easy and inexpensive (relatively speaking) to book the internal flights once in the country. this gave us more flexibility and since there is always access to the internet and several low cost carriers in SE Asia we never had a problem with getting a flight. keep an eye on the weight limitations for luggage though - some are only @ 20 pounds which meant we wore our hiking books and heavily clothes to avoid the surcharge.

we spent quite a bit of time in thailand if you want some specifics about lodging or travel just post back. i'd highly recommend camodia - we wish we'd spent more time. the coast just got an airport - which will impact the area & make it more touristic, which disappointed us but might be a plus for others. there are great places near angkor as well that are inexpensive but charming.

happy travels.

amy

I would love to know decent places to stay because when i went to Thailand we stayed in a holiday inn that i know is meant to be quite cheap but i think im looking for more of a hostel and thailand can be quite dodgey with stuff like that

with 2 years to go and just a vague/half baked plan so far I recommend you sigj up to my Email group linked below. You will pick up quite alot of tips that should clarify your thinking

Beadz, there are three ways that I suggest you use to find suitable places to stay whilst on the road.
1) talk to other travellers you meet on the road.
2) take a guidebook.
3) ask as you go for specific recommendations on this travel board but on the appropriate branches. And use the search engines but good luck with that because I don't know if they work any more.

The best approach is to use a combination of all three of the above or at least two of the above.

At this stage of your planning, however, where you are going to stay should be the least of your concerns.

I suggest at this stage, saving the money should be your main priority.

Second for immediate research borrow some guidebooks from your library. You don't need to buy the ones you want for the journey until not too long before you leave so that they are up to date. It might be easiest also for you to buy one for africa, one for south east asia and one for south America and buy them as you go rather than all before you leave. If you need more, buy them on the road and consider even buying secondhand from other travellers. Or do the new thing and buy just the sections that you need from online.

Guide books and i would recommend LP or if you are american, Footprints, can give you help with everything you need to know about for overseas travel. They do make plenty of mistakes and are always a little bit out of date) so don't treat is like a bible. There are however quite a few things that they are very very good about.
1. guidance about respecting local customs, looking after your health, your safety. You would be well advised to be very familiar with these aspects.

You should probably try to buy your first flight ticket about six months in advance to take advantage of the lowest prices. Ditto if you are buying an rtw.

If you want more advice about buying rtw tickets, take a look at lonelyplanet's The Gap Year book. There's a lot of other good help in their also and you might even consider buying a copy now rather than later. You could also just borrow a copy from the library too.

Thanks guys this has been very helpful and the simple solution is just to buy the Lonley planet Guide to Gap Year travel
But as NewIslander said they may not always be up to date so i shouldnt 'treat it like a bible'
x