RTW Itinerary Advice?

Sounds like you have a good trip ahead of you. Just curious, how much did you rtw plane ticket cost?

As for timing, I havent been to Australia or New Zealand, but have spent time in SE Asia and can say you cant go wrong spending more time there. Right now you have 2 months and 20 days scheduled for that region, and you plan on making it all the way down to Sinagapore as well for you next flight... Why not give yourself another month there?

Also, in Japan, be sure to look-up the town named Koya-san. The LP does a little write-up on it, go there.

Yeah I may decide to stay a bit longer in SE Asia, it's the main reason for going traveling really, just need to carefully work out my budget!

My tickets are quoted at £2100, but I'm hoping I can haggle this down a bit before booking. Anyone think this is expensive for the flights I'm getting?

+Monday 10 Aug 2009
Fly: Auckland - Christchurch+

You won't need this flight ... flying into Auckland on 31st July, you'll have a month to make your way to Christchurch for your flight to LA on 30th August. This is a perfect length of time for a leisurely one-way exploration of both North and South Islands without having to backtrack back to Auckland halfway through.

oz and nz are cool. Oz is a huge country you may be pushing it with ur time scales there bearing in mind the country is bigger than the whole of europe. You will double ur money in those countries we have just came back from our rtw trip which we did the opposite way to you, se asia is so cheap i think realisticly you can live very well there for about 8-12 quid a day. oz is around 12-15 quid per night in the hostels and you need to cook your own food. Thailand you can eat a main meal for as little as 40p (from the local stalls) and food is great. Beware of HK tho it was 15 quid for a double room per night do not stay at the chunking mansions on nathan road its a popular backpackers hangout but the accomodation is so appauling it has not been renovated for about 50 years and not very safe either. We never budgeted that much for HK we though it would be cheaper its really not eating out etc is similar to the UK there and you have to eat out.

I agreee with the guy above do not fly to christchurch drive there or get the bus its not very far say 12 hour drive and u'll be able to explore we did it in a camper!

I'm very jealous have a great time x

ps. allow 3 days for singapore you'll cover every inch of it., at least 1 week for san fran. California is an amazing place but pretty pricey for a backpacker!

Have you checked to see whether any of those flights could be done more cheaply with low cost airlines, and thus reducing the cost of your RTW ticket? I'm thinking particularly internal flights within Asia or Oz

As far as I know, cutting out those internal flights will only cut my ticket price by the taxes on each flight as they are included in the One World ticket. Thanks for your help everyone!

Cheers.