Which way around the world?

You missed off Southern Africa... June, July, August & Sept is the perfect time to visit given the time of year you're leaving :)

I mean: Namibia, Botswana & Zambia. Never had a single day of rain in two months. Perfect!

Seriously try to only be in india from November to February for places like rajasthan, the south, the north (but not the mountains). Its just too hot and you will enjoy it less. And a pom, you may find it hard to appreciate how awful it is during the hotter months. If you do find yourself in India during the hotter months, head straight up to Ladakh and the moutainous areas where you can go trekking or rafting.

If you are in Australia during our winter months, the ideal place to be is in the far north or in the desert areas. Both good places to visit anyway, being more exotic than the South.

Wow - snap. i'm an irish girl too doing the same thing (exact same palces) with my BF. We're heading off in January. What i did was look up the lonley planet destinations guide and looked at when to go under all the places. We had initially planned to go this summer and start in central america, on to south america, then oz and nz and the se asia and india and home but because we now have to wait until january we're going to probably start in India instead and do the reverse. Anway have a peek at the when to go section would be my advice and hopefully you'll be able to manage something.

Hi Irishgirl, just had to post a reply as reading your post was interesting as you are in a very similar position to me and my girlfriend, we too plan to travel in April 09 although it may get put off slightly depending on what our research into weather and ticket costs show. Out itinerary will have Central USA and Canada instead of South America, we have decided this will be a future plan. We also have China on our list.
I cant offer a lot of advice but I did pick this up on here: [http://www.savingfortravel.com/round-the-world-budget-calculator-step-2.php#]
Hard to tell how accurate it is but from what I read it seems a really usefull tool for budgeting.
Would be great if we could exchange research over the next year? Any help we can get would be appreciated and it seems as though we have similar plans!

Hey Mike if your going to canada i can't recommend toronto highly enough. I spent a summer there and i LOVED it. Shopping is good enough, people are really great, there's the beaches and the lake (which is supposed to be safe for swimming now in although most of the locals really don't). The islands which are nice to wander around, canada's paramount wonderland (canada's answer to disney land) catch a baseball/football game. Public transport is great there. We went to a place called alora gorge outside the city (about an hour to 90 mins drive - have no idea which direction or anything though because i didn't drive, some local friends brought us)We camped there for the weekend and theres a gorge and river running through it. You can go tubing there. Its like a very mild version of rafting except your in a rubber tube. Really enjoyed this but then again ye might have enough activity based oportunities to do in the rest of your trip.
We vistited Montreal too - i have to say i wasn't overly impressed with it. People were just not friendly, even though i tried my best to speak french to them. You might like it though.

Thankyou Kierjan, you listed a lot of the reasons why we want to go, Alore Gorge sounds right up our street and now added to my notes on Canada thankyou. I know a lot of RTWers don't go to Canada because of the cost but I/we have always wanted to go. Seeing as we also want to visit Washington, Phili, New York & Boston we may as well take the opportunity to go. I'm yet to do my research into travel, however I would guess Greyhound would go to Montreal or Toronto? The biggest doubt we have about the USA/Canada leg of our trip is the Greyhound travel, I guess it is just something you cope with when on the road though.
Sorry for hijacking thread! thankyou for your help (@:

Just to clarify that alora gorge is a campsite. U won't be roughing it or anything.\9 ok just looked up some info i have on it and its actually Elora Gorge Conservation Area and its in Elora, Ontario.There's fish and walking trails there too)
We got a train from TO to Montreal but i do know you can get a greyhound because we went to New york and boston to finish off our summer and we got the bus to boston and went through montreal. Wasn't too bad a trip if i remember rightly.
Another thing to do if your in TO is rent a car and go to Niagra Falls (don't know how i forgot about it). Also its well worth walking over the bridge to see the american side of the falls. They do this great tour thing (about half an hour) where you walk down to the bottom of a section of the falls called the bridal veil or brides veil or something like that. Its great fun. You get soaked because your literally almost under the falls.
Oh and another tip is to use the phone books for maps. They had the most detailed maps of all area in the city, i really mean detailed, and they're free. They had the same in NY and Boston.
BTW Irish Girl any luck with sorting out which way your going to go. Ur probably going to hit somewhere at a bad time weather wise. Its worth maybe checking out festivals and carnivals in places too. It might be fun to be there when they're happening. I was chatting to someone yesterday who said thailand (bagkok or chiang mai) are great places to be around easter week as the clelbrations there are fab.

Hi,
ummmm, Mumbai, Goa, Hampi etc were all OK in late Sept/Oct this year - sure it was hot, but we had 2 little girls with us so not hideously so. It was lovely - so quiet, rates low, place to ourselves. We hit Rajastan late Oct, also OK, and not nearly as humid as it is in Thai now, mid march!! Think carefully about xmas - where you'll be over those 2-4 weeks and how prices may spiral - seroiusly look at being somewhere 'off season' for that time of year. Oz is stunning whatever time of year you land in it, just head north in the Oz winter (June, july, August) and south for OZ summer (nov, dec, jan, feb) easy. NZ is an anomaly - trying to plan good weather there would be like trying to plan good weather in Blackpool in August i.e. NOT possible!! take it as is! Can't help with SA I'm afraid. We've found travelling in the shoulder seasons to be far more pleasant - weather OK, not so many crowds, prices better, availability on spec easy. Don't pin your hopes on 100% sun - carry flexible clothing - zip offs, layers etc and most places you can pick up a cheap jumper and socks pretty easily!
Hope this helps!
Rachel x