Please advise on planning the trip of a lifetime

With such a short period of time why waste a perfectly good WHV for Aus? Save it maybe for some other time when you can go and live in Aus for a year or 2, and this time just enjoy yourself and travel. If you're going ot be there for a month you'll get there, take a couple weeks to find work and then leave? Oh and you'll be spending loads. Skip Aus, go to S.America. Come back to Aus in the future and live there for a while. That would be my suggestion.

Personally I would spend more time in Africa. It seems a waste to travel there and just see Kenya. I would suggest spending a few months there. You could look at doing something like Kenya to Cape Town.

I would skip Australia (unless you have a specific reason for visiting). It is an expensive country and it would be a waste of your WHV. Also the reality is you take away accomodation, food etc. you are not going to save a significant amount of money. That is if you can even find a job.

So something more like this:
Africa - 3.5 months (£20 per day = £2100)
SEA - 4 months (£15 per day = £1800)
NZ - 1 month (£50 per day = £1500)
S. America - 3.5 months (£25 per day = £2625)

Based on some exteremely rough estimates that gives you about £2000 left over. Sounds like a lot but add in a safari in Africa, some scuba diving in Thailand and a skydive in NZ and some other splurges along the way and your pretty close to your £10000.

Thanks guys, this has given me a lot to think about. I really appreciate your advice :)

To be honest, my reasons for going to Oz are convenience and the fact I know I would enjoy it. Plus my RTW passes right through, so it feels silly not to! Also, as a virgin traveller, I think I would appreciate the respite of being settled in one place too. I can definitely see the benefits of staying in Oz for like 3-4 months and working most that time. As far as wasting my working holiday Visa, I doubt I would ever seriously consider living and working in Oz any longer than that, so 4 month would not be a waste in my opinion. If I consider at least one month's travel in Oz and NZ as a definite, I guess my question boils down to this - should I work in Oz for a bit and then travel there for a month, then on to NZ for a month and finally spend a month in the US OR should I pass through OZ and NZ and hope my remaining budget will allow me to have a good crack at South America? My fear is that if I choose the latte, I will be so horrendously poor that I don't get to fully enjoy my time in South America!

In reply to spending more time in Africa, I am planning a brief spell in Tanzania and Zanzibar. In all honesty, as this is my first time, I think I couldn't handle my first few months all being in Africa! Plus the three people I am going to Africa with to do the project will be moving onto South East Asia and I would like to go with them

Why not leave out SA this time and save it for another trip?

It is a huge continent with loads to see and do...you could easily spend a year just there.

Your Africa experience,a few months of travel in SE Asia and then a decent look at Oz and NZ (working if you need the money and if you can find a job) is plenty for a year.

Two thoughts.

First, you are ASSUMING you would find work in Australia. Having a WHV does not guarantee you will find work and while many do, some do not. That may seem like I am stating the obvious but look at what you have written. You write as if it is a GIVEN you will find work. That to me indicates a failure to consider what you will do if you do NOT find work.

Second, this is all about planning an itinerary and budget. Travel can be as easy or as complicated as you choose to make it. Most people choose to make it complicated. There is an alternative.

Here is how I advocate long term travel be done. Buy a ticket to A. Spend as much as you need to spend (without throwing money away) to enjoy each day doing/seeing what you want to do/see. When you are ready and not before, decide where you want to go next. Repeat this process until either the time available or the funds available run out. Go home.

One of the biggest benefits of travel is the freedom from everyday life and its responsibilities. You are free to get up in the morning and say, 'so what will I do today?' Why then do so many people contemplating a trip, immediately throw that freedom away by self-imposing an itinerary on themselves? Think about it.

Travel is not about how many places did you visit. It is about what did you get out of each day of your travels. Whether you make it to 20 countries or spend all your time in just 3 countries, what did you get out of your time is what matters. NO ONE every gets to every place that might be of interest to them. Yet most try to get to all the countries they can think of in one trip. That is simply illogical.

You make an excellent point. I definitely am being overly neurotic, however I am choosing to get a RTW ticket. While they do allow freedom in that you can pay extra to have flexible date changes, they do require you to choose your destinations in advanced. So while I do see what you are saying, I would have to know where I want to go before I set off. STA do offer multiple one way singles and treat it as a flexi ticket, so I could just get a one way ticket incorporating Kenya, South East Asia and finishing at Australia. Then from Oz, I could decide what I want to do and purchase the other half of the ticket from there. What do you think to this?

I think that in your situation its a good idea.

Agree with TiS on the RTW ticket in general...I wouldn't get one....but if you are determined then getting the 'half' ticket and seeing how it goes (for money and job in Oz) looks like a sensible plan

As travelinstyle said, it's not a given that you will find a job in Australia hence planning to be in Australia for 3-4 months would be a waste of a WHV and potentially your money. Let's assume that you decide to get a job in Sydney (for argument's sake only) but it takes you 2 months to find anything. That's 2 months of hostel costs, food, entertainment and a little bit of travel in and around the Sydney area. Had you decided not to bother looking for a job then you could've spent that time more productively going around a few places in Australia or elsewhere.