We are beginning to plan a 3 month Around the World trip to celebrate a special anniversary next year - exciting but also a bit daunting at this point! We’ll be in Mexico in February and are planning to start our trip from there. I’d love to hear recommendations from others who have either taken (or dreamt about) this kind of trip, including top 5 destinations or other considerations.
Posted by
Freedonia
17483 posts
Are you aware that the major airline alliances offer special "around the world" tickets? The price depends on how many stops you make and for how long. The only major rule is you can't backtrack. You can only go in one direction.
https://www.oneworld.com/round-the-world
https://roundtheworld.staralliance.com/staralliance/en/round-the-world
Posted by
Salt Lake City
3139 posts
I used RTW fares on Star Alliance quite a lot for business travel back in the day. As Frank says it's a great deal if it fits into your overall travel plans.
Briefly (as I recall), you're allowed up to 15 stops along the way and have up to one year to complete the journey. Used to be that there was a lot of built-in flexibility too - I only had to lock in the first leg when making a booking and could add subsequent legs as my business obligations required. Might add that I'd occasionally add a side trip (at my own expense) on a regional airline if I needed to backtrack or to fill in any gaps in order to stay within the "one-way" RTW guidelines.
Best to study the links already provided to educate yourself on the details and then speak with a knowledgeable Star Alliance or One World rep to sort out any questions you may have.
Posted by
The Heartland USA
9346 posts
We looked into it a couple of times but have not done it. It seemed to me that the main questions are whether you want to go the southern route (heading west) via South Pacific, New Zealand, Australia, and the SE Asia, or the northern route via Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, etc.
Posted by
OP
10 posts
Thank you for the suggestions about the RTW flight packages. I’m aware of those - but have been advised that there’s more flexibility and can often better prices when booking the various parts to this trip separately. I’ll check into the different RTW packages - but would like to also begin with a general plan of destinations.
At this point, we’re thinking southern route heading west: Mexico—Los Angeles—Thailand—??
We’ve been to Australia and NZ so not on our list for this trip.
Posted by
Long Beach, Ca, usa
2171 posts
Maureen,
Ooh! What a wonderful thing to plan for!
Here are my places to stop, not in order, but for a variety of places.....
Kenya/Botswana/Tanzania (pick one...I know Kenya, but Botswana is next on my list) (7-10 days)
Cairo....with a detour on the Nile for a cruise and a visit to Karnak and Abu Simbel (10-12 days)
Turkey...Istanbul and Cappadocia (12 days)
Chile...Santiago, with a trip to Tierra del Fuego and Easter Island (12 days)
Of course....anywhere your heart desires.
By the way, I don't see Los Angeles as being on the southern route.
Have a wonderful time!
Posted by
OP
10 posts
Your suggestions are very helpful, Judy, including your recommended timelines! We’ve been thinking about the possibility of a safari in Kenya/Tanzania and hadn’t considered Cairo - will have to look into those further.
I agree that LA isn’t really considered a southern route - but it seems that from Mexico most westbound flights depart or go through either LA or San Francisco. By southern route, I suppose I meant avoiding wintery weather from Feb-May :)