Some advice needed on travelling around the world

aligator_am

Hi All,

As the title suggests, i plan to travel around the world starting in about april next year, the planned itinary would be thailand, oz, new zealand, hawaii, LA/vegas and NYC but its all open to change. Basically what i'd really appreciate is any advice on the best people to book through, and things like what vaccinations are needed etc. There's probably a million things i need to ask but cant think of them so anyone here whos already done the whole round the world thing would be able to guide me.

Thanks in advance
Al

bringitdown

Top o' my head:

Okay the one bit of advice for this route I'd have would be to go out via the states and come back via Asia .. i.e. flip the route around.

You'll find that as your funds dwindle towards the end of your trip that Asia is much easier to do on the cheap compared to the States. You'll also most likely fall in love with Asia and end up spending way more time there than you imagined ... !

When in Oz buy a car and hit everything you can: Canberra / Melbourne / Adelaide / Perth / South west coast - Wine country / West coast / Nullarbor / Alice Springs and Uluru / Bungle Bungles / Pilbarra / Kakadu / Katherine Gorge / Flinders / Kangaroo Island / Great Ocean Road ... add in the East Coast (party central) at the end if you have the funds - a great precursor to SE Asia.

New Zealand is great so much in a relatively small country, try and not skimp and just do the month most people do ...

Try and get a less restrictive ticket, as you'll find stories from other travellers will entice you to un-thought of destinations.

Vaccinations - get the advice of a professional ... you can get away with the bare minimum but it depends on where you are going, different countries and different regions have different risks. If you go out via the States then you need nothing until Asia and can get them done in Oz for a little less then here.

Booking - got my tickets through USIT but shop around Trailfinders and direct with airlines can work well - Quantas for example.

Pack light, keep a smile on your face and an open mind and you'll love it!

Finally if it was me ... I'd skip LA/Hawaii/Vegas and hit South/Central America instead ... much more interesting.

aligator_am

wow, thanks for that!!! now here's another question, albeit a bit of a stupid one, how much money do you think would be necessary? i was thinking about €12,000 but i dont know if thats gonna be enough???

Thanks again

bringitdown

Depends on a lot of things - are you going to work in Oz/Nz, prepared to go cheap on accomodation / etc,

€12000 will bring you a long way I imagine, all told I spent about that from my Irish funds on my trip and did quite a bit but I worked for 7 months or so in Oz, slept in a sh1te-hole, ate relatively cheaply and then spent another 2 months in a tent camping my way round the west coast!

Depends on what you are prepared to do ... !

/PS it was great fun ... even if it doesn't sound like it!

aligator_am

the thing thats bugging me is that my mate wants to go, but has flatly refused to do any kind of fruit picking work in oz as she thinks its degrading?!?! i thought the whole point was to have a laugh? it wouldnt bother me that much to be pick fruit (as long as i get a tan lol)

bringitdown

Degrading!!! Hah ... its a bit of craic ... Margret River area in WA is good as is New Zealand ... at little more climate friendly than say the Hunter Valley in NSW.

Anyway you don't have to do that, plenty of 'non-degrading' jobs in the cities.

aligator_am

incidently, how long did you spend in each location, and where did you go? where was the most expensive and cheapest places? it would be handy to be able to plan ahead with the funds.

breadmonkey

Two of my mates just got back from their round the world travels and only spent about $9000 each including flights (which they booked through Trailfinders and said they were excellent). Bear in mind that they spent 3 months in NZ in a van, which was their accomodation and they fished a lot which saved on food. They also spent 2 months or so in Fiji spearing sharks etc and that was saving on chow as well. So, if you do it right, then you should be able to save.

As for which you should do first (asia wise), I'm not sure. Those lads found SE Asia much more stressful and I don't think it was a great place for them to end their holiday. Personally, I think I'd rather be heading form SE Asia to Oz/NZ/etc. but that's just me. On the other hand, if you get to SE Asia last and find that you have a lot of money left, then you will live like a king my friend!

bringitdown

My route was LA->San Diego->Grand Canyon->Vegas->LA (total 2 weeks) ->Fiji (1 week + dive course) -> Sydney (6 months) -> NZ (1 month + skydive, rafting, hiking, etc) -> Sydney (1 month) -> Perth (3 weeks) -> WA/NT/SA/VIC (diving, flights to bungle bungles, Kakadu all sorts) 2 months or so) -> Melbourne (3 weeks) -> Singapore -> Kuala lumpur -> Perhentian Islands -> Koh Samui -> Koa Tao (dive central) -> BKK -> Chiang Mai -> BKK (1.5 months or so in SE Asia) -> home

Expensive - the States by a mile, car hire as public transport sucks, no hostel type accomodation, cheapest - Thailand and the Perhentian Islands -- fantastic value you can live like a king for nowt.

daveg

In January this year we went Dublin - Hong Kong (3 nights) - Cairns (5 nights diving) - Sydney (4 nights) - Melbourne (4 nights) - Christchurch & Queenstown (7 nights drove around NZ) - Hawaii (5 nights) & L.A. (3 nights). It's a bit different to what your doing but I would highly recommend Hawaii as opposed to figi. Amazing place. We too booked all flights (actually everything) through Trailfinders. Would highly recommend them.

aligator_am

Hey thanks everyone for all the info, much appreciated, to be honest i think my mate is having 2nd thoughts already, but i still wanna go myself, from your experiences, is it better to go with someone or on your own?

ive heard a few people say that the tensions run high when you travel with other people.