Help with planning my solo rtw trip...

Lola87

Planning a rtw trip for next year. Can anyone tell me anything about these destinations, I’m going to be traveling alone so would like to go places where I’ll meet other travelers too. Here’s my planned route so far, early stages yet:

Ireland – Egypt – India – N.Thailand - Laos – S.Thailand – Malaysia – Indonesia – Bali – Oz – Fiji – New Zealand – Hawaii – Mexico – South America (Cuba - Jamaica - Ecuador - Galapagos - Peru - Bolivia - Argentina - Brazil – Chile) – Ireland
I plan on leaving Ireland sometime in July and ideally want to travel over two years and work along the way. I’m a teacher so would hope to get tefl work or really any sort of casual work at all would do. I’m hoping to have €7000 saved but that will have to include a rtw ticket/flights, is this enough? I will be staying in cheap places and not spending much. Did Asia this summer but wasn’t on a budget and know I could survive on much less. Also have a few contacts there so would plan on spending a couple of months working there too.
Does anyone know if it’s possible to get a rtw ticket over two years?
Also another idea I’m thinking of is I’d like to start and end my trip in Thailand but could I get a rtw ticket like that?

Stinicker

I spent around that much in a month when I went around the world this summer. I flew Cork-London-Singapore-Perth-Melbourne-Sydney-Los Angeles-London-Cork

I also drove up the coast to the Great Barrier reef from Sydney and then back down to Brisbane before flying back to Sydney.

I also flew from LaX to Las Vegas and back again which were three separate flights not included.

I spent €2,000 on the RTW flights and €300 on the ones above. We had such a fun month it was the best thing I ever did, we lived it up and only stayed in Hostels for two nights just to say we did it! They were quite frankly depressing, smelly dirty places full of hippies and their unwanted opinions! And not as cheap as they are supposed to be, a budget hotel can be got for not much more money.

Australia is great and I recommend anyone go there. I don't know much about costs in Asia only that Singapore is very expensive, if I was doing that kind of trip I'd want 30K in my back pocket.

I'm sure you will manage it; as I am sure you will not be going out to Restaurants and bars most nights!

Lola87

Thanks for the reply Stinicker. Can't believe you did all that in a month. I'm hoping to do my trip on a budget though, so hostels, a lot of overlanding (night buses and trains etc) and cheap food. Will hopefully still be partying it up too though! I spent about 5000 during my summer in Asia but that was because i wasn't on a budget at all, so I will be doing things very differently when I go on a rtw trip as I want to stay away for as long as possible. Working in various countries seems like the best option, so if anyone has any info on finding work in any of the countries mentioned above this please let me know.

dory

Yikes, 7000 for two years?

First off, no you can't get a two year RTW, and anyway no RTW would take you all the places you want to go. Or at least, no RTW that would make any sort of economic sense.

Working abroad is very difficult. You can work in bars and stuff in Aus/NZ but it takes time to get a job and you'll really depleat your savings while waiting. Say if you use €500 til you find a job (conservative guess) it'd take you a long time to work up that much money again, let alone make more to save. You could look into teaching if you're qualified for Aus and then you'd at least have a plan.

And any of the cheaper countries pay pittance for TEFL, except in places like South Korea but you'd need to sign a long contract.

The money you'd make abroad would be so small that'd it make no sense to work there really, unless it's for the cultural experience, but with €7000 you'd need money rather than an experience. Irish wages are so high it makes far more sense to work a bit longer here, then go. You'll be doing a fraction of the work you'd be doing abroad for the same money.

Usual budget would be €2500 for flights (that's a normal RTW not your super-RTW)
Then €300 or so vaccines/predeparture whatnots.
€1000/month spending money. That was my average, less some places, more in others. Bare in mind I'm not talking about Aus or any English speaking countries. They'd be more. And I drank maybe 4 times in 15 months, mostly cooked my own food/stayed in hostels.

My advice would be to find a job abroad before you leave home. That way you at least have a starting point. For example I have friends in Peru earing $1500/month as English teachers (PM for details). They work hard though. If you could find something like that you could be travelling and working at the same time and move slowly.

On €7000 you'd have to move very slowly indeed, and mostly on foot!

dory

I hate bursting bubbles but just a few things about your destinations:



Egypt – Expensive, and not on any RTW ticket I've ever heard of
India – Cheap
N.Thailand - Expensive to fly between the two of these. Best bet would be to go down to Chennai and the Tiger Airways over to Singapore
Laos – Cheap
S.Thailand _Cheap
Malaysia – Expensive for Asia, and drink costs a lot
Indonesia – Don't know
Bali – Have heard it can be expensive
Oz – EXPENSIVE
Fiji – Don't know
New Zealand – Expensive, especially if you want to do the adventure stuff
Hawaii – Uber expensive and also not on any RTW ticket I've seen
Mexico – Don't know
South America
Cuba - Flights there are expensive
Jamaica - Same as above
Ecuador - Galapagos - Holy mother of God! €1500 - €2000 on that alone
Peru - Bolivia - Grand and cheap
Argentina - Brazil – Chile - All expensive, at least €1500/m and that's living cheap.

Recap: You've chosen some very expensive, and hard to get to destinations.
You could have so much fun on a 5 month trip to South America on that money. Or stretch it out with some teaching English. You've already spent a summer in Asia so I don't get adding to your flight bill to go there again.

darrenh

I had clicked reply earlier but didnt because I knew it would take to long to answer and then it wouldnt be what you want to hear. I have to strongly agree with Dory. I did the whole round the world trip last year at a cost of around 20k. I didnt work at all and if I had another 5k I would have spent it. The last few months of my trip were tight financially.

I strongly disagree with Stinicker on some points. Hostels are one of the most important parts of traveling. Its where you meet people, cook your food, organise your next adventure, debate your opinions:rolleyes: etc etc. They are very important to any type of traveler, especially solo travelers. Some hostels are so unique and quirky its hard to leave them. The are generally very clean and nowadays the ordinary Joe and Bridie Soap far out number any "smelly hippies"! As for Australia, Its good, but just about every other country on your list is better. Thats a matter of opinion though.

Dory is right. Forget about working anywhere (unless for a cultural reason), and stay longer in Ireland and save your ass off. It wil be far better than spending 6 months in county Bondi, only to realize you've saved nothing and your only choice is to go home.

Remember every time you buy some clothes here or have a night out, it could be the equivalent of weeks living in some countries. I wouldn't say become a hermit, but certainly question everything you buy.

Cullen82

Galapagos is very expensive - I did Easter Island instead of it although that was quite expensive aswell.

To be honest if you're talking about 2 years - 7k is feck all even if you're working along the way.

I last travelled for around 20 Months. I worked for some of this and still spend way over 20k granted I did'nt budget often enough:rolleyes:

Stinicker

darrenh wrote: »

I had clicked reply earlier but didnt because I knew it would take to long to answer and then it wouldnt be what you want to hear. I have to strongly agree with Dory. I did the whole round the world trip last year at a cost of around 20k. I didnt work at all and if I had another 5k I would have spent it. The last few months of my trip were tight financially.

I strongly disagree with Stinicker on some points. Hostels are one of the most important parts of traveling. Its where you meet people, cook your food, organise your next adventure, debate your opinions:rolleyes: etc etc. They are very important to any type of traveler, especially solo travelers. Some hostels are so unique and quirky its hard to leave them. The are generally very clean and nowadays the ordinary Joe and Bridie Soap far out number any "smelly hippies"! As for Australia, Its good, but just about every other country on your list is better. Thats a matter of opinion though.

Dory is right. Forget about working anywhere (unless for a cultural reason), and stay longer in Ireland and save your ass off. It wil be far better than spending 6 months in county Bondi, only to realize you've saved nothing and your only choice is to go home.

Remember every time you buy some clothes here or have a night out, it could be the equivalent of weeks living in some countries. I wouldn't say become a hermit, but certainly question everything you buy.

We went around the world for the craic and to visit friends in Australia, I set a budget and fairly well stuck to it (except for Las Vegas;)). I am sure that Hostels would be good fun if you were out there for the long haul, I had five weeks there and didn't want to waste the time there.

I stayed in two hostels for "the hostel experience" and my own experience of them we that they were not clean, (private room) and that the shared bathrooms were yuicky, the whole idea of sharing the showers with some big dreadlocked rasta dude on the other side was not for me to be honest.

Then in the evening in the hostel bar some of the residents were openly smoking cannabis!!, I met some weird and interesting people but as there were 4 of us toghether we stuck toghether and did our own thing.

I hired a car and drove into the interior of Western Australia and later rup the east coast of Australia which was an epic roadtrip, even getting pulled over by the police!! Nothing compares to that scenery and the sheer desolate wilderness. My biggest fear in hostels was not hygiene or the likes but quite simply security, I was afraid of theft and if I had lost my photos of the trip I would have gone insane.

I backed up my photos everyday to an 8GB stick which I eventually filled, upload speeds in Australia are pathetic unless you go to some sort of business centre so online storage was not an option, plus I didn't want to waste such time anyway.

If I ever was to go there again solo I am still not sure if I would do the whole backpacking thing as it not me, I am not liberal and am more comfortable in hotels with privacy, security and hygiene. I am not the type who travels half way around the world to be expected to have to make my own bed or cook my own food, I can have that experience at home lol! :pac:

Cullen82

Stinicker wrote: »

I met some weird and interesting people but as there were 4 of us toghether we stuck toghether and did our own thing.

Think it's safe to say you would not like Backpacking:pac:

PCPhoto

LOLA87 ....RTW is/can be expensive and in order to do it and see the places you want you may need to compromise.

- galapagos are expensive to get to (possibly cheapest is €500-800 for a few days on board a cheap catamaran)
- Hawaii (I've just returned from holidays there on big island and Maui) ...its expensive and once the sun sets theres not a whole lot happening - cheapest places I could find were approx €80-100 per night ....couldn't see any hostels and B&B's are basically someone letting you crash in their family home - with the rest of the family there ...not very comfortable and not cheap either.
...on the plus side on the big island you can actually walk on lava - if you take a 1.5-2hr hike across dodgy terrain - myself and the girlfriend did it - within 20ft of flowing lava and could see lava in the cracks underneath us.
there are a number of islands to check out and loads to do during the daytime.

Thailand and those areas are cheap and its possible to live there on a budget for a while...I spent about 15K on Dublin-Toronto-San Fran-Hawaii-Maui-Vegas-New York .... all in 3 weeks (its all the girlfriend could take off from work) ... I paid for myself and the girlfriend, that includes spending money, tours flights and accomodation (the girlfriend chipped in $2K spending money)

my point is that in order to do/see all of your list you will need a lot more money and a lot more time/organisation.... €7K is a decent amount of money... but not near enough for the RTW trip that you want, you could possibly do some of it and add some of the countries you don't get to ...to a list of must visit places....maybe keep working for a couple of more years 2-3 maybe ... save as much as possible and who knows you might have enough to do everything.

PS. I'd also suggest getting a decent camera and learning how to take photos etc .... it would be a shame to do it all and not have pics or video to show off to friends/family.

I'm kinda doing the same as you but taking it piece by piece .... my holiday this year was my first in 3yrs, previously I visited the USA.... next holiday will be OZ/Thailand area ... others on the list include revisit hawaii (more lava pics and shark pics - got some decent pics this time but want more) ... Alaska (for pics of whales/penguins etc), Galapagos, south america, africa (just to get pics of great white sharks breaching/jumping out of the water and other wildlife)

take it piece by piece and take your time in each country - explore it and enjoy it.

PS. +1 for hostels .... fantastic place to find travelling buddies when travelling alone

darrenh

Stinicker wrote: »

We went around the world for the craic and to visit friends in Australia, I set a budget and fairly well stuck to it (except for Las Vegas;)). I am sure that Hostels would be good fun if you were out there for the long haul, I had five weeks there and didn't want to waste the time there.

I stayed in two hostels for "the hostel experience" and my own experience of them we that they were not clean, (private room) and that the shared bathrooms were yuicky, the whole idea of sharing the showers with some big dreadlocked rasta dude on the other side was not for me to be honest.

Then in the evening in the hostel bar some of the residents were openly smoking cannabis!!, I met some weird and interesting people but as there were 4 of us toghether we stuck toghether and did our own thing.

I hired a car and drove into the interior of Western Australia and later rup the east coast of Australia which was an epic roadtrip, even getting pulled over by the police!! Nothing compares to that scenery and the sheer desolate wilderness. My biggest fear in hostels was not hygiene or the likes but quite simply security, I was afraid of theft and if I had lost my photos of the trip I would have gone insane.

I backed up my photos everyday to an 8GB stick which I eventually filled, upload speeds in Australia are pathetic unless you go to some sort of business centre so online storage was not an option, plus I didn't want to waste such time anyway.

If I ever was to go there again solo I am still not sure if I would do the whole backpacking thing as it not me, I am not liberal and am more comfortable in hotels with privacy, security and hygiene. I am not the type who travels half way around the world to be expected to have to make my own bed or cook my own food, I can have that experience at home lol! :pac:

I very much see your point. It just wouldnt be my way of doing things. Also, I think I saw about 2 rasta dudes in a whole year!

Stinicker

darrenh wrote: »

I very much see your point. It just wouldnt be my way of doing things. Also, I think I saw about 2 rasta dudes in a whole year!

Not all Hostels are the same I agree, I think we just drew the short straw.

I remember one night we were after driving over 800kms back into Perth and the hotel we had stayed at before had risen from €50 to around €120/night and we figured, to hell with it we will go backpacking for the night lol!

Anyway I spent the next two hours driving around Northbridge looking for a place to stay and we checked out a few places, one of which was a complete hole full of half mental "schoolies" and another really nice place I would rate well almost hotelish, and had some normal quite asians staying there. It was full for the night though.

We eventually settled on a spot as it was late and we were tired, the one thing that I noticed when I used to walk into a hostel was they all nearly stank of garlic for some bizarre reason. Is raw Garlic an unofficial backpacker dietary supplement?

dory

Ok, we've all seen dodgy hostels. I think we can also agree however that a hostel is the most expensive thing this OP will possibly be able to afford. To keep this on topic we really should be talking about camp sites.

Hockney

I think you need to decide whether you want to either work abroad, or go backpacking. Working as you go is not an option because by default you'll be moving around all the time given the size of your route. You'd be constantly looking for jobs as you moved, and working in the majority of those countries simply won't be worth your while, since the wages for regular jobs are a fraction of what you're on here.

Save every single penny you can between now and leaving.

dory wrote: »

You've chosen some very expensive, and hard to get to destinations.
You could have so much fun on a 5 month trip to South America on that money. Or stretch it out with some teaching English.

+1 to this.

With the route you've chosen you could easily shell out 7k on flights, buses and boats alone. RTW tickets usually only involve about 7 stops, so getting to all the places will involve at alot of flights/ferries given so many are islands. RTW flights don't exist for more than a year. You actually can't book a seat on any airline I know of more than 12 months in advance.

If I were you I'd be getting a return flight to South America for E900 and staying out there for 6 months. It's such an unbelievably varied continent you'd be seeing just about any scenery you can imagine. 6 months and you still won't have seen much of it. Spend most time in less expensive countries there (Colombia/Ecuador/Peru/Bolivia).

You could probably (just) live out there for a year on 6k, staying in the same place, cooking for yourself and drinking very little, but it would be serious shoestring stuff and you couldn't do many activites or sightseeing at all, which I assume is the reason you're going!

Lola87

Thanks for all the replies guys. I guess you all confirmed what I had been thinking, 7k just isn't enough! I've been thinking about it a lot and now think I should just settle for another summer of travelling and then teach for a year in Dubai/Abu Dhabi/Qatar(have a contact over there) to save enough to travel rtw, but a cheaper route than my over ambitious route above!

Lola87

RE hostels; I love staying in hostels, great way to meet people and find out about routes etc, and usually cheap!

dory

Don't be disappointed about not being able to do your ambitious route. In reality you have a lifetime's worth of travelling in that route. To do it all in one trip, even over two years would be a waste of time and money. After a while every temple looks the same, taking a photo is a chore and you really don't want to talk to another frikken traveller with the same stories.

I wish I'd broken my trip up. I have almost no photos of Malaysia because it was near the end so I didn't go to most of the sights as I was so wrecked from it all. I didn't take the chance to visit any other country there as I was sick of trains/planes.
And I travelled slowly, settled down a lot etc. To keep going for that long would not be fun. People don't believe me when I say it before they go but it happens.

Google travellers fatigue, it's a real thing! And then you can happily plan a realistic and enjoyable trip!

darrenh

dory wrote: »

Don't be disappointed about not being able to do your ambitious route. In reality you have a lifetime's worth of travelling in that route. To do it all in one trip, even over two years would be a waste of time and money. After a while every temple looks the same, taking a photo is a chore and you really don't want to talk to another frikken traveller with the same stories.

I wish I'd broken my trip up. I have almost no photos of Malaysia because it was near the end so I didn't go to most of the sights as I was so wrecked from it all. I didn't take the chance to visit any other country there as I was sick of trains/planes.
And I travelled slowly, settled down a lot etc. To keep going for that long would not be fun. People don't believe me when I say it before they go but it happens.

Google travellers fatigue, it's a real thing! And then you can happily plan a realistic and enjoyable trip!

+1 this. I blogged my travels and I would normally put one up every 2 or 3 days. By the end I was posting one every week or so. My energy for seeing things was low. The camera became a side thought. I would nearly say I was going through the motions. I was still having fun though!:D

floyd333

I´m coming to the end of my RTW trip. I´m doing a similar route in 11 months. It can be done but It´s tiring and expensive. You best save some more and plan a smaller trip

I agree with everything that Dory says! I was warned about travellers fatigue here and I scoffed at it but let me tell you its very real. I´m so tired now. I was taking 100´s of pics every day at the beginning now I can´t be arsed to bring the camera out some days and I´m sick of the bog standard traveller conversation!

My advice for when you do go is not to plan too much. Be flexible. I had a fairly rigid itinerary . If I was doing it again I´d just book a one way flight out of Ireland and go from there, I loved some places and wished I could have stayed longer (Middle Eat, India) and hated some other places and wanted to leave earlier (Vietnam, Thailand).

Dory is right about settling in a place for a while too. I´m doing that now and I´m loving it. I´m getting a feel for the country and not just ticking off Lonely plant sights.

Do the trip some time though. Despite the travel fatigue, It´s the best thing I´ve ever done.

Good Luck

dory

I should put your post in my sig! Made me smile, glad to see you came to the same realisation and I'm not just a mad oul wan unable to travel for a year without missing decent conversation and a normal day routine.

floyd333 wrote: »

Dory is right about settling in a place for a while too. I´m doing that now and I´m loving it. I´m getting a feel for the country and not just ticking off Lonely plant sights.

I've been guilty of that in the past too. Trying to tick off countries/sights. Forgetting about that and just concentrating on enjoying the trip really improved things for me.

And also, settling down is the best thing ever! Getting to know people, the language, culture. For 90% of countries I've been to I couldn't tell you a single thing about the country. Does anyone here know Thailand's national day? How to introduce themselves in Thai? What's their national dish? I certainly don't.

Whenever people ask me what my favourite countries were I say India, Peru and Bolivia. 2 of the 3 of them I lived in.