Best price for Australia trip?

roberteboot

Right so me and a few others are planning on taking a year out.We want to leave around January but book it in the next month or so.Ideally we'd like to stop in Laos,Thailand,Cambodia and make a trip to Vietnam on the way over and then travel back through the states and canada(fly into L.A then road trip up to Vancouver).
I was just wondering where does the best deals for planning these kind of trips?A few of my friends have done it before and some have had esy bookings and some have had flights messed up etc.
Anyway i was hoping someone could let me know how they did it where they booked etc.Any advice at all is welcome really.Number of stopovers,cost,good cities to go.
I know its a fairly broad topic but any input is appreciated.
Cheers.

Norinoco

Hi Rob,

A few of my friends are doing pretty much the same as you.
They booked everything though trailfinders (http://www.trailfinders.ie) and found everything to be fine.

What most do is fly in to Bangkok, and travel around Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia themselves ( but cheap flights are available for less that 50 euro if you are stuck for time)

Return to Bangkok and fly on to Australia.
There are around the world offers available with a number of stops you can make.

They are not the only option - if you do a search on this forum for thailand or australia you will find more information

MazStar

Me and my friend are booking our round the world flights at the moment. We're looking at the 7 stop one. Heres our route Dublin -Bangkok-(make own way inc. Thailand,Laos,Cambodia,Vietnam) Singapore-Perth- Melbourne-Auckland-(make own way)Christchurch-Sydney-Hawaii-LA-Home.
We've checked usit,trailfinders and ebookers. All quotes were pretty much around the same €1630-€1670. Did check a bit on the net tho and we could probably get our flights through Uk-saving about €150, but it would prob be easier dealing with an irish agent.

roberteboot

Cheers both of you.
When you say make your own way around Laos or whatever is that train/plane or what?
That seems pretty much the price weve been seeing too.Seems pretty alright.
Which are your actual destinations there though cause you have more than seen?(I got confused around the second -make own way-!)

MazStar

Ok the stops are
1.Bangkok
2.Perth (Singapore is not included cos its not a stop, we just fly from there.)
3.Melbourne
4.Auckland (same for Christchurch -we only fly out of there)
5.Sydney
6.Hawaii
7.LA (road trip Las Vegas & Grand Canyon if funds allow)
I dont think Dublin is regarded as a stop.
We'll prob make our way around Laos and Cambodia on train or bus or back of a truck! However we can cos transport's not the best there. Vietnam and Thailand we'll prob get internal flights.

roberteboot

That looks pretty sweet.
A friend of mine was told she couldnt fly to New Zealand back into Australia cause then shes entering Auz twice.It was ebookers that told her.She was trying to book last week.Although they were messing her about a bit to be honest.Is that bull**** of what then?

PunyHuman

MazStar wrote:

We'll prob make our way around Laos and Cambodia on train or bus or back of a truck! However we can cos transport's not the best there. Vietnam and Thailand we'll prob get internal flights.

There's no rail system at all in Laos, and only a very limited one in Cambodia. Most roads in these countries are pretty bad. I found the trains in Vietnam to be a good way to escape the ubiquitous Sindh Cafe tourist buses, and travel as the locals do.

This site is good for train information.

MazStar

roberteboot I am your 'friends' travelling partner! We got it sorted from ebookers- you can backtrack only once back into Australia.

Thanks for that site punyhuman. Looks good.

roberteboot

So you are allowed.What a bunch of lying communists.