round the world trip

sixtyplus

OH and I will book a RTW ticket for February 2012, taking in Oz and NZ. Any suggested routes would be gratefully received eg Singapore/Bangkok stopover, also any tips. We will be away for 6 weeks approx.
Thanks in advance

richardw

Angkor Wat temples at Siem Reap are worth a side trip.

Where do fancy going to after NZ?

Doshwaster

Trailfinders are good for Round The World ideas: http://flights.trailfinders.com/around-the-world

I suppose one route would be UK - BKK/SIN - Perth cross country to SYD/MEL onto NZ, then LA cross county to NY and home.

In Australia and the US it's often cheaper to book internal flights separately rather than make them part of your RTW ticket.

loobs40

We did a six week RTW last year , 3 days Hong Kong, 9 days Australia (Cairns & Sydney), 19 days New Zealand, 7 days USA(San Francisco, Las Vegas)

We liked everywhere we went, though the last leg in the USA felt a bit rushed after the long flight from NZ when we were jet lagged. All but 2 days in NZ were spent on the South Island and we would have liked to stay longer. We booked accommodation as we went along on the laptop, usually a few days before which gave us great flexibility. For example, we only intended to stay in Queenstown for 3 days but ended up staying a week.

Trailfinders organised all our flights and they were very helpful. We flew business class and it made a big difference in terms of the quality of the journey, especially for the long flights and the use of business class lounges.

tarkytarks

This page on the VA website might be of use? http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/roundtheworldfares.jsp. I'm sure I saw another site recently(ish) that allowed you to plan your route, it wasn't http://www.thegreatescapade.com/ but that one does something similar. It might have been one of the BA alliance airlines but I can't be certain.

WaxiesDargle

loobs40 wrote: »

We did a six week RTW last year , 3 days Hong Kong, 9 days Australia (Cairns & Sydney), 19 days New Zealand, 7 days USA(San Francisco, Las Vegas)

We liked everywhere we went, though the last leg in the USA felt a bit rushed after the long flight from NZ when we were jet lagged. All but 2 days in NZ were spent on the South Island and we would have liked to stay longer. We booked accommodation as we went along on the laptop, usually a few days before which gave us great flexibility. For example, we only intended to stay in Queenstown for 3 days but ended up staying a week.

Trailfinders organised all our flights and they were very helpful. We flew business class and it made a big difference in terms of the quality of the journey, especially for the long flights and the use of business class lounges.

can I ask you how much the trip cost loobs?

loobs40

The rtw business class ticket which included 7 longhaul/internal flights with BA, Qantas and American Airlines was about £4500 p.p. There was also a flight from LAX to San Francisco with United not included in the rtw ticket which didn't cost much. My husband who initially wasn't happy at going Business Class, soon changed his mind, and probably would refuse to fly long haul now if we didn't go business class !

We also collected BA Miles with the trip and we have enough airmiles to upgrade to Business class for pretty much anywhere now

jackieblack

I hope you don't mind me asking a quick question (don't want to hijack the thread, but there seems to be several posters with RTW experience here)

I'm wondering if there is a particular reason why most people seem to go RTW travelling east.
I always find I feel much worse (jet-lag-wise etc) travelling in an easterly direction than I do travelling west and have often thought that if/when we do our planned RTW trip I would prefer to do it travelling in a predominantly westerly direction.
Am I missing something?

sixtyplus

Ooooh. Thanks for all the replies. It certainly seems that we need to go West to East. Have been considering that, and it sounds sensible.
So far its USA, (Fiji/Tahiti/Kuala Lumpur), Aukland, overland to Christchurch, Sydney. Some travel within Australia then home via either Singapore, Hong Kong or Dubai. Sadly, we can't afford business class unless we come up on the lottery. Quantas/BA seem to have a good package, but will try Trailfinders and see what they come up with. Getting quite excited about the whole thing now.:j

sixtyplus

Probably on to Australia if we go West to East.

richardw

Here are the planning tools

http://www.thegreatescapade.com/planMyTrip.php

http://www.oneworld.com/ow/air-travel-options/round-the-world-fares

http://www.staralliance.com/en/fares/round-the-world-fare/