would love some help and advice on my plans for a RTW ticket

Hi there guys and girls.

well i've decided now is going to be my one and only opportunity to do the whole RTW thing so id like to get it right by asking those who have been and done it.

i'll not bore you too much with my reasoning but basically i split with the mrs 3 months ago, i have no mortgage or kids and decided im gonna do it whilst i still can.

the route i thought of goes something like this.

UK to Thailand and take in south east asia such as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia etc. travelling over land. from there take a flight to NZ (AUS has never really appealled to me if im honest) from NZ i thought of flying direct to the bottom tip of south america and making my way by land right up to Canada before heading home.

could the experts on here tell me what they think of my intended itinerary and offer any tips and advice on the best way to take it all in. the countries i've listed are just a guide really, i dont mind if i dont see any of them but i would quite like to take in something close to that. africa and europe dont appeal as much if im honest.

im self employed so was thinking of having 6 months off work from about april/may time next year and would like to know if people think i could get a fair bit of what i've mapped out above for about 12k including all travel?

many thanks for taking time to read my thread and i cant wait to hear back from people. it's almost as if this is the very start of my trip.

to begin with it sounded like a really good trip, but then it got a bit out of whack when you had the bit mentioning flying New Zealand - Southern tip of South America and then "overland" to Canada. That would be very hard to do not to mention one of the most dangerous/death wish trips anywhere in the world. South and Central America are full of wonderful people and sites, but it also has a fair amount of horrible crimes going on especially in Colombia and some of the Central American countries. I would certainly skip Nicaragua, El Salvador (one of the most dangerous countries in the world) and Guatemala. I'd also seriously consider not going to Colombia as that has a serious drug problem, a lot of dangerous crime which is aimed towards foreigners which is life threatening and often deadly and it also has regularly kidnappings of foreigners if you step in to the wrong areas.

Your trip would really be happening at the wrong time of year because when you are looking to travel is when the northern hemisphere is starting to get a bit better weather and the southern hemisphere is getting cold (especially that southern bit of South America where you will freeze. This would mean that the New Zealand bit and some of the South America bit would have pretty cold weather and then by the time you made your way north to America it would be getting towards the end of the time when the weather is good there as well.

thanks ever so much for your reply harold it's much appreciated.

i should have pointed out then that i never intended to actually take a look around the likes of colombia, venezuela, belize etc (the ones with political unrest and massive drug prodution problems)

i would however like to tak in chile, ecuador, peru, argentina in south america before possibly heading to brazil by air and onto the southern states of america.

i've also thought about the timescale i set out and doing all that in 6 months would i feel probably not be feasible so i will have to either extend my timing's or re-consider when i come home depending on the money situation.

but do people think it would be possible to take in 3/4 continents in 6-9 months for a budget of 12k?

I know it's possible to fly from Auckland to Santiago (Chile), otherwise you will have to go via the states.

We are looking at flying from Auckland to Fiji and then Fiji to LA. We intend heading to SA from there.
We thought about flying to Lima and making our way overland to Argentina. Loads to take in there.

It's tough to say how much money you'll need and how long you should take. Everyone will say different things. We plan to spend a maximum of 4 months between LA and coming home.

Quoting backsack

thanks ever so much for your reply harold it's much appreciated.

i should have pointed out then that i never intended to actually take a look around the likes of colombia, venezuela, belize etc (the ones with political unrest and massive drug prodution problems)

i would however like to take in chile, ecuador, peru, argentina in south america before possibly heading to brazil by air and onto the southern states of america.

i've also thought about the timescale i set out and doing all that in 6 months would i feel probably not be feasible so i will have to either extend my timing's or re-consider when i come home depending on the money situation.

but do people think it would be possible to take in 3/4 continents in 6-9 months for a budget of 12k?

12k what? Pounds, USD, AUD??? If Pounds then that would be enough as long as you didn't go over the top with luxires, if it is AUD or USD then you may struggle if you go for 9 months but it would be doable for 6 months. I spent about that in 7 months covering Asia, Europe (some of the more expensive countries), South America and North America. I might add though that I mostly lived off supermarket food and did not drink any alcohol. I always stayed in dorms and usually the cheapest ones that weren't too disgusting.

If you do not go to some of those places i.e. Colombia or Venezuala, well as far as I am aware it is not possible to go overland to Canada from the Southern tip of South America as you need to transit through Colombia to get to Panama and up through Central America through the most politically unsafe and very dangerous countries. I am game but going to places like El Salvador and most those small countries in Central America is just asking to have something bad happen.the flight from Brazil to the US sounds like a much better option as long as you steer clear of those countries in the northern area of South America.

hi there again everyone.

been taking stock of where it is im going to.

i think im going to have to reign in my plans slightly.

south america AND north america all in the one trip within 6 months i now realise is way too optimistic.

so what i would like to know is. On a budget of around 8k (uk) would SE asia and north america be achievable?

i dont intend to party for the entire 6 months as i would quite often be happy chilling out on the beach.

the likes of florida has never appealed to me and if i was going to do the states i think id prefer the deep south where the blues bars/mowtown are a swingin all night.

any thoughts on budgets for this in particular would be appeciated as im not intending on taking a planned route as such, im much more of the type that will go where the mood takes.

Firstly, I don't think you have enough time, I'm sorry to say; 6-9 months is just about ok if you just visit SE Asia, NZ and South America- getting all the way to North America would mean rushing along, and you might not enjoy it. In most places, transport will be slow, there're a LOT of things to see and do, and I think a year would be more feasible. However, if you cut off parts of your trip, and say, fly from South America to the US, and hop from city to city, it could be done. Overland, you'll end up on a bus pretty much every day. Distances are long, and certain place, such as the Andes, travelling is slooooooow.

Also- I would certainly not skip Colombia, Venezuela and suchlike! My friend and I recently chatted about the best places we've been to, and her favourite was Guatemala, where she studied spanish, and mine was Colombia. I know Colombia has a bad reputation, but really, it's just as safe as Ecuador or Peru. True, there are certain areas that should be avoided (such as the jungle area around Leticia), but the backpacker track is fine to travel on- lot of the conflicts do not involve tourists, so really, they're not that interested in you! Getting across from Cartagena to Panama can also be done on a boat- something I unfortunately missed out on, but my friend did- a few days after I left Colombia .

I would certainly rather do South than North America, but of course, that's personal preference! Could you save up a little longer and do the whole lot, and stay out there longer?

[ Edit: Edited on 09-Dec-2009, at 03:28 by Ofelia ]