Does everyone buy RTW tickets??

Hi

I'm going on a RTW trip at the end of the year and had first planned on getting a RTW from STA until I realised how restrictive it would be so planned on just buying a the out tickets and then just going with the flow buying tickets as I go because I have no time scale but I do have money restrictions and would hate to run out of money and be stuck half way through a RTW trip.

My boyfriend and I hated the thought of having to decide how long we'd stay in each country before we'd got there, what if we loved one place and hated another?

However since reading these forums I've got nervous as everyone seems to talk about RTW tickets so I thought I'd check what the pros/cons were of both options.

Thanks!

Hi There,

Well personally I am not a fan of them, but then I have been travelling for a while.

Here are pro's I can come up with

It allows you to budget your flights well ahead, so that you can concentrate on other adpects of budgetting.

You know for sure where you will be and for how long, again this can help in planning.

You pay ahead of time, so no dealing with credit cards and flights on the road.

It's nice to see where you are going for sure.

Cons

Restriction, you are set by dates and flights, though some can be moved depending on your RTW ticket.

Last minute changes, that great bunch of people you met in Rio are heading to Chile, but you have a plane to catch.

You will need to spend time on the road booking flights, that may be more expensive as they were not booked in advance

Yeah that was pretty much what I thought.

I think we'll stick with just buying flights as we go as I want the freedom to change my plans.

Thanks!

We didn't buy RTW tickets. Like you said, we didn't want to decide how long to stay in a place we hadn't even set foot in yet! It is just too restrictive. Plus we intend to travel for over a year so they weren't realistic for us. We leave on July 8th (just a couple of weeks to go!) so I don't know yet whether it was a wise decision. Hope so!

Oh good luck!

I feel better now knowing other people just wing it

wow... so I guess most of you guys who buy tickets on the road has little problem with getting visas to countries huh? because I think it's a hussle if you need to get visas first before buying the ticket to the next destination.. compared to having all visa needed before buying all the tickets at the same time..

Quoting pau_p1

wow... so I guess most of you guys who buy tickets on the road has little problem with getting visas to countries huh? because I think it's a hussle if you need to get visas first before buying the ticket to the next destination.. compared to having all visa needed before buying all the tickets at the same time..

I'll admit, this is what is worrying us....this and the cost of flights into South America.

Don't know what to do

The thing about visas is that if you are travelling for a long period of time (more than 3 months), in a lot of cases you can't get your visas ahead of time. For many places your visa is only valid for a 3 or 6 month timeframe from date of issue. Therefore, it is often required to get visas while on the road.

Frankly, I haven't found a problem with it. In fact, it's kind of romantic, getting a visa for Mongolia that was issued in Paris... Fun interview too, seeing as I didn't speak much French. I just pretty much kept saying "tourist." Eventually I got the papers.

Greg

Our first RTW trip we bought tickets for each leg - but we were able to change them as we went along so it wasn't too restrictive. Second trip we winged and wanged it all the way - but we went overland the whole way. No flights till we got to our last destination. Most of our trip was unplanned - we had a general outline and did most of our research on the road getting tickets as we went along. Only visa we got ahead of time was China - we had to get our Russian visa in Shanghai - a real PITA.

One of these days I'll do a blog about it....

I brought one with STA it was about £900 but £1200 with taxes etc but well worth it though.

Changable stops etc.

My trip
London
Beijing
Shanghai
Bangkok
Perth
Sydney
Christchurch
Auckland
San Fran
London

Happy days