Our Round the World Tickets are booked - GULP, advice pleaaaase :-)

[dejags]

After what seems like a hundred itinerary shuffles it's finally booked

We are officially taking our two small children on a 40000 mile odyssey around the world. So if any of you have any brilliant travel tips for the following destinations I would love to hear them.

8th May - 15th June USA by Campervan
16th June - 29th June - a couple of weeks on the beach in Fiji
29th June - July 25th - a month in NZ, we hope to ski
July 25th - Aug 25th - a month in Australia
Aug 25th - Sep 25th - a month in China
Sep 25th - ?? South East Asia, for two or three months.

We are excited and terrified. Nappybaglady if you are around I would love to email you and get your perspective as your kids were the same age as mine.

Advice welcome

We use those plastic bibs now for Tilly which you can wipe clean and they collect all the bits too. Would be ideal for you I think and less bulk than many cloth ones...

that's a good idea - I'll look at the for sale columns nearer the time.

What about brand though. Before we left the UK we started DS2 on Totsbots with fleece liner and wrap. They were good but very, very bulky and he found them very uncomfortable to wear in the South African heat?

Any recommendations?

Yeah I think that totsbots would take too long to dry too. We use prefolds (Bambino Mio?-not sure as were given) which are great and Tilly was fine in the heat with these. We use paper liners but wash them loads if only wee'd on but fleece would work I think.
Buy a load of micro fibre cloths (cheap at Tesco etc.) to use as boosters/wipes/flannels too. They are dead light and dry almost immediately. We found carrying a wet flannel or two in a freezer bag was easier than wipes.

Is it really only a thousand for an adult for a rtw flight ticket thingy?

Less than that if you don't take taxes into account.

Our tickets were less than £1000 pre-taxes. This includes a 25000 mile itinerary on reputable airlines (we are going with BA/Qantas).

Funny when I have told people they think we are posh and have loads of money but this is so not true. It's true that for six months we will spend a lot and obviously neither of us will be earning to compensate but it's what we want to do and we've saved and invested prudently. It is truely not as expensive as people think.

that would be truly.

I think it's time for me to go to bed.

Hercules you can get even cheaper than this but it depends on where you want your stop offs to be. The price goes up the more you customise your agenda. If you're tempted pick up the trailfinders mag or check out their website and STA too....let's all go travelling!!!

Dejags,

Goodnight! When you come back could you let me know about current anti-malaria advice and little ones, especially where Cambodia is concerned?
Thanks

LL - malaria advice. Sorry, I haven't properly checked it out but I understand my five year old can take Malaria meds but not my two year old.

Best advice is to keep them covered dawn until dusk, to use 5% deet and impregnate their clothes and mosquito nets with citronella or a manmade equivalent.

It worries me but won't be travelling into any remote areas and will only be staying in Cambodia long enough to see Angkor Wat - I am happy with this as the kids' health is my priority.

I meant dusk until dawn.

We'll also probably stay in a "posh" hotel in Cambodia. Airconditioning helps keeps mossies at bay and we'll be sure to have a plugpoint for our mossie zapper.

That would prob be my thinking too. My cousin in Siem Riep (for Angkor Wat) says that none of the ex pat kids she knows take drugs but the FO recommend anti malarials for that area...
This is why we were thinking to leave it til ours weren't babies but not sure how long the freee accom will be available!! The temple where they filmed Tomb Raider looks amazing and also the carved faces at 'little wat' - all in or near the town I hear.

you lucky people!

don't know how old your c`hildren are but i loved...

lake tekapo - south island new zealand
swim with dolphins - kaikoura, south island, new zealand
hot water beach - SI, NZ; dig your own hole in the sand and sit in the toasty water watch the sunset and you might see dolphins surface

i realise i am now sounding dolphin crazy. i'm not thirteen.honest

em what else...

oh...everyone goes to east coast australia. i've been to both coasts weest coast is way wilder and much more inte5resting / less touristy. monkey mia' ningaloo reef (pees all over great barrier reef)
broome so lovely

in fact top bit of western australia and darwin were the best bits of my trip
fraser island was also fun (but watch your kids and the dingos0
coromandel peninisula; north island new zealand also beautiful

have a lovely time

I was shocked to find out that Fraser Island now has a Club 18-30's on it!! When we went it was just landrovers and tents....

aah

it was just tents when i went too

i recall driving along a beautiful beach dangerously close to the crashing waves, the sunset throwing a gorgeous pink glow over everyting

trying to not run over the novice fishermen who were trying their luck.

oh and lake mackenzie...

forget lake tekapo - probably not enough to entertain your kids

i'm a bit obsessed with it right now because i think it would be a great place to get married - there's a cute tiny church there

right. now off to see if DP is open to jacking in our jobs.

hey dejags. I'm in la. Why don't you look me up. You could even park your motorhome in front of the house and come in for a real shower and bed!!! Or maybe I'll look after the kids and you and your dh can have a romantic night out. CAT me.

SofiaAmes - you're a star!!!

I most certainly will take you up in this offer - promise we aren't axe murderers .

Will CAT you closer to the time.

I'm sure you should be fine for smart hotels in Siem Reap - we were slumming it but if avoiding the mozzies is a concern for your littlest then i'm sure they've got loads of suitable accommodation.
The temples are amazing

Dejags - that's not a campervan -it's a hotel on wheels. If I ever find a link to the little pukey wobble bus that we hired I'll post it here then you'll understand my campervan reservations

Itinerary lokks great. When you're in UK are you visiting family,etc? If you're anywhere in the North East let me know. You'd be very welcome up here.

Can't believe that we've been home over six months. Life has been a bit hard recently because of my (still unresolved) job hassles which is compounded by the fact that we spent all our savings on our trip. However there is barely a day goes by without me thinking of the trip. Neither of us has any regret about going at all. It was fantastic and only the other day DH was talking about when we do the next one!!!

DS is 2.5 now. I didn't think that he would remember any of it but recently he's been talking about Austarlia alot - don't know if he's picking it up from us and DD or truly remembers it.

Best top tip for packing - get some of those mesh bags that people use for washing small/delicate stuff in the washing machine. Pack each persons clothes separately in one of those. Ours were each about the size of a smallish pillow. Kept clothes together, relatively flat and prevented much rummaging around in bags. Also made repacking much easier.

First Aid kit can be small because you just need enough of everything to last until you can get help, ie just few each of loperamide, diarrhoea salts, painkillers, antihistamines and some hydrocortisone and antibiotic cream. I also took some olbas oil for snotty noses a bottle of medised and a few sachets of calpol. Had a separate pack with a few dressings and some steristrips (paper stitches)

Jenjam - someone was getting married at that church on Lake Tekapo when we were ther on a FREEZING cold day last june. Absolutley beatiful. Sadly their wedding video will be slightly spoilled by the sound of a toddler screaming after falling down the steps and hitting his head....

those mesh bags are a great packing tip NBL, will have to keep that one in mind....

Don't worry too much about Melbourne. We left there in early Aug 2001 and it was 22C - warmer than when we arrived in the UK 2 days later. Even the winter was more like April/May in the UK.

Hve a fab time btw

Thanks NBL - I took your reservations to heart about the campervan. The thought of spending 6 weeks with two miserable under fives was enough to spur me on to extending our budget whilst in the USA.

I have started a blog \link{ blogs.bootsnall.com/Dejags\The De Jagers Round The World Trip}, so if you fancy keeping up to date, have a gander....

So much to do.....

try that link again:

The De Jager Family Round The World Trip 2006

thanks Sue!

I have been niggly about the weather in Aus, but I figure we can't change it and if it p's down the whole time we are there, we'll just enjoy our time up north even more.