we are going travelling but which option do we choose? help me decide!

[Chundle]

Hi all we've just decided that in two years time we will take the two kids and go travelling for 2/3 months. Kids will be 10 and almost 5 by then. Basically we have 3 options of what we need to choose from and need help deciding what would be most viable/cheapest/easiest but still enjoyable and seeing sights.

1. Your normal round world ticket incorporating Africa, Asia, south America,

1. Fly to Canada and hire a small RV and drive south round USA seeing all the bits we want to as far south as we can go.

1. Fly to Asia and hire small RV and drive round seeing all sights we want to.

Obviously don't know how costly it would be to do 2&3 including petrol etc compared to doing 1 and including hostel fees. Interested to hear from anyone that's driven abroad like this before.

Thanks in advance for any advice

Sorry meant to put SE Asia on no 3

I'd go for 1. You will have some sort of plan then, which can change, and you will get much more variety.

Hi, 2/3 months sounds like a very short amount of time for option one. We did a similar trip over a whole year. Ok, we took things slow but trying to do it in the time you suggest will leave you exhausted and not really getting a proper feel for the places you're visiting. I'd suggest either doing Oz and NZ or Latin America. Either could be brilliant. Might depend on which season you want to go in and what you want to do there? I'd only visit NZ in the summer for example but then I'm not into skiing.

If you decided on south America, concentrating your trip there would also give you time to kick it off with a couple of weeks in Spanish school which would be really useful, good exp for the kids and help you learn a bit about local culture. I've visited a lot of SA and can thoroughly recommend Colombia - beautiful, diverse and incredibly friendly and really not dangerous as people think.

Excited for you!

I'd echo fuzzy - although its a long time for you - you are trying to cover a huge amount of ground. I did it when younger and my one take away was to keep doing the trips - but go somewhere and do it 'in depth' for that time - might also be easier if you are doing it with kids.
e.g. just done a tiny bit of Canada for 2 months (Alberta and British Columbia) and even then I think we were rushing through some places, when it might have been nice to stop a bit longer.
In terms of life experiences - the Asia one will be much more eye opening than Canada/US, as the cultures, food, attitudes will be more different. You're probably the best person to judge if your family will enjoy that, or struggle with it. All of them will have spectacular natural scenery, and will be pretty used to tourists so will have the full range of accomodation - from cheap to expensive. On balance when I looked at it, it may be cheaper to 'stay' in Asia but getting there was more expensive, and I ended up spending more on 'activities' and 'treats', so the total trip cost probably wouldn't have been much different to going to somewhere like US/Canada

That's a good point stuckin re cultural differences. I was taken to
Asia as a child and it was an incredible learning experience for me, giving me a much broader understanding of the world than a lot of my peers. Parts of SA would do that too, e.g Bolivia.

I'd agree - 2-3 months isn't really that long... Also, what's your travel style/stress points? Do you like things organised, with a plan of things to do/how many days to spend in each place, or a bit more 'take it as it comes'?

The standard round the world ticket will give you a good taster of places - if that's the purpose of your trip, then you can always go back to places for a bit longer on another trip. Or how about looking at a slightly more limited trip, where you really see/immerse yourself in culture of an area?

I haven't been to a lot of the Southern USA, but that could be a fun trip - learn some history; follow some famous routes; co-incide your visit with some festivals, etc.

Canada is fun for adults and kids - lots of activities; but it would probably be quite expensive once you factor those in.

I am a big fan of Asia (esp SE Asia) but I wouldn't consider driving in a lot of areas. The Vietnamese roads, for example, are frankly terrifying, and we saw a lot of accidents, including a couple of fatal ones. :(

What are your kids interested in? We travelled a lot before DD came along, and did a lot of 'take it as it comes' trips, and although we've still done a decent amount of travelling (DD(3) has 14 stamps/visas in her passport!) we travel in a slightly different way, and do things differently/go to slightly different places. It could be a long trip if the kids aren't engaged.... Have a think and maybe we can suggest some options once you know what sort of thing you're going for.

Great thanks guys for the ideas. Dd1 lives football and martial arts, dd2 is only 3 at the moment but she loves trains! Both love the beach, foresta, natural scenery, I think they would love SE Asia.
Yes maybe driving in se Asia isn't a good idea, but maybe trains over there would be better option

SE Asia sounds like it good be a good option, then. They're nuts on football in most of SE Asia, and you will be able to see English premiership, Italian, Spanish, etc. football most places... Oh, I love making suggestions for other folks!! :)

OK, so using trains, how about doing something like:
Fly into Singapore, and work your way up through Malaysia, to Bangkok (one train line - get on and off where you think will be interesting. i.e. KL, Penang, Georgetown, Cameron Highlands, some of the Southern Thai islands for beaches and chilling. Depends on interests and time schedule.)

Spend a few days round and about Bangkok - see some Muay Thai boxing, visit Kanchanaburi for Bridge over the River Kwai, and info on the 'Death Railway' to/from Burma, WWII graveyards, etc.
Then sleeper train from BKK to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand - this is a pretty good experience, and train is clean and comfortable.
Fly from Chiang Mai to Siem Reap. See Angkor Wat, etc for a few days. Explore a bit of Cambodia down to Phnom Penh if you fancy that - I love Cambodia, and would happily spend lots of time there, but depends on your time schedule, etc.

Fly to Hanoi, and then work your way down Vietnam on the Reunification Express train. We did this mainly by sleeper train, which is fairly basic, but a good way to see the country. You'd have a 4 berth cabin to yourselves, and they lock, so quite safe. Just take your own silk/cotton sleeping 'liners' for the bunks (you can buy them in the markets really cheaply).
We stopped in Hue, Hoi An (well, Da Nang, and bussed to Hoi An), Nha Trang and finished in Ho Chi Minh City.
Fly back to BKK or Singapore for your flight home.

Reckon that's do-able in 2-3 months?? I've done this trip, but in bits - and with more added on, so if you were interested in any of it, please PM me, and I can give you travel notes if there was anything there you thought might help with your thinking.

That's gab thanks so much for the ideas!