Help DS plan his 3/6 month trip around the world!

[ajandjjmum]

DS is about to graduate, and he's thinking of taking the opportunity of travelling around the world for 3-6 months. So where have you been that you wouldn't have wanted to miss? All ideas and tips welcome - together with any experience of what airline ticket he should be looking at - our 21st present!

He should go to someone like aus travel as they do ticket packages. They can combine different airlines for you. Much cheaper than one airline. The flight centre or netlfight can also do RTW tickets. They also give you plenty of time to spend in each country.

What does he want to see? He needs to have an idea before talking about ticket packages. RTW tickets allow 8 stops (or did when we last looked) and you have to keep going the same way. So, when we did it we did the following:

San Francisco
Hawaii
Auckland
Sydney
Perth
Singapore
Thailand
Uk

We booked cheap internal travel separately.

Thank you gregs! It's literally an idea that he's be working on this weekend now that exams are over. He has no position to move into when he graduates, and is beginning to think that as he is unlikely to have the time to travel once he starts work, maybe he should do so now.
He wants to spend at least a month in Australia, driving from Perth to Sydney amongst other things. He has literally looked at all of the places in the world he would like to visit, and is working on a possible route, knowing that quite a few will have to be postponed for future vacations.
Pyramids, Petra, Hong Kong and China and Taj Mahal are on the list, Route 66, Yosemite NP and Alaska.
There is a ticket where he can have 16 stops, so that might be the one to go for - but I will suggest that he talks to the people you suggest too.
I'm so jealous - I would love to do this!

I think it should be part of growing up! If you have found one that does 16 stops then brilliant. I'd suggest 6 months minimum though. Tat is a lot of travelling.

As for driving from Sydney to Perth if you google it there are some itineraries that you can click on.

first, it won't be his only chance - for a start, he'll never get through life without being made redundant at least once so there will always be gaps.

second, he should go for six months given how much he has planned.

third - why spend weeks driving across Australia, which has a lot of huge dull empty spaces between the interesting bits? And this will cost a fortune even if he can hire a car at his age. He certainly shouldn't buy one and needs to consider the time of year if he is planning on being in the outback.

greggsausagerolls itinerary is a great one, and will need six months.

and finally, you may be buying the ticket (and the insurance?) but he has some expensive countries on his list.

We went to Fiji 5 years ago and loved it. A very different culture but at the same time anglicized (sp?) as it was a British colony. My OH lived there as a child and I feel very lucky to have been and experienced it.

Don't think I'll mention that to him specialsubject, as he busts a gut trying to get a decent degree! Appreciate your comments - he will obviously have to take all of those points into account when he plans his itinerary.

Thanks gerbils - that's just the sort of thing he'd like to hear - places that you have loved to visit.

Further to specialsubject's comment he does need to have a good think about how much far his spending money. Oz, USA etc. are all expensive, whereas Thailand, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka etc. are v cheap. India and Indonesia are my personal favourites. Wish it was me!

That should say 'how far his spending money will take him.'

TheDuckSaysMoo - exactly.

OP, get him to have a look on hostelworld.com to get an idea of accommodation prices and how they vary in the countries concerned. Exchange rates for Oz and NZ currently very bad for Brits so don't believe anyone who says these places are cheap - and of course prices there have gone up too.

send him off to the library for the books on the subject - all need to be taken with a VERY large pinch of salt but they are still useful. Unfortunately most of the Lonely Planet Thorntree forum has vanished as that was also quite helpful.

skills for gappies (hopefully he already has these) - how to use a washing machine, how to close a door quietly, how to come home drunk and still close a door quietly, how to wash up, the difference between a knife and a tin opener, and know some basic cooking skills and recipes. There are apparently occasional cases of backpacker scurvy from those who live on pot noodles for months. BTW he won't need laundry or cooking skills in Asia where it is all done for you for cheap. THAT'S a holiday. :-)

Australia is v, v expensive and I would imagine really quite boring unless you have something to do there - I've only been there on business trips which were fine but I had places to go and people to meet. Would he consider something like working on an outback farm for month instead of driving across thousands of miles of desert - as someone said up thread, assuming he could afford the insurance?

I have lived and travelled widely in Australia and driving from Perth to Sydney across the country is not ideal, presumably he's going to go north from Perth and around via Kimberley, Darwin and down the East coast? I did an amazing trip (with a group) from Adelaide to Cairns via alice springs and Darwin which I'd highly recommend. Then spend two months travelling around New Zealand, which is beautiful and a backpackers dream.
I think that Petra and the pyramids is an easy holiday from the UK and wasted on a round the world trip (I have lived in Jordan and holidayed in Egypt before).

An overland trip in Africa is spectacular (watch the current Attenborough series and tell me you don't want to do that!) If he went from Kenya to South Africa on an organised tour he could see loads! (I'm currently South African based so might be biased )
No-one has mentioned South America either - you can spend months on the cheap travelling there and it is fab (disclaimer, I've only been to Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, but DH lived in Chile for a year and its on the list...)
and Asia -last but by no means least - I echo what has been said about money going further - and so fascinating! Travel overland from Thailand (with a loop around Vietnam Laos and Cambodia) via Malaysia to the tip of Indonesia - don't miss lombok - then fly from Bali to Fiji/Oz, wherever. DH has lived in the Phillipines and says to miss it
So jealous! I don't think I'll ever have a big chunk of time to travel again... well not until retirement anyway

I highly recommend Vietnam and Cambodia if he can squeeze them in. Cheap, culturally different, friendly, great food, fascinating history, lots of young people, lovely beaches....sigh

if he is going to work in Oz, he'll need a working holiday visa - more costs and he can only ever have one. Not to be wasted on just a month's work.

Bluestocking: I spent three months travelling round Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia and it was nowhere near enough, loads to see and do on the walking, scenery and wildlife front. (the camping was great) There are big flat empty bits of Australia but there are also sections with lots packed in. The bottom left-hand corner south of Perth is another one.

don't forget the malaria tabs if he fancies Vietnam and Cambodia, and anywhere tropical (including N Queensland) needs 24/7 Deet to reduce Dengue risk.

I'd get a coach ticket rather than drive in Australia. Its loads cheaper and you get to meet other people too. I met loads of people on the coach who are still friends to this day.

I second the south america idea and Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia route too. So many wonderful places!

Wow guys - forget DS, I'm off! Just going to read through these ideas and I will eventually just pass the thread on to him.

His gf's sister lives on a farm in the Aus. outback with her family, and he intends to join them for a few weeks, as well as possibly meeting up with DH, who has a sister in Aus too. DH is quite getting into the idea of tagging a bit of a senior gap onto the Aus trip!

Will come back when I've looked at all the posts - big thank you.

I am very .
I would take the train or fly in Aus. It's just so ludicrously big. We drove from Adelaide to Melbourne along the something highway. That had some spectacular views, but a lot of boring windy bits.
I would also, and this may be redundant, impress on him how essential it is not to accept drinks from strangers on buses in Thailand. Friends of ours got robbed that way.
Also, if he plans to go to Malaysia or Indonesia, drugs are a complete no no.
Can I just say again how very I am.