Saving before the off

Well I have done the hard bit, which is to find a route around the world that will take me to visit many of my friends, visit many of the wonders of the world and avoid the danger spots or pure tourist traps.

Finding accommodation when I am out and about should be less of a nightmare, and as long as I take a blanket and sleeping bag a few nights underneath the stars will not kill me, so long as it isn't in a blistering heat or frozen driven winds of course.

So now all I have to do is manage to save up a mere { mere, yeah right !! }  £12 to £15K to cover the day to day costs, get my travel jabs plus all entry visas required and then wait.

Upon completion of the route I was still slightly disappointed that I had to miss key places, people or regions, but even accepting that this is a once in a lifetime trip the costs to get to some places, including overland transport and hotel / hostel accommodation, was just beyond my means for this very demanding budget.

I suppose if by some bizarre twist of fate, { all winning lottery tickets and official "Support Dickon's Global Odyssey" donations greatfully accepted, ha ha } life was to suddenly drop into my lap a large fortune then I guess I could make a few changes to cover all the wonders of the world and visit each and every one of my international friends, but failing that this is a very viable route that even when you include all the accommodation and living costs will still end up being less than some people are prepared to spend on buying a new car !

Round The World Route

WAVE GOODBYE TO THE UK FOR A LONG EPIC JOURNEY

LON>DUS - London to Dusseldorf, Germany > Airberlin ( opodo ) = £21
DUS>MAD - Dusseldorf to Madrid, Spain > Iberia ( ebookers) = £48
MAD>SAO - Madrid to Sao Paulo, Brazil > Swissair ( opodo ) = £270
SAO>GIG - Sao Paulo to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil > Varig ( lastminute ) = £65
GIG>LIM - Rio to Lima, Peru > Aerolineas Argentinas ( lastminute ) = £258
Overland to Cuzco and Manchu Pichu www.gapadventures.com/ = £400
CUZ>LIM> Cuzco to Lima, Peru > Taca International Airlines ( lastminute ) = £40
LIM>GYE - Lima to Guayaquil, Ecuador > Avianca ( lastminute ) = £185
Land and sea to Galapagos Island www.galapagosislands.com/ = £960
GYE>BOG - Guayaquil to Bogota, Colombia > Avianca ( lastminute ) = £135
BOG>MDE - Bogota to Medellin, Colombia > Avianca ( lastminute ) = £80
MED>PTY - Medellin to Tocument, Panama > Avianca ( lastminute ) = £174
PTY>CUN - Tocument to Cancun, Mexico > Mexicana de Aviacion ( lastminute ) = £208
CUN>MEX - Cancun to Mexico City, Mexico > Mexicana de Aviacion ( lastminute ) = £102
MEX>JFK - Mexico City to New York, USA > US Airways ( opodo ) = £128
NYC>LAX - New York to Las Vegas, USA > US Airways ( lastminute ) = £87
LAS>LAX - Las Vegas to Los Angeles, USA > US Airways ( lastminute ) = £42
LAX>HNL- Los Angeles to Honolulu, Hawaii, USA > Hawaian Airlines ( priceline ) = £100
HNL>AKL - Honolulu > Auckland, New Zealand > Air Pacific ( princeline ) = £295
NAN>AKL - Nadi to Auckland, New Zealand > Air Pacific > ( travelocity ) = £140
AKL>SYD - Auckland to Sydney, Australia > Aerolineas Argentina (opodo) = £100
SYD>BNE - Syndey to Brisbane > Jetstar Star ( direct ) = £40
BNE>DRW - Brisbane to Darwin, Australia > JET Star( direct ) = £77
DRW>SIN - Darwin to Singapore, Malaysia > JET Star( direct ) = £10
Overland Singapore to Bangkok, Thailand > Malaysian Trains = £35
Overland Rtn to Angkor Wat > www.apriltravel.com/ = £181
BKK>HTK - Bangkok to Phuket, Thailand ( Rtn ) > Bangkok Airways ( lastminute ) = £119
Overland to Hanoi > www.gapadventures.com/ = £525
HAN>MNL - Hanoi to Manila, Philipines > Cathay Pacific ( opodo ) = £228
MNL>HGK - Manila to Hong Kong, China > Cathay Pacific ( opodo ) = £57
HKG>NNH - Hong Kong to Nanning > China Southern Airline ( lastminute ) = £249
HGK>PVG - Hong Kong to Shanghai > China Eastern Airways ( lastminute ) = £136
Sea Ferry - Shanghai to Tokyo > Shanghai Ferry www.shanghai-ferry.co.jp= £110
TYO>ICN - Tokyo to Seoul, Rep S. Korea > United Airlines ( ebookers ) = £166
ICN>PEK - Seoul to Beijing, China > China Eastern Airline ( ebookers ) = £248
Overland to Moscow via Mongolia > http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm#Fares= £350
MOW>ATH - Moscow to Athens, Greece > Olympic Airlines ( ebookers ) = £234
Overland to London across europe > www.budgetexpeditions.com/ = £1000

Total - Rail, Coach, Flights, Trips ( & excursion inclusive accomodation only ) about £7600

ARRIVE HOME EXHASUTED, BROKE BUT WITH LIFE CHANGING MEMORIES ! ! !

Still to find .. airport / hotel transfers .. food .. accomodation .. spending money .. clothes

Warping The Route

After hours more searching on the Internet I am fast thinking that there is a Travel Agency conspiracy against anyone hoping to follow the noble idea of travelling around the world in any kind of progressive order that does not run very similarly with the classic "U.K. > U.S.A. > Australia > Hong Kong > U.K." route.

 

No matter which website I use, be it from a specific airline or a generic travel agent search engine, the answers invariably keep coming back the same, if you want to go to anywhere exotic or out of the way then be prepared to pay an arm and a leg and heaven forbid that you even dream you will go from there to anywhere else except back to where you came from unless your a multi millionaire.

 

I will not even begin to say how irritating it is to have to laboriously task through seven almost idential flight searches from one location to the next, as flight costs often can vary drastically from one day to the next, even when you are talking nine months away.

 

Nor need I relate in full detail how much time is taken up by switching from a myriad of major airports of both the source and destination country to try and find a cheaper alternative to the first price shown. 

 

What baffles me more is that almost without exception it is cheaper to buy a return ticket to somewhere and then once you return home to fly out again to a new destination than is is to fly from one destination to the next. Certainly this is the case with Tenerife and Brazil.

 

Despite Tenerife being almost half way between the U.K. and Brazil it is much cheaper to buy a return ticket to Tenerife and then a single to Rio De Janeiro than it is to attempt to use Tenerife as a stop over between the one and the other.

 

However what I found to be complete lunacy is that when you try to book a flight to Rio De Janeiro the sites and airlines show a two leg journey changing planes at Porto in Portugal. Now although the cost of a single flight from London to Porto is very cheap, the cost of a single flight from Porto to Rio is more than the cost of an entire flight from London to Rio using Porto as just a stop over.

 

How can it be more expensive to buy just one leg of a journey than it is to buy both legs of the same journey in one go!

 

It reminds me of the advice that a good friend of mine gave me about flying to Singapore. He said that it was cheaper to contact a Malaysian travel agent and buy a return ticket from Singapore to London and then use the return leg to fly out there, than it was to contact a UK based travel agent and buy a single ticket from the UK to Singapore.

 

'Frustrating' ... 'illogical' ... 'insane' ... 'warped' ... 'chaotic' ... 'complex' ... there are many words that you could use to describe the travel industry but personally 'straight forward' would never be one I would chose to use, unless used with the prefix or 'not'.

 

Thus it is, that despite my prior hopes of completing an always progressive route around the world, I am fast thinking that perhaps it will be cheaper to simply make a list of all the places that I really want that are not in the middle of nowhere and just have fun in visiting them all in no specific order.

 

When I first laid out my route a friend commented that it must have taken me many hundreds of man hours to work it all out and I foolishly boasted that I had  completed it in just a few hours. Oh, how the pride comes before the fall. I fear that a hundred man hours will be the very least it will take me to fashion a viable route around the world.