RTW Travel Articles from June, 2008

Doing laundry on the road

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

Since most of us normally take trips that last no longer than two weeks or so, the issue of laundry while on the road doesn’t really come up often. After you make the mistake of packing way too much for a multi-week trip, you catch on to the idea that you can bring, say, 7 or 8 outfits at the most, and then have them washed once a week for as long as you need. But on a RTW trip you hear of people packing only 4 or 5 days worth of clothes, and then doing your laundry in hostel sinks every few nights. As it turns out, this isn’t nearly as cool or as possible as it sounds.

But before we discuss doing laundry on the road, let’s talk about packing and your choice of garments. You really should choose most of your gear based on the idea that you’ll wash it yourself, and more importantly dry it yourself too. Jeans are automatically out because they are hard to wash and even harder to dry. You’ll want as many of your items as possible to be such that they can dry in 8 hours while hanging in a dark (and maybe even damp) room. Do yourself a favor and spend a bit extra on socks and trousers that are meant to dry quickly, and you’ll be glad you did.

So even though you will have clothes that can potentially dry quickly while hanging in a hostel room or other such place, you’ll realize after the first time or two that doing your own laundry in a hostel sink takes way longer than you’d think it would, and also ages your clothes about five times more quickly than having them professionally washed. Go ahead and bring some of those dry packets of Woolite or whatever so you can wash some of your clothes now and then, but don’t assume that this is how you’ll do it each time. (more…)

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Working a bit while on the road has advantages beyond just the money

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

There are at least two major strategies for people who’ll be going on a round the world trip. Some people plan on starting with enough money to get to the first destination where they can find a decent job, and then regrouping there for the next leg. Other people prefer to save up as much as they possibly can before they leave, and then not have to worry about working at all. But a third hybrid strategy can have some advantages, and it might not be too difficult to pull off if you plan in advance.

With so many jobs being able to be performed remotely these days, it’s not too difficult for many people to pick up some freelance work that they can do on a laptop from anywhere. If you have any talent as a writer, editor, graphic designer, website builder or anything along those lines, you might consider developing that skill in advance so you can do some work while on the road.

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Don’t make these mistakes when booking individual flights on your RTW trip

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

It’s very possible you’ve already dealt with the first of these issues, especially if you live in Europe, where low-cost airlines have exploded in popularity in the past years. But regardless of where you are flying from and to on your RTW trip, it’s very important to check out exactly which airports you’ll be using. Not paying close attention can mean a deal that looked good online might not actually be a good deal at all, and worse, you could easily miss a flight if you find out too late.

In case you haven’t dealt with this much already, it’s very handy to know that as air traffic has increased dramatically in the past years, and especially as the aforementioned low-cost airlines have popped up, you’ll be finding more and more of the cheapest flights are using an obscure airport on one side, and sometimes even on both ends. Many of these new airports are way outside the city they claim to serve, and this can cause major scheduling and transportation problems if you didn’t realize where you were going.

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Special June fares for RTW tickets

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

Usually people plan RTW trips over quite a few months, saving up the necessary stash of cash and making preparations that can include quitting a job and selling a house - but in case you needed an extra push over the decision-making edge in order to take the plunge and get those RTW air tickets, the RTW ticket deals that come up at the start of every month are as good an excuse as any I can think of.

This month, you can spend as little as $1899 and take a wonderfully beach-centric trip from San Francisco that includes Sydney, Fiji, and Honolulu. For under $2499 you can take a trip from L.A. that includes London and Paris as well as Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Beijing. And although $4649 might sound like a lot of money, when you consider that you’ll be getting something like 14 airline tickets for that price, it can be downright cheap.

Here are the June RTW ticket deals - these prices are good through June 30, 2008.

• San Francisco - Sydney - Christchurch - Tongatapu (Tonga) - Nadi (Fiji) - Honolulu - San Francisco from US$1899 (plus taxes)
• Los Angeles - London - Paris - Cape Town - surface - Johannesburg - Abu Dhabi - Kuala Lumpur - surface - Bangkok - Hong Kong - Beijing - Los Angeles from US$2499 (plus taxes)
• Miami - Manaus - Rio de Janeiro - Lisbon - Dakar - surface - Bamako - Casablanca - Delhi - Kathmandu - Bangkok - Angkor Wat (Siem Reap) - Vientiane - Hong Kong - San Francisco - Miami from US$4649 (plus taxes)

And if these itineraries don’t tickle your fancy completely, that doesn’t mean you have to twiddle your thumbs until next month’s deals come out - start planning your own customized RTW trip in seconds and hit just the cities you want.

Tags: airline tickets, rtw tickets
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