Round The World Tickets
Don’t be afraid to go fast through certain places on your RTW trip
If you are at the stage of planning your RTW trip where you are putting together a loose itinerary and asking for advice from people who’ve done it before, beware of one common theme. People who’ve done RTWs before will almost ALWAYS say your itinerary looks like you are rushing and trying to see too much in too short of a time. That’s definitely something to consider, but don’t assume that advice is always right.
The ideal scenario is if you have an unlimited amount of time and an infinite budget, but obviously this isn’t ever actually the case. So there will always be sacrifices one way or another. If you plan on spending 9 days seeing the highlights of Italy nearly everyone will come back at you insisting that’s not nearly enough time to even scratch the surface. But you know what? They are wrong. You can see a hell of a lot in 9 days in Italy.
Many people prefer to spend a much longer time in far fewer countries, and that’s fine for them, but don’t let them pressure you into doing the same if your style is different. I’ve seen people post itineraries for Europe trips on message boards where they write that they’d like to see 12 countries in 2 months. People often chastise them for intending such a brisk pace, and then suggest they trim it down to perhaps 4 countries.
Assuming you did choose 4 countries in 2 months and then compared notes after the trip with someone who did 12 countries in 2 months. You’ll be able to tell more in-depth stories about something that happened to you on your 13th day in Germany, but those stories won’t sound much different from ones of yours from your 5th day in Germany. And the other person will have stories about seeing Brugges and Prague and Lisbon and Athens. Who had the better trip? It’s impossible to say based just on this, but if I didn’t think I’d made it back to Europe for another decade I think I’d rather see many things more quickly rather than fewer things in greater depth.
And in the context of a RTW trip, Europe, in particular, is going to be one of the most expensive places you can go. If you can spend 2 months in Europe instead of 3, you can save enough money for 3 or more extra months in India or Southeast Asia. You have to sacrifice something one way or another, and if you’d rather spend a long time in fewer countries that’s fine, but if you are the type who can take things in quickly and your goals are to see more places that way then you don’t have to apologize for that. If you are making things up as you go then you can adjust your pace as you see fit, but you needn’t apologize to others if you go quickly.
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« Going east or west - There are some differences worth considering | Home | Getting around Europe can be cheap »
