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Some great travel resources for the RTW crowd

Friday, March 27th, 2009

There are great resources for the RTW traveler all over the web, but some of them are much easier to find than others, so I’d like to point out some cool stuff that would otherwise be easy to miss. BootsnAll is running a weekly series of Expert Travel Articles, and most of them offer great advice that is especially helpful to those trying to figure things out on their own, and of course that means they often apply to RTW folks.

Here are some articles that may be of interest to you:

Overnight buses and how they work – If you are going to South America in particular, you may be aware that flights between cities can be very expensive, but long and reasonably luxurious bus rides can connect most places cheaply. At first, the thought of a 20-hour bus ride sounds easy, since all you have to do is climb on board and then read and sleep until you arrive. But it isn’t always that simple. Check this article out for tips and good advice on how to approach these things.
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Special March fares for RTW tickets

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

I know we’ve said it before, but it bears repeating – the economic news, however bad it sounds (and is), can be great news if you’re a bargain-hunting world traveler. Some people can’t think about travel right now, and that’s understandable. But if you’re one of the lucky ones with a (still) steady income, you’d be crazy not to try to take advantage of some of the amazing travel deals that are coming out at the moment.

And if you’re even luckier and can afford to take some time off to do a more long-term trip, there are deals available for you, too. There are great prices available on all kinds of multi-stop flights, for just about any itinerary you can dream up. Just to get you started thinking, however, here are a few sample itineraries (and their low-priced tickets).

These are the March RTW ticket deals – these prices are good through March 31, 2009.

• New York – Hong Kong – Dubai – London – New York from US$1459 (plus taxes)
• Los Angeles – Papeete (Tahiti) – Sydney – surface – Melbourne – Christchurch – surface – Auckland – Los Angeles from US$1599 (plus taxes)
• Chicago – Tokyo – Bangkok – surface – Kuala Lumpur – Delhi – Vienna – surface – Paris – Chicago from US$2149 (plus taxes)

As mentioned, the itineraries listed here are great deals, but if they don’t quite work for you then consider them food for thought. Then head over to this RTW trip planner and start having some fun creating your own customized itinerary. It’s incredibly addictive to play with, so consider yourself warned!

Tags: rtw tickets
Posted in Featured, RTW Travel Deals | 1 Comment »

Budget travel strategies to consider for 2009

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

If you have money saved up, and are on a RTW trip or are about to set out fairly soon, then you are luckier than you might imagine. We’ve all seen headlines for the past couple months about this problem or that problem, and the travel industry itself is one of the hardest hit of all. It is likely that some airlines will be going under at some point, and that won’t help any of us, but the bargains now on offer can really make for some outstanding deals.

Strategies to consider for 2009

Hostels

Hostels are reporting to be busier than ever, so the competition for these cheap beds is probably going to continue to increase, especially in expensive European, Australian, and North American cities. If you are on the tightest of budgets, these will probably still be your best bet for cheap sleeps, but you might actually have to reserve even farther in advance for the cheap beds at the hostels with the best locations. If you are fairly sure you know where you want to stay, then book your first night as early as you can.
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Tags: budget travel, rtw
Posted in Featured, RTW Travel Deals | 1 Comment »

Special February fares for RTW tickets

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

If looking at the news these days has you feeling low, you have two choices – you can stay glued to the television until there’s something good to report, or you can get out and make something good happen. We are, of course, advocating for the latter – and we think one of the best ways to create your own good news is by getting out and seeing the world.

Easily one of the best things about traveling right now is that there are exceptional deals available. Airlines and hotels (among other travel-related industries) are cutting prices in order to lure travelers back out of their economic-slump-induced hibernation, so if you can take time out for a trip right now you’ll be in for some amazing discounts. And that includes RTW tickets.

Here are the February RTW ticket deals – these prices are good through February 28, 2009.

• Los Angeles – Hong Kong – Bangkok – Singapore – Bali (Denpasar) – Los Angeles from US$1195 (plus taxes)
• Los Angeles – Sydney – Christchurch – Tongatapu (Tonga) – Nadi (Fiji) – Honolulu – San Francisco from US$1649 (plus taxes)
• New York – Beijing – Hong Kong – Singapore – Bangkok – Bombay / Mumbai – Nairobi – Cairo – Athens – Rome – Copenhagen – Berlin – London – New York from US$2999 (plus taxes)

These itineraries are just a sample to get your mind going – they might be just what you had in mind, but if they’re not exactly where you wanted to go that’s okay, too. You can plan your own customized RTW trip in seconds and visit just the cities you want.

Tags: Featured, rtw tickets
Posted in RTW Travel Deals | 2 Comments »

Itineraries for RTW trips – Leaving from North America

Friday, January 30th, 2009

When people get serious about the idea of going on a round the world trip, obviously one of the first issues involves putting together some kind of itinerary or route map. Sure, there are people who prefer to just buy their first one-way ticket, and make the rest up as they go, but if you really want to travel “around the world” it’s not a bad idea to have a general plan in mind early on, even if you end up winging it anyway.

As someone who’s done a long RTW in addition to dozens of other trips of various lengths, I’ve learned quite a bit about how these itineraries and RTW route maps tend to go, so I’ll be sharing some itinerary ideas along with commentary here over the next few months.

Leaving from North America

While it’s true that Australians probably travel more per capita than any of the rest of us, and Europeans aren’t far behind, Americans and Canadians still make up a huge percentage of the people doing this. So to begin with, I’ll share the route I ended up doing myself, and then I’ll branch into other starting points in the future.
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Tags: Featured
Posted in Featured, RTW Travel Deals | 10 Comments »

Plan some resort stops while on your RTW trip

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

When most people begin planning their beginning round the world trip itinerary, it’s common to concentrate on RTW must-see sights – things like the Great Pyramids of Giza or the Acropolis in Athens, but along the way you are going to want to take some breaks from those historical sights, and fortunately you’ll be able to find some really nice resorts that are surprisingly affordable.

Before you leave home on such a trip it might not occur to you that you’ll need a “vacation” from your vacation, but you will. If you plan this sort of thing in advance, and even pencil it into your original itinerary, you’ll be able to relax for long periods of time while spending minimal funds in the process.

Another reason to stop in resort areas

This part doesn’t occur to some people, but the common reason that folks go on a RTW trip is some form or another of they “want to see the world.” Well, sure, the world works as often as it has to, and people build museums and parks and whatnot, but the world also likes to take a bit of time off when it can. There isn’t much history involved with most resort areas, but they are still a big part of the culture everywhere they exist around the world.
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Tags: Featured, resorts
Posted in Featured, RTW Travel Deals | 1 Comment »

Special January fares for RTW tickets

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Whether you’ve resolved to travel more this year or not (and what travelers among us don’t make that resolution pretty much every year?), chances are good that you’ll be at least poking around the web looking for a cheap plane ticket now and then – especially in this economy. But if all you’re looking for is cheap international airfare, we can help you out. In fact, with the deals you’ll find listed below, you may be tempted into making more than just a simple round-trip journey.

See, if you’ve priced out round-trip flights to just about anywhere lately, you’ll recognize that the prices on these multi-stop tickets are pretty incredible. I’ve paid more for a plain old round-trip ticket to Europe than these tickets cost, and with these tickets you’ll get several cities thrown in. So no matter what you think your travel plans will be this year, do yourself a favor and take a look at these tickets. You just might get inspired by one of the itineraries.

Here are the January RTW ticket deals – these prices are good through January 31, 2009.

• Los Angeles – Lima – Buenos Aires – Sao Paulo – Santiago – Los Angeles from US$1099 (plus taxes)
• San Francisco – London – Delhi – Singapore – San Francisco from US$1435 (plus taxes)
• New York – Hong Kong – Bangkok – Singapore – Bali (Denpasar) – Cape Town – New York from US$2399 (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: Featured, rtw tickets
Posted in Featured, RTW Travel Deals | 1 Comment »

Using Skype for voice calls while traveling is easy and often free

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Only a few years ago, trying to make or receive phone calls while traveling was difficult and often very expensive. That can still be the case in many places without a good tourist infrastructure, but several recent developments have made it easy and cheap, even for quality that is amazingly good.

Skype is the best VoIP service

Forget bringing a mobile phone and dealing with sim cards, and also forget about those confusing calling cards that were necessary in most countries until recently. Sign up for a Skype account, and you’ve got a free and easy way to make calls anywhere you can get on the internet. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, and Skype is the biggest and best of the competing services offering these calls.
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Tags: communication, Featured, skype
Posted in Featured, RTW Travel Deals | 2 Comments »

Free walking tours are an excellent new trend in Europe and Israel

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Started only in 2006, there is a new revolution spreading around Europe and elsewhere, and it’s especially helpful to RTW travelers and others on strict budgets. A company called Sandeman’s, which was founded by Chris Sandeman in Berlin, has begun offering “free” walking tours of various cites in a very novel way. As someone who has taken 5 of the tours already, I can highly recommend all of them.

A free walking tour?

Okay, so they aren’t exactly free, in that before the tour begins the guide will mention that the tours are really “tips-based” and not intended as some benevolent offer to tourists. You could literally pay nothing and walk away at the end, and some people do this on nearly every tour, but most people find the tours to be extremely interesting and fun, so a tip of perhaps €5 or £5 feels like a good deal, and enough that the guide feels appreciated. The guides will also usually point out the sterile tour buses making a similar route, and that those tourists are usually paying €20 or more for 90 minutes of prerecorded commentary. (more…)

Tags: Featured, pub crawls, tours, walking tours
Posted in Featured, RTW Travel Deals | 8 Comments »

Be sure to include some lesser-known cities on your RTW trip

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

When you begin planning your route for your round the world trip, you’ll no doubt be creating a list of the most famous and touristy cities in every region you’ll visit. This is totally understandable, and there is nothing wrong with it, but it’s also good to include some lesser-known cities when you are actually on your trip.

There are a few good reasons for this, but the main one is that these popular cities, whether they are big or small, tend to be very different from everything else in that country. Smaller tourist cities can even be worse in this respect, because they are often so filled with other travelers that it feels like being in a theme park instead of a town. (more…)

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