BootsnAll Travel Community

Myself and Miss Deli have been given the opportunity to travel by a generous mother in law and break in career. I am (conveniently) nuts about places, maps and geography (as well as music, ancient history, swimming and snorkeling). Miss Deli is a crack snowboarder, vegetarian (though confessed last night that Argentina could turn her on to meat) and loves the beach and furry animals (monkeys especially). We have been overland in Oz (east coast) and India (west coast) before. We love a cheap bus, train, hostel, or better, an isolated hut on the beach, where can live local style.

We are hoping to get a Oneworld Explorer ticket but at the moment I am waiting to find out about codeshare flights (Vancouver->LA, Tahiti->NZ) and if they are allowed.

After starting costs (flights, insurance €€€, kit, jabs) we should have about USD28k for the year - that's an average of about 75USD per day for both of us. That means we have to work by the time we get to NZ/OZ, especially as the early snowboarding will hit the budget hard. So roughly:

Helsinki (via London)(leaving end March)
Vancouver (and a couple of weeks in Whistler)
Los Angeles (a 3 week drive around the west coast, SF and vegas then overland via Baja, Yucatan, Belize and rest of CA)(2 months)
San Jose (Costa Rica)
San Juan (Puerto Rico to enable flight on to Venezuela)
Caracas (2 months allowed for serious chilling, trip to Trini etc.)
Lima (overland via Bolivia, Chile, Argentina to Brazil)(2 months - seems short right?)
Rio
Santiago (to enable flight onwards)
Easter Island
Papeete (Tahiti)
Auckland (NZ north)
Queenstown (NZ south)(month in NZ)
Melbourne (month or 2 in Oz)
Perth
Denpasar Bali (maybe explore some more of Indo but xmas time is off season I believe)
Hong Kong (to enable flight onwards)
Delhi (and overland to Nepal and discover some more of India)(2 months)
Helsinki

So what do you think?
I am starting to think it feels rushed, which is ridiculous when talking about a year on the road...

Doesn't seem rushed to me, looks like you will have fun!

About the Costa Rica-Venezuela portion... Don´t know if you´ve considered Panama for chilling out, but I´m here right now and it is absolutely fantastic! Cheap prices, friendly people, totally safe... around Bocas del Toro are the most magnificent islands, filled with live coral and rainbow fish, and tourists can be counted in the hundreds rather than the thousands... quick, before everyone gets here!

I don't think it looks too rushed - the part through South America is a bit, but everything else looks reasonable and after 2 months relaxing in Venezuela you might be ready to be on the move a bit. Alternatively, you could cut back on your stay in Venezuela by a few weeks and put that extra time into your overland trip.

It looks like fun

Scribetrotter - you are talking my language. We will definitely consider checking out Panama (we can just go back to Costa Rica to fly onwards).

Regarding the rest of it I have just learned from my favourite airline that:

-For Oneworld we have to go Vancouver-Dallas-LAX
-For Oneworld Explorer NZ south island is out
-For Oneworld Explorer there is no connection between Papeete (Tahiti) and Auckland so we might have to buy that separately though Air Tahiti Nui looks very expensive - any ideas?

Not too sure about the ticket but fyi there is a ferry that goes from baja to mainland Mexico - not sure if you knew about that. here's some info:

http://www.bajaferries.com/modules/content/?id=2

I really love baja and honestly it's a great way to start the more rural part of your itinerary. P.S. Always carry some extra cash in case you have to pay a bribe. Doesn't happen so much anymore but you want to be careful, Mx is having a lot of problems w/ dirty cops, etc.

It was just a few months ago they took away the guns from all the cops in Tijuana (TJ) and replaced them w/ slingshots. seriously.

I'm assuming your route is limited by flights/hubs... but it struck me as strange to fly from Vancouver to LA and then drive up to SF. Why not fly or drive/train it from Vancouver to SF and then drive down the coast to LA?

Venezuela is a great idea. Don't spend too
long in Caracas as cities go its not that great. On the other hand, the rest of the country is fantastic. For beaches, you can go to Puerto Columbo, with a tiny little beach surrounded by palms and full of calm on the weak days. Then there is Angel falls, Mt. Roraima, the Gran Sabana, and many other sites, all not cheap, all worth the price. You'll want to book some of these things well ahead of time except for Angel Falls, which is always taking people, and all tours are more or less the same.

Oh, about monkeys. A word of advice'-- monkeys are great in the wild when people aren't around, and great to look at behind a cage. But when they're used to people and free, they can be real monsters. Don´t feed them, and don't get near them.

Unless of course your girlfriend WORKS with monkeys in a zoo, then I suppose I can understand why she loves them so much. Even if raised, they reach a point in their life when they need to be caged or given away. Or so says the director of a monkey refuge center, the place where hand raised monkeys go in the end.

BnA is alive - hoorah!

Mustard - I am looking forward to Baja south. And yes, nice one on the ferry link. Haven't decided what to see in the rest of Mexico yet - we'll see when we get there. Though Yucatan is on the menu because to get to Belize, which I am really excited about.

Bungle - yeah, I thought a lot about this, but because we want cheap one way car hire, and to end closer to Mexico, LA makes sense. We will drive in a circle LA-SF-Lake Tahoe-Vegas (and Grand Canyon)-LA. I am sad not to go to Seattle (big Hendrix fan) but want to get to Tahoe for some snowboarding in the April sunshine.

Tortuga - noted about Caracas. I think we will head to the NE for the beaches and the ferry to Trinidad. And yes, we've seen in India what a bad combination monkeys and over-generous tourists can be.

FYI our itinerary is now:

HEL-LHR-YVR-DFW-LAX-overland to-SJO-SJU-CCS-LIM-overland to-RIO-SCL-IPC-SCL-AKL-SYD-NOU-SYD-PER-SIN-overland to-BKK-HEL

We are booked in on 23.3 to fly to Canada. And will be paying Oneworld this week - oh the pain in the wallet!

Deli - the trip looks awesome! I'll attest to your anticipated money woes in regards to the early boarding in Whistler. We were up there for a week in November and what with the $70+ lift tickets, generally INSANE cost of everything in the area (especially the main Village) and pull of the night life (there's a ton of it, everyone's there to do it, and it ain't cheap!) it adds up fast. We had my company condo to stay in for free for the week and it was still painful on the pocket book.

FYI - shop at the large market in the main Village area. The other markets that are off the beaten path aren't any cheaper, and obviously further away.

Have a great trip!

...and the temptation of the early bird tickets!

I found a cheap condo close to the lifts in the village (60USD/night) - and thanks, we will definitely be market shoppers.

Fingers crossed for some big snow late in March