BootsnAll Travel Community

I'm interested in the stories of anyone who has done a RTW in three months or less.

Specifically:
How long was your trip?
Where did you go?
Which experiences really stand out?
What advice would you give to others?

Thanks! I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

I haven't done one, but I would think a real RTW in just three months would be spent mostly in travel, and not really enjoying much. (I have traveled for 3 months straight, but limited where I went to just a couple of countries).

I have...more than once in fact...last summer i did asia in 60 days and back, is that RTW?

Do you mean like a lot of continents?

This summer im doing india, UAE and africa in like 80 something days again less than three months...

I mean I could go on and on, but honestly read my blog, it is VERY in depth (over 140 typed single spaced pages) detailing every day sometimes hour by hour account of my trip...

You should absolutely do it...I am a planner, these shorter trips are golden for me because I optimize my time and have just as many local experiences (I think more) than others...I think a big part of it is how fast paced you are in general and how open you are.

For example: last summer I did 12 countries in those 60 days and the first 30 days I did about 8. I was flying using the Cathay Pacific All Asia pass and off every 3-6 days depending on where I was. They actually changed the rules and limit how many places you can go too. My original ticket had 10 flights for 30 days!

It can work, it takes planning...I think it is key to know how to get from the airport to your hostel/hotel...have your places booked in advance or at least an idea of where you want to stay.

But at the same time its not like I had everyday planned like some crazy soccer mom (no offense to any soccer moms out there). I didn't even take a guidebook. I either had some local friends showing me around, or I would talk to people in the hostel when I arrived to find out what people liked and didn't like...

The only place I would have loved to stay longer was Tokyo and Japan hands down, that places needs a solid 3 weeks to a month the problem is that you will spend so much of your budget its so hard...

If you have specific questions about logistics feel free to respond or shoot me a PM...I really think I have mastered the short but efficient and absolutely awesome trip...From playing local games with kids in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh to feeding wild monkeys in the same, jumping out of trains in Vietnam...

I'm sorry I don't want to offend anyone but I can't stand when people say short trips don't work...i think it discourages fellow travelers who might be on the fence about going or not...people should be realistic and keep it real, if you haven't done it, you don't know

My brother-in-laws parents just did one. It was actually for her work however they had a great time. It was only 1 month that they were gone and they were on the move pretty much all the time. However they had a great time and said that they felt the trip changed them for the better. Now they have the travel bug! Imagine that after a whirlwind of company paid flights & hotels

One of the bathrooms in their hotel was bigger than my bedroom!

Also, their favorite spot was Hong Kong but it was because they were there the longest.

The thing about your rtw is that its yours. You can always ask for others opinions, but in the end its your money, your trip and your the one who needs to be happy.

Remember travel is personal, if you feel fulfilled by visiting 10 countries in 10 days then that's your style. Just remember that not all trips are rtw's, I believe that the going definition for that is visiting 3 or more continents during a single journey.

Thanks for the responses so far. I especially appreciate Littlemustard for sharing his in-laws' experience because that is exactly what I'm curious about.

My curiosity in the area was aroused by an article I read on an airplane in the in-flight magazine where the writer had done a RTW that was less than a month. Although that is a bit short for me personally, I appreciated the boldness of it. And it made me wonder about what others had experienced and what they liked/disliked about the experience.

I realize that many of the boots n' all community prefer to travel in depth within a region and that's fantastic. There are many threads available to share that experience. I think this is the first thread that has opened up the option of sharing a very short RTW.

Please feel free to continue to share your experiences on short RTWs. And I'm cool if you want to share other short trips within a continent as well, though it wasn't what I was specifically seeking. I enjoy hearing about everyone's experiences.

I think whether it works depends a lot on what you have in mind. Kathy and I are planning to do a six week trip in 2010 that will go around the world. But it's still only a more or less standard two flight holiday - one flight into Beijing and one home from Istanbul. That seems quite reasonable to me.

Hopping around on several flights and visiting every continent the way the standard RTW trip is set up would be less fun in a short time frame.

Check out solbeam's website...she's been gone for well over 3 years.....just for perspective.

I am dreaming about a 5 week trip around the world. The route would be London - New York (5 days) - Los Angeles (5 days) - Hawaii (12 days) -Sydney (5 days) - Thailand (6 days) - London. I'm planning to use budget airlines (Zoom, Southwest, Jetstar, LTU etc) and the flights would cost about 1200-1400 euros.

What do you think about this kind of around the world trip? Is it too much in 5 weeks? I think flying to the west helps to avoid jet lag.

On the other hand if many people are travelling to the other side of world in three weeks why not spend two more weeks and go around the world!

Petri, your idea is what I was originally thinking of.
I was originally thinking of doing a trip with 5 or 6 places, spending a week or two in each. It's basically a series of short trips strung together, but it would be pretty cool I think. I'm sure many people will tell you it's too much traveling, but like you say, if you are already heading half way around the world to get somewhere why not stop a couple of times on the way there and on the way back and make it an RTW trip.

I agree with you about flying west rather than east. It's always easier for me.