BootsnAll Travel Community

Hey there, I'm currently planning my trip for next year, and am currently in the process of working out roughly where I want to go, and I'm finding it tough narrowing it down!

My current thoughts are:

Fly from London to Mexico City end of March
Mexico - 6 weeks (April)
Guatemala - 4 weeks (May) - including a Spanish course
Honduras - 2 weeks (June - including a diving course in the bay islands
Ecuador - 2 weeks (July)
Peru - 6 weeks (July / August) - including Inca Trail
Bolivia - 4 weeks (September)
Argentina - 6 weeks (October)
Australia - 1 week (October)
Indonesia - 5 weeks (November)
Phillippines - 5 weeks (December)
Vietnam - 4 weeks (January)
Laos - 4 weeks (February)
Cambodia - 2 weeks (March)
Thailand - 1 week (March)
Fly back from Bangkok to London

I know the answers to lots of these are really quite subjective, but still thought it was worth asking more experienced travellers their opinions on a few points:

1. I'm presuming a OneWorld explorer will be the best RTW ticket to use as I'm visiting south america? On that ticket are the only flights from SA to Aus via Santiago? Or is Buenos Aires an option too?

2. Is there anywhere there where people think I'm not spending long enough (or even too long)? - I want a balance between getting to see a fair amount of places but not rushing around all the time. Are there any countries in the areas I'm going to that are real highlights but I'd be missing out? (BTW, I know 1 week is very short for Australia & Thailand - these are the countries I've travelled around a fair amount before so they are intentionally brief stops)

3. Any obvious weather issues? I'm particularly thinking re. the timing of diving in Honduras and the Indonesian leg.

Any other comments or suggestions welcome, thank you!

6 weeks is pretty good for mexico, you could probably do it in less if you wanted. I'd really recommend doing at least 1 week of language instruction in the start or it'll be a long and painful 6 weeks of not knowing Spanish. In Oaxaca you can take classes for very little money - I had a full week, 4 hours a day, private lessons for $160 there.

I think it looks pretty good, time-wise. Most people have told me it's possible to do Laos in less time, so that might be something to think about.

I think it sounds like a heck of a lot of time in airplanes!! I'm not sure if you will be flying between the Central American countries, but you may want to consider NOT flying those parts. The area is small enough to comfortably bus around and that way you can take the time where you want to rather than racing through one area just because you have a plane to catch.

I LOVED Ecuador and spent many months there - I'm thinking you've got way too little time planned for there.

But in the end, you need to go with what you want to see and do - and then live with with whatever decisions you've made.

I don't think there's too much flying planned - only really the ones between continents:

London-Mexico City

Honduras-Quito

Buenos Aires-Melbourne

Melbourne-Jakarta

no doubt some inter-island flights to get round Indonesia & the Phillipines, and then on to Vietnam

Bangkok-London

Everything else will be by bus (or boat)

The point re. Spanish lessons is fair - I speak a little bit now and am having more lessons here before I go so won't be completely stuck, but it's good to know it can be done cheaply in Mexico, I assumed it would be a lot more expensive than Guatemala!

Malena, you're right, most people would say you can do Laos in less than 2 weeks - I was there for 3 weeks this Christmas and did the classic backpacker route - but I fell in love with the place so much I want to go back for longer to explore the remote bits I didn't get round to seeing before, which I'm sure will be well worth it. I suppose that points back to the pointlessness of my own original question - imagining you can 'do' any country in a month of whatever is just mad.

quote:

Originally posted by itinerantlondoner:
The point re. Spanish lessons is fair - I speak a little bit now and am having more lessons here before I go so won't be completely stuck, but it's good to know it can be done cheaply in Mexico, I assumed it would be a lot more expensive than Guatemala!

Malena, you're right, most people would say you can do Laos in less than 2 weeks - I was there for 3 weeks this Christmas and did the classic backpacker route - but I fell in love with the place so much I want to go back for longer to explore the remote bits I didn't get round to seeing before, which I'm sure will be well worth it. I suppose that points back to the pointlessness of my own original question - imagining you can 'do' any country in a month of whatever is just mad.

Hehe yeah, I hate the terminology although obviously I'm guilty of abusing it If you already speak some Spanish then you can hold off on the lessons, at least unless you decide you really need them in Mexico... I know I didn't study as much as I wanted beforehand and found it immediately apparent that I needed lessons.

As far as tickets go, one area that the Oneworld really shines in is that it offers a bunch of intra-continent legs, which you aren't really using. You might be able to get by with a cheaper ticket by working directly with STA Travel or another travel agency like that, or just buying the legs individually... I'm not really sure though.

I love, love, love mexico but i think that 6 weeks is a lot considering all the other CA and SA countries you are hitting up. You could def. cut down a couple weeks if you wanted. other than that, it looks awesome!

quote:

As far as tickets go, one area that the Oneworld really shines in is that it offers a bunch of intra-continent legs, which you aren't really using. You might be able to get by with a cheaper ticket by working directly with STA Travel or another travel agency like that, or just buying the legs individually... I'm not really sure though.

Thanks Malena - I'll be speaking to travel agents next week so will raise that issue with them and see what they say, I was just assuming an RTW ticket would be necessary.

Littlemustard - thanks too. I'm spending a bit longer there (a) because Mexican food (in Mexico) is my favourite in the world (b) because it's big and I want to see lots of it and (c) because my best mate has just moved there and want to spend time with him.