After researching a bit about different possible routes to take, my girlfriend and I have decided on starting our RTW in Egypt!

We originally thought about flying from BOS-SJO Costa Rica, and then traveling overland down into SA, but decided after careful consideration that we'd prefer to go this route. Plus, CA and SA are not our top priorities due to the face that they are pretty accessible from the US at all times.

I cannot explain in words how excited I am! AHHHHHH! Are you planning on leaving for your RTW next summer? If so, where are YOU planning on starting?

Well, guess it's time to start building the blog!

Awesome, Ry When you get the blog up be sure to drop a link here for us.

Egypt is a pretty interesting starting choice. A lot of directions you can go from there. Will you head into Africa, or the middle east or ..?

Thanks!

Well, currently we're thinking about spending 3 weeks in Egypt traveling around. Then we might fly from Cairo to Dubai for about a week before heading to Bangkok where we plan to travel a lot of SE Asia.

We hope to be able to Couchsurf a lot during this trip to cut costs too! CS is awesome!

I'd LOVE to fly down to Johannesburg and check out Victoria Falls, and then head down to Cape Town to do some shark diving, but travel within Africa seems to be pretty pricey! Your thoughts?

We will be starting our RTW in Malaysia in July 2010. We will be bumming around Asia for 6-7 months and then head to the middle east (Egypt, Jordan, Turkey). Then we will end our trip in Southern Africa on a Safari, etc. in May 2011. We know what you mean when you say that CA and SA are both so close to the US - we have made a few trips down there in the last few years and it almost seems silly to throw it in on this trip (though still very enticing).

We are also very excited and have already started building our blog!!!!!

My fiance and I are planning on leaving for a RTW in late March 2010. Not sure where we are going to start yet, but middle east and africa are hopefully in the plans. This will be our second rtw. We finished the first one (1 yr) in June 2005. We had an absolute blast (focus on europe/asia - mostly all overland) such that we cannot resist the urge to do it all again. I am pretty excited... even though the opportunity costs seem higher now...
Anyway, it seems that you are from BOS? We are currently in NY but our fams are in BOS. We will likely be going home right before the trip after we close out our apartment. Who knows, maybe we can meet up before pre- trip as the date draws closer - it never hurts to know a potential future travel acquaintance.... Have fun planning!

Hi,

Me and my hubby want to spend this coming New Years in Egypt. I am really looking forward to discovering Spinx and do a bit of diving as well and all those clishe things people usually do in Egypt.
We have had a look at some luxury hotels in Egypt.
Please let me know if you know some hotels in either Hurghada or Sharm el Sheikh.
Thanks,
xx

@ Cube Dreamer: Very cool! Yeah, maybe we could meet up! We plan on being in SE Asia in the months of July/August/Sept.

@TravelShocker: We're not going to be staying in ANY luxury hotels, sorry! This a budget travel trip that we're embarking on! Must be nice! Enjoy yourself!

Just noticed the comments about South Africa and my God, if this is still an option do it! After 25 countries on my rtw this one just might be my favorite and I'm itching to get back- most diverse place I've been to bubbling modern cities to forgotten villages with no electricity on dirt roads, mountains to deserts to oceans to you get the idea. Go!

Also when it comes to price I thought South Africa was reasonable- you could get a dorm bed for ten bucks depending on the exchange rate in some of the best hostels I've seen anywhere, and I got a Baz Bus pass that took me from Cape Town to Jo'burg for US$300 or so, hop on hop off for two weeks. It's when you get into the interior of Africa that things get expensive because everything needs to be shipped in and such- if you want to go to Vic Falls only you can either fly up or take the bus (~1 day's ride) or join up with a cheap backpackers tour that would probably take in Chobe NP for some game viewing at minimum (there are longer ones all over Africa of course but if it's only for a few days this option won't kill you). I never looked into rentals in that part of the world though... also if you're brave enough I was on the Zimbabwe side of Vic Falls this past July and everything there is beyond cheap, it's all safe but you will definitely stare poverty in the face.

Good luck!

Thanks for all the great info Andro. I understand that it's not TOO expensive to travel from place to place by land. What I meant by expensive is that when I searched for flights from Cairo to Jo'burg, or Cape Town they were pretty expensive to my standards. $700+ What do ya think?

I wouldn't know as I haven't flown that route, but Africa's a big continent and it would be an overnight flight to cross the continent. So to keep things in perspective it's not an insanely expensive price to ask considering the distances involved, but you could probably do it cheaper...

Hmmm, just going to kayak.com for Cairo-Jo'burg (I'd be very surprised if you found a good deal to Cape Town, not as big an airport) and just flipping through the monthly calendar on the right, looks like the cheapest someone searched was $600 for the flight. Mind there's a good chance you could find a good deal in Cairo too as local travel agents can often get good deals- my experience in Africa was purchasing flights was often cheaper in person than online. So if you guys are ok with winging it this might be an option.

Alright that's all I got- good luck and hey, your call obviously based on your preferences but if I had a choice I'd head back to Africa over SEA in a heartbeat. Probably what'll happen for my next rtw if I can find the time to escape for it actually.

Edit: Forgot, but how old are you two? Either 26 or under? Because you still count as a "youth" then, meaning you can take advantage of some great travel deals at Sta Travel and the like...

Thanks for all of the information. I'll be sure to look into it further due to your intriguing advice! And we'll both be turning 26 next year...

Keep in mind that the World Cup will be taking place in South Africa next year. June 10-July 10, 2010 are the dates, so any travel to S. Africa is going to cost a lot more than normal, housing will be difficult to come by (even with couchsurfing) and the crowds in the larger cities where the matches are taking place will be bigger. My sister is going there specifically for World Cup, but they've already booked their flights, reserved hostels/hotels, etc. Just keep it in mind. I would love to go to Africa next year on my RTW trip but it's proving quite cost prohibitive at the moment. Or maybe I was just too idealistic on what I thought the price would be for a RTW ticket.