Round the World Vs. Several long trips

I am pretty new to the idea of an around the world trip, but have been inspired not only by all the information that I have found here on this amazing message board, but also by parents and their insatiable desire to travel.

Anyway here is my current thinking. If I decide that an around the world is the way to go, I will be 40+ at the time of my trip (I am 34 at the moment and my children are 14 and 11 and so to young to be left right now) and I will spend the next 6 + years saving and planning etc.

However I could take shorter trips to different regions and start doing them sooner. So spend 5 weeks in New Zealand in 2011 and then 8 weeks in Canada in 20013 and then 8 weeks in South East Asia in 2015. I am sure you get the idea.

My husband and children are not interested in any travel that would invlove a plane. Is it wrong of me to want to see the world (or at least some of it) without them?

Any ideas on my plans pros and cons of the two ways????
Thanks for any input
Kind Regards
Nic.

Personally, the idea of a RTW trip doesn't really appeal to me, I'd rather explore a smaller area at one time. But obviously a lot of people do enjoy RTW trips, so that's a matter of taste. Just saying that a RTW trip isn't necesarily the holiest of holies. And if your family don't want to travel with you, it definitely makes more sense to travel for a shorter time annually, than to have to miss them for a year or more.

I don't know where you live, but generally you can do a lot of travel without having to get on a plane (if it's only the planes that your husband and kids object to and not the travel). Trains, busses, boats, etc. can get you a long way (I believe the longest train ride in the world is Lisbon to Ho Chi Minh City), especially if you have the luxury of being able to travel for 5-8 weeks at a time so it's not a disaster if it takes a week to get to your destination. It would take more planning, and long (boring) trips by boat, but it is possible to do a RTW without flying.

Well, Nic. You have plenty of time to decide what's best for you. Definitely it's good to throw the idea out there and get feedback from this crowd. We're pretty opinionated on how we like to travel.

Personally, I've also been captivated by the idea of the RTW trip. It just sounds so darned exotic. Yet, I've never done it so far. One reason is that you really need a lot of time to travel that far. There are people who've done shorter RTWs but that's more expensive and probably not as rewarding, though others may disagree.

Certainly if you have multiple weeks per year you can do a lot of travel and be very satisfied with it. Even with only 5 or so weeks per year, I manage to get a fair amount of traveling done. I've had satisfying trips of only one week even though they are short, if I concentrate on a particular place.

Not sure what's up with this "not on a plane" thing. Planes are pretty handy for traveling to exotic locals quickly. However, even so, as Karlien says, there are other methods of transportation at your disposal. Road trips can be fun and get you pretty far. Train trips are also nice. There are usually boats you can take as well.

All in all, if I were you, I'd probably take a trip in the near future and then analyze what satisfied you about that trip and what you felt was missing. At that point, you'll know better whether you need a RTW or shorter trips, airplanes or ground transport, family members or solo travel.

The major cons to many "long" trips is the expense and the ability to get away. RTW ends up being pretty cheap (for their length and amount of ground they cover) since there are few long haul flights. Also, since most of us need to work to pay for such things, it's hard to leave for longer than our allotted vacation time (2-4 weeks for most people on this continent), so when we do give up everything for a longer trip, we like to make it really long.

The major advantage to taking many trips is that you avoid travel burnout. The longest I've gone away is about 5 months and by the end of it, I was tired of traveling and ready to go home. I was home a couple weeks before I was ready to take off again. This wasn't really a RTW trip, just a lengthy overland. A couple of months is enough to see a country, but not long enough for you to get tired of being on the road.

It's certainly not wrong to want to fulfil your own desires. If your interest was woodworking, would you consider it wrong to set up a shop and spend many hours alone in it because the rest of your family was uninterested? I use that specific example because I've seen this play out with my in-laws, where my father-in-law wants nothing more than to be at home and work on his house, while my mother-in-law wants to see the world. They've spent tens of thousands on woodworking equipment, but there's never any money for my m-i-l to indulge her interest, so she's pretty miserable most of the time.

I would, though, encourage you to find a way to include your kids. A lot of people aren't interested in seeing the world because they never have, and your kids are still young enough that they might be convinced. But if you do convince them to go somewhere, make it somewhere truly interesting. A trip to Australia probably won't engender any great love of travel, simply because Australia isn't different enough...it's a long flight to see a different landscape. Japan, Turkey, South Africa...these are places where the people are very different and I think are more likely to convince people new to traveling that the plane ride was worth it.

2wanderers wrote:The major advantage to taking many trips is that you avoid travel burnout.

So true, on my 6 month African trip, I was burned at 2-1/2 months and a twisted ankle didn't help. Fortunately, I caught a second wind and things got better. I don't think I could take years of constant movement, so if I ever get to that RTW I'm definitely going to build in some time hanging out in a particular place every 2-3 months or so. Maybe 2 months moving, 1 month sitting still would be a good ratio. Not sure, but would love the leisure to figure it out.

I live in Australia so unfortunatly planes are a real necessity to get just about anywhere.

I have travelled a fair bit, domestically I have seen most of my own country except Darwin and Tasmania. I have also been to Canada 3 times (once in 1980 again in 1988 both with my Mum and then again in 2008 when I took my children over to meet my family. This was the trip that turned child 1 off of flying ever again.). On my 2008 trip we went to Florida (took the kids to Disney) and then went to Hawaii on the way home. I have LOVED all of these overseas travels for different reasons but all of them have left me feeling like I have seen the highlights but havent seen the COUNTRY.

My friends all say to me things like WOW you have been to America, and I always want to correct them and tell them that I have been to parts of Florida, spent 2 hours in a Dallas airport and 4 hours at LAX, and to me that is not have been to America.

Anyway I digress, I really appreciate all the opinions that have been put forward here (as apposed to the people I know here who all think I am CRAZY for wantin to get out of our 1 horse town occassionally). I really like the idea of taking a shorter trip in the near future and guaging how it makes me feel and also the impact it has on my family. I am thinking somewhere in South East Asia as it is quite cheap to get there from Australia, equally cheap to be there, and is different enough from my own culture to give me the feel for the exotic.

Thank you again for all your input, it is great to hear from like minded people.

Nic.

Sorry didn't notice you were from Australia!!

Yeah, that does make it slightly more difficult to get to another country by train

Lol, I agree! My Son has agreed to take a boat anywhere I'd like, but time is a bit of a constraining factor there!!!!!!

The shorter trips would be fine for doing a country or 2 at a time however SE Asia should be saved for an RTW as a minimum of 6 months is needed to barely scratch the surface.

Would also suggest a couple weeks in Tasmania as I had mixed feelings with my OZ trip but the day I allowed for Tasmania merely showed me that I was missing a unique experience.

Nickers76,

What part of Australia do you live in? One of my favorite BNA posters is in Melbourne. Her name is Whistler. Maybe you could talk travel with each other some time.

Anyway, if you are in Melbourne, let me know. I'm heading that way at the end of August. If you're around, I can buy you a drink and we can talk travel.

Kathryn

Do the short trips. Leave the husband and kids behind. Go enjoy yourself and get out of it what you want. Your family will survive. You're not going to be gone all that long nor all that often. My parents used to take off for 4-6 weeks and go travelling when I was growing up. I lived.

The only problem with cruises (other than the pricing for solo travelers) is the people that travel that way. Would go insane stuck on a boat with them for a week, it's hard being on a short bus trip with that ilk.

If the child refuses to fly just follow halfnine's advise & travel solo.