Hello there, I have looked over some of the messages here and am so appreciative of all the info. It is all so much and so helpful! but I still dont have a decent enough grasp on which RTW agent I should get the Ticket from. There are the airlines like One World and Star Alliance...then the Airtrek etc....what is the general opinion (my budget for 8 months is about 8k total)...well I dont know if this helps any but I am planning on leaving from Los Angeles in Feb and going to S.America first for about 2 months (in S.America I would be interested in getting an Air Pass that could get me to islands in the Caribbean-Doninican Rep, Curacao, Tobago...do those air passes even exist? and/or an AirPass that could get me around to places like Venezuela, Brazil,Peru,Argentina for cheap...or is train/bus better...also a side question: any Spanish live-in courses that you'd recommend)? THEN, In about April I would eventually fly on to either the Mediterranean (Malta, Greece?) and/or N.Africa (staying there for about 2 months)- Morocco maybe, Egypt definitly (or can I get to Egypt from Spain or Greece or any other port by ferry...? That would be ideal!!!) then flying to S.Asia (Bali etc..staying for about 2 months) then I wanted to get a Pacific Islands travel Air Pass (I forget the name ...PolyPass?...whichever... would love suggestions that would get me cheaply to the most islands possible in Oceania (I would likely stay around the region for about 2 months and would hope to visit: NZ, PNG, Fiji, Solomon Isl, New Caldonia..Tahiti...etc) and also back to LA or as far as Hawaii...Any ideas about air passes or anything else I have touched upon? So basically I am thinking about 2 months each in 4 different regions: A.Am,Med/N.Af,SEA,Oceania does that sound doable for $8k including the RTW ticket and I am a fly by the seat of my pants type (usually anyway) and some of the RTW tix seem so restrictive are any open types of tix or the types of tix that dont have all the details but can guarantee you a seat on a flight if there are seats available...I forget what those types of tix are called...or am I just imagining those ? THANKS!!!!

I am obviously another newbie

Okay. First thought. Calm down.
Second thought. Paragraphs.

Onto the meat.

You don't have enough money to do anything close to what you are planning. A RTW trip can be done on your budget, but barely. Certainly not one that involves airpasses all over the place, or eurozone countries. Pacific islands tend to be very pricey to get to, so that's another major challenge - I think the only way you'd probably be able to do this is using the OneWorld RTW ticket, since it allows some flights within a "continent". Even for a basic trip, I'd want a bit more flexibility that your bare bones $1k per month budget - maybe 50% more.

In order to make a tight budget work, you need to cut back to minimal flights - 3-4, I'd say - and stick to cheap countries. Parts of S America, most of SE Asia, and N Africa should work. In Europe, some countries are certainly affordable - Malta's a maybe (I was there shortly before the Euro, so don't know how much prices have changed since), with Croatia, Albania and Turkey being your other Med options in Europe. Greece is a definite no.