Round The World Tickets
"Around The world..."
With air travel becoming cheaper for long haul flights, it is becoming relatively cheap to buy a round the world ticket. Most travels agents these days offer this type of ticket for set routes around the globe. The tickets can be bought for between £700 - £1200 depending on your class of travel and even more so on the route you choose to take. This style of ticket is popular with backpackers today as they are able to cover several continents in one trip in a smaller amount of time and therefore at a lesser expense.
Fixed Or Custom RouteThere are hundreds of travel web sites on the Internet offering numerous fixed routes for round the world tickets. These are normally very popular with backpackers as they are the cheapest option and take you to good locations which are the most suitable for backpackers. These destinations are often backpacker friendly offering plenty to do and see coupled with good, cheap accommodation. Some examples of popular fixed routes are listed a section below.
Custom routes on the other hand allow you to tailor make your own experience. This option is more expensive as the operators only give the travel agents discounts for the most popular fixed travel routes and self created custom routes typically do not follow a particularly direct path around the globe. Please note that you route may not always be possible to create due to restrictions with an airlines flight paths, timings and availabilities. However, a solution and good mix between a fixed route and custom route is a ticket priced by miles.
The STA Travel website has a good tool which allows you to choose your own flight route and then quote you a price.
Ticket Flexibility
Flexible travel costs more. If you decide upon exact dates and destinations of travel when you buy your ticket, then it will be far cheaper than changing your mind half way round the world. Some tickets will charge you up to £100 to change a flight date or route unless you buy a flexible ticket before you leave. Flexible tickets can be considerably dearer than fixed tickets so you need to decide whether you are likely to want to stay in place longer or shorter than originally intended. It can be hard to judge but if you are generally fickle or tend to make last minute decisions then perhaps paying the extra before you go will pay off in the long term.
Tickets Priced By MilesAnother good ticket option sometimes available are those which give you a quota of air miles to use to plan a route. When I went travelling I chose this option and based by custom route on a pre set route but made a few alterations. The tickets can be used for any flight routes you wish as long as the airlines had corresponding flight dates and flight paths are available. You can pay for more miles but 29,000 is enough to get you around the globe with a little to spare for your customisation. This is a good option for a traveller who wants to navigate the globe on a set path but stray slightly from a standard route.
Example World TicketsUK - Bangkok - Sydney - Auckland - Fiji - Los Angeles - UK
A very popular route as it hits the top backpacking destinations. It gives you a taste of the far east, down under, paradise and the states all at once to provide the perfect mix for any trip. With no overland travel opportunities being the only drawback this is a perfect first time experience which will leave you eager for more.
UK - Mumbai - Singapore - Sydney - Melbourne - Auckland - Santiago - overland Buenos Aires - Sao Paulo - UK
Perhaps slightly more adventurous and taking you to some more unusual destinations. Taking you to Bollywood, the Andes mountain range in Chile and across to Argentina and Brazil, this route promises many cultures but could be a bit hairy for a first time traveller in South America.
UK - Tokyo - Cairns overland Sydney - Christchurch overland Auckland - Singapore overland Bangkok- UK
This happy chappy does not actually navigate the entire globe as it misses out the Americas, but it takes you to Japan which is slightly unusual but exciting. It takes you to the Great Barrier Reef for some diving and has good worthwhile overland opportunities in New Zealand.
London - Rekjavik - Toronto - Miami - Lima - Buenos Aires - Auckland - Shanghai - Bangkok - Bahrain - London
Providing an interesting and rare opportunity to visit Iceland and a Middle East country. This trip is unorthodox but good inspiration for destinations you could visit in the future. With Canada, China and Peru in the mix, this is truly an excellent travel opportunity and a route to consider.