Planning your own round the world flights trip

Got thee to the pub with thy mates - Hurrah!

The best travel advice I ever had (in a pub), was stop worrying about your RTW - just get going. We at roundtheworldflights.com need no excuse and have known about the health benefits of the public house for years, whilst consuming a freshly poured glass or two of Guinness or a nice drop of wine; but it's also a great travel resource. Get thee to the pub with as many mates or mates of mates that you've ever known who have ever been travelling. Ask them about their prior trips and where they'd like to go back to, and why. People are usually incredibly happy to talk about their travels (and by extension themselves), especially after a few shandys/vinos/beers, but you can get mining for Grade A info and you might turn up one or two inspirational travel gems.

How do you decide where to go?

First, make a list of the places the you've always wanted to go to. Then try to put them in a general geographical order eg UK - Taj Mahal - Angkor Wat - Thai Islands - The Great Barrier Reef - Ayers Rock - Sydney - Whale Watching in South Island New Zealand - snorkelling in Fiji - Surfing in Hawaii - LA - New York - UK can then be translated into a great RTW. (The 7 Stop Discoverer RTW in this case). The distance traveled, number of stops and route will determine how much your RTW will cost. Start on our RTW trip planner to give you a decent idea on prices for RTW ideas, and the dates you have to leave to get cheaper deals.

Cheapest time to leave on an RTW

The cheapest RTW prices are for departures in April to June. However fares in shoulder season are only usually between £100-£200 higher. The best bargains are to be had if you avoid departures from the U.K. in July, early August, Easter and Christmas (basically UK school holidays). If you do have to leave in the busy season, you should book as far ahead as possible (up to 10.5-11 months). Probably the hardest flights to find availability on are those returning to the UK from Asia, Australia or New Zealand in early January. Your departure date from the U.K. will normally also have a large bearing on the cost of your ticket. An identical RTW ticket that costs £1,500 in November will cost £3,000 mid-December.

Deciding when you want to leave on your RTW

After New Year, in the new year, low season, when the weather is great in Asia, winter in New Zealand for the skiiing...loads of options. But all roads lead from Rome and all prices depend in the most part on when you leave. Generally the cheapest RTWs involve leaving after Easter and before the summer holidays - when the weather is a bit rubbish outside Europe (Go West young man!) - Here is a very general RTW season/month guide:

January - Shoulder / Low Season
February - Low Season
March - Low Season
April - Low Season
May - Low Season
June - Low / High Season
July - High Season
August - High Season
September - Low Season
October - Low Season
November - Low Season
December - Shoulder / High Season

ps. Unlike others (shameless plug here) we publish the seasonal differences for most RTWs..

Building the RTW itinerary you really want
Before you get to the purchase of your RTW you might find yourself getting a wee bit, shall we say emotional. After all it is your dream trip and you don't want to screw it up. It takes time, patience and quite a lot of humming and hah-ing. It can also be scary too. Don't worry that's normal - the whole process of deciding where, when, why can seem a wee bit overwhelming....

Map and Calendar

Seems a bit simplistic but its actually very hard to plot a trip without using a map and calendar, and its hard to find a decent map that doesn't take forever to download on the web. But you can download a pdf here

 

Books and magazines

You're going to get a guidebook anyway. Try downloading a map whilst coming out of a bus station on your Blackberry at 1am at Surat Thani. Isn't going to happen. Everyone has their favorite series - we like Lonely Planet for the maps, Footprint for the descriptions, Rough Guide for the categorizations, But there's loads of other great publishers out there on and off-line - Time Out, Frommers, DK etc. Try them all. We also like Wanderlust and The Real Traveller magazine. The Observer, The Times, The Telegraph and the Guardian all have decent travel sections too.

Come and see us

Unlike others we've got a great shop in Islington, Central London. We're open till 8am-7pm Monday to Friday and from 10am-5pm on Saturdays and online or on the phone on Sundays from 11am-4pm and we've based next to Angel tube station (102 Islington High Street) - see map

The Internet

There's thousands of helpful sites out there that can assist in the decision making process. Start with roundtheworldflights.com. But Lonely Planet, Tripbase, or 101 Holidays all bring something to the planning process. As do WAYN, Simon Seeks, Travellers Point and Map Vivo.

Facebook

It's such a great way to get personal recommendations as well as stay in touch - also become a fan of roundtheworldflights.com here

YouTube

Again another great resource at the planning stage - check out the latest videos on all things round the world here

Blogs

Earlier this year we sent Explorer Mark Eveleigh off on a 7 Stop Discoverer round the world flights - read his amazing blog here. World Hum and Boots 'n All are great too.

All you have to do to set up your own travel blog is to choose a blog supplier as a start (Blooger, Word Press or a travel-oriented blog such as this one: http://www.travelblog.org/). Think what you want your blog to be: a place to document your trip as it happens? or maybe to tell about your memories from previous trips? Or a record of your trip? it's always good to be clear and consistent. Then, start posting (at least once a week) and don't forget to include images (just make sure they were taken by you and you only), video and maybe a twitter feed - as below.

Twitter

For up to the minute travel advice or a swift answer to many travel questions I'd recommend twitter. Personally I like these guys but there are hundreds of great tweeters out there.

@rtwflights (That's us!) @rtwdave @501places @lonelyplanet @simonseeks

@thegapyear @unmarket @timestravel @guardiantravel @telegraphtravel @airtreks

@entirelykiwi @traveldudes @velvetescapes @whereivebeen @africaoverland @matadortravel

@twitchiker @brillianttrips @smithhotels @SEKeener @travelfish @twobackpackers

Message boards can be great resources...sometimes.

With Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree Forum, you can visit a selected region in search of the questions others have asked before. There is usually an answer to your personal question logged on the forum somewhere. WorldBackpackers.net also has some great traveller minded advice and Trip Advisor is another popular recommendation site - just be a little wary of some of the hotel reviews - check out a hotel you've enjoyed staying at and see the cross-section of reviews. Saying that we do like it the restaurant reviews - tends to be more up to date the guidebooks. Stuart, a Director at roundtheworldflights.com, who likes his tea, and ate out every night on Lindos in Rhodes this summer and used trip advisor pretty much every time. He thought it really was helpful.

Spend more time in the more remote parts of the globe

Seems obvious - doesn't it. Especially from a financial and enviromental point of view. A round the world via South America costs about the same as a return to South America - so make the most of it. In a sense the only enviromental justification for taking an RTW is to visit the more remote spots on earth and spend worthwhile time there.

You're never going to get everywhere

So don't try to "do" Asia in a month. Take 2-3 months for South East Asia - and take enough time in Australia, New Zealand and/or the Americas.

Stay ahead of fashion travel hipsters

Where's cool? Well New Zealand, Australia and South East Asia (Vietnam) is very now. And probably will be next year too - well in our opinion not enough people have visited South Asia, Western Australia, the high Andes, central Indochina, Bolivia or Central America recently. So if you get to ahead of the cool cats, then get thee to Nepal, Perth, Laos, Bolivia and the Oaxaca region of Mexico...

Check if you can do your perfect RTW

Well this is where you give us a call - we're open 7 days a week on 02077045700

How to book your RTW from the UK or Europe

 

By phone

roundtheworldflights.com is celebrating its 12th year, and has booked tens of thousands of customers by phone. However it is better if you don't attempt to do this on your mobile whilst you are on the bus, or doing your weekly shop in Sainsburys - even if you are a busy person! For us to do this properly, we will need you to have your full attention for about half an hour or so...

Commitment

We appreciate that some people need a short time to assimilate this information but to continue to hold these seats and to confirm this reservation we do need to take a deposit.

Payment Stage

A non-refundable deposit of £75 per person or 30% of your booking, is payable for airline bookings, with the balance usually due within 10 days (although sometimes you do get longer). A non refundable deposit of around 10% is normally required for hotels or tours or car hire. We will then email you a booking confirmation that give details of each flight, airline, departure and arrival times and any hotel or tour arrangements you may have. This will also contain the complete costing's of your booking and terms and conditions, (Please make sure you read it thoroughly when it arrives!).

Final Payment Stage

The date of this depends on the ticket that you have chosen but most airlines still allow you to delay payment until seventy days prior to departure. However there is an increase in tickets that need to be issued within ten days of the original reservation being made. Your consultant will make sure that you are aware of when your arrangements need to be finalised by. Once final payment has been taken and your tickets issued changes are not so easy and will normally incur a fee before you start travelling so make sure all amendments are made by this stage. Before the final amount is collected the ticket price will be rechecked and your taxes will be recalculated.

Tickets

Tickets are issued (ie printed) when final payment has been received. Tickets will be ready for collection or can be posted for a small fee, as soon as all of your travel documents have been issued. If you receive e tickets (which 99% of RTW tickets now are), then we'll simply email over your Booking Confirmation with Airline Booking Reference.

Please don't forget!

Insurance

Now you are about to embark on your amazing journey, however travel insurance is probably the most important purchase you'll make for your trip. Every year we a have heart breaking phone call from some distant corner of the globe, don't let it be you! Having insurance when you travel, is as essential as remembering your passport. Anyway we thing we've got an honestly priced and decent insurance policy. Our cover is designed for people on specifically long-stay or multi-stop trips, is underwritten by insurance giant AXA, and cover starts from £135 for 6 months. So if you require Round The World travel insurance please check out all the details of our cover - here

Accommodation

Have you thought about where your going to spend your first nights abroad? Most of our guys in the office book the first few nights in a hotel when they take off. There's over 15,000 different hotels and prices start from £15 per night. - see more

That's it. Nothing left to do now but arrange your farewell party and pack!