Your biggest worry on a world tour in just 80 days would probably be jet lag or motion sickness, for you would be moving. Big time at that. Still, however Herculean or whimsical it may sound, doing an “around the world in 80 days trip” is quite easy.
Image Courtesy – Thomas Tunch
Nellie Bly, of the New York World, did it in a flat 72 days! Then, there was James Willis Sayre, who achieved the feat in just 54 days. And if you think it’s your turn now, here’s help from ixigo.
Let me break the planning of such a trip into two –
1) Picking a theme.
MYTH – A round the world trip doesn’t mean that you will touch every country on this Earth.
It’s the idea of circumnavigating around the whole Earth. So, picking a theme will help.
Thus, if religion is something that makes you travel, pick destinations that fall consecutively around the same theme.
An itinerary that touches Angkor Wat, Nepal, Ladakh, Sri Lanka, Jerusalem, Vatican or more might serve you the best. Just make sure that all the destinations you’ve picked fall in line, so that your ”round” the world trip stays just that.
Image Courtesy – Justin Vidamo
Steer clear from tour packages that offer a whole lot in one go; you’ll end up distracted and paying more for all the extra places covered.
If you have picked adventure for a theme, start from someplace closer home like Ladakh. You can trace the route map like this Ladakh —> Bangkok —> Thailand —> Queenstown —> Sydney —> LA (Route 66) —> Ladakh.
2) Booking tickets
Image Courtesy – John Lee
After picking the theme, look for your best ally and solace for such a trip – RTW Ticket or Round the World Ticket. RTW Ticket will help you book flight tickets to 16 different destinations in one go. Coming to the best part, you’ll have only a minimum of 3 stops! You can also book your RTW Ticket based on the number of miles you’ll be covering in your world trip. RTW Tickets usually trace a path in one direction.
So if you start from Paris (the fashion capital of world) you’re likely to end in Paris for your last destination on this world trip. This’ll also help you in sticking to the defined path.
Some of the best RTW Tickets can be booked via sinagporeair.com, staralliance.com, klm.com and oneworld.com.
Image Courtesy – r4u
You can save more money and time by picking a mix of transport options. If you need to wait for 8 hours and shell out $1000 for your next flight, pick the trans-city train that’ll make you land at the next stop in 5 hours and $100! Be open to iterations and newer ideas.
If you still find yourself short of a theme or how to get such tickets or anything that’s stopping you from being the next Columbus, write down a comment here. I’ll try to assist you in planning that perfect world trip. Jules Verne finally got some competition here!
Till then, happy travelling.
About the author
Shikha Gautam loves to play with steering wheels, roads, words, flute and guitar among other things. Not necessarily in that order! You can contact her on twitter @ShikhaGautam
