Does anybody have experience doing this? Google turns up a ton of sites, but I have no idea what to choose from. Ideally I would go to Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, East Asia, S.E. Asia, Australia, and then back to the States. Also anyone know of special student fares sites? STA Travel does not seem to offer very many places to go everywhere. Also should I just Eurorail around Europe instead of flying to a whole bunch of places, say if for instance I wanted to go to Barcelona or Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, and somewhere in Italy? Also where in Italy should I go, I know there are some places that really suck and some that are awesome. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks a lot.

3/9/2006 2:31:12 PM

wow that'd be an awesome trip. i think i'd rather the raddisson 7 seas world cruise tho but i don't have 109 vacation days nor do i want to spend $50k each. one day....

i'd say your best bet in europe is definitely by rail. http://www.eurail.com/

spain - madrid, seville, barcelona

italy - rome, venice (don't need but maybe a day or two), milan

paris is ok - prefer nice. prague definitely. vienna, salzburg, check out the croatian coast, budapest, monte carlo.

hey can i hide in your suitcase? where else are you going? s.e. asia - guy i know just got back from3 wks in thailand, japan, hong kong, and vietnam. he LOVED his trip.

3/9/2006 2:50:26 PM

Hong Kong and Bangkok are definitely on the SE Asia list, maybe Kuala Lumpur too. This is just in the pre-planning stages now, so nothing is definite for sure.

3/9/2006 2:59:08 PM

watch out for bird flu

3/9/2006 4:07:02 PM

I know of a girl in my h.s. that was going to do something like this right after she graduated. I'll get in touch with her (was planning to anyway since I've been thinking about doing something similar for awhile).

-What program did you go to South Africa through, looks like an amazing trip?

[Edited on March 9, 2006 at 10:08 PM. Reason : ..]

3/9/2006 10:07:09 PM

So here's what I'm thinking

Around the world ticket would include flights from/to:
RDU-NYC-Prague-Amsterdam
Then EuroRail around to Paris, London (via Eurostar/chunnel train), Barcelona, Madrid, and then wherever in Italy and end up in Rome
Fly Rome-Malta-Cairo-Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)-Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)-Brisbane-Sydney-Auckland-Easter Island-Santiago-Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo-San Jose (Costa Rica)-Miami-RDU

The around the world ticket would cost about $6000, the Eurorail and Eurostar would be about $700, and then $5000 for living expenses/spending money. Looking at about a four month trip with a month in Europe, a couple weeks in Africa, a week and a half in Asia, maybe two and a half weeks in Australia/NZ, and three weeks in South/Central America.

Feedback on any of this is encouraged and welcome.

3/10/2006 1:27:48 AM

id say bring 2X as much money as you've allotted

[Edited on March 10, 2006 at 2:53 AM. Reason : Shilow]

3/10/2006 2:53:02 AM

wow, yeah this would be a dream come true for me. that is an amazing list of places to go.

i've heard singapore is really nice, also.

WOW...i wish i had $15000+ to spend on travel.

3/10/2006 3:12:19 AM

Quote :

"Also should I just Eurorail around Europe instead of flying to a whole bunch of places"

I'd say yes. Eurorail is pretty nice, pretty cheap, and I had a blast. I can't compare it to flying, but it just seems like you'd lose the cultural element of going through different cities all over europe, talking to people in between, etc.

3/10/2006 8:40:12 AM

I'd add in sienna and florence to Italy.

Ireland - stay away from dublin, its just like any other large city you will make it to, go to Cork, and maybe another smallish city like Waterford (again, the entire country is beautiful).

Scotland - mmm everywhere but definately Edinborough

England - I've only made it to London

3/10/2006 9:18:15 AM

Honestly, if you're in the Swiss area, Bern is beautiful. As is Liechtenstein.

3/10/2006 9:35:47 PM

i would skip western europe altogether and look into moscow, istanbul and cairo... tibet is money and nepal if you can take the altitude

3/10/2006 10:07:10 PM

in europe i always meet australians and kiwis that do the around the world ticket thing. maybe try some australians websites for more info on how to do this...

3/10/2006 10:39:07 PM

Add hiking the Cinque Terra on the west coast of Italy.

3/10/2006 11:17:26 PM

except for the town being elevated from the sea, that looks a LOT like Cape Town

3/11/2006 1:47:21 PM

bttt more suggestions

3/12/2006 3:35:00 PM

I DO NOT recommend getting a eurorail pass. I've traveled in Europe twice and my boyfriend lived there for about 4.5 months and it is not worth the money. Reason being is you have a certain amount of days to fulfill it, can't take back to back rides, and you CANNOT travel on any train you want. It HAS to be one that Eurorail goes through. I've talked to numerous people about this at different hostels and almost everyone has agreed it is a waste of money. It just ends up being restricting.

You can fly in Europe pretty cheap if you go through the right airlines. Rheinair is great; vueling is also nice. My boyfriend flew from London to Dublin for like, $20. I recently got back from Spain and vueling was very efficient as well; about $50 for a flight from Barcelona to Seville.

If you want, I can give you my boyfriends contact info b/c he has been almost everywhere in Europe and could give you some great advice about the trip you are taking...he's very travel savy.

Good luck!

3/12/2006 8:46:03 PM

my boyfriend and i recently backpacked europe and found the eurail pass very useful

i guess it depends on if you know how long you want to travel in europe, everyone is different

edit: if you use the eurail pass & want to use eurostar (the high speed train) you have to pay a little extra. when we wanted to go from paris to london we HAD to use the eurostar so we had to pay $75 each but that was a STEAL compared to buying it without the discount we got from the eurail pass



[Edited on March 12, 2006 at 9:49 PM. Reason : dfghfgh]

3/12/2006 9:47:41 PM