I’m a dreamer and I know it. While I painted a beautiful picture of my dream to travel with my family on a round-the-world ticket, the practical part of me is aware that the challenge is much bigger than writing a blog post about it.
But this blog is partly about inspiration and possibilities, so let’s just pretend we’re doing this thing. Let’s pretend that the rest of my life really does start tomorrow. Let’s pretend that anything is possible. Let’s pretend that we’ve solved the obstacles of money, time and institutional inertia. There, that’s better. Let’s go.
Figuring out where to stop is incredibly awesome and incredibly annoying at the same time. I like to play with the Bootsnall Travel Planner, a digital map and pin board that magically prices tickets for you. Sometimes I love the Internets.
If this is just a dream, I’ll pin places like Stockholm and Buenos Aires and Nairobi and Auckland. Then I get ridiculous ticket prices like $10K. Um, thanks, but no. Turns out there are tricks to getting deals on these things. You want to always head in the same direction. Backtracking, even a little, brings major price increases. Staying in the same hemisphere also appears to be a big money saver.
Bootsnall also has a handy-dandy sample itinerary page. A “classic” trip from New York to London to Rome, overland to Athens to Istanbul to Bangkok to Beijing and back to New York can be had for as little as $2K. The program even offers a “more for your money” option that adds Dubai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Madras and Brussels for as little as $2.3K. Now we’re talking.
Let’s pretend we’re being sort of practical. We would need to plan our itinerary around destinations where David’s company has offices — Asia, Europe, Africa, former Soviet republics, Middle East (none in South America). They also do conferences and retreats around the world, often in the fall. I am told there will possibly be a board meeting in Kenya in 2010. So maybe, instead of a one-month summer trip, we do a three-month summer into fall trip. We can make stops in Europe, Africa and Asia with ticket costs in the $4k-$5K range. Hmmmm…
As the dream continues to swirl, we have actual trips we are actually planning: Italy for Spring Break, possibly Mexico at Christmas and a sister trip without kids for me and, well, my sisters. Details to come.
Signing off, Wifey aka Tinkerhell aka Trisha Creekmore
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Be sure to check the airline alliances for pricing too Sky Team, One World and Star Alliance have flat fees depending on the number of miles and/or continents you visit. They also tend to have limitations, like where you can travel.
Good to at least see what the pricing is.