On Mar 10, 3:03 pm, wrote:
My wife and I are considering taking six months off from work to
literally travel around the world -- US, Europe, Asia, Australia,
South America, tiny islands, etc. Some big touristy places, but also
off-the-beaten path and more advenurous destinations as well. We're
looking to spend between 3 and 7 days at each location.

Originally we assumed that a round-the-world ticket was the way to go,
as we've been told that the discounts involved are tremendous. The
plan was to use the RTW ticket as the backbone of our trip, taking us
from continent to continent, but then use alternate means for local
travel around each RTW stop. This is because the RTW packages we
looked at all had a maximum number of stops far too limiting for what
we want to see, not to mention the difficulty of putting together a
plan that actually goes to the areas we want to go.

Now we're wondering if there's a new option, due to the recent
emergence of low-cost airlines, especially in Europe and Asia. From
what we've gathered, it's possible to skip the whole planning-months-
in-advance thing and plan the trip while we're on it -- visit
someplace until we're ready to move on, pick a new place to go, and
buy a ticket the week or day of the flight.

That sounds too good to be true, though, and we fear that the cost of
those last-minute tickets will be immense. Is this more suited to some
regions than others? For example, should we maybe get a package way in
advance for South America but hop around on last-minute tickets in
Europe and Asia?

Any wisdom on this would be much appreciated. Thanks


RTW tickets are generally not a good deal at all (except in business
or first class), and can really restrict your itinerary. There are so
many cheap flights within Europe, Asia and North America, both on low-
cost airlines and discount flights on regular airlines, and many
relatively cheap flights between those continents, that there are
almost always cheaper ways to do it than a RTW ticket like Star
Alliance or One World. By buying tickets as you go, you would usually
save money and have much more flexibility.

There are exceptions. Most flights to or from, or between countries
in, South America, Africa, and Australia/New Zealand/South Pacific are
expensive (there are cheap domestic flights in most of those places),
and if you plan on hitting a lot of non-major destinations in those
places (i.e. not just Buenos Aires or Rio and then back out), you can
use a mileage-based RTW ticket to take a large number of short flights
in those regions that would otherwise be very expensive. An RTW based
on a certain number of stops per continent is useful if you have
already visited a lot of the major destinations on the continents
you're visiting, and mostly want to reach far-flung places with
limited and expensive connections.

Can you say where you are leaving from? Also, do you have any more
specific ideas about your route?