Round the world flights

OK, so i've decided that i want to be nowhere near Europe in general and Austria and Switzerland in particular from 7th - 28th June this year as there is a rumour that some kind of footie Cup is taking place but England won't be there.

I have no wish to put up with all the gloating from others, ( bit like the anti smokers really ), and have therefore decided to bugger off for three weeks.

At first somewhere in the States was on my mind but then the lovely Tuca pointed out that i could probably do a RTW trip for much the same money.

Overland offer the service it seems but i was wondering if anyone has planned one of these recently and has any good advice or tips for cheapest/best options for places to stay or Booking Agents?

My initial guess goes something like this :

Munich - Bangkok - Perth - Cairns - Honolulu - LA - New York - Munich

Any better routes advice or just general good tips?

I took this trip in 2002 and found it the best value. This deal leaves from Dublin but I'm sure you might be able to get a deal leaving from Germany.

http://www.australianholidays.ie/trips/round-the-world.asp

You might want to look at a RTW with OneWorld. Mine was Air NZ/Star Alliance/Virgin Atlantic but you're not going there. Is always worth doing a cross-check with airlines' own sites as well as via a travel agent/broker.

When you go to Honolulu make sure you go to Big Island (eg with Aloha Airlines - they are the ones that loose the cabin roof) and spend several days visiting Kilauea (stay in Hilo).
PM me for suggestions.

I'd be interested to hear what you come up with and how much it costs. When I've looked at doing around the world trips from here, they have always been quite expensive. In Australia, a normal around the world costs about $2500 including taxes, so about 1500 euro. My brother even got one once for $1800 including taxes, that went Brisbane -> Bangkok -> London -> Munich -> London -> New York -> LA -> Brisbane.

Travel Overland are good for RTW tickets, which according to their website start at €1250. The other routes are indeed more expensive though.

i saw a really good deal directly on air new zealand's web site once. i don't remember the details but the price seemed low for being able to enjoy stopovers in i think singapore or hong kong, then new zealand and the san francisco or l.a.

edit: just checked out of curiosity, it looks like there's a 1,327.01 EUR total special for a round the world trip from munich leaving in june returning july on http://www.airnewzealand.de/ giving you 2 stopovers asia and north america aside from new zealand.

Can't say enough good things about Air NZ service (good leg room with taller folks offered bulkheads, friendly and helpful staff, choice of actually decent wines all from NZ in economy, the food was more than decent plus you can watch Flight of the Conchords), especially for the price: mine came to under 1200€ going Munich > London > SF > Auckland > Wellington > Sydney > Wellington > Auckland > Tokyo > London > Munich. Not many offer Tokyo routing particularly at such a price.
And you get your Star Alliance points.

I did a trip similar to this in 2000 with some alliance of airlines (included British Airways, Finnair, Quantas, one of the American Airlines and a couple of others). I think i got about 16 flights for around 1800 Euros, starting in London. One thing I would recommend is flying West to East, it helps avoid the jet-lag. And don't try and do to much or you'll spend your whole time in the airports. Three weeks really is not very long at all for a trip of this kind when you think many people take a year off to do something similar. If I was you and this amount of time I would aim for one country and maybe a couple of stop overs, nothing more.

Dave , seriously LA = rubbish , do SF or San Diego instead.

@Katrina
Where to did buy that ticket? Seems like a really nice price (assuming that includes taxes).

I've flown with Air New Zealand long haul before. They had the most leg room that I've experienced in economy class. The only problem was when I flew them, they had no tv screens in the head rest, there was just a couple of communal screens. These things are vital to long haul flights in my opinion, but maybe they've installed them now.

Did a RTW in 2002 with Star Alliance (Lufthansa, Air New Zealand, Thai Airways) ...basic route was MUC--> San Fran --> Vancouver --> Cook Islands --> Auckland --> Fiji --> Bangkok --> Munich.

Can highly recommend the Cook Islands no just for breaking up the Pacific leg but just for a quality bit of paradise to chill-out in ...friendly locals and a healthy tourist vibe. Actually, bought extra flight tickets with other carriers to visit some South Pacific islands and South-East Asia too. Other highlight was Vancouver which is a very likeable city. Can't remember the price I paid for the RTW ticket...

Via the Air NZ website, that easy. And yes including all taxes, it was a special to launch the Tokyo routing.
Flew Nov 30th, back Feb 2nd. The individual TVs are now installed and have on-demand programming on long haul, on the Sydney legs only a few TVs are dotted centrally down the plane.

Sounds like a good option for trips in the future then.

Air NZ is currently doing a Hong Kong special promotion


Might be worth a look as it will connect up with their NZ/Oz flights.

I don't know if that is such a great deal. You could get a simple return ticket to Australia from London for around 600 quid. If you take this deal, you'd have to get a Hong Kong-Australia/NZ return for 200quid just to break even. I imagine a return flight from Hong Kong to Australia/NZ would cost at least this much.