World Trip Revised

With consideration for some of the suggestions mentioned on my previous post, I've revised my world trip destinations to include travel days, less stops, less overall time (more like 45 days including travel days as opposed to 60 days not including travel) and more centralized stops allowing for many cities and sights per stop. The number next to the destination is the number of days there.

- One Day Travel -
Possible free stop off in Iceland - 1 (maybe)
- One Day Travel -
London (trips to Glasgow, Paris, possibly Manchester, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dubin, others) - 7
- One Day Travel -
Rome (trips to Florence/Pisa, Naples, possibly Venice) - 3
- One Day Travel -
Cairo, Egypt - 2
- One Day Travel -
Helsinki, FInland (trips to St Petersburg,Russia, Stockholm, Sweeden, possibly Tallinn, Estonia, others) - 4
- One Day Travel -
Beijing (trips to great wall, The Palace, temples) - 4
- One Day Travel -
Bali, Indonesia (trips to Goa Gajah, Sacred Monkey Forest Sactuary, temples) - 4
- One Day Travel -
Chrischurch, New Zealand (trip to Sydney, Auckland) - 4
- One Day Travel -
Cusco/Machu Pichu,Peru - 4
- One Day Travel -
Oranjestad, Aruba - 3
- One Day Travel -

I'm thinking this might be more do-able while still circumventing the globe and hitting all 6 reachable continents like I'd like to do, both for bucket list style perks. Any advice or suggestions on places to visit appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Are these days or weeks? If it's really days, the plan is completely unrealistic. Distances, in particular in Europe, may look short on a world map but in reality they aren't.

You're underestimating travel times.
Take your 4 days in New Zealand, for example, during which you want to stay in Christchurch, and travel to both Sydney and Auckland.
A flight from Christchurch to Sydney takes 3.5 hours. You'll need to be at the airport 1.5 hours in advance. You'll need to get to the airport, which will take 30-45 minutes. You'll need to pack your bags and check out at your accommodation, which you'd better calculate another 30 minutes for. Then once in Sydney, you'll need to go through customs/passport control, etc (30 minutes), take transport into the city and get to your accommodation (45 minutes), and check in there (15 minutes). Total time 7.5 - 8 hours. That's a full travel day. Sure, you can see a bit of Sydney in the evening, but you'll also be tired from this day of travelling, so it really won't compare to a day of exploring the city when you're well rested.

And really, Sydney needs at least five days to see properly (it's huge, with so many interesting sights and neighbourhoods and little cafes to explore and ferry rides across the harbour to take and...), while both Auckland and Christchurch deserve three. And beyond that, you don't go to New Zealand for the cities! You go there for the absolutely stunning nature! Rent a car, and drive around the south island for 2 weeks. See the southern alps, visit Mt. Cook, gaze out over the stunning blue waters of Lake Tekapo, hike Ben Lomond, see what everybody is raving about with regard to Milford Sound, go to the glaciers and maybe take a helicopter flight over them. Or really, make it 6-8 weeks and do some justice to both islands. I can guarantee that you won't be bored. (Hell, even with well over a year spent in New Zealand, my list of places to still go to would keep me occupied for months.)

As a rule of thumb, don't bother visiting a major city unless you're spending at least three full days there (that's days without any travelling to and from). And don't bother visiting a country unless you're spending at least a full week there (again, without travelling). Yes, that country thing even goes for tiny countries in Europe. They're all so jam packed with sights and things to do. Don't just do the checkbox list of sights everybody knows - make it a trip that will be unique to you, on which you will have the time to make unique memories of unsuspected sights and experiences which you'll think back on far more often than the way the opera house looked (because really, you already know what it looks like - and no matter how stunning its architecture is, it'll pale in comparison to that time you'll sleep in an A-frame on magnetic island and wake up to the antics of the rock wallabies hopping around right outside).

Particularly since you'll be travelling with children (I just see in your other thread), you'll need to set a sustainable pace. You'll need to develop a routine where you have time to just sit down for a day at least once a week to recover and process impressions and experiences - without feeling that this is a day where you're missing seeing essential sights.

I think your list of places to go to forms a pretty good basis for a world trip. If you give yourself 150 days for that list of destinations, and then flesh out the time spent everywhere, you'll have an decent (if jampacked) experience. If you take 300 days for it, you'll have a trip you'll be talking about for the rest of your lives. But if you try to do what's on this list in 45 days, all of you will be utterly broken by the time week three rolls around.

[ Edit: Edited on 01-Aug-2017, at 01:16 by Sander ]

Yes like Kathrin said you will need to cut out your unrealistic day trips in these destinations. For instance I would do London for 3 days and Paris 4, then move on to just Rome for 3 days. You need at least 3 days to enjoy a destination. Then it doesn't make sense to backtrack to Sweden. I would cut that part and add it to Sydney making that a destination before visiting New Zealand as a day trip from NZ doesn't make sense.

Seems like a wonder trip, but it is either impossible or very stressful. Takes out all the fun of a TRIP. Hope you enjoyed yours

Google ' walking food tours in (add a place) ' e.g Walking Food tours in London. Look at the places they visit & plot it on Google Maps. No need to book any of those tours. This will give you ideas for where to walk in a city & food is a major part of the culture of a place.

Use the ''nearby' feature on Google Maps to find other things of interest to you .. zoos perhaps or churches.

Check out bus passes for each place . . they are great for zipping around, finding odd places & all without playing with cash & foreign currency & they may save a few dollars too

I have never really investigated it too much but there is such a thing as a Round The World Fare .. here is one for the Star Alliance http://www.staralliance.com/en/book-fly

This is your trip not some other person's .. do what YOU want .. It's YOUR life to live, not theirs.

[ Edit: Edited on 01-Aug-2017, at 04:45 by hasbeen ]

Quoting hasbeen

I have never really investigated it too much but there is such a thing as a Round The World Fare .. here is one for the Star Alliance http://www.staralliance.com/en/book-fly

.

That's an interesting tool . I just did an approximation of your trip & it gave this as a result for economy fare
ESTIMATED TOTAL
Adult Travelers: 3
Children Travelers: 1
26,518.00 USD

Steve

Because of the 16 segment rule, I had to change the itinerary a bit & exclude a country or two & now it gives me TOTAL FOR ALL TRAVELLERS 24,656.87 USD .. is that good .. for 4 people or not .. anyway, the tool gives you fairly fast idea of itineraries & number of connections needed. Connections are a pain when travelling but I like them to break up very long flights .. 13 /14 hours on a plane is for the birds, & even an albatross would prefer a break

As others have said, this is too much.

The first stop for a week - London and Paris alone is enough for a week
For Italy - spend all the time in one city - Pick one. Pisa is not really that interesting except for the tower itself

You can do a day trip from Helsinki to Tallin if you want to (there is a ferry), but you run into the problem with Russian visas if you want to add St. Petersburg, and St Petersburg needs at least 2 days on it's own. You can't add Stockholm to this segment.

I'd leave out Aruba and add that time to Sydney

It's a "pie in the sky" trip that, when you factor in the logistics and the cost, ultimately won't happen.