Here is our itinerary:
Date |
Depart |
Arrive |
Duration |
September 29, 2002 |
Los Angeles, CA, USA |
Auckland, New Zealand |
2 Months |
December 1, 2002 |
Auckland, New Zealand |
Sydney, Australia |
2 Months |
February 1, 2003 |
Sydney, Australia |
Bangkok, Thailand |
1 Month |
March 1, 2003 |
Bangkok, Thailand |
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |
3 Weeks |
March 21, 2003 |
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |
Bangkok, Thailand |
9 Days |
March 30, 2003 |
Thailand |
Laos |
4 weeks |
April 27, 2003 |
Laos |
Cambodia |
3 Days |
April 30, 2003 |
Cambodia |
Southern Thailand |
2 Weeks |
May 14, 2003 |
Bangkok, Thailand |
Delhi, India |
5 Weeks |
June 6, 2003 |
India |
Nepal |
1 Day |
June 18, 2003 |
Delhi, India |
Singapore |
4 Days |
June 23, 2003 | Singapore | Johannesburg, South Africa | 4 weeks |
July 19, 2003 | Johannesburg, South Africa | Frankfurt, Germany | 5 hours! |
July 20, 2003 | Frankfurt, Germany | Cairo, Egypt | 3 Weeks |
August 11, 2003 | Cairo, Egypt | Vienna, Austria | 2 Weeks |
August 25, 2003 | Vienna, Austria | Paris, France | 1 Week |
September 1, 2003 | Paris, France | London, England | 1 Week |
September 8, 2003 | London, England | Los Angeles, CA, USA | Who knows? |
Note: only the bold dates are completed. The others are flexible. We can change the dates without any penalty as long as there is space available.
For the majority of the flights on our trip we will use a Round-The-World ticket from United's Star Alliance. However, we will not begin that portion of our trip until we get to New Zealand. It turns out the cost of the ticket varies quite a bit depending on the country in which you purchase it. For example, it costs almost $5,000 US to purchase a 39,000 mile ticket in the US. However, if you purchase the same ticket in New Zealand or Australia, it costs approximately $2,200 US (after conversion from the local currency). So, we are flying to New Zealand on airline miles and will pick up our Star Alliance tickets there.
For ground transportation, we will use mostly public mass transit, however we do plan to purchase an inexpensive used car in some regions and then sell it again when we leave. We are planning to do that in Australia and in Europe.
Note: We are completely skipping the Americas (North, South, Central) on our trip. We plan to drive to most places in North America with our kids as they are growing up. We are skipping South & Central America due to time constraints. We plan to visit there in the future, and that region is easily accessible from the US.