Gordon Brown makes dream become reality

OK......Maybe not really Gordon's fault, but I like the title.

The credit crunch has finally hit home and I'm surplus to requirements at work.
OK this will lead to a big change in my lifestyle and possibly the need to look for employment elsewhere, but in the mean time the good lady and I will be able to fulfil a dream we have had for several years.
And the dream is a RTW trip in business class.

This is where we need your help.
We know several of you have already completed a RTW trip and we're after any help/tips that you can offer with regard to booking the flights, places we must see and avoid, and maximising miles/tier points.
We are both 50ish, fit to fly, but the good lady suffers from back problems so we prefer to visit cities and places that provide lots of nice scenery without the need to do lots of walking.
Planning is in the early stage, but we know that we want to visit the following countries:-
USA east coast with an overland to the west,
Hawaii,
New Zealand,
Australia,
Hong Kong,
Singapore,
Malaysia,
Dubai.

So if any of you good people can offer advice then it would be much appreciated..and in return we promise to submit trip reports covering our trip.

Tim & Chris

You're missing out the Pacific - apart from Hawaii? - wot about Tahiti, Raragtonga, Samoa - all interesting places

French Polynesia has some of the most gob smacking scenery in the world (and also the most gob smacking drinks prices - but that's another story...)

And don't plan to spend more than a couple of days in Singapore - it's worth visiting, but you soon run out of things to do...

[HighFlyer]

Tim, how much time are you looking to take on this trip? That will have a bearing on your itinerary. Also, are you a 'get in, see a bit, fly out agian' couple or do you prefer to take time to see a place? (E.g; If you had a choice between 2 nights or no nights to see a place on your trip what would you choose?).

I found those sorts of questions very helpful for me in planning my RTW.

Thanks,
Sarah

quote:Originally posted by Tim
OK......Maybe not really Gordon's fault, but I like the title.


Don't let the one-eyed shyster off the hook, Tim. Of course it's his fault. He'll make my dream a reality when he finally buggers off.

Here endeth the party political broadcast for today...

Oh, and best of luck with planning the trip.

Despite the brutality of the punchline I have to confess to feeling some envy (OK -lots [}:)]).
Do it whilst you can [y][y]. I didn't take a gap year, but wish I had. My gap year will be taken when Mr DL and I retire (which will be never if DB's plans reach fruition...).
OK- when are you looking to leave? Preferred airline /programme? Do the hotels need to be top notch ? How long do you want to take in total? Anything that's an absolute 'must do'?? Which way are you going?(East to west or vice versa?).
DL

Sarah,

We're looking at maybe 6 weeks to do the trip.
The USA is not a definite must do as we have been there many times before and it's so easy to get to anytime, but it just seemed a convenient stop over.
We don't want to rush things, but again we don't want to be stuck in one place too long.
Maybe 2 full days (3 nights) in Hawaii, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai. Although Peter has got us thinking about including other places in the Pacific
A week on the beach somewhere in Malaysia (Penang?); to give us a rest during the trip.
For some reason New Zealand is saying you must travel both the North and South islands, so maybe 7-10 days here.
Australia, whilst not jumping out at us as a must do country, is on our list as it seems daft to travel so far and not visit Sydney. If time allows and things appeal to us we could spend more time there and get an internal flight somewhere.
As we are new to this, we are after ideas and advice not only on places to visit, but on tickets and the best place to purchase them. We'd prefer to pay a bit extra and have some flexibility on the tickets so that we could change flight times if we like/dislike the places we visit. We have spent 30+ years having 'fixed' holiday times and we like the idea of travelling when we want without the need to consider working commitments.
We are flexible with regards to dates of travel and hoping to do the trip early next year. Is there a best time or times to avoid the places we have mentioned?
We intend to take on board other peoples thoughts/experiences and the actual trip may be slightly different from our first ideas.

DL,

East or west.....We are not sure, this will become clearer when we sit down and finalise the places to visit. Is one direction better than the other?
Hotels.... We are simple folk and are quite happy with the standard Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express hotels, occasionally splashing out on a Crowne Plaza.
Airlines....We have used VS for the past 17 years so they are our preferred carrier/loyalty programme. So the Great Escapade may be best?
Trip will be about 6 weeks and must include New Zealand, but apart from than nothing is set in stone.

Thanks in advance,
Tim & Chris

[honey lamb]

While not an expert on all of these area there are a few comments I must make.

The Hawaiian islands are all so different and perhaps you need to do more than one. We did Oahu for the Arizona Memorial and the Big Island (Hawaii) for the volcanoes but were sorry we didn't do some of the others.

In Oz from my point of view an absolute must is the Great Barrier Reef. I regret to this day that when I cut short my stay in Australia that instead of cutting short my stay in Sydney by returning to Hong Kong (which I loved) I didn't extend my stay in Queensland

Tim,

Congrats (I think)!

Boston is an excellent city to visit and relatively close. Nice hotels, great food, good shopping, whale watching in the summer.

We've been twice in 3 years.

We also love San Francisco. The city has a really nice 'vibe'. Others who've been may be able to describe better. Getting around is easy using the Street and Cable cars. We've stayed at Fisherman's Wharf.

How about out to Boston, then over to 'Frisco, back to Heathrow?

Try to get some Virgin Holiday brochures - they've got some great trips and Flying Club members get 10% discount.

Thanks,

Craig.

[Scrooge]

As others have said, you have left some holes in your trip, at least for me the big one is the Pacific islands.

IMHO I would skip crossing the US by land, it will be fun for the first day or two, by day 3 you will be ready to kill.

If you want to do the US, hit Boston, New York, San Fransisco and LA, fly from the east coast to the west, or the other way around.

Right now there are some amazing deals in Tahiti and Fiji, do a search, if your going to spend some down time I highly recommend there or Hawaii, place people from the UK would not normally get to.

Right now you can book a room at Le Meridien Tahiti, Papeete for $170, last year they were going for over $500 !

If your going to do Hawaii, Oahu is nice, but honestly you have to get out of Waikiki, it's just like any US city, I would highly recommend the Turtle Bay resort rates are staring around $200 a night, this is the resort that was the back drop for the movie 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall'

[Darren Wheeler]

For the US, why not do New York, Boston and Chicago, then hop on the Californian Zephyr train to San Francisco?

There are so many fantastic places out there......your gonna need more than 6 weeks. [y]

A couple of places I have been to this year, amongst others, are Bali and Sri Lanka. Both beautiful.

Good luck sorting out your itinerary [:0]