Money to travel – What does an around the world ticket cost?
September 28th, 2009 | 
Author: As we mentioned in our previous post on this topic, we have split the costs up into different categories to look at them separately. The first one we’d want to look at is the actual travel cost. The traveling can of course be made in many different ways. In another earlier post, we mentioned some of the more common ones, like flying, driving, sailing, cycling and even walking. Yes, we’ve been reminded that we’ve left some out like motor cycling and hitchhiking. We are sure there are even more…
Anyway, some of these ways may not be so suitable for an around the world journey even if there are examples of people using them. Just a quick search on the internet and we found: an English man who drove around the world recently, a Korean woman who walked around the world for 6 years. And then of course, on motorcycle we got the famous actor Ewan McGregor who rode his motorbike the “Long Way Round” with his friend Charley Boorman.
For, what we hope, understandable reasons, we can’t possible cover all the different ways of transportation at this point. We may get back with an in depth look at the man who drove and the woman who walked, but for now we will focus on the most common way, flying.
Make a search on the Internet and you will find endless of hits for round the world tickets. But basically they all come down to the three major airline alliances Star Alliance, One World and Sky Team.
One World we think has the coolest booking engine, where you can go all the way to actually buying the ticket. This is great when you are looking for what the actual prices may be. Many of the other booking services have extra charges which you don’t know about until you’ve contacted them for the exact price. To do a test, we did some quick searchers for a RTW ticket including stops in Stockholm-Los Angeles-Honolulu-Sydney- Mumbai-Stockholm over a 6 month period. The total price on offer for that was US$ 3 150.
Another booking engine we tried offered, for a similar journey, a price range from US$2 350 – 3 150. But then, to get a more accurate price you had to contact them.
Anyway, this is a start. Our guess is that the lady taking herself around by walking did not spend that amount of money on shoes. But then, it took her longer to complete the journey. Instead of paying with cash she paid with her time and effort and got a totally different experience.
So what does this amount represent?
Well, to put it into some perspective, we checked what someone commuting in the London area had to pay on a monthly basis for a travel pass. If you live, for instance, within a 20-30 minute train ride of the very center of London, you would have to pay roughly US$ 200-300 a month. That would make US$ 1 200-1 800 for a six months period. And if you have the inspiration to go traveling for a year the amount of money you would save would be US$ 2 400-3 600. In other words your trip around the world would pay itself if you didn’t have to go to work!
We know there are probably a lot of objections to this comparison. But why? If you could make money by not commuting to an office in central London the money you were saving could actually go to a ticket that would take you all the way around the world.
The only trick now is to figure out how to make that money in some other way…
We are willing to admit that we are not RTW ticket booking experts and would therefore like to point you to someone who is considered the guru in this field – Edward Hasbrouck. Also check out his book The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World
That’s it for now. Stay tuned and we will soon take a look at some of the other costs…
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SkyTeam is another airline alliance. Also brokers can book tickets for round the world tickets to exactly where you want to go, since there are limitations on where you can go with the alliances.
I used Airtreks on my round the world ticket.
brian from nodebtworldtravel.com´s last blog ..Travel News and Deals – September 29, 2009 – Hostel Savings, Travel Insurance, Hiking in the Himalayas, How the Airlines Plan To Get Your Cash
Great info didnt even consider a round the world trip until now might just make it possible thanks :)
Great to hear Shaz that you have seen a new possibility. Good luck!
And Brian thanks for pointing Sky Team alliance out. I have added them to the post.
Magnus
When traveling around the globe for a substantial period of time over three months or up to even a year, you can often save money by planning the legs of your journey in advance, either by purchasing your tickets through a ticket consolidator, or buy buying a regional or around-the-world pass from an international airline
manu@Hostels Sydney´s last blog ..Sydney Summer the Festival season
It’s my dream to go world tour, but i think i can’t afford it wright now so i will go but it will take around 2 years. Anyways your post was excellent.
yes i am agree with Brian,SkyTeam is another airline alliance. Also brokers can book tickets for round the world tickets to exactly where you want to go, since there are limitations on where you can go with the alliances.
Manu & Jim – Thank you for helping out with more information on how cheaper tickets can be had. As you probably understand our ambition is not to be experts in this field. Others are far more suited for that. We just wanted to show how one can make an estimation of how much a ticket may be. And SkyTeam have been added to the post.
ANSH – Thank you for your kind words. I am glad to hear that you have a plan for how you can realise your dream. That is more than most people have. Go for it!
The key to low cost travel around the world is to stay in places where your money will go a long ways, like “third-world” countries. Not only will rooms, food, land travel, etc. be cheap, getting airline tickets are cheap as well. This is how I traveled from Pakistan back to the U.S., buying one-way tickets. My favorite low-cost countries and areas – Nepal, India, Southeast Asia. Also, look for volunteer opportunities – they will at least house and feed you. If you can find work, awesome, but don’t count on it.
By all means just plan it yourself. Get some Lonely Planet books, save as much money as you can, and hit the road, it will all work out. Another good value is to buy round-the-world tickets (just do a search for this), usually the more stops on the itinerary, the better the value.