Around the world: clockwise or counterclockwise??
 

I want to fly from Australia to Toronto, with a few stops in the USA. It seems the cheapest ticket for what I want to do is an Around the World ticket.

My question is, is it generally easier on the body to travel always towards the east, or towards the west? Conventional jet lag knowledge says there is less jet lag travelling towards the west. The prevailing winds around the earth, however, are from west to east, and when I add up all the actual flying hours, it takes 5.5 hours longer to go west.

I was wondering what the personal experience of other round-worlders has been?

The planes fly a lot faster going from west to east, so if you are in economy, you might want to consider this.

The main factor will be the weather. If you like to snow ski, then visit Europe in January, and Australia during July. If you want to swim and enjoy the beaches, visit Europe in July and Australia in February.

As for jet lag, it is a 15 hour flight from California to Australia, and most arrive around 6:00 a.m., which makes for a long day.

During Christmas I flew from MIA, to LHR, to SYD, and the plane arrived in Sydney around 7:00 p.m. It was so nice to take a shower and go to bed after that flight.

It can indeed depend on time of year to some extent. This time of year, for example, you may have strong tailwinds crossing the Pacific W>E, but that can also mean really bumpy flights. A couple of weeks ago I flew Tokyo-Los Angeles and if I was drinking milk it might have been butter by the time we landed.

However from Oz I would definitely take the Pacific route initially; avoiding 3 huge legs all at once (Oz - Singapore/Hong Kong/Bangkok - Europe - Toronto) would be well worth it. However if you do buy a RTW ticket then you could stop in Asia or Europe en route and reset your clock on any number of occasions. For speed, though, I'd go as directly as I could.

Thanks for the advice. I think I will go west to east. Every second less flying time is a pretty big bonus in my book!

Flying from London to Sydney wasn't too bad, but Sydney to London took almost 24 hours. Are you flying Qantas? They really treat you great. From London to Singapore, the fasten seat belt sign was only on for the first 5 minutes and the last 20 minutes. Four meals from London to Sydney, wine with meals, friendly young flight attendants, a great choice of movies, with Video on Demand.

If the travel times were the same then I think that it would make little difference in which direction you take for your trip.

Sounds like you are just making a couple of stops in the U.S. mainland and then Toronto and back to Australia.

If that is the trip then the only time changes that you have any control over are the time changes in the four zones in the U.S. and Canada. I would expect that the time change from Australia to N. America is so drastic that it doesn't matter whether you arrive or leave from the west or east coasts.

From Toronto back to Sydney the net time change is the same, going east or west, so you're right to choose the shortest travel time.

Thanks, everybody. You are quite right,now I think about it that it is the ultimate time shift the body has to adjust to (12 hours) and how you get there probably doesnt matter too much, so the shorter the flights the better.

And yes, I will probably fly Qantas because the choices from Sydney to LA are basically Qantas and United and I have always had pretty good experiences with Qantas.

Are you buying an around the world ticket or a ticket to Australia? If you buy an around the world ticket, I would go to Europe first and then Australia. If you are just going to Australia, I would fly from SFO or LAX to Sydney.

Qantas flies three days a week from SFO to Sydney and they have had some good prices.

But if you are going around the world, Sydney to Bangkok to London is one long, long flight, going against the wind.