My wife and I are embarking on an Around the World Trip starting May 12th, 2026. We had planned on spending time in Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and landing in Sri Lanka before we continue westward. The plan was to head to Istanbul from Sri Lanka with a stop over in Dubai or Abu Dhabi taking advantage of the stop over programs of those countries airlines. That part of the trip seems in jeopardy now given the current state of the Middle East. So we would like to hear from my traveling buds at Fodors. Do we head to Africa? Maybe check out Georgia or Armenia? Madagascar? What do you think?

Armenia is a fave of mine. Amazing landscapes, food, and hospitality. The best two weeks of making new food discoveries of my life. You will meet passionate folks with a sense of ancient history, love of traditions, an eye to economic development, the sorrow of genocide, and troubling contemporary geopolitics. Armenia has it all.

I spent 13 nights there, so it might depend on the time you are willing to devote. I very much want to return.

I hit a similar decision point on a long trip a few years back, and honestly, choosing the “easier” destination made a big difference. Georgia and Armenia would be my pick here.

It just fits nicely after Asia. Slower pace, great food, wine, and a totally different feel without being complicated.

That is less than 2 months from now. How are you ticketing this trip? Point-to-point or an RTW ticket offered by an airline alliance, or what?

Sri Lanka to Istanbul sounds like you are getting point-to-point tickets. Aren't the Emirates/Etihad free stopovers only for a short time? Dubai made sense because it would be enroute and a couple of days there would be fine. The other stops you are considering would deserve more time, though IST to Armenia or Georgia would be short flights.

I would choose Italy because I would like to go there

Sri Lanka (Colombo, CMB) to Madagascar (Antananarivo, ANR) would require two stops.

Here are options, excluding Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha: Colombo to Antananarivo | Google Flights

Istanbul to ANR could be one stop (MRU - Mauritius or ADD -Addis Ababa) Istanbul to Antananarivo | Google Flights

Here are results for CMB to IST, excluding five mideast connections: Colombo to Istanbul | Google Flights

Given that, I think that a stop in Bangkok on the way from CMB to IST would be an excellent choice.

Why not come to China? The scenery here is beautiful too.

futngzhang0374 - That is a fantastic idea that we have discussed. I think our only hesitation is that we are moving pretty quickly and i think that China deserves at least a month or more to do it right.

Hi mrwunrfl - Yes we are doing point to point tickets and we may go directly from Sri Lanka to Istanbul. The stop over idea was to say that did it, whether Dohai or Abu Dhabi. I think that option is pretty much off the table now. Yes the stopovers are only a couple of days but it was going to be a check mark location for us. After Istanbul we plan on going into Europe, maybe Romania, Bulgaria or Albania, or all three

It really is — China is huge. If you ever get the chance to travel here in the future, I’d be happy to offer some suggestions.

Probably a day late and a dollar short (what else is new?) but my minor obsession with alliance-based RTW products leads me to mention that for the time being Japan is the cheapest place from which to start both Oneworld and Star Alliance RTWs, especially in business class (but good fares in economy, too.)

The Star products have tiers on maximum miles flown - 26,000 to 39,000, while Oneworld's are based on the number of continents touched, 3 to 6. Both allow up to 16 flights and can be changed relatively easily - date changes, itinerary changes, etc.

I think it might be an interesting fit, but I'll climb down from the pulpit now. There's a decent thread on the Air Travel board if you want more details.

As for the "where after Asia" question, while the idea of Armenia or Georgia is appealing, I'd probably be cautious, given airspace closures over Iran and Iraq as well as the Gulf, and also closures and restrictions over Russian and Ukrainian airspace too.

We all have our preferences of course, but if it was me, I'd head to the Western Cape in South Africa. It's heart-stopping beautiful, with some of the world's best food and wine, iconic history and cultural sites, wildlife, beaches with penguins...

You could do side trips to Mauritius, Namibia, go on safari at Kruger National Park.. endless options.

Anyway, just a few ideas.

Your trip from Sri Lanka to Istanbul will involve connecting flights. You could make a stopover at the connecting city.

Below is the link I gave above. You can use it to identify those connecting cities where it would be easy to make a stopover.

Here are results for CMB to IST, excluding five mideast connections: Colombo to Istanbul | Google Flights

Given that, I think that a stop in Bangkok on the way from CMB to IST would be an excellent choice.

mrwunfl - it looks there is a non-stop on Turkish Airways?

Gardyloo - we looked at RTW tickets but it didn't seem to fit what we were trying to do at the time. We have looked at South Africa. Then possibly pick up a cruise out of Cape Town to Portugal. Everything is up for consideration at this point.

I sympathise Tdiddy, our plans to visit family in Australia are up in the air following the war in the Middle East. Clearly flying via the Middle East is out of the question for the foreseeable future. I have been looking at flying via China or Japan from London to Sydney with a few weeks in either en route. Chinese airline fares seen pretty stable at present , presumably because China has significant oil reserves in store, apparently around 140 days compared with 10% of that for most other far east hubs. This seems to be borne out by Cathay actually increasing the number of flights from Europe to HK. The problem with China or Japan leaving in May would be the weather , v hot and generally consider not the optimum time.

We loved our time in South Africa where we spent several months on a road tip pre pandemic. certainly enough to keep you busy for several months. I can email you our itinerary if interested. My concern would be how they may be affected by the Middle East war as they are heavily dependent on imported oil and SA friends tell me they are very concerned re the possibility of shortages in the not too distant future.

In Europe, the news is that many people are switching their plans for Easter from the eastern to the western Mediterranean , resorts are quieter in the former and prices rising significantly in the latter.

Other than the Iranian and US Governments , I don't think anyone really has a clue as to how this will pan out. In the absence of any planning on how to end the war, I expect it to go on for a very long time. If we do decide to go , I plan on keeping both flights and accommodation as flexible as possible.

There is. I failed to look at my link closely when saying you had to connect. Or it could be a schedule change - I see that it is not offered every day but on other days there are twice daily nonstops.

>> Everything is up for consideration at this point

It is 50 days before departure and no itinerary other than, maybe, CMB to IST? This could be a serious, flexible, non-plan, if a person is wealthy enough to have no need to research one-way international airfares, travel times, etc. But there would be no need to consider a stop in Dubai just because of the free stopover that Emirates offers (if it is even offered on a one-way ticket).

Purchased today the CMB to IST nonstop is only $500 one-way in economy for travel in May. For tomorrow it is over $4000. A 13-day advance purchase is $1800. The $4000 fares are business class because economy is apparently sold out.

Granted, the fares I see are based on purchasing in the USA and the fares might be better if bought in, say, Indonesia. Searching for airfares is kind of a hobby of mine and I have noticed that flights to Colombo are significantly lower cost than some destinations in business class. I considered it for a trip until I saw the lodging prices for where I wanted to go.

But, considering RTW tickets (without knowing the cost at this point) I could see one working with your original destination wish list: "Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and landing in Sri Lanka" and then continuing on to Istanbul.

Turkish is in Star Alliance and I could see how a *A ticket could work. ANA to Japan, ANA or EVA to Taiwan, EVA nonstop to Indonesia or Malaysia.

IDK about the Indonesia/Malaysia part on *A. If the RTW ticket allows an open jaw then you buy a one-way for that. If not, then get a round trip. Then you fly on to Sri Lanka on Thai or Singapore and then to IST all on the RTW ticket.

As I've mentioned, the prices of RTW tickets varies greatly depending on the country where travel begins and ends. Sometimes the differences can be pretty extreme, for example a business class Star Alliance ticket allowing up to 29,000 flown miles has a base price of around $11,500 if travel begins and ends in the USA, but just under $4500 if it begins and ends in Japan. In economy class the percentage difference is similar, e.g. $6500 vs. $2260.

Since the OP is already planning to get to Japan in the first place, the RTW could start there, travel via Asia, Africa, or Europe back to the US, then "stop over" for months if desired, before returning to Japan to complete the circle. Of course they'd need to get home again, but they might well have earned enough frequent flyer miles for that trip. Or start a new RTW, of course.

I played a little with the OP's destinations list and added a couple of wrinkles, such as a visit to Mauritius for white beaches and amazing food. But the sky's the limit, literally. Here's an imaginary map showing a valid route.

https://tinyurl.com/TASTAR1HND

I tried that itinerary adding IST-LAX-TYO and got ¥530,256
That is $3,348.63 for travel May 18 to June 15.

I wanted SIN and BOM to be connections, but it didn't like it until I chose the departure from those airports to be the day after arrival (not same day). I had to add them because it didn't like CGK-CMB or CMB-MRU. I thought it would figure out the connections that way. Funny thing was that for CGK-SIN the only options were connections via BKK. Maybe SQ didn't offer a nonstop that day.

Those are my observations using the tool. Not serious. It was for fun and to see if I could get $2260 this close to departure. It was fun but and was almost 50% higher cost.

I just learned that SAS left *A in 2024. They need to change their logo to a 4-pointed star or compass rose/star.

We're in a similar situation. We're headed to Istanbul mid-April, then Turkmenistan, then Uzbekistan, with return flights through Doha and Aman. We were thinking about cancelling. However, Trump just announced today that a settlement should be reached within the next five days, and the war should be over. Can you wait a few days and see what happens?

We were in the Caucuses a few years ago. I liked Georgia the best, and Azerbaijan and Armenia not as much. If you stayed in Tbilisi for a few days, you could take some convenient day trips around the area. The city itself deserves a day, maybe two if you like museums. We found a wonderful driver who took us on three day trips. We're still friends, and I'm sure he would take care of anyone I send his way. PM me for details. Oh, BTW, don't miss the puppet show in Tbilisi. Also, food is really good in Georgia.

V useful Gardyloo, that could work for us for Australia, presumably the same principle applies to OneWorld Alliance?

Those are my observations using the tool. Not serious. It was for fun and to see if I could get $2260 this close to departure. It was fun but and was almost 50% higher cost.

The fares I listed are base fares. There are taxes and airline fees that are added to those. These vary (sometimes dramatically) depending on the precise route and the choice of airlines used. This is the reason you can't see these fares through any OTAs or the airlines' sites. Most countries and the EU require that advertised airfares are inclusive of taxes and fees, but this isn't possible when each trip will include different stops and carriers than any others.

Some airlines (like British Airways) are notorious for adding fees and surcharges wherever they can. Some of these used to be called "fuel surcharges" but BA lost a lawsuit in US federal court for misleading the public with their fees, so they just renamed the fuel fees as "carrier imposed fees" and ta-da...

I'm sure the whole industry is going to see a spike in these fees given the current war and unrest, so buckle up.

V useful Gardyloo, that could work for us for Australia, presumably the same principle applies to OneWorld Alliance?

For sure. At present the cheapest Oneworld origin countries for business class are Norway and Japan. For economy travel the list is a bit longer and include some European countries. You can see base fares with a subscription to Expert Flyer, https://www.expertflyer.com/

Edited to add: Both the Star Alliance and Oneworld online booking tools are simply terrible - buggy and misleading.
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Six years ago, I had an LX agent insist that the YQ surcharge was a tax. The "carrier imposed surcharge" is ok but "carrier imposed fuel surcharge" would be better given that fuel needs are seasonal.

Ok so that was base fare. Does it vary depending on advance purchase time? Do I get the same RTW-fare for a segment even if the only available fare codes for purchase are higher?