Celebrating 50 Years - Our Trip Around the World
 

Fifty years together is a journey worth celebrating in a big way, we decided. Contemplating a special trip to mark this milestone anniversary, we considered some European destinations we hadn't visited on previous vacations. We never tire of traveling to Europe and I had picked out a few interesting places on that continent for us to think about when Steve surprised me with his own "big idea". Why not travel around the world? New Zealand, with all its natural beauty, had always intrigued us, but New Zealand was such a long punishing flight away that we'd never seriously considered it. What if, however, we broke up that long flight to New Zealand with some stops along the way. Then, rather than backtracking home, we could just keep going, circling the world from east to west. Now that would be a true adventure befitting our fifty year journey together.

We have been American Airlines Advantage members for many years so we began our research for our trip with their OneWorld Explorer planning tool. Using this site, mapping out a trip around the world proved to be easier than one might think. Fairly soon, I had a rough idea of where we could logically go westward through four continents and what it might cost. After printing out a half inch stack of routes and pricing out the different itineraries, I came up with a trip that made sense for us. We did have to make some choices. Should we travel to Japan or Hong Kong, Sri Lanka or Qatar, Spain or Finland? One stipulation we made was to only book direct flights, thereby avoiding connections. This turned out to be a wise decision, as the only time we had a problem with any of our flights was on our trip home to Syracuse from Helsinki, connecting through Chicago. That flight to Syracuse was delayed for hours and almost cancelled. We have been stranded in Chicago many times over the years so this was nerve-racking for us, but ultimately we did take off for our final leg home.

Because I had done so much research ahead of time, when I finally did call the OneWorld customer service desk, booking and paying for our trip was a breeze. To be honest, I wasn't brave enough to do it all online, although that was an option. I needed the reassurance of the pleasant and professional sales representative at the other end of the phone line. She was really easy to work with and very helpful, making good suggestions, answering questions and taking care to book us the best seats she could find.

The itinerary we ultimately booked was as follows:

Syracuse to Chicago - American Eagle
Chicago to Honolulu - American Airlines
Honolulu to Osaka, Japan - Japan Airlines
Osaka to Tokyo - Surface Sector
Tokyo to Sydney, Australia - Japan Airlines
Sydney to Queenstown, NZ - Qantas
Queenstown to Christchurch, NZ - Surface Sector
Christchurch to Melbourne, Australia - Qantas Airways
Melbourne to Singapore - Qantas Airways
Singapore to Doha, Qatar - Qatar Airways
Doha to Prague, Czech Republic - Qatar Airways
Prague to Helsinki, Finland - Finnair
Helsinki to Chicago - Finnair
Chicago to Syracuse - American Eagle

All our flights were business class except our initial flight from Syracuse to Chicago, and both flights back and forth between Australia and New Zealand on Qantas. ( When we booked in December, 2018, for travel beginning in March, 2019, those business class seats were already sold out.) We've flown overseas to Europe many times, but except for a few unexpected upgrades many years ago, we have always flown economy class. We were used to long, cramped, very uncomfortable experiences, but it was worth it to us to get where we wanted to go. Therefore, when we settled into our business class seats on our flight from Chicago to Honolulu, we felt like we'd died and gone to heaven. The flight attendants kindly showed us all the bells and whistles of our wonderful business class spaces, from the lie flat adjustable seats to the handy storage cubbies, the cozy pillow and comforter set, the amenity kit and slippers, the entertainment system with the fancy headphones. Wow, just wow, was all we could say. And if we were impressed by American Airlines business class offerings, we were blown away by the lovely experiences we had on Japan Airlines, Qantas, Finnair, and especially Qatar Airways On Qatar Airways, the pillow was embossed with the words "Beautiful Destinations Often Lead to Everlasting Memories", and the flickering votive candle on our dinner tray seemed totally luxurious. And I'm not even mentioning the food and drink on all these flights which were so far above any airline food we had ever experienced on a plane before. Amazing. For all these reasons, these long 8, 9, or 10 hour flights never seemed onerous to us but rather relaxing and part of the adventure. Also, besides the flights themselves, business class made the whole experience of dealing with the airport logistics of arrivals and departures, security and luggage, check ins and all the rest, much less stressful, not to mention the wonderful business class lounges with their comfortable chairs and delicious buffets and drink bars. Business class lounges made waiting for a flight pleasant and relaxing. Bottom line, we are now thoroughly spoiled and will try to fly business class whenever possible.

We celebrated 5 decades of marriage by traveling for 5 weeks (plus a few days) and we could have kept going for much longer. Truthfully, I believe we can say we are as good a team on the road as we are together through life. It was a wonderful trip and we loved every place we visited. What memories we have, along with our hundreds of pictures, which still need editing. Hopefully, we will get to that one of these days. Also, I plan to eventually do a trip report for each portion of our trip under the appropriate forum. Hopefully, now that I have finally started reporting on this trip I won't let so much time elapse until I get to the next section.

I want to give a special mention to Gardyloo, whose detailed posts on round the world travel were so very helpful to me as I planned this trip. Thank you, Gardyloo.

What a fabulous trip!

Looking forward to your trip report(s)

Fly around the world, and the fly in the ointment is Syracuse. Living an hour to the north, I just shake my head in agreement. We often drive to Toronto or 'the big scary city' (NYC) for direct flights to save $ on tickets and avoid a connection.

Glad to hear you had a wonderful time, congrats on 50 years together.

"we are as good a team on the road as we are together through life."

This says it all. What a wonderful experience. Thanks for sharing.

Great experience. We did something very similar - 6 weeks flying around the world starting at DFW to England, Spain Italy, Africa, Mauritius, Honk Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Japan and Hawaii using a RTW ticket - most of our flights were in First Class - a great way to travel.

A little side anecdote - I kept a "travel log" and at the end of the trip noted that we spent 168 hours in either airports or airplanes - that came out to exactly 1 full week of our trip.

Congratulations on the anniversary and the trip! I did three RTWs on One World airlines back when they had a good deal using FF miles, but I had much larger surface segments. I do so agree about business class - my 13 hours from Bangkok to London on Qantas was actually a pleasure.

Hope you do manage a TR.

Thank you, janisj and schmerl, for your kind words.

Yes, bdokeefe, flying in and out of Syracuse can be complicated, especially since, as American Airlines frequent flyers, we so often have to connect through Chicago. A few years ago, coming home from Alaska, we were stranded in Chicago for 2 nights due to weather but at least we were able to find a hotel room. Many years ago, we were stuck in a plane on the tarmac during a snowstorm at O'Hare, waiting in line to takeoff. When the plane was finally returned to the gate sometime after midnight, we had no option but to spend the night in the airport. Not fun!

RoamsAround, now that we've gone east to west, we'd love to try a RTW trip the other way. The route you took sounds like one we would enjoy, even though it might require a good chunk of time spent getting from place to place.

Thursdaysd, Wow! RTW three times sounds amazing. I'll bet you've had some memorable experiences, traveling like you have throughout this wonderful world we live in. It seems to me that the more we see of the world, the more we want to see.

I've actually done four, two in each direction, but the last one was mostly not on FF miles. The longest was ten months, all forward travel by train from Scotland to Saigon, so a very long open segment (on that award you only got one). I'm not up to that kind of travel these days, alas. Fortunately I have the journals, the photos and the blog posts (I didn't join Fodors until after the first two). I took early retirement so I could travel, and when I spent all of 2017 on the couch with the heating pad I was very glad I had.

thursdaysd, we’re sorry to hear about the couch and the heating pad. It must take a lot to slow you down. Did you really travel from Scotland to Saigon by train? That must have been an adventure!

Thanks. It was a wonderful trip! See:Rails Around the World 2004 -- Wilhelm's Words although I never finished the report. It was 17,000 miles by train in a forward direction, plus a bunch of detours. I had wanted to go through Central Asia but couldn't confirm that I could make the whole distance by train and wound up on the Trans-Mongolian route. I would love to do the Trans-Siberian in winter, although the trees were a lovely gold in Siberia in September.

What a fun trip? I would love to read more details and be an armchair traveler for a while.
Waiting for long reports soon.

You traveled for 5 weeks, so wondering what month/season did you choose and why?
What was the very most amazing place you visited?
Also, if possible, can you share approximately how much you spent in 5 weeks, a rough estimate would be fine too.
You are inspiring some of us to think of such travel adventures for which a person has to be determined as well as in good health.

Ileen, we began our trip on March 3rd of last year and returned home on April 9th. Our anniversary is in February but we decided the weather in countries like Japan and the Czech Republic might be better in March, so we waited until a few weeks after our actual anniversary to begin traveling. Although we would have liked to travel for a longer period in order to allow ourselves more time in each location, obligations at home limited the number of weeks we could be away.

Honestly, the whole trip was amazing. Each place we traveled to was unique to us, with different highlights that stood out as special to that location. Day after day, no matter where we happened to be, we were treated to new and interesting sights and sounds, unfamiliar languages and customs, fascinating places offering unusual foods and shops full of tempting purchases. The whole experience was an adventure we never tired of, and we both agreed we had no favorites among all the places we visited. We truly loved them all.

In answer to your question about the cost of a trip like this, I can honestly say we didn't keep track of expenses beyond the initial cost of booking the RTW tickets. When we averaged it out, we calculated that our eight business class flights cost us less than $1,400 per person, which was obviously a pretty good savings. As for lodgings, I booked mostly mid-range accommodations, using a combination of hotels and Airbnbs. Our one splurge was The Fullerton Hotel in Singapore, which was well worth the extra money, we felt. Booking months ahead on the hotel's website, I got a pretty good deal which included a great room and their amazing buffet breakfast at no charge. As far as food, we are never big spenders when we travel. We saved quite a bit on this trip by cooking our own meals in our rentals. My husband loves to cook and we always find that shopping local markets and grocery stores can be part of the experience in a new location. Often, when staying in hotels, we will enjoy a special lunch and then are satisfied with a light dinner in our room. Booking tours is something we don't normally do while traveling, but this time it made sense for us if we wanted to see places like Milford Sound in New Zealand and the Great Ocean Road in Australia. The six tours we took cost anywhere from hundreds of dollars each to one that was free. All of them were well worth it. Other expenses we incurred were transportation to and from airports, trains in Japan, a rental car in New Zealand and metro tickets in various cities. All of this obviously added up but, as I said, we never bothered to figure out the grand total. The trip was priceless and we decided to leave it at that.

I hope I have answered your questions. I will try to give lots of additional information in my individual trip reports, starting at the beginning, from home to Chicago and on to Honolulu.

Adding that the expenses for a long trip are, as for a short trip, a function of where you go and how much you have to/want to spend. My trips tend to the budget end, I could easily spend much more. Also, if I were home, I would be spending money on utilities, transport and food, so you can consider that some of the costs on the road are money you would be spending anyway (especially if you stay in apartments or apartment hotels and do some of your own cooking).

Thanks for your reply and all the details and explanation. Seems that you really had a good experience and of course, the money was well spent as it will be a memorable trip for ever and ever.
Love to read more, so please keep writing.
Traveling the world is a dream for many. But obligations at home, the detailed planning and taking care of so many reservations etc. is quite a chore. Maybe your experience will help me decide to follow your path.
Did you keep a journal to note down all the information from the planning stage to the actual trip and during the various tours and experiences. Those notes will be so valuable since they will remind you of adventurous experiences too.
Have a great evening.

Congratulations to the both of you! I feel so happy while reading this. I wish I can find someone I can travel with and be with me for the rest of my life as well but right now, I enjoy traveling solo.

thursdaysd, you certainly took the ultimate train trip. I can only imagine you what you got to see out those train windows over 17,000 miles of travel. And yes, I like the idea of factoring in our expenses at home while figuring out the cost of a trip. Like you say, what we are not spending on food in our own kitchen, we are spending instead on food while we travel. That helps the bottom line a little.

I am a pencil and paper kind of planner, ileen, and I also keep a journal while we travel. Keeping a journal helps pass the time while waiting in an airport or on a long flight, and it really makes writing a trip reports lots easier.

I am so glad you are enjoying my report, ammarairvine. Traveling with a companion like my husband is wonderful and I know how lucky I am. But I also understand that solo travel can be highly rewarding, and I give a lot of credit to those of you who are brave enough to do it.

For anyone who is interested, I have started to post the first leg of our trip, labeled "Off to Honolulu via Chicago - Part 1 of Our Trip Around the World" under Illinois and Hawaii in the United States Forum.

Oh good! Here's the link: https://www.fodors.com/community/uni...world-1677085/

Thank you, thursdaysd, I couldn't figure out how to do that!

Just click on the URL at the top of your browser window to highlight it and do a copy and paste.

I've copied and pasted this response from your thread on the Europe board to here, in order to expand a little on a response to your last paragraph. Certainly this is partly a reaction to me having WAY too much extra time on my hands ;) but hey, it's a free country/world so if this is intrusive or over the top, forgive me.

Let me pose an imaginary second RTW that might appeal. I've really enjoyed your description of the trip just ended, so I hope this trip might address some of the things it looks like you thought were highlights from the first one. This trip would also be based on the Oneworld Explorer ticket product.

Depending on pricing, we'd probably start in Europe... Mainly due to currency devaluation (the result of falling oil prices, hence national income) the cheapest place to begin business class Oneworld RTWs at present is Norway. A four-continent Oneworld Explorer in business class begun and ending in Oslo has a base price (as of today) of just over US$5500. (The same ticket started in the US would be $10,299, so quite a savings. In the UK or Euro zone it would be around $7500, about the same starting in Canada.)

Starting in Europe, aside from the cost savings, also can provide some additional advantages. As you know, the Oneworld Explorer allows a maximum of 16 flights, with flights limited to a maximum of four per continent touched except for North America, in which six flights are allowed, only one of which can be a transcontinental nonstop (e.g. NYC to Los Angeles or Seattle to Philly, etc.) However you're also limited to two stopovers in the continent of origin, so by starting and ending in North America, you're limited as to how much you can use the ticket for intra-North America travel if you'd like to go on, say, a separate short trip from home. You'd have six flights, but, aside from a "stopover" at home, you could only go to one other destination for, say, a short vacation or a business trip during the time you're in North America.

By starting in Europe, the same rule would apply, but (a) with only four flights allowed, the ratio is better, and (b) intra-Europe flights are generally cheap and short, so using conventional tickets (not to mention trains or a rental car) would be more cost-effective than using a precious RTW segment for a flight from, say, Scandinavia to southern Europe, or central Europe to the British Isles, etc.

So bearing those things in mind, here's an imaginary second RTW route that - I think - would accomplish the sorts of things you're desiring.

Here's a map (and link - https://tinyurl.com/yd7b6m7r ) of the imaginary route.

http://www.gcmap.com/map?P=OSL-DOH-J...0&RC=%23000080

You'd start in Norway and head to South Africa via Doha. You could also fly to Joburg or Cape Town via London, but that would add a lot of British Airways' surcharges to the ticket price, and you seemed to enjoy Qatar Airlines' business class product. This shows you flying first to Johannesburg, then to Cape Town. I did this order in case you want to go on safari to the northern part of South Africa, which is more conveniently begun from Joburg, but if you have no interest in safari, then you could fly to Cape Town instead. In either scenario, I'd recommend starting the trip in early to mid-September, which is both a terrific time for safari in the Kruger National Park area (late winter, the dry season, better sight lines for wildlife, no malaria risk) OR for seeing the spring wildflowers on the Atlantic coast an hour or two north of Cape Town. (See this post - https://www.fodors.com/community/afr.../ - to see what I'm talking about.)

From there you'd shoot over to Hong Kong then up to Korea. By this time it ought to be autumn in Korea, past the heat of summer but not yet too cold. Visit Korea, then fly down to Kuala Lumpur (using Malaysian Airlines, a Oneworld member) for your touring of SE Asia. Aside from Malaysian and Cathay Pacfic (Hong Kong) Oneworld doesn't have a lot of regional coverage in SE Asia but that's okay because there are numerous discount airlines operating out of KL, Bangkok and Singapore which can move you around quite easily - under $50 for a 2-hour flight from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City, for example.

Asia done, you'd then fly home from Hong Kong. This might be a couple of months after you started the trip in Norway, but you'd still have 9 or 10 months of validity for the ticket, so hang out at home, or take a midwinter trip to someplace warm (remember the Caribbean and Central America are part of "North America" for the purposes of RTWs.) Or, as the map suggests, stay put for a few months and travel to Alaska when the weather warms up. (One note is that by summer 2021 Alaska Airlines is joining the Oneworld Alliance, hugely expanding the range of potential destinations in the far west and Alaska, not to mention the west coast of Mexico.)

Then the following summer finish the RTW by bouncing around Europe or the Middle East. On the map I've shown Qatar and London, but it could just as easily be somewhere in the Mediterranean, the Baltics, maybe Madeira or the Canary Islands... whatever you choose. You'd end back in Oslo close to the expiration of the 12 months. As with SE Asia, there are lots of cheap intra-Europe flights that you could use outside the RTW ticket, due to the flight and stopover limits on the ticket. You'd have earned enough frequent flyer miles over the course of the year to fly home on award tickets.

Like I say, this is all imaginary, but it's eminently doable and the price for ex-Norway Oneworld Explorers is pretty attractive at present. Obviously in this pandemic period it's all a bit of optimism or even wishful thinking, but remember this too - you can buy the ticket and schedule the first flight for as much as 11 months from the date of purchase, which will "grandfather" the price. The ticket is valid for 12 months, so while you'd make all the flight bookings when you buy the ticket, the dates for all subsequent flights after the first can be changed for free, so the ticket has a potential de facto lifespan of 23 months (hope the math is clear.)

Anyway, hope this isn't too confusing. Maybe worth some thinking, though.

Interesting that it is so much cheaper to start in Oslo. I did my RTWs in business class on American FF miles on a OneWorld award that I think no longer exists? That award allowed just one open segment, sounds like that is not the case if you are paying for the ticket?

Yeah, the old AA Oneworld award was probably the best mileage redemption option ever, but it's long gone.

The Oneworld Explorer allows open (or surface) segments, but each one uses one of the 16 maximum segments (a result of the e-ticketing systems.) Even a trip across town, e.g. to fly into JFK but out from La Guardia, or Heathrow v. Gatwick, uses a flight "coupon." So when putting routes together with this product, it's always beneficial to know where the next flight departs from.

Thanks for the info. Yes, that award was a steal in business class. My open segment was always huge, so using one "coupon" would be OK.

Gardyloo, thanks so much for taking the time to map out a second RTW itinerary for us, and to outline all the possibilities this One World Explorer ticket would make available to us. The trip you designed looks fantastic, and the price, if we depart from Norway, is amazing. You are the guru of RTW travel, I know, and your tips and input have proven to be invaluable.

Definitely, a safari in Kruger National Park should be included in our visit to South Africa, and those beautiful wildflower photos you took near Cape Town seal the deal for a visit in early to late September. I do love wildflowers. Using Hong Kong as a center point for traveling in Asia makes good sense, and though I never would have thought of it myself, flying from Hong Kong to JFK seems like the most practical way to get back to the USA. I like the idea of going home part way through the trip to take some time to regroup, although we probably wouldn't travel to Alaska during this phase of the trip, as we had a wonderful vacation there just a few years ago. Either Central America or the Caribbean would be great destinations to take advantage of at this point, I think. Then back to Europe via Madrid sounds wonderful, as does the opportunity to visit Israel.

Wow! Now we have something to dream about while we are stuck here at home. When going through uncertain, and unpleasant, times, having something positive and special to look forward to really makes a difference. Thanks so much, Gardyloo, for helping out on that front.

Thursdaysd, and Gardyloo, you both seem to be so well traveled. What have been the highlights for you in Asia, or anywhere else included in this itinerary, for that matter? If anyplace stands out as special or not to be missed, please let me know!
Thanks!

Candace - that's really difficult! Not only because there are a lot of places, but because some of them have changed so much. I haven't been to Beijing since 2004, and even then it was hardly recognizable for the Beijing I saw in 1997. Luang Prabang, which I loved in 2002 and 2004, had been over-touristed when I went back in 2011, and from what I read Siem Reap is even worse. That's not to say you shouldn't go to either - of course the temples at Angkor Wat are a must-see.

More time in Japan would be a good idea - there is so much more to see. Taiwan is often overlooked - Tainan and Taroko gorge were highlights for me. I love mountains, so Nepal and Bhutan were standouts. Riding the "toy" train up to Darjeeling was special. I had a lovely lazy time resting up on island off the NE Malaysian coast.

I had a wonderful time in Myanmar in 2004, but I'm hesitant to recommend it. I skipped it in 2002, because of the boycott, but a woman I met in Vietnam visited then and virtually adopted her driver, so in 2004 I traveled with both of them. I felt that I was seeing the SEA of a few decades before. However, firstly tourism picked way up, and now there is the issue of the Rohingya.

For my 2002 trip to SEA, see: Wilhelm's Words -- Travels Round Asia 2002

If you're going to Oslo I highly recommend a Hurtigruten cruise. Also, Stockholm was my favorite of the Scandinavian capitals.

I confess that my travels have not included much of east or southeast Asia at all - really just short visits in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, so I am not one to consult on more in-depth Asia experiences or destinations.

One thing the RTW gives you that's harder to manage with conventional tickets is the ability to visit some pretty remote or hard to visit places without the travel cost being a barrier. The classic example of this (using the Oneworld products) is Easter Island, in the Pacific, a couple thousand miles west of Chile. (Sadly, Latam airlines is leaving the alliance this year, so Easter Island is going to be harder to reach in the future.) But there are other places that - depending on your tastes and interests - might be similar. A South African expat friend who is also a serial RTW junkie always uses his tickets to visit family in Sydney, but then uses the ticket to visit Lord Howe Island, 500 miles off the Australian coast, and a place I had frankly never heard of until he mentioned it.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...1da6ee6460.jpg

In my own experience, my RTWs were all about Africa; in addition to Southern Africa, my late wife used her RTW tickets to start and nurse to maturity a little charity she founded which leveraged treatment and medications to treat kids suffering from a common (treatable but otherwise deadly) pediatric cancer that's endemic in East Africa, especially around Lake Victoria. I posted some of her pictures in the same thread as the west coast images - https://www.fodors.com/community/afr.../#post17083704

During this hiatus of travel, what I'd do in your situation is to think big, but in the context of where the Oneworld airlines fly. For example, I'm sort of kicking myself that we never got to Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean off the African coast. It's reachable on Comair, the British Airways South African affiliate, a couple of times per week. See this trip report on Flyertalk - https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip...mauritius.html - to get a sense of the place.

But that's me. You might have other priorities. Remember too that the RTW is just a plane ticket; it's what happens between the flights that really matters.

One thing, however, if your keen on seeing the African wildflowers. I haven't been there at the time personally, but friends (and pretty much everybody) who have experienced Namaqualand in the spring (typically mid-September) have nothing but ecstatic accounts of it. Namaqualand is a region of western South Africa a couple of further hours' drive north from Paternoster and West Coast National Park, so not a day trip from Cape Town, but not hard to reach. And the rewards are, well... I'll let the pictures talk.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6cc2b118db.jpg

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...138e37a339.jpg

Thursdaysd, as you suggested, I visited your "Wilhelms Words - Travels Round Asia 2002", and then from there, I explored more of your travel adventures on line. I believe calling you "well traveled" is a real understatement. Someone who has experienced so many parts of the world and seen as many places as you have deserves a special designation, like "world traveler extraordinaire", or something equally grand. No wonder my question asking you to describe "the best" would not be easy to answer. But your Asian posts have given me a lot to consider. That island off the Malaysian coast where you nursed your hurting foot looks and sounds lovely. And we would love to visit Angkor Wat, even if it is overcrowded. Plus, your suggestion of Taiwan is a great idea. I recently read an intriguing article describing someone's travels through that country, and his descriptions made me believe Taiwan would be a beautiful place to visit. Also, thank you for the tips about taking a Hurtigruten cruise in Norway and your preference for Stockholm over other Scandinavian capitals.

I've really appreciated your responses throughout my trip report, which with all your travel experiences, have added so much to it. Hopefully, you are weathering these tough times in good health. Stay safe and thank you again.

Gardyloo, what an amazing person your wife must have been, to see a situation like that and then take the steps she did to make such a difference. Those children in the photos are beautiful, and I can see why she was drawn to Africa again and again. How wonderful that she could help them overcome a terrible disease, and live better lives. What a special legacy! Hope and joy, positively.

All your tips on places to visit will give me plenty of destinations to explore as I sit home and dream about another big trip. Mauritius popped up when I was researching flights from Johannesburg to Asia. It looks gorgeous. Also, Lord Howe Island seems lovely and exotic, if we ever get back to Australia. And more beautiful wildflower photos. Brilliant! With all this to think about, I will certainly take to heart your reminder that "the RTW is just a plane ticket; it's what happens between the flights that really matters". Absolutely true.

Best wishes for safe travels when all this is over.

Thanks Candace, but I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I took early retirement in 2000 so I could travel before I got too decrepit, and have never regretted it. Especially not since 2017, which I spent mostly on the couch with a heating pad when not visiting assorted medical practitioners. Eventual diagnosis of a variant of rheumatoid arthritis. I am now taking a (ridiculously expensive) immuno-suppressive drug, which has the symptoms in check, but my test trip to the UK was not a success, and of course now I can't go anywhere for the foreseeable future. At least I finally made it to Samarkand in 2016. Definitely travel while you can!

My Taiwan trip is on my other website (links at the top of the page): https://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com...oon-on-taiwan/
Also, crellston is another fan of Taiwan, not sure whether it was his site that you were reading, if not: https://accidentalnomads.com/category/taiwan/

thursdaysd, so sorry to hear you've had to slow your travels down. But you certainly covered a lot of ground in those years since retirement. What a wise decision that was, to retire early and see the world. I'm now following your different websites from beginning to end, which is perfect escapism right now. Plus, I've been gathering lots of good information from your sites to file away as reference, in case we are actually able to do another big trip some day. And the more I read about Taiwan, the more interesting it seems as a destination in Asia for us.
Thanks for your input.

Candace - thanks for letting me know you're enjoying my reports. I'm looking forward to your next planning thread. And beside Taiwan, consider Vietnam....

Yes, thursdaysd, Vietnam is high on our list of places to visit. Thanks for the recommendation.
Stay safe!