Posts Tagged ‘around the world’
Dave, one of AirTreks’ skilled travel consultants, has a penchant for long stays in exotic countries. After spending a year of his life in the island nation of the Maldives and over four years in Thailand, Dave is very familiar with the world traveler’s state of mind.
To Dave I posed the Your Agent’s Dream Trip question:
“Without having to state your reasons, and if cost was of no importance, what would be your dream around-the-world trip in 10 stops or less.”
Here’s what Dave came up with, starting in his current home town of San Francisco:
Glenn has been in the business a long time, and as one of AirTrek’s longest-standing employees he’s a seasoned traveler. His passport will show you — with recent trips to Borneo, Malaysia and Argentina, plus the 20+ years he’s been under the influence of the travel bug, Glenn knows his geography.
With this in mind I expected his dream trip to be pretty exotic — he didn’t let me down.
To Glenn I posed the Your Agent’s Dream Trip question:
“Without having to state your reasons, and if cost was of no importance, what would be your dream around-the-world trip in 10 stops or less.”
Here’s what he offered. (Glenn lives in Oakland, CA but said he’d be willing to come across the Bay to catch his international flight. He’s nice that way.)
The following article is a guest post from Suzi at Packabook.com. If you would like to have your travel-related article, journal or review appear on the AirTreks travel blog click here.
Can there be anything more exciting than the idea of setting off on a Round the World journey – or even a Part of the World journey?
You are just filled with the anticipation of all the amazing places you will see, and fascinating people you will meet. You can’t wait to get that rucksack packed, to buy your travel towel and pegless washing line, to get some money in an exotic currency….
But the problem is – while your trip is booked – it might still be MONTHS before you are actually on the road.
So – what to do in the meantime?
Dream...
The travel consultants currently employed at AirTreks have a vast pool of travel experience. Today we start a new series entitled “Your Agent’s Dream Trip” conceived to bring the readers of this blog planning suggestions and possibly some dreams of their own.
The question was put to the travel consultants, “without having to state your reasons, and if cost was of no importance, what would be your dream around-the-world trip in 10 stops or less.”
Image credit: Ghost of Kuji
Working with travelers over the years helping set up their trips-of-a-lifetime, I’ve managed to pinpoint some of the more problematic issues they subject themselves to before they come to us. Most of the time their research is been spot on and the trip looks wonderful – they have realistic goals and are honest about their expectations. Other times a little work is needed to get a solid, cost-effective itinerary, one that won’t end up driving them crazy in the long run.
In order to avoid itinerary problems before they come to the fore, here are a few of common mistakes people make during their trip planning stages and how to see yourself out of them:
Image credit: nosha
There’s little doubt it’s a great time to be a traveler. With so much available to the modern nomad it’s amazing everyone’s not dumping their possessions and flagging down the next nonstop to Points Unknown.
Because travel is currently so accessible and cost-effective, you may want to take advantage of this time. But being among the new traveling masses, it should also be important to be as sensitive and considerate as possible while on your journey. Being a courteous traveler is the new standard, and it says a lot about your character just how you travel. You owe it to yourself, and the world, to be as thoughtful as possible in the face of the unfamiliar.
So how do we do it?
Departing, by Elsie esq.
“You kids don’t know how good you’ve got it,” says Grandpa from the backseat. He may be right — especially when it comes to travel. What Grandpa had to endure for better leisure traveling these days can make your head spin around: the fickle, unreliable airlines, the volatile political situations, the disease, poverty and rampaging Godzillas just to name a few.
It’s hard to quantify just how much the traveling experience has improved from your grandpa’s, or even your dad’s era to ours, but there’s little doubt that as travelers we’ve got it pretty good. From the smooth transcontinental flights, that our bags typically arrive with us, our web check-ins, etickets, electronic itineraries, planning, booking and moving around the globe, there’s no doubt it’s better now than it ever has been. And it’s in no small part due to the pitfalls the previous generation was exposed to.
To demonstrate the point, here’s how modern traveling is better than it’s ever been:
The around the world travel idea has been popping up a lot lately, and outside its admittedly tight-knit circles. More and more people are pushing the comfortable borders of Europe when not more 
than 20 years ago only the most adventurous American would consider traveling elsewhere. These days anywhere is fair game.
Yes, people are finally envisioning a vastly larger destination palate. Landscapes with hugely exotic sights and sounds are available without the extra effort that was formerly obligatory. The digital age has shown us just how small our world can be and our ability to get there is changing Disney World into Real World with an ease our parents would have been jealous of.
Image by d'n'c's
In his Jan 14 post, travel blogger Keith Jenkins from Velvet Escape listed a series of “10 Incredible Bridge Walks” around the world. Since I’m an admitted RTW-ophile, I couldn’t help but envision the bridges as a theme trip. These beautiful open-to-pedestrians bridges, when assembled in a series, would make one amazing round the world trip, and not necessarily just for bridge enthusiasts.
For continuity, I took the liberty of adding in a crazy bridge in Singapore that would fill in the South East Asia gap nicely.
So, starting in New York City here is Keith’s bridge-lover’s around the world trip. Check out his original post for lovely pictures of these bridges.
While the electricity conversion problem has mainly been solved for modern travelers — most electronics these days have plugs that convert voltage within the plug itself automatically (check your manual) — there’s still the dilemma of physically fitting the plug into the outlet. This isn’t likely to change any time soon.
There are five configurations of outlets throughout the world, some being more common than others. But when on a round the world trip, you’ll likely run into several variations, making it all but impossible to charge batteries or use electronics once you leave a region. Be prepared, bring an adapter with you. Here’s a recommendation for a good one to throw in your bag.
The map below shows plug variations around the world. Compare this to your route and see what you’re up against.
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