Around-the-World Plane Tickets

I did not know until recently that these actually existed. With how insane air travel is these days, the thought of being able to pull this off without being on the FBI's watch list or something equally crazy was in the pretty far reaches of my imagination. But after looking around a bit, it appears this is a pretty common thing. I was reminded of this traveling idea after reading my friend Alicia's lovely blog post on "spinning the globe and packing your bags." That's a crazy idea too. 


So anyways. These around-the-world tickets. (Which from here on out will be referred to as RTW tickets because it's really annoying properly hyphenating all of that! *sigh* English major.) They're not that bad of a deal at all. Some are restricted by the time frame you have to use them in (a year seems to be pretty standard). Some appear to have loose itineraries. For example you can fly out of Istanbul, and after that Athens (Greece, not Ohio), but you have to get to Athens from Istanbul on your own in the meantime. 


I found a cool site that is dedicated to RTW traveling and tickets and seems to have everything you could ever need to know compiled in one place. Like how you should pack, how to plan your trip, sample itineraries, stories of other people's trips. And they have travel deals posted too. For example, a Latin America budget ticket that includes about 7 stops begins at $1000. 


I was looking at their myths section about RTW travel, and I love this response to the myth "I don't have enough time to travel around the world!": 

We reckon that if you think it's worthwhile, you'll make the time. That's how everything in life is, and travel is no exception.

You can make your RTW trip as long or as short as you want. There is no magic schedule. Yes, we know travelers who take 6 months or a year for their trip, but we also know many people who take a month or two, or even a couple of weeks, and have an amazing trip. You can hit major cities and destinations all over the world, in as little as a few weeks. Time is as much of a factor as you make it. To look at it another way, a job or career might last 30-odd years, but the experiences gained from some time spent outside your comfort zone will last a lifetime. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "There is more to life than increasing its speed." 

How inspiring! I'm ready to pack my bags. I wouldn't much care where I went as long as I began in Ireland and hit all the historic castles and history of the Kings and Queens of Europe (I'm a historical fiction fanatic. I want to see where all these people I read about lived!).

Thank you for the photo, site about Killarney, Ireland.

And finally, read some of these interviews with people who have done the RTW trips. They are amazing. Inspiring. And make me want to pack my bags, sell our cars, and buy a plane ticket. 

So, would you take one of these trips? What would be on your itinerary of must-see destinations? How long would you be willing (able?) to travel?