’Round-world trips

Are you considering a trip around the world (Dec. ’05, pg. 53)? Our recommendation would be “Go for it!” In March-April ’05 we traveled around the world, spending five weeks in 10 countries, and it was truly the trip of a lifetime. Here are the particulars.

1. We used United Airlines and their Star Alliance partners. They have specially trained agents who assisted us with the itinerary and the details.

The restrictions were minimal: complete the trip within a year, travel in only one direction (except when returning to a hub) and keep air miles at a certain level. (There are a few more rules, but they were not restrictive.) We selected the lowest threshold and therefore were able to fly 28,960 miles out of a possible 29,000.

2. We checked out most of our hotels on the Internet, and then a fantastic travel agent, Danielle Smith of Uniglobe Professional Travel (Danville, CA; 925/838-2397), made the reservations and actually saved us about 20% over what we could get ourselves.

3. Our itinerary took us in an eastward direction from San Francisco. The first stop was Frankfurt, Germany, for two days, to get ourselves acclimated to the time change. Next we spent three days in Tunis, Tunisia, then we flew back to Frankfurt for a night and onward to India. Our week in India covered the popular northern triangle route, and we had prearranged a driver and an itinerary.

From India, it was off to Singapore for a few days, then Brunei. While in Brunei we took a side trip by car to Sarawak, Malaysia. We traveled back to Singapore and then to Perth, Australia, staying four days and renting a car in order to explore the countryside. We flew on to Auckland, New Zealand, where day trips helped us to see much of the North Island.

By this time, we needed a relaxing “vacation.” Our 10 days in the Cook Islands afforded us that “time off,” and we rejuvenated ourselves for the trip home. The last leg of this journey took us to Tahiti for a short stop, then back to San Francisco.

4. We chose to fly business class for the entire trip, as the ticket was about $5,000 per person while the economy was only about $1,000 less. The remainder of our expenses for hotels, meals, tours, etc., came to about $8,000.

We traveled around the world, visited 10 countries, spent five weeks of “togetherness” and only had one argument. Was it worth it? You bet!

BARBARA & HARRY
HUBINGER, Danville, CA