Round the World Preparation (Tickets and insurance)

RTW Tickets and Insurance

Before you begin any kind of preparation ask yourself these simple questions:

Which Countries would i like to visit?

How long do i want to be away?

&

What is the purpose of my trip?

There are many different reasons for wanting to buy that RTW ticket and jet off for months. Some people are looking to find themselves. Others just want to see more of this earth before they die. Whatever yours may be can influence the content of your trip so have a purpose in mind before purchasing your ticket.

After you have decided where, why and for how long you want to be away its time to begin the search for the best deal on a RTW ticket.

Buying the ticket and Insurance

I began by searching several websites to get an idea of the price of a RTW trip. There were many different results. Most of the travel agencies that specialise in RTW tickets like www.statravel.co.uk , www.airtreks.com and www.roundtheworldexperts.co.uk displayed prices ranging between £600-£1500 plus taxes.

These websites are great for gathering information on pricing and destinations, but the world route planning sections on their websites can prove very confusing. This is mainly due to the fact that some countries restrict access to travellers flying in from certain areas. I.E i wasn't allowed to travel from south Africa to India because of quarantine matters. You can spend ages clicking different combinations of destinations only to be told at the end of the process that your route is impossible.

So the next best option was to find a travel agent that i could speak to. STA travel has many branches across the UK and i already had an idea of what kind of prices they charged. So a visit to the covent garden branch proved very insightful.

The upside to visiting the branch in person is that you can sit with a tour operator who is required to have traveled extensively to get a job there. So the knowledge they share is from first hand experience. It is best to visit STA during the day mid week to save on queuing times which can be suprisingly long on weekends. Just tell the operator where you want to go, what you want to see and when you want to go. They will provide you with a list of different routing options and even suggest extra places you can stop at along the way for no extra charge because of overland travel possibilities.

After just 40 minutes at STA, my girlfriend and i had worked out and booked the exact route for seven seperate flights. Each one a different airline arriving and departing from opposites sides of each country, allowing for overland travel across the mainland to maximise the amount to things seen and done. Also as a bonus, we only had to supply the start and end date of our trip. All the flight dates in between were genuinely flexible meaning we could stay or leave whenever we pleased. All the taxes were included and the first 2 nights accommodation in Delhi sorted and paid for. They also arranged working visas for us both so that when we arrived in Australia 4 months into the trip we could find jobs there almost immediately. This entire trip cost just £1100 each including taxes, visas and 2 nights accommodation.

Before leaving the operator showed us the different travel insurance options they had to offer. We didn't take this at first as we believed we could find it cheaper elsewhere. After extensive searching with little promising results we decided to get the premium cover from STA. Although it was never needed it helps to have the insurance and trip booked at the same location. Especially because STA have branches all over the world.

The price of premium insurance which covers absolutely everything including extreme sports (Apart from Zorbing for some reason) and even vehicle hire up to certain engine sizes, was around £450 for the both of us. So £225 each for a years cover. DON'T GO WITHOUT INSURANCE!

SUMMARY:

Round The World TICKET- £500-£1500 PLUS TAX (My ticket- £1100 inc tax)
INSURANCE- £150- £450 (My insurance- £450 for two people)