Advice needed Backpacking across Asia and Australia + hopefully South America

GAMAN

Hi guys planning on taking a year off and going traveling.

Any advice on where is the best place to buy my around the world ticket is e.g USIT, Travelfinders e.t.c.?

Any any must see places along the way?

Any advice is greatly appreciated

Go raith mile maith agat.

dory

Hello

I'm on one of those USIT ones at the moment. I thought they were good, weren't the most helpful when I was planning, and I found out later I could have made more stops, but I got a one way to Oz, with a 9 months stopover in South America for 1000 euro which I was happy with.

Also, when I wanted to change my flight they didn't charge anything, just said I'd have to pay something small like a tenner or something at the airport.

If you're a bit more specific I can tell you places to go.

My route is Dublin-stopover London-Brazil - Peru - Ecuador - Panama - Costa Rica - Nicaragua - Ecuador - Argentina (where I am now) - Uruguay - Brazil - Paraguay - Bolivia - Chile - stopover NZ - Oz and the have to find my way home!

GAMAN

Hiya Dory,

Cheers for your reply,

The plan is to travel in Asia for 3 Months then Oz and New Zealand for 7 Months and then 2 months in South America. What are the must sees you have seen so far? im easy on where i visit, my mine issue is where to book my flight tickets and which package to go for!

Any travel tips im new to this game :-)

dory

GAMAN wrote: »

Hiya Dory,

Cheers for your reply,

The plan is to travel in Asia for 3 Months then Oz and New Zealand for 7 Months and then 2 months in South America. What are the must sees you have seen so far? im easy on where i visit, my mine issue is where to book my flight tickets and which package to go for!

Any travel tips im new to this game :-)

Hello,
It`s important to remember that you can fly Europe-Asia and Asia-Oz pretty cheaply. But Oz-South America is very expensive (talking $2500 when I checked) and SA-Europe isn`t cheap either, so if you`re thinking of coming this way, you should get a RTW ticket.

I would say the must sees in South America are Peru and Bolivia (everyone says Bolivia, haven`t been there yet).
Ecuador is great if you can afford Galapagos (I couldn`t).
I`m in Argentina at the moment, wouldn`t recommend it. Steaks and wine are great, but after that no one has been raving about it here. If you can stick two days on a bus each way, the glaciers are great.

chris85

Hey in a similar situation as planning to travel at the end of the year.

USIT look to be good but have been looking at quantas as well and there flights seem to be good value and allow a good few stopovers. I would say book as early as you know when and were you are gonna go as prices are less the earlier you buy them.

Asia should be really good. I am planning on travelling to Thailand and Singapore there hopefully. These places seems good value and lots of crack.

Australia is a big place which im starting to realise. Figure out how much and where you wanna see. Sydney to Melbourne is like a 1000 kms which is a fair distance but they look so close on the map Are you planning to work?

Also get some of them books for backpackers on Australia and other places as i have found them brilliant whereever i have went.

Gonna be keeping an eye on this thread for ideas myself :cool:

youcancallmeal

Dory was Panama any good? Also have you used any guides or the likes or are you just seeing what there is to do when you get to each destination?

Meathlass

dory wrote: »

Hello

I'm on one of those USIT ones at the moment. I thought they were good, weren't the most helpful when I was planning, and I found out later I could have made more stops, but I got a one way to Oz, with a 9 months stopover in South America for 1000 euro which I was happy with.

Also, when I wanted to change my flight they didn't charge anything, just said I'd have to pay something small like a tenner or something at the airport.

If you're a bit more specific I can tell you places to go.

My route is Dublin-stopover London-Brazil - Peru - Ecuador - Panama - Costa Rica - Nicaragua - Ecuador - Argentina (where I am now) - Uruguay - Brazil - Paraguay - Bolivia - Chile - stopover NZ - Oz and the have to find my way home!

Agree with you about Argentina, not a whole lot to shout about, Chile is nicer for scenary and wine anyway. I wouldn't bother with Paraguay is you can avoid it, really not worth it. You're probably heading through the Gran Chaco from Brazil to Bolivia though so you could avoid it that way. Bolivia is very cheap and a truely different experience. I spent the whole month there out of breath and with a fericous headache from the altitude!

dory

youcancallme>al wrote: »

Dory was Panama any good? Also have you used any guides or the likes or are you just seeing what there is to do when you get to each destination?

Yea, Panama was great. Really humid though. Was there in September and for a brief stopover in December. It was much worse in December.
The city was nice, the causeway there is cool. And if you´re into canals.... :rolleyes:

I spent a week in Bocas Del Toro, lovely carribean island place.

And yes, I had Footprint and Lonely Planet with me. I like reading about the places before I get there, but also talking to people when I´m there.

langerdan79

asia
bangkok - weekend market, temples
cambodia - angkor wat (a must see)
vietnam - halong bay, cu chi tunnels, mekong delta
laos - luang prebang, elephant trekking

oz
western oz - ningaloo reef
queensland - cape tribulation, great barrier reef, whitsundays, fraser island
new south wales - byron bay, opera house, harbour bridge, bondi-coogee walk, blue mountains
victoria - mcg

nz
south island - queenstown, milford sound, franz josef glacier
north island - rotorua

south america (doing this in may so these are on my to do list)
peru - machu pichu, nazca lines
bolivia - amazon in rurrenbaque (sp?)
argentina - bocas game, iguazu falls
brazil - cococabana (sp?!), ipenema, maracana

some ideas here for you gaman

GAMAN

Hiya Dory,

Yea been looking into flights can get around the world ticket from trailfinders for 2040euro which includes Asia,OZ,New Zealand,and South America so i think i might go for that.

Your route seems class how long more have you left.

Did the injections cost you much?

dory

GAMAN wrote: »

Hiya Dory,

Yea been looking into flights can get around the world ticket from trailfinders for 2040euro which includes Asia,OZ,New Zealand,and South America so i think i might go for that.

Your route seems class how long more have you left.

Did the injections cost you much?

Ya, the flight sounds good. Mine will probably end up being around the same in the end.
I have until August left, it's great but sometimes feels very loooong. Think I'll need a holiday after this.
I only paid for a yellow fever injection because I was in India in 2005 and 2006 so I was up to date on all the others. I know a friend of mine who went to the gay mans clinic in Dublin for a few of the shots! The give out free Hep ones or something. Prices vary a lot so be careful, one doctor completely ripped us off one year.

Flynn

Dory - hey hows things.. I'm heading off to SA (via USA) in march, it's part of a RTW and i'll be spending maybe 4-8 months there (booking next week better make my mind up!) Are you TEFL teaching in every country you go to? or just traveling around?
I was thinking of starting at the top and working my way down most if not all of the countries (as most people do) but would like to stop off at a particular point to make friends/practice spanish/chill-out.. what would you suggest? Bolivia?
I'd be interested in seeing alot of wildlife (maybe amazon treks etc.) but can't afford to do these kind of things every day.. how would one make friends/travel buddies/drinking partners over?

Anyone else have any input..
SA seems alot harder to do than SEA (seems really user friendly)

dory

Flynn wrote: »

Dory - hey hows things.. I'm heading off to SA (via USA) in march, it's part of a RTW and i'll be spending maybe 4-8 months there (booking next week better make my mind up!) Are you TEFL teaching in every country you go to? or just traveling around?
I was thinking of starting at the top and working my way down most if not all of the countries (as most people do) but would like to stop off at a particular point to make friends/practice spanish/chill-out.. what would you suggest? Bolivia?
I'd be interested in seeing alot of wildlife (maybe amazon treks etc.) but can't afford to do these kind of things every day.. how would one make friends/travel buddies/drinking partners over?

Anyone else have any input..
SA seems alot harder to do than SEA (seems really user friendly)

Hey. No, I'm not TEFLing here. Contracts seem to be too long for me, I know one person who did it, a month in every country, not sure how she did that though. I got a volunteer placement through my college for 2 months in Peru. Then when I arrived in Nicaragua I took a Spanish course and they told me about an organisation looking for people, so I spent two months there. Those four months were easily my favourite so far, really getting into Peruvian and Nicaraguan life, the food, music etc.

If you're really into wildlife there's a place in Bolivia you can look after them. It's a rehab place for monkeys etc. who've been sold and mistreated. Police come, take them and try to just throw them back in the jungle, which doesn't work. So this place tried to make them 'street smart' again. Or just feed and look after them if they can't. You'd definitely learn Spanish and meet people there.

So far all of my travelling buddies have been people I volunteered with.
Anything else you want to know?

Flynn

Cool, thanks for that.. so were you always busy with volunteering ya? and just visiting side spots on the weekends? just trying to figure what to do when i get there! i have no set route as of yet.. Hows your budgeting going? Is it just like lonely planet says price wise? Are you finding it easy to live on 20-30 bucks a day?

dory

Flynn wrote: »

Cool, thanks for that.. so were you always busy with volunteering ya? and just visiting side spots on the weekends? just trying to figure what to do when i get there! i have no set route as of yet.. Hows your budgeting going? Is it just like lonely planet says price wise? Are you finding it easy to live on 20-30 bucks a day?

Absolutely not. Double whatever the LP says! That was written in 2005, published in 2006 if I'm thinking of the right one. Prices are higher everywhere since then. In Argentina I somehow spent closer to €50 a day.

When I was volunteering I spent very little money. In Peru at one stage I was spending about €20 a week! Food and accom were paid for and I lived somewhere where there was nothing to spend money on. And then I started spending money when we went places at the weekend.
In Nicaragua, spent about €80 a week, but lots spent less. Rent was €50/month. Very cheap country!!

Your other question about being always busy; yea! Lived with children in Peru so was with them when not working, and also volunteered in two different projects there. 6 days a week stuff!

Also in Nicaragua, when we weren't teaching we had lessons to plan etc.

Volunteering's amazing, but also hard, hard work. And emotionally upsetting a lot of the time. But if you stick to it, it's really great.

Flynn

thanks for the reply... Sounds really good.. who did you organise the volunteering with? was it one of those pay to volunteer things? that seems to be all i can find.. How would i go about checking out the options.. all websites seem to do package deals and don't cater for people passing by..
Sorry about all the questions, cheers for the help though appreciate it..

And how long would you suggest to spend there? I know thats a very vague question.. but i plan to work in Oz after SA and i'm not limited to a 12 month trip (provided i make money in Oz) so i'd like to stretch out my stay to the point where i've gotten a good feal of the place ? Was thinking 5- 6 months..would you think that's sufficent?

dory

Flynn wrote: »

thanks for the reply... Sounds really good.. who did you organise the volunteering with? was it one of those pay to volunteer things? that seems to be all i can find.. How would i go about checking out the options.. all websites seem to do package deals and don't cater for people passing by..
Sorry about all the questions, cheers for the help though appreciate it..

And how long would you suggest to spend there? I know thats a very vague question.. but i plan to work in Oz after SA and i'm not limited to a 12 month trip (provided i make money in Oz) so i'd like to stretch out my stay to the point where i've gotten a good feal of the place ? Was thinking 5- 6 months..would you think that's sufficent?

No, I've done about 5 volunteer stints now and have never paid a penny. Those websites are a joke. Met two people in Quito, who didn't kknow each other, both off to do the same volunteer work for a month. One had seen a poster in Ecuador and emailed them. The other paid £900 (sterling!) through i-to-i. I found out about most of mine through friends, the ones I did in South America you have to speak Spanish for. But in Bolivia and Ecuador have loads of nature ones in which you don't need English. Inti Wara Yassi in Bolivia is a great example of a place to work. Didn't work there myself but know people who did.
Also, 5-6 months is loads! Any organisation would love having you if you stayed that long. Most people stay 2-3.

And if you want my recommendation; best place to volunteer is with Mother Teresa's Sisters of Charity in Calcutta. Very varied work, and you get to watch this amazing people do stuff even volunteer doctors/nurses don't want to do!

Flynn

Nice one, i checked out that site - looks amazing.. that's right down my alley was thinking maybe 2 - 3 months volunteer and then travel for 3 months..
Thanks again for the help..