Going Travelling

[-pogo-]

Eurostar to Brussels. Use a Belgian operator for a train to Berlin. Use a German operator for a train to Moscow. Use a Russian operator for a train to Beijin. Check out the site I posted above.

[dakyras]

The site says to book in advance. What's it like with Moscow though, visas and shit for whats just gonna be a stop over.

Edited January 8, 2010 by dakyras

[Gre]

The site says to book in advance. What's it like with Moscow though, visas and shit for whats just gonna be a stop over.

[AFC]

I want to hit south america too, just unsure at the moment as I dont really want to go there on my own!

[Katster]

A plan is starting to come together

[jk1]

Booking to leave December- February the prices are just through the roof. Some of the prices come down Mid January but everybody goes for those tickets and the availability is really poor. If you start in September you could literally halve the cost of your multi stop ticket whilst still going getting the entirety of the southern hemisphere summer. That £500-800 you can save at that time will pay for 2 months or so of accommodation!

I've got a friend in Australia and just put together a small trip to Aus New Zealand via Singapore in 10 days time Been very hasitily put together and quite honestly I've done nothing towards it yet cept book a few hostels and my multip stop ticket. Just going to take it as it goes. Paid through the nose for my ticket in comparison to what I could have done and have done in the past but I can't go any other time due to work commitments so that is frustrating but looking forward to a great trip.

Not really fussed about Singapore but it was one of the cheapest routes down under left so thought we may as well stop off for a few nights there. Booze is crazy expensive though

As for people saying about spending money. Well you always spend more than you budget. In the past I will rarely have had a couple of visits in the main town squares of big city's, they are just tourist traps on the whole. Nice to walk through and have a pint perhaps and take in the sights but mainly just a complete and utter rip off. Walk 10 minutes away from it in any direction and you'll find scores of bars and restaurants and they will usually be AT LEAST half the price but still relatively central busy bars and eateries etc. Your hostel will usually be a great place to ask for the general areas you should go out in, and they'll give you great advice in the more trappy places where to avoid. Asking where to avoid can be as important as asking where to go.

Despite the plummeting pound, hostel prices have remained relatively stable over the past few years. There are so many hostels springing up that the prices in local currency have actually gone down in a lot of places, hostels should still be £4-8 in Asia, £7-10 in Eastern Europe and about £13 down under. So even if you went for 6 months you could probably average a £10-11 a night which is about £1800 or so in accommodation altogether and that is not unrealistic if you spent 3 months in Asia/South America, 3 months in Aus/nz. One thing a lot of people do is don't factor in local travel, it can be expensive to travel between cities, sometimes it is easy to pump in a few flights and find it's £40 to fly all the way across Australia, which is true, but it might cost you the same just to get up the coast a few hundred miles. Transport costs don't necessarily reflect the distance you've gone and if you are actually travelling in the sense that you'll only be in one place a couple of days then this will be a massive expense for you to consider.

If you drink and like to go out every night then you will spend a lot. If things like sky diving, bungy jumping, then you will also spend an absolute fortune but despite the exchange rate, you will still find that nearly every place in the world is cheaper than Britain for food, booze, travel, cigs, sun cream!, activities and everything else. The only thing which can be more sometimes or not particuarly feasible if you're on a backpackers budget is boozing. Booze can be frighteningly cheap in some parts of the world and in others it is just as expensive if not even more even if everything else in that place is half the price it is back home!

I think if you went to most of Asia then you could easily live off £15-20 a day including accommodation and eat and live extremely well.

[greenfairy43]

I'm in Beijing at this precise moment-what a mad, huge place it is! My daughter's living here for a year hence the visit. Just got back from the Ice Festival at Harbin (cold, slippery place!). We're flying to Guilin on Monday, then training West; it's such a vast place that to get to all the places we want to in the 3 weeks I have here, lots of flights are the only way we can do it. I'd do much more of the travelling by train though if I had time.

[chappiepunk]

A plan is starting to come together

[chappiepunk]

Booking to leave December- February the prices are just through the roof. Some of the prices come down Mid January but everybody goes for those tickets and the availability is really poor. If you start in September you could literally halve the cost of your multi stop ticket whilst still going getting the entirety of the southern hemisphere summer. That £500-800 you can save at that time will pay for 2 months or so of accommodation!

I've got a friend in Australia and just put together a small trip to Aus New Zealand via Singapore in 10 days time Been very hasitily put together and quite honestly I've done nothing towards it yet cept book a few hostels and my multip stop ticket. Just going to take it as it goes. Paid through the nose for my ticket in comparison to what I could have done and have done in the past but I can't go any other time due to work commitments so that is frustrating but looking forward to a great trip.

Not really fussed about Singapore but it was one of the cheapest routes down under left so thought we may as well stop off for a few nights there. Booze is crazy expensive though

As for people saying about spending money. Well you always spend more than you budget. In the past I will rarely have had a couple of visits in the main town squares of big city's, they are just tourist traps on the whole. Nice to walk through and have a pint perhaps and take in the sights but mainly just a complete and utter rip off. Walk 10 minutes away from it in any direction and you'll find scores of bars and restaurants and they will usually be AT LEAST half the price but still relatively central busy bars and eateries etc. Your hostel will usually be a great place to ask for the general areas you should go out in, and they'll give you great advice in the more trappy places where to avoid. Asking where to avoid can be as important as asking where to go.

Despite the plummeting pound, hostel prices have remained relatively stable over the past few years. There are so many hostels springing up that the prices in local currency have actually gone down in a lot of places, hostels should still be £4-8 in Asia, £7-10 in Eastern Europe and about £13 down under. So even if you went for 6 months you could probably average a £10-11 a night which is about £1800 or so in accommodation altogether and that is not unrealistic if you spent 3 months in Asia/South America, 3 months in Aus/nz. One thing a lot of people do is don't factor in local travel, it can be expensive to travel between cities, sometimes it is easy to pump in a few flights and find it's £40 to fly all the way across Australia, which is true, but it might cost you the same just to get up the coast a few hundred miles. Transport costs don't necessarily reflect the distance you've gone and if you are actually travelling in the sense that you'll only be in one place a couple of days then this will be a massive expense for you to consider.

If you drink and like to go out every night then you will spend a lot. If things like sky diving, bungy jumping, then you will also spend an absolute fortune but despite the exchange rate, you will still find that nearly every place in the world is cheaper than Britain for food, booze, travel, cigs, sun cream!, activities and everything else. The only thing which can be more sometimes or not particuarly feasible if you're on a backpackers budget is boozing. Booze can be frighteningly cheap in some parts of the world and in others it is just as expensive if not even more even if everything else in that place is half the price it is back home!

I think if you went to most of Asia then you could easily live off £15-20 a day including accommodation and eat and live extremely well.

[FunkyDenz]

I've been looking at Round the World trips, but they don't make it easy, lots of restrictions meaning that it isn't easy to fly from Africa to South America, unless going via Europe which strikes me as daft.

[Katster]

Does anybody know if I can get a ferry from New Zealand to Chile?

[chappiepunk]

Does anybody know if I can get a ferry from New Zealand to Chile?

[Katster]

I dont think so... didnt see anyhting about that while I was in NZ, but I dont know for definate!

[LusciousLucy]

Does anybody know if I can get a ferry from New Zealand to Chile?

[Katster]

Cant say I have ever heard of a ferry crossing the entire Pacific Ocean!!! Blimey!

I know of a girl who found herself a spot on a yacht that went from Australia over to San Fran. It was a sort of Eco-trip thing. Very jealous of her indeed.

[Gre]

Does anybody know if I can get a ferry from New Zealand to Chile?

[Katster]

Have you looked at travelling somehow on a cargo ship that does that route? I know you can do that from SE Asia to the states, but obviously that's a much more travelled route.

Honestly no idea if its possible, but just an idea I'm rather jealous of you right now!

[chappiepunk]

It isn't looking like there is. So I'm now thinking of flying to New Zealand and then coming back to Europe (over land as much as possible, on train/bus etc). We want to somehow fit Canada in with our trip though, along with South America.

It's difficult planning it all and getting it to work out with seasons?! I've been emailed by a lady looking for an au pair in Italy though, so hopefully that will be some sort of employment I'll have bagged.

Finally, I'm going through with this. Better late than never!!

[Katster]

thats a good plan... I have a very rough plan at the moment which involves buying a car in Japan and driving home to London in it, with the use of oen or two car ferries of course!

[chappiepunk]

Oh don't. You'll have me thinking it would be a good idea to pick up a campervan en route and bringing that home

[dakyras]

thats a good plan... I have a very rough plan at the moment which involves buying a car in Japan and driving home to London in it, with the use of oen or two car ferries of course!

[LusciousLucy]

There IS an overseas bus that takes about 6 weeks or something to Oz. Buggered if I can remember its name tho.

[chappiepunk]

Do you want to do the Mongolian Rally? It looks AWESOME.

[Gre]

There IS an overseas bus that takes about 6 weeks or something to Oz. Buggered if I can remember its name tho.

[philipsteak]

I have looked, nothing is coming up.

It's ok, I quite fancy going the other way now, as it will mean I will definitely get to fulfill my dream of going to Malaysia and Indonesia