So last week Alicia and I booked our ‘Round the World’ tickets. We used Airtreks as they were the most reasonably priced.

I use the phrase ‘Round the World’ lightly, as we are in fact only going as far as Taiwan where we plan to teach English for a year.

So we start in San Diego, USA and work our way cross country, stopping at the Grand Canyon, Texas, New Orleans, Florida, D.C. and New York. Before heading to Alicia’s Beantown.

Then the journey begins; we fly to Cancun, Mexico, to see some Mayan temples and sites. Then heading south to Guatemala City via Flores, Tikal and Antigua.

Hopping on a plane to Ecuador, where we hope to get some extreme sports action. South again, through Peru catching the sunrise at Machu Picchu and doing some sand boarding near the Nazca lines. Climbing up Lake Titicaca and veering east to La Paz, Bolivia straight onto Rio de Janerio and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Changing continents to Europe, landing in Paris and then overland to the U.K. heading north to my home town, Baildon outside of Bradford. Back to London, fly to Marrakech, ferry to Spain. Eastwards via Madrid, Barcelona, Andorra, Monaco, Rome, Milan, Athens, Istanbul, then south to Cairo before heading to India.

We plan to travel for seven months, from May 2012 – February 2013.

We’ll be visiting 17 different countries* across four continents and over 50 cities.

The tickets cost £2082 ($3294), not including the flight for India to Taiwan, around  £370 ($590)**

We’ve budgeted about £12,500 ($20,000) spending money.

* This may change as we are currently waiting on a visa for North Korea, if successful we will be there for six days via Beijing.

** We were unable to book tickets more than a year in advance.

© John Brownlie 2012