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Incredible Journey
by Adam Sachs

The around-the-world ticket is the stuff of airline legend: One fixed fare for a near limitless pass to the planet. Six continents and 65,000 miles later, Adam Sachs reports that the airlines' ultimate gimmick just may be travel's greatest bargain

There is something special, an old excitement, bound up in the idea of circumnavigating the globe. Of making a right turn outside your door and ambling on until you approach home again—from the other end of the block. Knowing that the earth is round does nothing to kill the dream of proving it yourself. Tell someone that you are vacationing in Capri and he will say, 'The Quisisana is too crowded,' or 'You **** lucky *******.' Tell him that you were just now plucking cities from an atlas, blocking out the route of a great big world tour, and expect a different response. He'll get a far-off look in his eyes. Then, consulting the well-thumbed maps of his own mental atlas, he'll describe all the places he'd go but hasn't. Or won't—some spots are meant to remain in the Concocted Registry of Ideal Places, their virgin charms spared the wear and tear of substantiation.

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