I would really appreciate your collective wisdom in helping me plan a "dream" trip.

Mr. free101girl and I are seriously considering booking a RTW next year. We've been playing with itineraries and studying the stickies, so I think we're pretty clear on the rules.

I know most people here are interested in maximizing miles (well, duh, this is FT!) but in this particular case that's not our primary priority. Our priorities are:

1. Visit some interesting/offbeat/intriguing locations. We are especially interested in getting a taste of some places that we wouldn't normally make our primary destination.

2. Experience the airlines and routes with the best service and comfort. (So we'll go for the A ticket if the experience is a lot better.)

3. Have the whole "whirlwind tour" experience that a RTW ticket seems to imply.

4. Maximize mileage if possible.

In short, we want to take a really cool trip around the world, and if we get lots of extra miles, that's gravy.

We are considering starting from ARN because of the savings, but we're open to starting anywhere in North America if it works out better. We'd prefer to work our way west to minimize jet lag.

We don't want to visit Sub-Saharan Africa or South America on this trip, so this would be a *ONE3 (Europe, North America, Asia) or *ONE4 (Europe, North America, Asia, South West Pacific). We just did a trip to Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand this year so that's not a huge priority, though of course there's still plenty to see in the Pacific.

We are interested in historic cities as well as places that are kind of "wacky" and unusual (Dubai?). We would enjoy breaking up the trip with one or two beach/relaxing stops. We are willing to pay for some side trips if we can find reasonable airfares.

Anyway, sorry for the long preamble, but I would be very appreciative if any of you would be willing to suggest interesting itineraries!