G'day,

I've been trying to research my own round the world trip and noticed someone else had posted his plan in this section. I hope this is the right place to post! Maybe lonelyplanet forums would be better?

The plan was to make my way from Australia through China, India, Nepal, Bahrain, Egypt, UK, then use a working holiday visa to work there and maybe travel around Europe. Finally travel to the US, visit Canada, go down to Panama, then I was looking at a South American tour that goes through Lima to Brazil. Finally I would travel back to Australia.

The problem is that I sat down with a travel agent to plot a course with a Oneworld ticket and it seems I'm doing a bit of backtracking. I'm just wondering if Oneworld is even the best option or if I should consider one of the other round the world tickets. Right now they have me down for a ONE5 economy ticket. I really like the fact that I can change the times later on although the travel agent recommended that I lock in the early travel dates since it'll be hard to change during the busy season.

the itinerary:

(initially spend 2-3 months around asia, middle east)

starting mid November 2007:

Perth Australia - Hong Kong (Cathay)
Hong Kong - Beijing (Cathay)
Beijing - Hong Kong (Cathay)
Hong Kong - Delhi (Cathay)
Delhi - Amman (Royal Jordanian)

(perhaps get a train or something to Nepal)

Amman - Bahrain (Royal Jordanian)
Bahrain - Amman (Royal Joranian)
Amman - Cairo (Royal Jordanian)
Cairo - London (British Airways)

(spend 6-7 months in London, working and travelling around Europe, using rail and local flights)

London - New York (British Airways)

(spend about 2-3 months travelling around US, visit family in Canada and friends in Seattle at the minimum)

New York - Miami (American Airlines)
Miami - Panama (American Airlines)
Panama - Miami (American Airlines)
Miami - Lima (American Airlines)

(South American Tour)

Rio de Janeiro - Santiago (Lan Chile)
Santiago - Sydney (Lan Chile)

There just seems to be a lot of backtracking to Miami, Hong Kong, or Amman. Is it possible to get more direct flights you think? I will probably have to spend about $4900 on getting this round the world flight so I didn't want to waste my money in the early planning stages.

- Nick