Austin6s

Hi so this is my first time using flyertalk and my first post so let's see how this goes.

So I could use some help and some advice from anyone with experience budget traveling. First let me give some quick background:

I am a college student finishing my second year of school and this summer I think I want to take the entire summer (about 4 months) to just travel. I am from upstate New York originally but I am currently living in Massachusetts. I have a decent amount of experience traveling, I have been to China (it might help to mention that I speak Chinese) and Southeast Asia a couple times as well as a few family vacations to the Bahamas, Canada, Mexico, and Germany. I am completely new to the concept of budget travel and decided to give it a shot. Being a college student I do not have a ton of money but I do have a few thousand dollars saved up I want to spend to travel.

With all that being said let me lay out a summary of my tentative itinerary:

So basically I want to do a rim of the Pacific. I have never been to the west coast before so starting from Boston, I want to first go to LA, then make my way up to San Francisco, then Portland, then Seattle, then Vancouver, then Juneau, then Anchorage, then Honolulu, then cross the pacific to Tokyo, then Seoul, then Shanghai (i've been to Beijing before, didn't really like it, I want to be able to breath the air), then Hong Kong or Guangzhou, then to Yangon, Myanmar (I have been there before and have friends there), then to Singapore (maybe Bangkok in between), then to Australia (Sydney or Melbourne or both depending), then to New Zealand, then cross the Pacific again to Santiago (my girlfriend will be abroad there and I have family there), then to Rio (would love to hit up the Olympics if I can somehow get tickets), then back home to good'ol Boston.

Okay so I know that this is a lot, especially for 4 months, but can I please just get some advice on whether this is too ambitious or not. Like I said I am new to this whole concept of budget travel but I am perfectly comfortable going outside my comfort zone. I also feel like I should either go big or go home. I don't want to sacrifice getting a summer job just to hit up a few places and come home.

Also a big fear of mine is going alone. All my friends are taking the beaten path and getting internships and jobs this summer but that's just not what I want to do while I am young. I figured I have 40-50 years of working once I am done with college and you can't really put a price on an experience like this. However, I don't want to arrive at a new city and walk off the plane and have no idea what to do next or where to go and what to see, especially on a budget, and especially with no one by my side. I want to have the fullest experience I can while experiencing the true culture and adventure of the region. I am just afraid that that is hard to do without my best bud by my side. I am outgoing and friendly but don't know if that will make a difference in a strange new place with no one I know there. I appreciate any tips or opinions being offered. Thanks for taking the time to read this, any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks again!

EmailKid

Thanks for your detailed ideal summer vacation.

IMHO, not too ambtious, WAY too ambitious.

Also disagree with go big or go home. There is a happy medium.

Now, to my objections:

Airfare alone will kill you. Even with LCCs around (and there is a great thread about going RTW posted in Budget Travel not too long ago), stringing one way way fares is rather hard. For Int'l travel often MORE expensive than r/t.

You don't have to do it all in one summer. And quite frankly, you shoudn't.

I'll leave it at that for now and let others chime in, but even with your previous travel experience, I'd try for something a little less ambitious.

Doc Savage

Agree, the airfare will bust your budget from the get go.

I'd recommend just doing South America. You can get a reasonable round trip airfare, and take the very good tourist buses around. Get a lie flat seat on those and travel overnight to save the cost of a night's lodging. Stay in hostels and meet a lot of similar young people. The only drawback is that it will be winter there, but you can plan around that to some extent. South America can be good for budget trips.

I guess you could also include a week or two on the west coast/California as well, and catch your South America flight from there, but that might be cheaper from MIA/East Coast.

The other option might be to get a round trip to HKG or somewhere else in Southeast Asia and take cheap LCC flights around there. Again, people can tell you about budget/backpacker options there.

Mwenenzi

WAY too ambitious is also being diplomatic: in 4 months its absolutely crazy. 4 months in Australia - NZ is just OK for a budget traveller. 4 years will be OK for that route!
www.oneworld.com airlines offer a circle pacific fare. Its not that cheap
Budget travel is not fast (been there - done that). You would spend a long time in thin cramped metal tubes and airports.

http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=L...OR=&MAP-STYLE=

Austin6s

Okay yeah that's what I thought. Getting a little ahead of myself. Does anybody have a more modest itinerary they would suggest?

Thanks for the advice. I just get excited. That being said, anyone have a more modest itinerary they want to suggest that'll last me the whole summer? I don't know what's considered a good length of stay in each place to really get the full experience.

EmailKid

+1

In my younger days, much younger days, I hitchhiked across parts of Canada and Europe (didn't have very good luck in US) and even slept outside during the summer.

These days there's Couchsurfing, and while I've hosted once back in Texas, I've never stayed, but IIRC we do have a thread on that here in Budget Travel.

These days I have more money than time (which only shows how little time I have as I'm NOT rich ). So I fly, preferrably using my status to gain better seats or even 1st class upgrades

I do like the idea of overnight buses in South America mentioned by Mwenenzi, and would like to point out that large parts of South America don't get all that cold even during southern "winter" unless you go really far south.

Non-NonRev

As for the Olympics, there are always plenty of tickets available to preliminaries, heats, etc (outside of glamour events (semifinals and finals in swimming, gymnastics, basketball etc).

Smaller venues put you close to the action in many cases.

Austin6s

Do you know where I may be able to get those? I went to Cosport (the authorized seller for the US) and they're pretty much sold out. I am a huge track fan and it be my dream to see some of the Athletics events, even if it isn't a final.

bitterproffit

Not only do you have 40 or 50 years of working left, you have 40 or 50 years of travel and vacations left too. 'Go big or go home' seems like a strategy you would take if you thought this was your only opportunity to travel. I would suggest that this is just the beginning of your travel life. Pick a place, go to it. Or two places. I did the west coast in college for a few weeks. Just rented a car in San Diego and returned it in Seattle. Slept in cool state parks along the beach and sketchy flops in cities. This was before cell phones, internet, Airbnb, couch surfing, etc, so it can be done. This is not your last opportunity by ANY stretch of the imagination. I am 55 and still taking dream vacations every summer. Maybe do both over the summer (work and travel) or both at the same time. IMO, the mistake is thinking that this is the first and only chance you get (it's only just begun.....). Cheers (my first post here too).

Non-NonRev

On-site as the Games are running. I went to Atlanta in 1996 and had a good choice of events at face value.

Flyertalk member tom911 has gone to several Games as he follows a family friend on the US swim team. Shoot him a PM, he's nice and willing to share and help.

Big4Flyer

I would argue that that's not necessarily too much, too fast, but it will be very expensive. I'm someone who has a similar travel style. I don't like to spend more than 2 days in any one city, because I figure I can always go back. That's just my style though.

Just for cost's sake though, I would say, if you haven't yet been to the west coast, spend a few months out here. Right now Alaska is relatively affordable, with flights starting at $78 from SEA or PDX (they were $48 last week, but it looks like those are gone). You could do BOS-SEA-ANC-PDX and then work your way down the coast, even continuing on into Mexico. South/Central America is also a great deal on a budget. Once you narrow down a little more where you want to go, we'll probably be able to give more specific tips.

RustyC

My own approach years ago in taking the "gap year I never had" at 33 but still on about a $60/day budget including any airfares was to have a strong bias toward places that were cheap on land costs, especially SE Asia. Would rather have a year there than 6 months in Europe, I decided. These days you could go somewhere like KUL and have tons of ULCC flights throughout the region. Air Asia sometimes has sales well in advance that are close to $0 before the taxes and junk fees, and I've spec-booked flights that I had to walk away from (any change fees would be much more than the fare).

Would echo all the advice about not trying to do it all in one trip. Alaska is a fave but I've done that on miles in successive Septembers. All the South Pacific dots on the travel map came about because of award trips nested within award trips, culminating in a 2006 7-ticket, 69-day masterpiece. Europe has come in "nibbles" on deeply discounted or even mistake fares. Just went to LIM and SCL on two LCC flights totaling $200 and an award trip back.

The point is that you've got your whole life ahead for that stuff. I'd concentrate on places with low land costs where your time advantage (longer blocs) can generate unique opportunities. In hindsight the greatest trip I've done to date was a 1-month thing I slapped together on easySABRE in Jakarta using LCCs they had then (more expensive than today's) and taking in Ambon, Jayapura, the Baliem Valley, the Bandas and Bali, with the Baliem Valley and Bandas as great highlights. Those are places that can be harder and more time-consuming to get to and would be harder to book on shorter vacations that go with work life. When working you might have money but will be pressed harder for time. And when retired you'll have time and maybe money but may well feel differently by then about schlepping backpacks or staying in hostels or going to places like Myanmar, Laos or Cambodia. Play to the strengths.

RustyC

Field hockey in 1996 was a piece o' cake to get. Swimming or women's gymnastics finals, not so much.

CPMaverick

I concur that the travel is too much movement in 4 months to keep to a budget.

The cheapest way to Budget travel is to stay in one place! Preferably a cheap place.

However you will find as you start to piece together your ideal journey which stops are out of the question in terms of budget. I suggest you focus on a cheap 'hub' like KUL or SIN where you can get cheap fares to many other places. Then figure out how to get there cheaply - airline credit card sign up bonuses are ideal for this, but you usually need some spend to get the bonus. So make sure if you sign up you have something to charge on the card to get the bonus.

The 'big 3' airlines DL, UA, AA all have credit card bonus options and with some planning you can bank these in time for your trip. That will give you more one-way long haul flight options when you need them. In particular a one-way from Australia to South America is probably very expensive.

Here are a couple of thoughts:

- Fly to LA and buy a cheap car, preferably one you can camp in, then drive up to Seattle and sell it. This gives you lots of time, and overall cost should be low if it holds reliable Or if you don't want to spend too much time on the drive then rent, try this site you can get very cheap one-way rentals but only at the last minute : http://www.imoova.com/imoova/relocations
- Forget Alaska and Hawaii (not a good budget destination or easy to get to) and just fly to Asia from Seattle, using points on a US airline.
- Use LCC to get around Asia, but plan to spend the most time in a low-budget country like Vietnam or Indonesia, etc. This will be the part of the trip where you can really get ahead on spending because Australia is a lot more expensive
- Use LCC to get to Australia. Stay in hostels in Australia, they are pretty moderately priced. Eating out will be expensive but you can cook at a hostel as well. Consider AA or DL miles to fly one-way in Australia, a great value. Also the imoova.com site has one-way rentals in Australia and NZ too
- Flights Australia - NZ are expensive. Consider using AA or UA miles for this as well if you can.
- Flights from Australia/NZ to South America are limited, and generally expensive (not sure about one-way but I'd be afraid to look). This is probably the best use of airline miles. If you time it right you might be able to book the Air New Zealand AKL-Buenos Aires flight with UA miles. This would be ideal as you wouldn't have to go back to Australia.