Collecting Continents: Circle of the World, but not RTW
One of the most frequent questions I got last year was "after you've been to every country, what will you do next?"
Over the last two years, the only community of "Country Collectors" or "Competitive Travelers" (take your pick) has actually come together quite a bit more, thanks to a combination of Facebook and various other websites. It's a small club of 200-300 people by most accounts, and it's been interesting to watch how people travel after going to every country. Many people can't stop collecting, so they go for the Travelers Century Club list of 325 distinct places. Others start ticking off US States, or Russian regions, or the UNESCO heritage list. There's an endless number of possibilities for those of us who are list focused. My plans were to at least take the next year to revisit places I had enjoyed, and spend a bit more time doing fun trips. My results at that have been decidedly mixed. Due to heavy work travel, I found myself in Croatia, Thailand, and Vienna over the last year - getting to see all three more in depth due to spending a week at a time in one city. I also made a round the world trip back in February, returning to places I'd already been and flying a variety of fun routes. Then of course, I got sucked into the "list" thing a bit in the spring, when FlyIgglesFly convinced me to go to South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Abkhazia since they are quasi-independent. I'm still very interested in doing more of these autonomous places, but happy to take the pace slower. So, with that, I figured I would celebrate the one year anniversary of going to every country with a bit of a fun trip. The routing would be somewhat determined for me, since I had a few tickets I had bought over the past year which would soon expire if I didn't use them (non-refundable, but date-changeable) so it became a matter of piecing things together to make those work. I toyed with all kinds of routings. I wanted to take some "fun" flights just for the experience. I wanted to try and get to some places I hadn't been in a long time. Due to the existing tickets, I also had to go to Sydney, Singapore, and Helsinki. Yeah...not exactly on the same side of the Earth, eh? So, this is how it all shook out. I didn't set out to hit all six permanently inhabited continents, but that's how it's going to happen. The final routing looks like this, barring any surprises: http://www.jasonaroundtheworld.com/w...7/08/map-2.gif You might notice the trip ends in Detroit. Thats because I land back in the US on not only the one year anniversary of my getting to every country, but also the day before my NEXUS membership expires. ...and just my luck, they're requiring an interview for me to renew. That puts me in Detroit/Windsor at the front end of a long holiday weekend before my birthday...so who knows where the last five days will take me. I'm intentionally leaving it open-ended for another week or two at least. The start is also a little uncertain. I'm considering being brave and flying non-rev down to Santiago to start the trip, but fortunately I have a backup refundable award ticket booked on another airline just in case. So the front and end are a little questionable, but the middle is solid now. Who knows, since I'll be in Detroit maybe I'll make a quick two day hop to Europe or Asia at the end. All depends how things shake out! Rather than go through all the details, I'll just highlight a few of the flights/travel parts I'm really looking forward to:
Feel free to share any must-see things to see/do along the way. Leaving in just a couple of days now. If you want to check my previous trip reports: I. London to Iran and Afghanistan in a mix of C, F, and LCCs II. Above the Arctic Circle with UA/CO/LH and SK in whY, C, and F III. Around the World in 40 Days for 40 Years IV. 8 Places People Who Are Right in the Head Do Not Spend New Years V. 12 Countries, 10 Airlines, 4 Islands, 27,080 miles, 11 Days VI. 6 Countries in 6 Days - Caribbean Island Hopping and first AA Experience VII. Guyana, Suriname, and French Guyana with an unexpected sidetrip to Caracas! VIII. To Haïti - for vacation and a milage run! IX. Around Senegal and West Africa X. 4th Annual New Years in Dangerous Places - Libya Edition XI. Kosovo and FYR Macedonia - Milage Run in United Business + TK/LH XII. Washington to Peru and Machu Picchu on COPA and TACA XIII. To Johannesburg...for 36 hours! XIV. Here a Stan, there a Stan, everwhere a Stan Stan.... XV. Air Burkina, Air Cote d'Ivoire and 7 countries in West Africa XVI. Turkey for Thanksgiving....with a side of Tajikistan, Serbia, Montenegro, and Moscow XVII. Into the Heart of Darkness... Congo, Angola, Gabon, OH MY! XVIII. HI! Four Islands, Lots of Planes, Beaches, and Convertibles XIX. Plenty of Salt, Not Enough Oxygen...a Trip to Boliva, Colombia, and Ecuador XX. Learning to Relax - Long Weekend in St Christopher and Nevis XXI. You're spending New Years WHERE? IRAQ? (2009-2010) XXII. Pineapples, croissants, and neon OH MY! A trip to Hawaii, Paris, Andorra, and Vegas XXIII. South Pacific, Israel, Lebanon - 6 weeks - 71,500 miles - 24 countries XXIV. Sundae bloody Sundaes...a 2014 United Year in Review XXV. Lakes, Lemurs, and Lithuania: Horton Hears a Houthi! XXVI. First Americans tour to North Korea 2005 - Arirang Mass Games XXVII. Doing the Needful - Lufthansa Business US to Chennai XXVII. C-ing things: Canada, Curry, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Camels, Chengis Khan and China! XXVIII. Learning my ABCs: Algeria, Bahama, Cuba and the Cubana IL-96 XXIX. Exploring ZMapp of West Africa...or how I got detained by the CDC XXX. Transatlantic to Bangkok with United, Austrian, Air Canada, and Thai XXXI. Being Lazy in Belize XXXII. Quick Trip to Cape Town with United, SWISS, South African, and Lufthansa XXXII. FUNny thing happened going to and from Tuvalu...Cathay F, Etihad Apts, Fiji Biz XXXIII. Achievement Unlocked: AFRICA! Visiting Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal XXXIV. FIN. (and thanks for all the fish) XXXV. What do you do after visiting every country? RTW in First with NH, TG, SQ, QR, EK, LH XXXVI. Rock in the Abkhazia - Progress on the Unrecognized Countries List Plan is to split this report up into roughly the following easy to digest segments: 1. DC to Santiago...the long way! 2. Exploring Santiago 3. Santiago to Buenos Aires in Air Canada 787 business, overnight in BsAs 3a. Hit by a car - is the trip ending early? 4. Morning in BsAs, Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo on Astral Airlines, AmEx Centurion Private Room Lounge 5. Two nights in Sao Paulo 6. Sao Paulo to Cape town in South African Business 7. Two nights in South Africa 8. Johannesburg to Perth in South African Business, overnight Perth 9. Perth to Sydney in Qantas Business 10. Sydney - Part 1 11. Sydney - Part 2 12. Sydney to Singapore in Singapore A380 suites, overnight Singapore 13. Singapore Airlines Private Room, and Singapore A380 suites to Delhi 14. Overnight Delhi, and Delhi to Moscow in Uzbekistan Airways Business 15. Two nights in Moscow 16. Moscow to St Petersburg in SAPSAN first class, first day in Petersburg 17. Second day in St. Petersburg 18. St. Petersburg to Helsinki in Allegro business class, overnight Helsinki 19. Helsinki to Detroit: SAS Plus, Icelandair Business Class, United First Sit back and buckle those seatbelts, no telling where this will end up... |
Looking forward to this.
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Very much looking forward to this one ^
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You couldn't find a way to swing down to Antarctica on this one?:p
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Originally Posted by wrp96
(Post 28659575)
You couldn't find a way to swing down to Antarctica on this one?:p
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Good to see the travel continuing...
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If you're nonrevving on DL, SCL is pretty easy to get to... it's getting back to Atlanta. Both times I've gone down there I got J going no issue, getting home we had weight issues both times but got on regardless.
Are you going to visit the Wagah Border when in ATQ? I'm heading to ATQ in Feb so I'd be interested to see what you think. |
Yes! YES!
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Originally Posted by ChiefNWA
(Post 28659800)
If you're nonrevving on DL, SCL is pretty easy to get to... it's getting back to Atlanta. Both times I've gone down there I got J going no issue, getting home we had weight issues both times but got on regardless.
Are you going to visit the Wagah Border when in ATQ? I'm heading to ATQ in Feb so I'd be interested to see what you think. Thanks for the nonrev advice - I'm not too worried about the flight to SCL...more about getting to ATL! :D
Originally Posted by Glensea
(Post 28659832)
Yes! YES!
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Signed up and waiting to read more of your fantastic travels! :)
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Looking forward to the report!
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So excited for this report!
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Great to see a train segment in there, I'm sure there must be a Tashkent - Moscow service you can catch too:D.
We're off to GRU at the end month, via LFW though:). |
Originally Posted by DanielW
(Post 28666550)
Great to see a train segment in there, I'm sure there must be a Tashkent - Moscow service you can catch too:D.
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Looking forward to another epic TR!! We want loads of pics......
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