6 weeks

6 Countries

7 flights

All for under 1,600 Canadian loonies.

And it could have been cheaper.

The Goal

An around the world trip has always been a dream of mine. It has always been something I have wanted to do, most likely because I loath backtracking. I had the 2014 Winter Olympics in mind as my excuse to start traveling extensively again. It seemed fitting as my first backpacking trip in 2006 began with an incredible time at the Turin Olympics. It was that trip that led me to my love for travel and writing about it. Then there was moving to Vancouver to work for and be apart of the 2010 Winter Olympics. It was nuts. So 2014 Sochi was always in the back of my mind as the perfect jumping off point for my around the world trip. Beyond that there were two countries in particular that had to be visited on this around the world trip – Turkey, and Thailand.

Then life happened.

Work, finances, and a lack of commitment kept us from focusing on the goal. To be fair, life in Vancouver is pretty fricken awesome so it is hard to pass on social events and side trips when you know you should be saving up your travel $$. We also started a little bag company called Körút. Originally it was thought as a means to generate income while on the road – Erin would sell bags online and manage that side while I took writing gigs and focused on this site – all while sipping fruity cocktails brought to us by monkey butlers in our beachfront hut on some tropical island you have never heard of. Yup, things were going to be easy. Well two years, four prototypes, and ZERO monkey butlers later we are no further along to that daydream.

In short, we just weren’t ready to leave our life for a year. We then shifted our goal to maybe going for a shorter trip now and a longer trip when ready.

Then Putin happened.

The Trans-Siberian railway was apart of my around the world trip goal since I learned about its existence. What better way to get from one continent to another and see some of the most remote and off beat places in the world along the way. My love for trains certainly aided in this. It would be great – Sochi Olympics then head up to St.Petersburg (a place I tried to get to in 2006) then on to Moscow and beyond via the worlds longest train service. Then Putin had to go and ruin my plans by being turbo conservative. Russia’s anit-gay laws came as a pretty big shock to me and the rest of the world and left us wondering:

Could we really go to Russia and support this kind of backwards thinking?

No. No we couldn’t. We put that trip to rest and moved on with life. Sigh.

Points vs. Cash

Originally this trip was to be covered by using points however originally, this trip was to be much longer. Over the last couple years I have saved and travel hacked my way to a level that could get me around the world nicely. Taking a year to travel around the world and having my major flights covered was a huge goal and achievement, and now it wasn’t going to happen. Feeling dejected and bummed about missing out on the Olympics and a big trip Erin reminded me about going to Turkey and Thailand and that we could still do that and a bigger trip when we are ready. In my mind I thought it didn’t make sense to blow all those points now and then when ready to travel again not have any points to use. That is when I started to break down what the flights would actually cost. What I found was very surprising.

From A to B via L,M,N,O,P

As I have mentioned before in an article on booking cheap flights, it pays to be flexible. How much so was a shock even to me. If you are flexible then it helps to look at your potential route as an equation. ie. I want to go from A to B. Everything else is a variable and X is the lowest price. With that in mind I started looking at the cheapest way to get to Turkey then to Thailand from the Pacific Northwest. Using Skyscanner.com I was able to search on the cheapest flights from European cities to Istanbul. After a few days of loosely looking I found a direct flight from Amsterdam for only $77. Sold. I then searched Kayak.com for the cheapest flight to Amsterdam and found a great flight through Iceland for only $446.

Leg 1

• Seattle to Amsterdam (via Reykyavik) – $446
• Amsterdam to Istanbul – $77

For Istanbul to Thailand I searched several connecting cities and found Cairo and Dubai offered the cheapest connections. We chose to go to Dubai because Erin has a friend there and Egypt has a travel advisory.

Leg 2

• Istanbul to Dubai – $150
• Dubai to Bangkok – $295

The last leg was the toughest to find and hardest pill to swallow. Vancouver to China is a common route and return flights can often be found for under $700. Because of this paying $780 one way just didn’t feel right. I was patient in booking this leg which paid off as I was able to find a flight out of HCMC for only $569. Getting to HCMC from Bangkok is a cheap discount airline hop.

Leg 3

• Bangkok to HCMC – $60
• HCMC to Vancouver – $569

Around the World Trip Total: $1,597

How Could I Not

Seeing this price was shocking. Flying to Ontario from Vancouver can cost close to $1000 so to go on an around the world trip for a little more seemed very reasonable. If I was to book an around the world trip ticket through an airline they would charge around $5,000 and up depending on the amount of stops you want. Booking through points would cost $500-$800 on taxes and fees + all of my points. This pushed me over the edge and into booking flights.

It also made me reconsider going to Sochi. From Istanbul, it is only a short hop over the Black Sea that cost $90. That coupled with Putin’s backpedaling made 4 days in Sochi OK for us. Trans Siberian Train no. But going to Sochi to support my country’s athletes (and not politics) made this OK…or at least that is what we are telling ourselves.

 Check, recheck, then check some more.

Then check again.

Seriously. I obsessed about the routes and flight options. For a couple weeks I was looking at every possible route imaginable to make this around the world trip feasible.  Make no mistake, finding these flights took a lot of time. In summary here is how I did it:

• I was flexible on dates and countries.
• I looked at the cheapest way to get to Istanbul from major European cities
• I looked at the cheapest way to get to Europe from North America
• I looked at cheapest way to get to Thailand from Istanbul
• I looked at cheapest way to get from Asia to Vancouver

More specifically:

• I Used Skyscanner.com features that show the cheapest option for week and month
• I Used Skyscanner.com feature that shows cheapest flights from a selected location to anywhere
• I Used Kayak.com to cross-reference flight prices
• I Searched flights as individual routes and as part of multi-city route (kayak.com)

It could have been cheaper

Surprisingly this was not the cheapest route. My route decision was swayed by wanting to go (or go back) to certain locations. Example:

1. It would have been slightly cheaper to go to Istanbul via London, however, I had an urge to seek out the best shawarma I have ever had 8 years later.
2. It would have been slightly cheaper to fly through Cairo on the way to Bangkok but with travel warnings out on Egypt, we decided against it. For now.
3. It would have been $90 cheaper to fly to Qatar on the way to Dubai and then again on the way to Bangkok. By the time I decided that this would be OK the price was gone.
4. It would have been $200 cheaper if I booked exclusively through China Eastern Airlines from Dubai to Vancouver. This would have meant long layovers in the middle of nowhere China on an airline that has very poor reviews.
5. I loved my time in Iceland and wanted to go back.
6. It would have been $80 cheaper to fly from Bangkok to Vancouver with a looong layover in Manila.

If layovers and poorly rated airlines were not an issue the cheapest around the world path could have cost:

~$1,297

Insane.

But I digress…

In the end I booked the cheapest route with the best options for us. A good example is we paid a little more to fly out of HCMC but it is on Air China, a Star Alliance airline. Plus I loved Vietnam and am excited to get some pho and mystery street meat!

In total with the added Sochi excursion and 5 commuter hops around Turkey (Five!) our itinerary looks like this:

• 6 weeks.
• 7 Countries.
• 13 flights.

All for under $1,850

Not too shabby for my first around the world trip.