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My and my gf are currently planning an around the world trip in August, with the below route;

New York (5 nights)
Cancun (2 weeks)
Lima (1 week)
Rio de Janeiro (1 week)
Buenos Aires (1 week)
Johannesburg (2 weeks)
Delhi (2 weeks)
Bangkok (2 months)
Beijing (1 week)

We are trying to do it a cheaply as possible with regards to accommodation etc

Does anyone who has done something similar have and advice?

Also i know there are alot of people on here who have been to Thailand etc. Would it be best to rent for 2 months or just stay in hotels etc?

Finally i would be looking to bring my laptop to grind a bit as i went. Would there be any countries that it wouldn't be safe to carry a laptop about, or should it be fine?

While Bangkok is well worth a visit, why are you planning on 2 months there?

Thailand outside the capital is better imo.

yeah sorry thats just where we fly into, we are planning on travelling about, maybe also go to cambodia etc?

Going to Beijing in a few weeks so will report back. Hotels/guesthouse are cheap and good quality  in Thailand, I'd just do that so you can move around as you fancy it.

Get to Cape Town if you can, it's a long way from jo'burg though, fantastic city probably my fav city in the world. If you fancy going out to Kruger park for a few days rent a car and book national park accommodation inside the park online, was quite cheap but not been for 3 or 4 years. Think group backpacker type trips can be done from jo'burg out there too, which might be cheaper but you will need to cheack. The game is of much higher concentration and easier viewing in the southern third of the park so, stay in that general area.

There's a standard Rajastan/golden triangle circuit most people do from Delhi which I enjoyed, Delhi is worth 2 or 3 days in its own right too for sightseeing and general mooching and sucking up the atmosphere of the madness of India. Plenty of wtf's to be had in India if you have never been to the subcontinent before.

The Forbidden City in Beijing is an amazing place.

Start the trip with a bang.

Stay here for a couple of nights:

http://www.mandarinoriental.com/bangkok/

It's about £200 a night, but anywhere else in the world it would be nearer a grand a night.

Amazing hotel.

If you had 4 or 5 days in Beijing what else would do there Dan?

I spent 3 days there.  Forbidden City is a definite, and Tiananmen Square at the same time.  Then a trip to the Great Wall, most take you to Badaling but don't know if that's the best place to see the wall.  As well as that, take in the street bazaars - they're incredible.  It's been 15 years since I was there though, so I might not be the best person to ask.

We paid just over £50 in Kuala Lumpur, and less than £200 in Vegas.  The KL one must have been the best value hotel I have ever stayed in.

When travelling round Thailand I wouldn't book in advance anywhere.  You tend to pay half the internet rate if you turn up and haggle and they aren't so busy.  When travelling I think we only got badly caught out once in Malaysia, where we had to stay in some really bad beach huts, but even then it was just one night and we moved in the morning.  We loved Thailand and have been back a couple of times, staying much posher each time.  If you get down to the South of Thailand the Perhentians are worth a trip just over the border in Malaysia.  When I went you could see sharks and turtles snorkelling off the beach.  I haven't been for a long time, and in that time turtle numbers have allegedly fallen markedly, so maybe it isn't as unspoilt as it once was.  Edit: Just looked up the place I stayed on trip advisor, and it appears that the place is falling down, guess they haven't fixed up the rooms in 15 years.  Glad to see Rock Garden (my one really bad experience) is still resolutely bottom of the rankings there.  In Fact everything seems to have gone dowhill about the Perhentians looking at the reviews, shame it really was beautiful at one time, especially under the water.

Echo what was said on South Africa, if you can get the state owned National Park rate it is a lot cheaper than the luxury lodges.  We stayed in a rondavel in some minor National Park for peanuts.  We had warthogs and monkeys monkeying around just outside our door.  It really was very good, but it was about 15 years ago and I really can't remember what the place was called.  I loved Cape Town and if you can get on Stellenbosch wine tasting trip, it is really beautiful there too.

I have never been, but not heard great things about Bangkok, but mainly good things about Peru.

What, no Australia/NZ?

I was quite surprised at the rate quoted on the website tbh.

I seemed to remember it was half that when I stayed about 4-5 years ago.

No comparison to Vegas MO though, the Bangkok one is much much better.

ZZZRope is an Aussie I believe.

thanks for all the replies!

Hi woodsy, i think we are going to do kruger park then we are going to stay in cape town. Ill need to do some research though and get the cheapest rate.

 i found this hostel in cape town which looks pretty fun;

http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Ashanti-Lodge-Gardens/Cape-Town/978?dateFrom=07+Sep+2013&dateTo=14+Sep+2013&sc_sau=avdc&sc_pos=1


I like the idea of just moving around thailand and taking it as it comes. We may go to Cambodia also.

Does anyone have experience with rio? it seems ridiculously expensive!!

I'm actually Scottish Camel and we were thinking of doing Aus at a different time, but i am in the process of convincing Camilla of a 6 month ' working'  holiday in Australia after Beijing. That would be awesome. :D

Looks a decent place. I think you are at the top end of downtown there, just be careful at night in that location, use taxis etc, daytime will be fine. You will enjoy CT a lot I think.

A few more tips on Kruger for you. Its easy to drive around yourself, but you have to be back in the camps by a set time, around 5ish or something, you can't go out on your own after that. Some but not all of the national park camps organise night safaris that take you out in a truck with spotlights at night, I would try and stay in the camps that do that. The numbers are limited so you have to book them well in advance too as they only send out 2 or 3 small trucks and it does sell out in advance. They will take you out for 3 hours of something, take a few beers with you and enjoy  :)

Also if you are feeling brave  :D some of the camps do walking safaris, these give you a totally different experience and are well worth doing. You will have an experienced armed guide and its actually pretty safe. You won't see as many animals probably because you don't cover as much ground on foot, but it just gives you a different perspective on the bush and the guides are pretty good. If you want to do that, I'd suggest doing it towards the back end of your visit to Kruger. The reason I say that is because on the first couple of days you will be all enthusiastic and dead excited with all the new stuff you are seeing, by day 3/4 most people turn into safari snobs and are only interested in finding the big stuff like lions etc. That is then a good time to do something new, once you're bored of seeing your millionth springbok  ;izimbra;

Also, if your not tight on space and good pair of binoculars a good idea and, you deffo need a torch for walking through the camp at night to keep an eye out for nasties on the ground. There's always a few comedy hyenas sniffing around the camp fences at night too to have a look at with your torch too  :D

Yeah the night safari sounds like great fun! ill need to do alot of reading up over the next couple of days.

What area in cape town would be your first choice?

My first choice would be camps bay but its really expensive. You need a car really when you are there, so assuming you have a car I would probably just stay at somewhere like you have chosen that's fits in with your budget and just drive around. Taxis are cheap so if you want to have a drink just use them at night, but deffo don't start wandering around the downtown area at night.

Just a quick heads up for your about the Chinese visa because I've just posted off my application this morning. The cost of it is 84 quid! Talk about taking the piss, don't think I've ever paid even half that anywhere else, with postage costs its costing me nearly 100 quid  >:(

I worked for an Asian bookie in KL for a while and they gave me a very nice apartment but on my days off I used to go and stay in the Mandarin Oriental about 20 minutes away because it was just such incredible value and made me feel so pampered.  The don't mind, ahem, guests either.  The Beach Club just over the road is a good place to interview prospective guests too.

Have been most places on this list, for long periods of time as well (thin), so will try and offer an in depth few posts in the next couple of days.

Can I ask though, before I start chucking eateries and sleeperies at you, are you backpacking this, or can you afford the odd splurge?

How happy are you using public transport? Is the missus alright with getting on grim, dirty, dangerous (I mean unsafe roads/crazy drivers rather than filled with axe-wielding maniacs) buses in Asia? Or is she going to want to be on the first class train?

There are some border crossing, especially in Asia, where you are certainly better off flying, and I can especially help here. Will post tomorrow for sure.

doh, answered one of my own questions.

Here's a link to our blog which we kept. Will def give you something to think about, but I will try and offer some more specific help in the next 24 hours.

http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/LouMark/ (http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/LouMark/)

Hey dude thx for the reply, been off the forum for a few days, so i just saw your post there.

We are trying to do it as cheap as possible within reason as we are looking at hostels, but we are looking at the higher end of scale and only taking private rooms etc.

Yeah we are comfortable with using cheaper travel options like buses etc.

looking forward to your reply!

Pm amatay. He's been to quite a few places i think.

Arrggggggghh, heads up on the China visa situation for you. Just had mine rejected  :'( such a pain in the arse, going to have to change my plans now as time is short and I don't have time to go to the embassy in London in person  :(

Just make sure you apply in plenty of time so you have time to re-apply if rejected as they are thorough as hell. I guess just do it in person at the embassy wherever you are. They want physical proof of my flight and hotel reservations, didn't see that anywhere on the application, just wrote it on there.

Cough cough lol

I think two months is a nice amount of time to hub through Bangkok.  Can certainly fill two months in Thailand, I'll leave the itinerary to Woodsey...also Air Asiia connects well to Phnom Penn and Siem Reap., loved Camodia and Sihanoukville was a nice spot five years ago and alternative tomThai beaches. Personally, I prefer to hub through KL now for the reasons Keef alluded too, it's dirt cheap for top hotels after roughing it and a bit less scummy than Bangkok. I've just booked Sheraton when F1 on for £50 a night.  That said, that comes after hubbing thru Bangkok for years, the first time I arrived there I loved it.

Just had a nice week in North Koh Phangan - if you want quiet, beautiful spot while tourists go mad on Samui and flouro backpackers still rave at Haad Rin (altho you can joinin as I did with a 40min cab) I really liked Haad Salad - nothing there but beautiful, quite beach and a few bars

that sucks woodsey! we have actually decided just to drop china altogether.

We will be spending around 3 months in Thailand, which will include Christmas and new year! Any ideas on the best place to spend that week?

the route i was thinking is something like the below;

bangkok for a week then get the train to chumphon

see the islands including koh toa - ko phangan - ko samui , then head to krabi and also see phi phi (now is it worth adding in phuket around here, as i have heard mixed reviews)

make our way to kuala lumpar for a week then back up to bangkok, then ober to cambodia and back.

opinions from Thailand regs?  :D

All sounds ok, you've got loads of time so Chiang Mai might be worth adding if you like temples, trekking and outdoorsy stuff like that. Don't think it matters where you are for Xmas and NY, just make sure you have accom booked as that is the only time it's harder to come by and prices rise a lot.

As claypole says some side trips to Cambodia, Laos or Burma/Myanmar would be interesting too depending on how much ground you want to cover or whether you're happy chilling for longer in fewer places.

We are now less than 2 weeks away from starting the world trip!

The route will be;

NY
Mexico
Peru
Brazil
Argintina
South Africa
India
Thailand
Singapore
Vietnam
Cambodia

I have set up a blog entitled 'the beery traveller', which will be used to wirte about the different beers consumed and some funny stories along the way. The link is www.thebeerytraveller.wordpress.com if interested.

We have also set up a more traditional travel blog : www.theworldandotherstuff.wordpress.com

They may provide some entertainment to some of you :)

Good stuff I'm jealous, wish I could buzz off from work for a few months to see some new places, not been to South America at all yet.......

£200 a nite for 2months will come to £60k ? Are you multi millionaire or Keith taking a piss here .
As for Singapore , it's the most safest and cleanest country in the world . It's very expensive place to go on holiday but I recommended u stay in Johor Bahru (MALAYSIA) . It border Singapore and they are lots lots cheaper. It's take about 1/2 to an hours trip from there to Singapore .

I PM Amatay last year when my son went for his honeymoon last year . He suggested a few places to visit . My son says its amazing place and I still forget to thanks Amatay for telling my son where to visit . If u are single ( I know u not ) , there lots of cheap birds there if u can't pull one ! Thailand is a must visit country . Cheap and nice beaches

Cambodia is one of my faves. You must go.

Aye really looking forward to the Asian countries, saying that, i havent visited and of the counties we are going to, so it all should be pretty amazing :D