Round the world trip

Morning

I was wondering if there are any families out there who have done the above trip with their family?

We were thinking about heading off for 4/5 months with our two children. By the time we could go in 2/3 years, the eldest would be 11/12 and the youngest 6/7.

I would be interested in hearing where you went, what you saw, where you stayed and what to miss and not to miss. Also was it worth it and did the children enjoy themselves?

Regards

We did a 6 month trip with kids aged 1 & 3 which is obviously a bit different than your situation, but we found that :
a) they had a ball and saw and did amazing things
b) they were as likely to be taken in by a cool playground somewhere which didn't cost a penny as by some huge expensive tourist attraction
c) when we did go places we found that trying to keep the kids up with one of our projected schedules just wasn't worth it. Aiming to do one interesting thing every few days (with time off doing nothing in between) was much more productive than trying to fit in loads into a few days.

On a similar line to c) above I would think it is probably wise to remember that being somewhere totally awesome and once-in-a-lifetime is pointless if the kids are too exhausted or grumpy to enjoy it. I would say it is well worth doing - good luck.

z

Sounds like you had a great time Zaq, what countries did you visit?

Phoenix

We went to Japan for a few weeks, Australia for a month and New Zealand for about 4 1/2 months, so it was only kind of round the world-ish.

In retrospect we probably might have spent more time in Australia.

To clarify what I said above - if you have the time and the money it is well worth going on this type of extended trip with your kids.

What countries are you thinking of ?

z

Hi Zag

Early stages yet, but we had thought about Canada (whale watching), stopover in Hawaii for a week or so, on to Australia (Great Barrier reef etc), New Zealand, south and north island, possibly South Africa (bit anxious about this possibility with what I hear about the crime rate).

However would love to touch down in Indonesia somewhere and the States.

Probably a bit over adventurous with the number of countries. What do you think?

Knowing our planning skills, we could end up going no further than Butlins in the UK!!!

phoenix said:

Knowing our planning skills, we could end up going no further than Butlins in the UK!!!

Click to expand...

You'd see some strange life-forms there alright.

You could be right there Jock, maybe even some endangered species!

Don't spend so much time in Oz. It's overrated.

Would you not consider spending more in in SE Asia or NZ ?

Just to add to my point above, South Africa is an amazing country. Once you're on the tourist route, crime isn't an issue.

Far better food, accomodation, and much better value than Oz. Its got all the weather and more beauty than Australia, but the cultural diversity of SA is what makes it.

Oz is a bit of a Butlins in the sun. I found it an awful let down

Zag, which would you recommend North or South Isand?

sumatra - it really depends on what you are into.

To grossly summarize - the South Island is less developed, more sparse, better for walking and wilderness, and in theory is the home of extreme sports. Christchurch - the main city on the South Island is about the size of a medium housing development in Dublin, so that gives you an idea of the scale.

The North Island is much more heavily populated, but not much more so than the general Irish population density. It gets much warmer and approaches sub-tropical at the very far North. Auckland (in particular) and Wellington are reasonably sized cities with the usual city stuff in them. Due to the overall popularity of extreme sports you can do pretty much all of them everywhere, and even though the South Island would be regarded as where it all started (Queenstown) you will find more organised places on the North because that is where all most of the tourists are.

We found the most interesting stuff just by stopping off in the small towns dotted around the place and visiting the local museums and local facilities.

To give you an idea of the sparseness of the South Island - most of the placenames are in English not because they replaced Maori placenames when the Eurpoeans arrived, but because despite being on the North Island a few hundred years earlier the Maori by-and-large didn't settle the South Island . . . because it was relatively inhospitable, cold and rainy.

z

Thanks for that Zag. I have to choose between one or the other and from what you say I'd imagine South Island has pretty good sightseeing, which is a big attraction to me. Looking at car rental and hotels or motorhome Zag whats your opinion? Never tried a motorhome, seems like a monster in size but it does seem to have its charm - like camping but greater creature comforts I'd imagine and the freedom to stop at some glorious view and camp overnight. BTW did you ever try that beautiful wine called Wither Hill Zag?

sumatra - NZ is geared up big time for campervans, and is perfectly suited for them. There are about 5 small bits of road in the entire country which aren't suited to them and the rental companies give you maps with them clearly marked - they don't want their campervans damaged any more than you want to damage them.

We did it for a few weeks and - as you hint at - we found the freedom to stop off at some seafront or mountain view and have our food and a break or go for a walk to be great. So much so that we bought ourselves a campervan after coming home.

On the South Island one of the big scenery things is Milford Sound - it is a big destination for tour buses and groups. It is pretty impressive, but we reckoned that a lot of the scenery we passed through coming up from the south was just as impressive.

We did try a lot of NZ wine, but to be honest nothing stood out - it was a few years ago.

In terms of campgrounds, you will find at least one in most reasonable sized towns. There is a chain called Top 10 - [broken link removed] - which has a place in most of the usefull towns, and we stayed in a good few of them. We eventually decided that because they were part of a chain they were actually too generic and too full of tourists (which we of course were too) and not enough NZ'ers. There is another more independent chain which you can find at http://www.hapnz.co.nz which had camps which were less fussy but more earthy. Depends on what you are looking for. By the way if you do go either route, they both have discount cards which entitle you to 10% off which pays for itself after 2 or 3 nights so it is worth getting. It is also dead cheap (or cheap as chips as they might put it) to camp there.

Cheers,

z

Ah, you got me all full of memories again.

Have a look at http://www.ryanit.ie for a brief unedited and totally lacking in design and layout summary of places to go and routes to take down the North Island. I wrote it a couple of months ago, said I would polish it and do the South Island and then promptly forgot.

I'll let you know when I get around to the South Island.

Cheers,

z

Zag that's brilliant thanks from your enthusiasm I can tell you really liked the place. Would certainly be interested in notes for South Island whenever you get around to it. http://www.newzealand.com/travel/ has some nice itineraries. Didn't you contribute to AAM once or twice while you were away? BTW you can try Wither Hill in O'Brien's its one of my favourite wines at the moment. Thanks once again for taking the time to write such a detailed reply Zag it is much appreciated.