Cheap tickets!

Cheap tickets!

Locations:

Vietnam United States United Kingdom Thailand Sri Lanka New Zealand Nepal Laos India Hong Kong Fiji Cambodia Australia

Call:

0845 3 447 667

Product Details

"Around the world tickets" (a.k.a 'Round the World' or 'RTW' tickets) are a series of single flights built into one ticket. Valid for 12 months - this ticket literally takes you "Around the World" - making this one of the cheapest way to do a big trip to Australia.

How do they work?
Simple - choose the regions / countries you want to visit on your way to Australia and then on the way back. You can build your own ticket - for example - the most popular route is:

London - Los Angeles - Fiji - Cook Islands - New Zealand - Australia - Singapore (travel overland to) Thailand - London

Price guide:
- Basic routes (4-6 stops) leaving off peak (April-August) cost as little as £800 (incl. taxes*)
- Many stops on many Continents leaving at peak times (Nov-Dec) could cost £2,500+ all-in
- Most people: leave Sept, Oct, Jan-March and pay £1,500-£1,800 (incl. taxes*)

* BEWARE! Watch out for 'Fr' or 'From' [e.g. Fr £566] and what look like really cheap RTW tickets. Once you include taxes and your travel dates the price will be similar to above.

The most popular RTW Ticket

The most popular RTW route is out to Australia via South East Asia and back via New Zealand and the Pacific islands. If you're a bit nervous you might like to do this the other way around so that you're a hardened traveller by the time you get to South East Asia (which will be easy by then!). It's also handy to end up in the cheaper countries when the cash is running out...

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"BUILD YOUR OWN" AROUND THE WORLD TRIP: 3 easy steps

1. Read below what gapyear.com users have to say
2. Find out what you can do and where
3. Decide whether to build this region into your RTW ticket

When you're ready to compare the routes you like, or if you're struggling and need assistance, simply call 0845 3 447 667 or enquire through our online system and we'll help you with the rest. Details at the bottom of this page.

THE MOST POPULAR RTW ROUTE

London - Bangkok (Thailand) - make your own way overland to Singapore - Cairns (Australia) - travel around Australia on Greyhound or Oz Experience - fly out of Melbourne (Australia) - Christchurch (New Zealand) - travel around both the North and South Islands of New Zealand on Kiwi Experience - fly out of Auckland (New Zealand) - Fiji - travel around Fiji on Feejee Experience - Los Angeles (LA) - go and see Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard, stay on Venice Beach - New York (USA) - finish your trip in style at the Empire State Buildings, 5th Avenue, Broadway - back home to London

The reason this is the most popular ticket is because it combines everything you want from a round the world trip. Adventure and eye opening experience in South East Asia... sun, fun and beach barbies in Oz... adventure sports and awesome landscapes in New Zealand... chilling in hammocks and trampling through rainforests in Fiji... movie sets, landmarks and top shopping in the USA. It all makes for a top round the world extravaganza!

Things to see and do on this trip...

SOUTH EAST ASIA

1. The Grand Palace, Bangkok
2. Thai Boxing
3. Full moon party
4. Hill tribes and trekking in the north
5. Beaches, islands and diving in the south

1. Kuala Lumpur
2. Melaka
3. The Petronas Towers
4. Jungle, orangutans
5. Penang (beautiful island)
6. Taman Negara (for trekking)
7. The Cameron Highlands.

1. Orchard Road (for the latest gadgets)
2. A temple tour
3. A night safari
4. Take the cable car to Sentosa Island
5. Visit Little India and China Town.

The most popular trip around this region:

Thailand - Malaysia - Singapore

Most people tend to arrive in Bangkok, head North to Chaing Mai for jungle elephant trekking and then south towards Singapore, stopping off at the Thai paradise islands of Ko Samui, Ko Tao and Ko Pha Ngan (East Coast), Ko Phi Phi (West Coast) and the Malaysian Islands / jungle on the way through.

However, it's a beautiful, diverse, safe, easy and dirt cheap region to travel around so consider doing more. It's pretty easy to loop through Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos using a mixture of bus and boat travel if the desire takes you once you're there.

What others say about South East Asia:

Becky Knott: "My favourite place is definately Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia because it’s so diverse, so hot and sleepy in the day and really comes alive after dark - its definitely my kind of city..."

AUSTRALASIA

1. Clubbing in Sydney
2. Bungy in Cairns
3. 4x4 on Fraser Island
4. Sailing in the Whitsundays
5. Swim with dolphins at Monkey Mia
6. Watch a sunrise from Uluru (Ayers Rock - pictured).

The most popular trip:

Sydney - Cairns ("East Coast Jolly")

Trip we'd recommend:

Cairns - Sydney - Melbourne - Alice Springs - Darwin - Broome - Perth

Dan Francis: "I absolutely bloody love Australia - all of it. But if I had to pick a highlight The Blue Mountains were absolutely beautiful being one of those places where everywhere you look is a fantastic view. You have to resist the urge to take a million pictures - as it turned out I only took half a million..."

Top Tip!

The best part of Australia is the West coast - it houses the Ningaloo Reef - a massive coral reef less crowded and (in our eyes) more beautiful than the Great Barrier Reef for starters. To get there you can either fly in as part of your RTW ticket (simply request Perth as a stop off airport) or using cheap internal flights when you get there [Virgin Blue, Jetstar] or drive in as part of your Aussie bus or rail pass, or by car [buy/rent your own here]. If you’re doing East and West, you might as well do top and bottom. A trip of a lifetime you'll never forget!

1. Whale watching
2. Ice climbing
3. Trekking
4. See the Lord of the Rings settings
5. Rafting, bungy, gorge swing, zorbing
6. Snowboarding & skiing

The most popular trip:

Christchurch Airport - Auckland Airport (or vice versa) with adventure sports in between

Trip we'd recommend:

Get a bus pass that visits all the key places on both the North & South Islands. Amazing!

Neil Jones: "Queenstown rocks; go on, part with your cash and party hard. Go get your adrenalin fix by throwing yourself off a few bridges with the aid of a bungy rope. It's a blast, as is white water body boarding with its freezing water, near drownings and really messy rapids, not forgetting the fact that there's no bloody raft... what a rush!"

Top Tip!

You may find yourself having to choose from New Zealand or 'another Pacific Island'. If that is the case, trust us and go for New Zealand - more to do and see and vs. the Pacific Islands it's the only destination you could stay in for over four weeks and not be bored. How much time to spend there? We'd recommend four weeks minimum. Two to three weeks is not enough to see the place, although it can be done.

Thailand

Adam Lunn writes...
In Thailand you can find cheap and varied food, cheap excursions, friendly Thai people, smiles, humid weather, street stalls, beaches, night markets, a lively nightlife in Bangkok, beautiful temples, friendly monks, the King and floating markets! That should do you for starters.

Lorraine Bridges writes...
Bangkok was more an exciting place of growth and energy than a hotbed of prostitution as I’d expected... a place where visitors could choose between snake blood offerings and marbled shopping malls - where businessmen and monks live together in spiritual harmony.

Everything in Thailand is worth experiencing - a highlight in Bangkok is Chatuchak weekend market at Mo Chit. Past the tie-dye tops, fake jeans and other tourist fare there are the rising and dipping cries of locals bartering. Birds, fish, even gibbons changing hands. Cocks fighting, stalls selling dried meat and fish - every imaginable smell racing up the aisles to greet you. Giant Buddhas on the next stall, rugs, paintings, plants... The stifling heat that besets this covered market makes the experience all the more intense.

Summary

A definite stop-over favourite. Rates highly for affordability (more expensive maybe than Laos and Vietnam, but cheaper than Australia and the US), diving, being on the backpacker trail, shopping and things to do and see. The country, people and culture are amazing. Easy to travel around but very different from home, so perfect for backpackers. You will stop here on your RTW, you will visit the islands of Samui and Phanang, but make sure you consider heading north to Laos, Cambodia etc. if this country floats your boat.

Malaysia

Adrian Slack writes...
The thing I found about Malaysia was that it's somewhere in the middle. If you come in from Cambodia or Thailand you'll be relieved by the great English everyone speaks, the decent transport system and the overall organisation and quality of everything. But if you come in from Australia or other first world countries you're gonna notice the poorer lifestyles and general lack of organisation and quality! However, Malaysia does have it all, with stunning scenery, beautiful beaches, friendly people and lots of stuff to do.

When I first went to Malaysia I travelled up the West Coast first visiting Kuala Lumpur (a crazy city!) and the islands of Penang and Langkowi (no tax - think cheap, cheap drinks!). The second time I visited the Perhentian Islands; surely the most beautiful islands in the country and rivalling those in plenty of other more popular places. It's so hot on the beach you just have to get in the water. But then it's so hot in the sea you have to get back on to the beach! Aaaahhhh!

Summary

Most people leave Malaysia without realising how much they could have done and seen there. A very affordable (on a par with Thailand), easy to get around destination, the English language also helps to make it more familiar to first-timers. From the jungles to the islands (including the big one of Borneo), all now accessible with good, cheap, internal air passes, there is a huige diversity worth seeing. Full of backpackers, but less obvious i.e. not in small areas in great hordes like in Thailand. Well worth a visit.

Singapore

Jon Brown writes...
Singapore is a small island with a variety of stunning attractions and extremely friendly people. Lying to the south of Malaysia, it has made itself the busiest port in the world, a major financial centre and one of the most popular stop-overs for travellers.

With a wealth of beautiful Buddhist and Hindu temples, delicious local foods, vast markets, and a friendly population; it’s easy to understand why backpackers choose Singapore. Singapore’s mixed population has created an astonishing diversity of life on the island. A mixture of Chinese, Malay and Indian peoples, this SE Asian port has become a perfect example of ethnic and religious harmony. Although there are few westerners other than the traveller, English is one of the national languages and so there are few problems with communication.

Being such a small island, it is easy to think that there would be limited things to do and see - but this statement could not be less true. On a typical four-day stay, you can expect to be organising your time to cram it all in; Sentosa island, Little India, China-town, night safaris, elephant rides and shopping in Orchard Road are but a few things that you could expect to do.

Summary

As an island state, even the plankiest of backpackers will be able to find their way around! Slightly more expensive than the other South-East Asian destinations, it is still cheaper than the US and Australia. Shopping scores high as does being on the backpacker trail - the hostels will be full of them! Limited number of things to do, so you'll find your time there not going beyond three to four days on average.

SOUTH EAST ASIA: SUMMARY

South East Asia has a unique flavour that comes in different strengths. Singapore, Malaysia and particularly Thailand are great for first-timers. Those with a bit more experience can find plenty to suit their tastes in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos.

Australia

Tom Griffiths writes...
Standing in front of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge (they’re next to each other) within an hour of arriving in Sydney, snorkelling the Barrier Reef, watching the sunset at Uluru (Ayers Rock), doing a bungy in the rainforest, rafting the amazing rivers, driving the Coast Road, kipping on Frazer Island under the stars, staring at the rocks in the Bungle Bungle, feeding a chicken to a crocodile bigger than a bus in Crocodile Dundee country, watching a long, straight, tarmac road disappear off into the distance of red earth and small dry bushes, surfing on Bondi Beach, wading with the dolphins at Monkey Mia, getting stuck in the mud in the rainforest of Cape York, clapping the participants of the annual boat race in Alice Springs held on a river with no water, entering a town in the middle of nowhere which looks like it is straight out of a Marlboro advert and ordering a ‘pot’ of cold beer in the local bar... if these aren’t on the postcards by the time you have left Australia, then you haven’t got the most out of it. Everyone does Sydney to Cairns. But there is a shed pile more to Australia than that. The tip I tell everyone? ‘West is best’ - so make sure you don't miss it.

Tom's Top 5 things to do:

(Apart from Uluru, the Opera House, the Barrier Reef... these kinds of things are a given)

1. Whitsunday Islands and Whitehaven Beach
2. Fraser Island
3. Kakadu and Lichfield National Parks
4. Cape York
5. The entire coast of Western Australia

Summary

Wins hands down on most things. Great climate, loads of things to do (from adventure sports, beach-life, mountains etc.), great place to work and earn money. Affordable - more expensive than Thailand, but cheaper than most of Europe. City life, spot on. Don't need to say much more as it sells itself.

New Zealand

Reg Dilloway writes...
New Zealand is considered an extremely safe place for independent travellers. It’s also a popular destination for those seeking an adrenalin rush. Opportunities abound for thrill-seekers searching for a new challenge within some of the most awe-inspiring scenery to be found on this planet.

Try jet boat river rides through boulder-strewn gorges, explore cathedral-like caves deep underground, hike over the summit of active volcanoes and across huge moon-like craters. My favourite National Park is situated in the centre of the North Island, Tongariro National Park. The scenery in this area is so diverse and the views from the mountains are spectacular. Within a radius of 50 miles there are barren deserts, thick lush rainforests, active volcanoes, boiling lakes, underground caves filled with glow worms, crystal clear waterfalls and pristine lakes teaming with fish and wildlife.

Reg's Top 5 things to do:

1. Take part in loads of adventure sports in Queenstown and Lake Taupo
2. Raft on some of the whitest water in the world
3. Commune with nature in NZ’s spectacular national parks
4. Do the Tongariro Crossing, one of the best day hikes in the world
5. Hop on a backpacker bus (such as the Kiwi Experience or the Magic Travellers’ Network) for an easy, affordable and fun way to get around
New Zealand.

Summary

Similar to Australia, New Zealand rates high as a RTW destination. It has everything you could ever want and is even slightly cheaper than Australia, but still more expensive than Thailand. More importantly if you are into your adventure sports, welcome to the adventure sport capital of the world! We're not going to go on and on about New Zealand. The only thing we will say is that no trip to Australia should happen without a visit here, and no RTW route should miss this as a destination. Trust us on this one. Add it in.

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND: SUMMARY

The downunder experience beats all others hands down in terms of adventure sports, things to do, suitability for backpackers, nightlife, beaches, summer fun, winter fun, affordability etc. etc. etc. This is the MOST popular dual destination, all we advise you to do is to plan your trips to both countries properly so that you can get the most out of your time there and spend your money on all the things you want to do. There is so much to do, see and get involved in that the only regret you may have is not planning your time and money properly. If you haven't done so, head into the NZ and Australian country sections to find out more. Have fun when you're there and send us a postcard!

Cheap tickets!

Locations:

Vietnam United States United Kingdom Thailand Sri Lanka New Zealand Nepal Laos India Hong Kong Fiji Cambodia Australia

Call:

0845 3 447 667

STA Travel is the World's largest youth and independent travel agency. With over 65 branches in the UK and over 450 around the World, you can visit them if you have problems overseas. The Gapyear.com team at STA Travel are on standby to help you plan your dream trip.