Itinerary
Our latest attempt at our itinerary: (Actual travels noted after each section)
Utah – 2 weeks (first half Oct) – Our RTW prelude. A quick stop in Vegas to celebrate Eric’s 40th and then on to the canyon countries of Utah. Planning on spending a couple of days each at Arches NP, Canyonlands, Bryce, and Zion. Car camping, day hiking, and hopefully some good photo ops.
Actual: Did what we said we would. It was a good way to ease into the trip and clear out work from head before starting the rest of the travels.
Home to Pack! (second half Oct)
Australia – 2 months (Nov & Dec) – In general we will be traveling in a big counterclockwise loop of Australia, starting with a couple of weeks in Sydney. Afterwards, we’ll head up to Cairns (and the Great Barrier Reef), and then head over to Ayers Rock. We’ll then head to the west coast of Oz and visit Perth. Over the next month, we’ll slowly head back to Sydney via Adelaide, Melbourne, and the Great Ocean Road. We’ll celebrate Xmas and New Years in Sydney and get ready for our next phase of our trip.
Actual: We basically did a big loop as planned. However, we took a slight detour in the middle to go back to the US for a wedding. That was a lot of flying and took a few days to recover.
Thailand – 2 weeks (mid Jan) – Chang Mai in the north and beaches in south. Maybe a trip over to Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Actual: Spent a few days in Bangkok and then went to Chiang Mai. From there we went on a trek up through mountain villages to the border of Burma and then to the Golden Triangle. We also spent a week between Ao Nang beach and Phi Phi Island. Cambodia will have to wait for the next trip.
India – 3+ weeks (end Jan thru mid Feb) –Trying to figure out what to do in such a huge, unique country in a relatively short amount of time has been challenging. Since three weeks isn’t a long time, we’ve narrowed down our travels to two regions–Rajasthan (and the “golden triangle”) and Kerala. In Rajasthan, we’ll be visiting Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, and Udaipur. In Kerala, we’ll be visiting Varkala, the backwaters, and Periyar (wildlife reserve).
Actual: Three weeks didn’t seem like much time, so we ended up cutting out Udaipur. We spent 10 days in the North, including a few in Mumbai, Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, and Ranthambore. We then headed to Kerala and visited Kochin, Munnar, Periyar, Alleppy, and Varkala.
Hong Kong – quick stop en route if our flights take us there. Stop by Maccau and hopefully double our $$$.
Actual: Only stopped here for a day on the way to NZ, but added a few more on the way back. We skipped Maccau and spent the money shopping for new clothes.
New Zealand – 6 weeks (end Feb thru Mar) – renting a campervan and driving around both islands. It should be a nice change of pace after spending time in India.
Actual: We ended up adding an extra 11 days to our time in NZ. There was just too much to see and do plus we had to wait out the weather a few time. We spent most of our time on the South Island, driving a big counter clockwise loop around the coast.
Dubai – A 3 day stopover in route to Egypt
Actual: We shortened our time here to just 2 nights/1 day. It’s expensive!
Egypt – 1-2 weeks (early April) – Cairo, may take a tour or cruise to Luxor, Aswan.
Actual: We also shortened our time here to 6 days. It’s also expensive to do lots of tours, so we only saw the “big” sights – Giza, Seqqarra, Luxor temples and tombs. Skipped the Nile cruise to Aswan and Abu Simbel. Something else for our next trip.
Turkey and Greece – 2-3 weeks (April) – Not much planned yet, will definitely spend some time island hopping in Greece and enjoying the Mediterranean.
Actual: We only planned to spend a short time in Turkey, but enjoyed it enough to extend our time there. We visited Istanbul, Kas, Kusadasi, and Ephesus. After 12 days, we headed to Greece by ferry. We island-hopped for two more weeks, visiting Samos, Santorini (Thira), Naxos, and finally Athens.
Europe – ~5 months (May thru Sept-Oct) – no details yet, but will start in south (Italy/Spain/Portugal) and work our way north as the rest of Europe goes south on holiday in July. Plan to buy a car and drive through Switzerland, Germany, Slovakia, and France with a side trip to Scotland and Ireland. Plan to do some hiking, wine tasting, and spectator sports like cycling and football.
Actual: Oops! After some research on visas (see the blog posts for everything you never wanted to know about Schengen agreements), we realized we couldn’t spend this much time in continental Europe. We spent 24 days in Italy seeing Rome, the Giro d’Italia in La Spezia, Cuneo, Turin, the Peidmont region, Lake Maggiore, and Bologna.
We also spent a week in France in Grenoble, Annecy, Thonon-les-Bains, and Chamonix. We decided to leave the Schengen area for a while and spent a few weeks in Croatia, storing up some visa time. In Croatia, we visited Opatija, Zadar, Dubrovnik, Split, Trogir, Krka, Plitvice, and Zagreb. From there we headed Austria visiting Vienna and Salzburg. Next up was Liechtenstein (who could resist adding another country to my count?), and then Zurich, Switzerland.
From there we rushed across France to arrive in Barcelona in time to see the Tour de France arrive and depart. By this time we needed a little downtime, so we made our way through Bordeaux and Cognac to arrive in the Loire Valley where we rented a gite (cottage) for a week.
We then headed to Germany, stopping in Burgundy on the way. We spent 2 more weeks in Germany visiting Freiburg, the Black Forest area in Freudenstadt, Schwabish Gmund, Ulm, the Rhine Valley and the Mosel Valley. From there we visited Luxembourg on the way to Brussels. Next up was a week in Norway and then a few days in London on the way back to the US.
At this point we decided to extend our “year” by 3 months. So we spent 3 weeks on the East Coast – south Florida, Baltimore, eastern Pennsylvania, and Boston – recharging, refreshing the wardrobe, and getting set up for the next few months…
Europe (part 2) – Actual: 3+ weeks in Ireland, mostly along the west coast, but visiting Dublin, Kilkenny, Ring of Kerry, Dingle, Galway, Donegal. 3+ weeks in England in Straford, the Cotswolds, side trip to Wales, a week on the Ashby canal in a narrowboat, 1+ week in Brixham, a few more days in Bath and London. From there we took the chunnel to Paris and picked up a leased car and made our way south, stopping in Versailles, Normandy, and Mont St. Michel. From there we spent 2+ weeks in Portugal in Lisbon, Albufeira, Evora, Leiria, Porto, and Coimbra. Our last stop in Europe was Spain where spent a nearly a month in San Sebastion, Haro, Logrono, Bilbao, Barcelona, Leon, Valencia, Cuenca, Toledo, Segovia, Cordoba, Grenada, La Manga, and Zaragoza. When the weather started to get cold in late December, we decided to head somewhere warmer to finish off the trip.
SE Asia – Actual: We didn’t really have a plan for the last month of the trip, other than we wanted to end somewhere interesting, easy to navigate, and relaxing. We realized that we had been a little rushed when we visited Thailand before, so we headed back there and spent Xmas and New Year’s Even in Bangkok. We made a side trip to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, and then returned to Chiang Mai, and finally Krabi.
For the final tally, see the “scoreboard” page.
halftime
June 8th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Scotland: Climb Ben-Nevis with shoes–can be foggy at top. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Nevis
Italy: Visit Fiesole, outside of Florence
Australia: Sydney’s Darling Harbor is fun. GBR’s Pro Dive (Cairns) was a good outfitter. We stayed at:
Shooting Star Apartments Cairns
117 Grafton Street
Cairns 4870
Queensland, Australia
Tel: (07) 4047 7200
Melbourne and the south coast is nice if you can make it.
Egypt: Visit all the main Pyramids/Temples early in the day (sometimes tickets purchased in the evening can be used the next morning), and get a cab to visit the less traveled ones-AbuSir & Saqqara
India: Near Delhi / Agra (Moti Masjid, Jama Masjid, Sikandra, Fatehpur Sikri)
Relax & Have Fun. Always get an _independent_ second opinion. In India, slow down even more.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:02 am
I assume that the title relates to “halftime” of life? Very Clever…In the spirit of a halftime show, Ellyse, can we expect any Janet Jackson like wardrobe malfunctions in any of the pictures you post?
I’ve been to Australia twice (including over New Years – call your friends back home after midnight and wish them happy new year – they’ll think you’re nuts since for them it will still be 12/31)
As engineers, you’ll definitely appreciate the tour of the opera house in Sydney. The Barrier Reef is spectacular!
As for Hong Kong, I was only there for a weekend during a trip to China for Lucent, but one of the more fascinating moments was on a rainy Sunday morning while taking the train from Kowloon to HK island, the Phillippino women (garment workers) were gathered in the park on their day off (apparently this is a weekly tradition). Grandmothers, mothers, daughters all chatting away – sounded like a flock of birds!
If you get the chance to spend time in China, it’s a fascinating part of the world – forbidden city & summer palace near Beijing, & the teracotta warriors tomb in Xi’ian are sights that left a lasting impression.
June 9th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
This sounds like an awesome trip. I’ve been to Australia, New Zealand (this past winter), Hong Kong, as well as about half your European stops. I have to think about advice, though. I might be convinced to meet you for some of your cycling sightseeing–I’ve always wanted to do that! I also might be able to meet up in Utah.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Finally looked back through receipts from our Honeymoon. We stayed at the Bella Villa resort outside of Chiangmai. We liked it. It’s outside of the center of the city, so you have to use their shuttle to get into town, but we liked being out in the mountains. We had a lot of fun taking a tour of the local sites in a shared van with other tourists. One day we did the Wats and anther was a “shopping” trip, which was pretty cool. That area contains a lot of craftsmen and women working with wood, silver, pottery, and silk.
The travel company we used over there was called “The Travel Team”. We just picked them at random from all the tourist booths at the Bangkok airport.
We definitely recommend Phi Phi and to a lesser extent Phuket. On Phuket, we’d recommend staying at one of the beaches south or north of Patong. Patong is nuts and definitely worth spending some time in, especially at night, but it’s a lot more low key and quieter outside of the city.
Another recommendation we’ll make is to do Bangkok at the end. Spending some time out in the less frantic (do we sound old or what?) part of the country lessens the culture shock of Bangkok, but once you are there definitely rent a long boat and take a tour of the canals.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
What Chuck said! I’ll start with Australia. I stayed at Hides Corner in Cairns, very old & rustic, loads of charm, centrally located. Easy to get to GBR from there. I did a 3 day live aboard with the Cairns Dive Centre. I also recommend the Kuranda Train Ride, and a river raft trip (used Foaming Fury). If still there, Hunter’s Lodge Steakhouse was a wonderful little family owned restaurant serving local specialties (Kangaroo & Crocodile). I didn’t see it on your list, but definitely by-pass Brisbane/Surfer’s Paradise, a little too Newport Beach!
I think Chuck pretty much covered Thailand.
You can chat more with my sister on Switzerland (since she lives just outside Zurich, & can possibly even play tour guide). Definitely recommend Luzerne. There’s a very interesting little Glacier museum, & a funky Picasso museum, mostly photos of his life. Zermatt is a great little “auto free” city. Charming, fun, amazing views of the Matterhorn, and if there’s still snow, you can ski down the backside to Italy. Somewhere along one of the runs is a slope side coffee shop, and mountain top, a great Swiss restaurant.
I’ll forward your link to my sis, but she’ll be here from Oct 5-16, hopefully we can hook up.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Hi Ellyse, I don’t know whether or not you remember me from Junior High – short Aussie girl with the big glasses (it was the 80’s after all). Denise has sent me your blog and I’m quite envious; your trip sounds fantastic. I’ve been living in Sydney (east side next suburb from Bondi) for the past 12 years and before that in Brisbane, so if you need info or a tour guide, please don’t hesitate contacting me. I’ll send my details to your email address (also supplied by Denise). When you’re in Sydney, I suggest you guys do the Harbour Bridge Climb http://www.bridgeclimb.com. It has the most spectacular views of Sydney plus you get to hear a little bit about how the bridge was built and some Sydney history. When in Perth, try and visit the Margaret River area. It’s a beautiful part of the world plus they make great wine. As you’re coming in the warmer months, do wear plenty of sunsceen – the sun here is quite viscious and third degree burns are not uncommon. Have a safe and uneventful trip crossing the Pacific. Hopefully we’ll catch up when you’re in Oz. Take care. Frances
October 5th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Eric & Ellyse,
Can’t believe you are actually starting on this awesome trip. Keep the blog up to date. Since your first stop is Utah and the canyon’s we have, keep an eye on weather reports. Especially the Slot Canyon’s out here, flash flooding is one of the big concerns in the canyons around here, even if the weather is clear near you.
Glenn
Saratoga Springs Utah
November 7th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Hi Ellyse and Eric,
I’m so jealous that you are starting your trip in Australia!!!! Some day I WILL get there. I can’t wait to see more pictures. Have a great time and give Frances a hug if you get to meet up with her!
Denise
December 19th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Hi Ellyse and Eric,
Merry Xmas and happy holidays!!! Hopefully we can meet up somewhere interesting in the new year. Sounds like you are having a wonderful time…
-Anita
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Dear Ellyse and Eric,
Happy new year! Finally it’s me, Beth Seal’s sister, writing to say that I’m looking forward to seeing you in Switzerland! My place here in Zurich is somewhat small but I have a second bedroom and you’re welcome here if you’re not too allergic to cats. Zurich is a good base for lots of neat places. I’ll be happy to either accompany you and/or inform you of some beautiful hikes. As for the rest of your itinerary, sounds wonderful. I highly recommend a trip to Luxor while you’re in Egypt and at least one night on a Nile cruise. In Italy, make sure you go to Venice, the most magical place I’ve ever been to. And Rome is also supposed to be fantastic – never been myself though. Please feel free to mail if you have any questions that I may be able to answer for you or whatever else pertaining to the Swiss part of your trip. Take care!!!!
January 15th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
EB’s;
I think it’s best that you call off your trip and return home immediately. Times are tough right now, and your country needs you. We simply can’t afford to have you spreading our wealth around to other countries’ tourist industries. I think I speak for everyone when I say you’ve had a good run and should save some excitement for the next trip. … but before you forget, could you send us your recipe for Chicken Curry (extra spicy) … I’m hungry and that looked soooooo good.
Take care, and let me know if you need a ride from the airport. 🙂
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:59 pm
OMG!!! I am sooo jealous! You are doing your own version of the Amazing Race. Maybe you’ll win $1M along the way? Wouldn’t that be fun? Enjoy the trips and take lots of photos!
June 24th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Let us know if you want to check out Guatemala on your way home! Maybe we will meet you!
Di & G
March 11th, 2010 at 9:06 am
I finally caught up on your blog, and your “actual” itinerary. I am so glad you guys had such an amazing experience. And I can’t believe that my next trip is someplace that you didn’t get to include. How unusual…