Scrooge said:
A round the world ticket? Could you please clarify how that works?
The trip I took was from July of 1992 to 1993. Like other posters have stated you can only go in one direction. You must use the entire ticket in a year. They have various routes you can take. You decide your destinations ahead of time. You can also devise your own route.
But I had no set time to leave or arrive at any destination. When I was ready to move on I went to a travel agent in the particular country I was in and they booked a flight for me. The airlines were predetermined.
The trip I took was from LAX to London. I traveled around the UK on trains and buses. I took a ferry to Northern Ireland and started traveling around on buses. Then I took a bus into Ireland. Took buses around Ireland.
Went back over to England. Then in early September I believe, took a ferry over to the continent. Bought some passes for the train. Traveled around Europe. Took a ferry to Morocco. Then back up through France to London.
Flew from London to Cairo. Three weeks in Egyt (trains). Flew from Cairo to Bangkok. Took various trains etc. in Southeat Asia down to Singapore and back.
Flew from Bangkok to Hong kong, hopped over to China. Bought additional tickets to boats, and flights within China. Back to Hong Kong. The last leg was a flight to Taiwan. That was in June of 1993 and China wore me out so I did not explore Taiwan but continued back to LAX.
I decided from day to day where I would go. I met people along the way who gave advice. Unfortunately I really do not speak another language. Took some French in high school but didn't remember much. I was a little more than embarrassed
when most other people spoke more than one langauge. Especially meeting a 10 year old boy in Morocco who spoke 5 langauges! (including Japanese).
It was quite easy. The travel agent explained it all. I believe if you stay with one airline then it might be more expensive. But the travel agency put the various airlines together for me. The travel agency was out of San Franciso but I don't know if they still exist. I would check around. Great experience.