The Complete Guide To...Round the world flights

WHY ROUND THE WORLD?

Because a round-the-world ("RTW") ticket represents the best travel value you can find. For no more than the average UK wage for a fortnight – about £950 – you can travel around the globe. Spend twice as much and you can enjoy possibly the single most important journey you will ever make.

Only one airline – Air New Zealand – provides a complete RTW service from London, thanks to its links with Auckland via Hong Kong and Los Angeles. In November, the lowest fare is about £925. Every other RTW ticket combines the services of two or more airlines. Earlier this year, Air Astana of Kazakhstan teamed up with Asiana, a Korean airline, and KLM to offer a trip via Almaty, Beijing, Seoul, Los Angeles or San Francisco and Amsterdam for £1,099.

More usually, alliances such as Oneworld (British Airways, Qantas, American, etc), Skyteam (Air France, Delta, Korean) or Star Alliance (which includes United, BMI and Lufthansa) offer deals combining member airlines.

WHERE CAN I GO?

Almost anywhere you like. Putting together an RTW is exciting because there are so many options, but disconcerting because the options can seem overwhelming. A rule change has limited the number of individual flights on a single ticket to 16, but you can buy additional side trips.

First, decide if your RTW trip is a once-in-a-lifetime holiday taking in your dream destinations, or just a way to break up long flights to and from Australasia by making a couple of interesting stops. Decide if you want to spend most of the time away in one destination, or pack in as many countries as possible.

My advice is not to cram in too many destinations: spending longer at each place will make your trip more rewarding and let you really get to know the place. Unless your flights both to and from a destination are relatively short, I advise a minimum of two nights' stay at any stopover, otherwise you'll only see the airport and the hotel.

As there are virtually unlimited itinerary options, often with complex pricing; a list of all possible RTW routes doesn't exist. You can fly to – and stop at – pretty much anywhere in the world, but some places and route combinations aren't possible without spending a fortune.

HOW DO I MAKE SENSE OF IT ALL?

First, make a list of all the places you'd like to visit, and divide these into "musts", "desirables" and "quite likes". A good specialist travel agent will help delete the "desirables" that push up the price, such as visiting Russia, or tricky combinations such as South Africa and India.

The agent can also introduce a fourth category, the "might as wells": places that can be included without adding to the fare. A good example is an outbound flight from the UK via Dubai to Australia – you could get non-stop to Perth, Melbourne or Sydney, but adding in Singapore or Bangkok is possible for little or no extra cost. You could introduce a "surface" sector from Bangkok to Singapore, letting you travel via some of the Thai and Malaysian islands, plus gems such as Penang and Malacca, en route to Singapore – where you pick up the next flight.

Don't be seduced by the glamorous-sounding destinations. Think carefully about what you might enjoy: gambolling through the Himalayas or gambling in Las Vegas; swimming with whale sharks in Western Australia or spotting lions in a South African national park; falling asleep in a swanky city hotel or in a hammock under the stars on a Fijian beach? And how well you would cope with Delhi, or the Bangkok traffic?

When are fares lowest?

There are differences from fare to fare, depending on UK departure date. In general, the cheapest time to depart the UK is between late April and mid-June; November is also good value.

The most expensive departure periods tend to be the fortnight preceding Christmas Eve, followed by July to mid-August. Some fares have "minimum stay" requirements of 10-14 days, designed to exclude business travellers. Some people want to do the whole thing within a fortnight, others may want to take a full year – most RTW tickets are valid for a maximum of one year from the first travel date.

Do I have to stay in the air?

No: some journeys lend themselves well to land travel, such as America coast-to-coast. Joining an overland tour or a taking a classic train journey can be a great way to link two stopover points and get a good feeling for an area. In terms of a RTW ticket, this is described as a "surface sector", even if you use a low-cost flight to cover some of it.

Look at that basic RTW offered by Air New Zealand: for the same cost as a London-Los Angeles-Auckland-Hong Kong-London trip, you could go London-Los Angeles-surface-San Francisco-Auckland-surface-Christ-church (transit at AKL)-Shanghai-surface-Hong Kong-London. Using two or more airlines unlocks all kinds of possibilities: you can fly into Rio and out from Buenos Aires on a Oneworld ticket, or into Johannesburg and out from Cape Town travelling with the Star Alliance.

What do I do next?

Gather all your information and ring up or visit a good u o specialist travel agency or two. The day has yet to come when websites can automatically quote multi-sector RTW itineraries as well – or as competitively – as a properly trained agent. Coming up with the best round-the-world itinerary is all about the interaction between the traveller and a good agent.

Contact two or three specialist agencies with the same initial information and see how they respond. You may be offered a choice between exactly what you asked for and a cheaper but less-convenient possibility. Your agent should be able to tell you which of your "non-essential" destinations are pushing the price up, and should suggest the most efficient order in which to visit the destinations to take advantage of the best-value fares. They should also explain the pros and cons of each relevant fare, such as the number of stopovers you are permitted and the total mileage you are allowed.

The simplest example is to combine the services of Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand. The basic route examples are London-Hong Kong-Sydney-Los Angeles-London or London-Tokyo-Auckland-San Francisco-London.

Next up is effectively a return ticket to Australia or New Zealand that allows different stopovers in the eastern and western hemispheres to create a RTW route. This is Qantas, British Airways and Cathay Pacific's "Round the World Discovery" fare, with a maximum of six stopovers, including a maximum of two in Australia and/or maximum two in New Zealand. The stopover destinations available are Mumbai, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Jakarta, Denpasar (Bali), Shanghai and Beijing, Johannesburg, Honolulu, Nadi (the main airport for Fiji), Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Queenstown, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Cairns and Darwin. Not all combinations of stopovers work – because of route and mileage restrictions you couldn't choose Tokyo, Johannesburg, Sydney and Los Angeles on the same trip.

The same airlines combine to offer the "World Discovery Plus": this allows travellers to choose from a maximum of seven stopovers in the Americas, Australasia, Africa and Asia. The fare offers a limited South American option: you can fly on British Airways between the UK and Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires or Santiago. However, the only option between Australasia and South America is a flight between Santiago and Auckland (continuing to Sydney), a service notoriously difficult to secure seats on.

You might want to consider the Great Escapade (thegreatescapade.com), using the services of Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. The basic fare allows unlimited stopovers on the participating airlines' routes but, as with the two "Discovery" fares, has a basic maximum permitted mileage of 29,000. On all three fares you can buy a few thousand extra miles (to give you 33,500 in total) if necessary.

To give you an idea, London-New York-San Francisco-Auckland-Sydney-Singapore-London would be just under 25,000 miles; London-Johannesburg (surface sector)-Cape Town-Singapore- Brisbane (surface sector)-Sydney-Los Angeles-New York-London, just under 31,000 miles.

There are a number of other products – such as a minimum three, maximum five stop, maximum 26,000 miles "Star Alliance Special" RTW; or Skyteam RTW (using airlines such as Air France and Continental) and a "World Journey" RTW (carriers include KLM, Malaysia Airlines and Emirates).

Is it cheaper if I stay north?

In general, no. It is rare that a northern hemisphere RTW itinerary will be cheaper than one including Australia or New Zealand. There are occasional exceptions: for example, Trailfinders can put together an itinerary combining British Airways and EVA Airways to fly London-Hong Kong-Taipei-San Francisco-London for £1,044.

A year not enough?

If you want to go away for longer than a year, your luck is in if you are a full-time student or under 26: contact STA Travel (0871 230 8512; statravel.co.uk). For the rest of us, options include buying a one-way ticket to (say) Australia, and when you're ready to move on, buy a ticket to carry on from there. Or it may make sense to buy a RTW ticket, take most of the flights within the year, forfeit the last couple of flight coupons and buy a ticket to get home from wherever you've reached. Either option is likely to work out more expensive than a RTW ticket valid for a year.

There is another drawback. To be allowed to enter a country you often have to show proof of onward travel, so check the rules before buying your ticket. Also, once you've left the UK, British travel agents are not permitted to sell you discounted tickets; you'll have to use local firms.

When should i book?

In general, book as far in advance as possible. Flights do fill up, and just one fully-booked flight can scupper an entire itinerary.

Bear in mind, though, that most RTW tickets need to be paid for in full and the tickets issued within 14 days of making the booking regardless of your date of departure, which means that whether you're departing in a fortnight or 11 months' time you're probably going to have to pay in full almost immediately.

Many fares carry stringent cancellation penalties, so take out insurance. There are usually restrictions about changing your departure date from the UK. En route, date changes are usually free or incur a modest charge.

COMPARING THE FARES

Which way around the world? I asked three leading specialist agencies for quotes. Fares include taxes and other surcharges, but not airport fees for departing travellers. For "surface" sectors, the cost of the land journey is not included.

Option 1:
Air New Zealand and Virgin Atlantic: London – Los Angeles – Auckland – Sydney – Hong Kong – London (departures 1-30 November) £1,139.
Round theworldexperts.co.uk (Flight Centre); 0870 499 0042.

Option 2:
Qantas / British Airways World Discovery: London – Singapore – Perth – Sydney – Christchurch – Auckland – Los Angeles – London (departures now – 30 November) £1,449.
Travelmood.com; 0800 8408 305.

Option 3:
Qantas / British Airways World Discovery Plus: London – Cape Town (overand) Johannesburg – Perth – Sydney – Auckland – Santiago (overland) Rio – London (until 30 November) £1,619.
Trailfinders.com; 0845 050 5886.

THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME

Two years ago, Simon Calder of The Independent set off for a "gap month", taking in the best the world had to offer, from 1 November until touchdown on the evening of 30 November. The company that sold him his ticket was Travel Nation (0845 3444 225; travel-nation.co.uk), the round-the-world specialist founded by Haydn Wrath. We asked Wrath to describe the optimum round-the-world trip departing in November 2008 – and taking up to six months.

ROUTE: London – Delhi – Kathmandu – Hanoi, overland to Siem Reap – Christchurch, overland to Auckland – Fiji – San Francisco, overland to Los Angeles – London.

Departing this month, flights would come in at £1,365, including pre-payable taxes. For a six-month trip, if you neither spent nor scrimped unnecessarily, the additional accommodation, food and transport would cost about £5,000 per person if you travelled in a pair or about £1,000 per month if alone. Asia is the cheapest area.

Two classic "stealth budget-busters" on this trip are overspending in Asia because everything seems so cheap, and once in a lifetime activities in New Zealand such as bungee jumping and skydiving.

November: After a flight on Virgin Atlantic from Heathrow to Delhi, I would disappear into Rajasthan, taking in the picturesque holy town of Pushkar and the magnificent golden fortress city of Jaisalmer.

November is also the perfect time for trekking in Nepal, so next I would hop on a 90-minute flight to Kathmandu. Hardcore travellers could shave £100 off the price by sitting on a bone-shaking bus for 36 hours! On arrival in Nepal, my favourite country, I would take the very pleasant (and much more manageable) six-hour bus trip to the wonderful lakeside town of Pokhara before setting off on the stunning trek to Annapurna Base Camp.

December and January: After all that action, I would fly from Kathmandu to Hanoi with Silk Air to Singapore (it is possible to add a stop here for no extra cost), then and on to Hanoi in the north of Vietnam with Singapore Airlines, to spend some leisurely weeks in gastronomic paradise, steadily travelling the 1,000 miles south by train, bus and boat. One of the many highlights would be a stay at the French colonial-style Chau Doc Hotel on the banks of the Mekong. The activity on the river here is fascinating.

The Asian trip would end after continuing by boat to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat, which definitely has the ancient temple X-factor. From Siem Reap, it would be a flight on to Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand, again with a change in Singapore using Singapore Airlines.

February and March: In New Zealand, I would avoid the classic mistake of allowing just two weeks to get from Christchurch to Auckland. This may be a smallish country, but they really couldn't have crammed any more natural beauty in if they'd tried, and there's no better time to see it all than in their summer months. There are so many highlights here, but I'd be sure to head back to the Abel Tasman National Park for a stay at the fantastic Awaroa Lodge, which can't be reached by road.

April: Time for a bit of tropical down-time, this time via an Air New Zealand flight to Fiji, with a spot of island-hopping in the timeless Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands using a hop-on/hop-off boat pass.

May: Finally, it would be Air New Zealand to San Francisco to pick up a car for the classic road trip to Los Angeles, before heading home on Virgin Atlantic, tanned and relaxed, to irritate the hell out of everyone who stayed home and struggled stoically through the doom, gloom and cold.

This trip could, of course, be done in lots of different styles and route options, but for anyone on a budget wanting to organise more than the just the flights, the following operators could fill in some of the gaps:

Group travel: gapadventures.com, intrepidtravel.com, flyingkiwi.com, awesomefiji.com, trekamerica.com

Independent travel: rickshawtravel.co.uk