Coordinating

I'm planning a trip in which most of the cost is my airline ticket because I'm staying with friends and family all over the globe. Actually, visiting with friends and family is, in my opinion, the best part of this whole gig! However, what that means is that I'm constantly bouncing emails back and forth trying to find out what dates are good for who and that puts limits on when I need to be where.

Many of my friends and family are also more experienced world travelers than I am, and they all have wonderful advice, but differing opinions on what I SHOULD do. Luckily, I have a pretty good idea of what I WANT to do, and I'm accepting of the fact that I probably won't be able to do it all in the 2 months that I have. The best piece of advice that I've gotten so far (and it was also a kick in the butt to make this actually happen), was from my Aunt Sally. She said,

"You should consider using a travel agent for all your bookings... it won't cost more and will probably save you tons of money if they're experienced... especially in today's market. They should also know much more about connections and tricks for foreign ports."

So, I did what most people my age would do - I google'd - "Best of Boston, Travel Agents" and headed to one of the highest rated and conveniently located travel agents in the area. I'm working with a nice lady named Maurene at Baker Travel, see:
http://boston.citysearch.com/profile/4751731/west_somerville_ma/baker_travel.html
Maurene did a pretty good job of putting together 2 itineraries for me so I can compare prices. Even though we have itineraries, we are still waiting on price quotes for the airlines. The 2 airline alliances that seemed to have the most options were the Star Alliance (which is the one with the really cool user interface I mentioned in a previous blog) and Oneworld.

Star Alliance is the largest alliance. Since I am traveling to so many different places in such a short amount of time, both Maurene and I have a feeling that the Star Alliance is going to have the best price and the most non-stop flights. Maurene likes working with Oneworld (which is affiliated with American Airlines) because the agents are easiest to work with. Unfortunately travel to Bangkok/Australia/New Zealnd, becomes a bit of a nightmare with Oneworld. The Oneworld itinerary ended up with a lot of connections on the longer distance flights, but it was pretty convenient for travel in Europe. Whith Star Alliance it's a little more difficult to travel in Europe, but much easier to travel to Asia/Australia/New Zealand. Since Europe is smaller, layovers cost less time, and if I end up getting stuck somewhere, it'll be one more city I get to see.

I spent almost 2 hours at Baker Travel (and made friends with a little mini dog, Max, who couldn't have been more than 4 lbs of dog. Max belongs to another agent and she was calling him a traitor because he wouldn't leave my side.) which is really nothing compared to the time I've put in to planning so far. And now, I've passed all that planning work off to someone who really like planning these trips and I can focus on other things for a while.

Here's the plan so far that Maurene and I have put together after LOTS of email discussions with friends and family:

I'll be leaving Boston on July 2 or 3 for what I'm calling "My East-Coast Road Trip". That trip involves driving from Boston to Atlanta and ending up in Northern Virginia so I can leave out of Dulles Airport and leave my car with my parents for a couple of months. (Notice that the parents are conveniently located too! I'm so lucky. =) )

Please note: some of this may seem like madness, but be aware that there is a definite method to it! With a trip like this, madness is often un-avoidable. I'll take what I can get, It's going to be awesome (when I'm on the ground of course).

I'm leaving Dulles on July 12 and flying to London, arriving at 6:20AM.

I'm planning to get a Britrail pass and travel from London to Oxford to Liverpool and maybe even get up to Glasgow. We'll see what I can do in 10 days!

On July 23, I leave London and fly to Rome (connecting in Frankfurt)

I'll use ground transportation to go from Rome to Pescara to Naples/Pompei.

From Naples, I fly to Madrid (through Munich) on July 28

On August 1, I fly from Madrid to Istanbul (through Vienna)

Here, I'm going on a cruise from Aug 2-Aug 9 with my friend's family

On August 10, I will fly from Istanbul to Sydney (through Bangkok)

It would make sense to actually stop in Bangkok, but my friend in Sydney is leave for a trip of his own (to Boston actually) on August 15, so I want to be there while he is in town.

On August 15, I fly from Sydney to Christchurch

On August 20, I fly from Christchurch to Bangkok (through Auckland)

Here's where I backtrack a little - and go straight from winter to summer!

On August 28, I fly from Bangkok to San Francisco (ground stop in Tokyo)

San Francisco to Dulles on Sept. 2

Then back up to Boston by car.