Flying the world.

[modeller]

A combination of old age and its limitations I don't want to sit in a plane for 20 hours.

You see world cruises advertised by sea but never by air. I don't like cruising especially in these giant cruise ships. I would like to do a similar thing by air but limiting flying time beween destinations to 5/6 hours. They used to do package fly cruises where hotels and excursions were included and you could hop from country to country without hassle and fairly short flights ( under 6 hours ) but they don't seem to do them anymore. Any suggestions ?

[jno]

I don't think anyone packages these but some travel agents like Trailfinders will do them for you; they know all the airlines and have preferential rates at hotels round the world. Sort out where you'd like to go (they can be much more flexible than ships can) and give them a call.
http://www.trailfinders.com/

[modeller]

Thanks jno I travelled all over the USSR and central Asia by air and train by the method I descibed but Central America and the FE dont seem to offer those combinations.
The nearest you get to it is cruising which I find boring when spending days at sea and you are actually paying for lots of things you don't want.

[VHG]

A friend bought a round the world air ticket a few years ago (not sure if they still do them).

Basically you could fly from England EASTWARDS round the world. As long as your flight was EAST of your current location you could do as many flights as you like.

With one of those you could chose how long you wanted each flight to be and how many stops you did.

[jno]

I haven't seen anyone offering a RTW ticket for years (though they may still do so). Air NZ are the only airline that goes RTW - to NZ via either Hong Kong or LA - but as airlines form alliances these days you ought to be able to buy tickets on a group of airlines that will get you to all sorts of places. But it won't necessarily be any cheaper, which is why I'd suggest getting Trailfinders or someone to put it together for you.

I've been on a few cruises, but I do it for the ports they visit, not because I want to spend days at sea.

[carmalee]

Modeller I share your views (and probably era!) not too long ago I got a round the world ticket valid for about five months. Wanted to vary my time between SA and Australia - the ticket took me literally around the world which wasn't what I wanted. As I understood the round the world tickets were based on mileage I asked Trailfinders (great company) if I could go to UK/SA/Aus/SA/UK instead ofSA/AUS/LA/UK - they said they had never been asked that but as I hadn't exceeded my mileage allowance - no probs. Everything went very smoothly and I can't praise the company enough. Have travelled with them a million times and they have always come up trumps.

[Aldrich]

rather then having to spend lots of day at see have you thought about just doing the sectors so you can fly from one part of the world e.g. america to join the ship which might take you to Australia and then spend a few days there and then fly to a different destination and then catch another ship. so not only do you get to experience two different ships and you might be surprised there are really nice small ships as well e.g. Princess cruises. If you speak to a good cruise travel agent you might find they might be able to package it to your needs. I have always used http://www.Cruise.co.uk to book my cruise holiday and they are always very accommodating. Media URL: http://www.cruise.co.uk
Description: Leading cruise travel agent