This is my planned itinerary for a 60-day trip. I'd love to hear how reasonable or unreasonable it is.
Hi All -
I'm a 45 yr old male, single, no kids, with an understanding girlfriend and boss who are both giving me a 60-day leave of absence to fulfill a dream of traveling in Asia.
This is my planned itinerary. My friends think its overly ambitious; they say I'm trying to do too much and are advising me to hit fewer spots for longer stays. I'd love some objective advice.
I added a trip to europe on the way home since I need to pass that way anyway on a RTW ticket and I'm thinking my girlfriend can come and meet me. I couldn't convince her to come with me on the whole trip because she hates to fly :-)
1-Mar-09 Japan Tokyo
5-Mar-09 China Bejing
9-Mar-09 China Shanghai
12-Mar-09 China Hong Kong
15-Mar-09 Vietnam Hanoi
19-Feb-09 Vietnam Ho Chi Min City
23-Mar-09 Thailand Bankok
27-Mar-09 Singapore
1-Apr-09 India New Dehli (maybe 5 days in the north and 5 in the south)
Agra
Jaipur
Jodhpur
Kerala
Mysore, Chennai, Goa
12-Apr-09 Egypt Cairo
18-Apr-09 Spain Barcelona
Spain Madrid
02-May-09 USA Chicago (Home!)
Thanks in advance for any opinions!
Reply to this It all depends on what you're looking for really. Looking at your itinerary you'll be spending the vast majority of your time in big cities - many of which are in fact very similar, eg Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok. Of course, if this is waht you prefer then go for it. Personally, I would reduce the amount of countries and see more of the ones you visit. You could easily spend your whole time in China and Vietnam alone and still come away wishing you had longer. If you reduced your itinerary to only China, Vietnam and India you could have 2 and a half weeks in each while travelling via, say, Bangkok or Singapore and still having a couple of days there.
As I say, it's completely dependant on what you want to see and I can understand trying to fit in as much as possible, but it would be a shame to go all that way and come home with a very narrow view of what these fantastic countries have to offer.
Reply to this Hello John 😊
Appart from the India bit, I dont think your itinerary is too bad. I would do as your friends suggest and hit fewer spots, but I like to travel slowly and in a very relaxed way.
India: I would hit one spot in N. India and one in S. India. India takes getting used to and also unless you are planning to fly around then travel can be unpredictable and unreliable sometimes. Even with flying your itinery for India seems crowded. It looks like you are only planning one night at each place.
Mel
Reply to this Thank you both for your advice.
I think I'm going to cut out one city in China - maybe just visit Beijing and skip Shanghai?
As far as India - yeah I have no idea what to expect. I definitely want to see Taj Majal and maybe one place in the south like Kerala, but if you have specific suggestions please let me know. The company I work for has an HQ in Hyderabad but I'm not sure if I can swing through there or not.
Thanks again - much appreciated!
Reply to this I definitely want to see Taj Majal ...
I was there on Christmas day. See my profile picture for the view from the roof of our hotel. There was an even better view from the rooftop restaurant where we had Christmas dinner.
So, fly into N. Delhi. Spend 3 nights there and then take the train to Agra. You can buy an e train ticket on the internet. Here is the website for buying them.
http://irctc.co.in/
As far as I know Hyderabad has a busy airport, so you could probably fly to there from N. Delhi. You really dont have time for anymore than that.
Reply to this I think you might be front-loading your trip a little. Almost two weeks in Barcelona seems to be cutting into your overall goal to see Asia, and I notice that your time in India in particular is suffering. I've been there last year for two and a half weeks and quickly realized that it was more time consuming than I expected. I'd say that if you cut down your Spain time by a few days and then cut out one or two cities elsewhere (I haven't been to China or SE Asia yet but look into taking out Shanghai and/or Singapore) then you'd have more time to see the cool sites in India (guaranteed it won't be stress free even if you didn't have time constraints!) and time to relax on the beaches of Goa and Thailand!
Sounds exciting though! Best of luck to you 😊
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