Hey Nate, I posted the following a few days ago on a similar question, be aware that South America is particularly expensive to get anywhere from, I would recommend starting south and working your way back up, places like Cancun are always cheap to get back to a big US hub and out to somewhere else.
Also I faced the same situation with a falling dollar before my first big RTW, it was around the same levels as now. I opened an account with Everbank, an online bank and split my bankroll into Euros, Swiss Francs, Aussie Dollars and Norwegian Krone. The dollar fell for a while longer then rebounded dramatically and I wound up losing some money on the forex accounts but in the end I broke even. It gave me some peace of mind though and I didnt worry too much about the fluctuations while I was on the road.
Everbank's ATM card has the visa logo and worked everywhere in the world, no transaction fees except 1% of the withdrawal amount, still the cheapest way I have heard of to access your money.
From the other day:
I just finished my third RTW trip, and I wanted to comment about your flight plans. First of all I am surprised by all the people who go in for the package RTW tickets - it is nearly always at least double what I spend when I just buy individual legs as I go! And you don't get that ultimate luxury of arriving in a place and having the option to stay as long as you like or change your plan for the next place if you feel like it.
On my last trip I flew from NY to Cairo for US$520. Cairo is a great hub for African destinations, on a previous trip I flew RT from Cairo to Nairobi for $500. Plus Egypt is one of my favorite countries but that is another topic. I flew from Cairo to Jakarta for $425, lots of the Arabian budget airlines connect Cairo to Asia. Around Asia it is cheap enough to get anywhere on the myriad budget airlines there. I got back to NY from Manila via China for another $615. So that RTW cost $1560 for the big legs.
Last year I found a great deal RT NY to Manila for $670. From there I flew Air Asia to Singapore then KL to Calcutta for another $70. After a month and a half in India and Nepal I flew back to the Philippines for another $150. Ok technically it was 3/4 of the way around the world and back but still all the flights cost less than $1000.
The year before I flew from NY to KL for $700, traveled around SE Asia for 6 months, KL to Cairo for $550, that $500 RT to Nairobi where I spent a couple of months in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (awesome), then Cairo to Guatemala for $1300 (pricey) and back to NY from Cancun for $100. So thats Asia, N Africa, E Africa and Central America for about 3K.
On all those trips I changed plans frequently, from how long I wanted to stay to where I felt like going next. You can't put a price tag on having a world map in front of you and being able to decide freely what you want to do next! And anyway it is far cheaper than any of these RTW package tickets!
South America is expensive to get to from other places, as was Central America for me. If I were to do it again I would have done CA on an individual trip rather than incorporate it into a big trip. Really I think Africa, Asia and Aus/NZ sounds like a great itinerary for 10 months. Getting a RT to South America from the US is probably your cheapest bet if you are set on going there on this trip...why not give yourself the option by just buying the legs as you go?
Almost all these flights I mentioned I found through Expedia or Orbitz by making a two week matrix of origin to destination flights on different days, trying all the major cities in a region I wanted to get to from all the cities I could potentially fly out of. Once I found the cheapest option I see if someone like ASAP Tickets can do it even cheaper (which did happen one time, by about 20%) If you have the flexibility you can find a good deal. Of course try to avoid holiday seasons.
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