Dear all,

Me and my wife are planning to go on a RTW trip next year on 2 motorcycles - we are on a ultra-tight budget, but hoping for a year of great fun. I would really appreciate some advice from more experienced bike travellers regarding a route we can take.

Star date: June 2013
Duration: 12 months
Starting point: Poland, Europe
Preferred trip segments:
- Poland -> Turkey -> ferry -> Egipt -> through East Coast -> South Africa
- through South America
- East Asia / South-East Asia -> Poland

We are about to start the detailed route planning, but would really need advice on sorting out the trip segments, so we will:
1. travel in good or moderate weather conditions (Central Asia from Oct to Apr will be probably tough, so will be Equatorial Africa around May)
2. be able to finish the trip in 12 months without extreme rush
3. minimise the costs of bike shipping/plane tickets (e.g. we thought about a possibility of yacht-hiking from South Africa to South America)

We are looking forward to your suggestions on how to make the trip segments fit together!

Best regards!
Szymon

Hi Szymon and welcome, you have come to the right place.
It looks like you have already thought about this a bit but I would suggest that you start about 2-3 months later, which ever way you head it will be really hot in June/July/ August.

It is possible in this time but your schedule is a bit rushed and allows no time for delays and stopping at places you really want to see more of, and there will be a lot of those en-route.

If 12 months is your limit, plan your route but be open to the idea of staying longer somewhere you like and shipping your bikes home from where you end up or skipping some of it, this trip should be about getting away from the rush of everyday life, not imposing more stress on yourself.

If taking one bike gives you more money for a longer trip then think about it, I think if two people are travelling together they should both be using the same type of bike but others disagree with this.

The idea of yacht hiking sounds good if you can get it, but it will add to your travelling time, friends found the cheapest way to get from South Africa to South America was to actually take a cruise where the bikes went as luggage, although this was some time ago and things might have changed since then.

The last person that I spoke to who had planned so much in such a short time told me there was no way they could extend it, their trip last 4 years in the end!

I hope you find some of this helpful.
Mark

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You can be too careful

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. After some more investigation I assume that the RTW trip including the segments I have mentioned is doable, but we wouldn't enjoy it as much as we would like to. In my opinion, the minimal reasonable time to avoid extreme rush for this trip would be 18 months.

I am considering various possibilities at the moment, including doing the trip in stages - starting with 6 months in Africa.

Thanks once again!

Best regards,
Szymon

Hi Szymon. My wife and I are considering rtw too for a year. How have you got in so far? We are hoping to ride UK to India via Turkey and Iran, then ship to SE Asia, then to Oz/NZ before shipping to Chile.

China and Burma are apparent showstoppers, hence shipping into SE Asia. How have you got on so far?

Degsy