Around The World (with map and description)
 

Hi there,

In about two years I want to embark on my journey of a lifetime.
I want to travel the whole world (at least a big part of it) in a VW T4 Syncro.
Obviously there still is a lot of planning in front of me.
The route is roughly set and I’m here to show it to you and hopefully receive a lot of feedback and tips.

This is the global map and I will get into detail below.

https://i.imgur.com/8dTc4Sq.jpg



Chapter 1
Europe

From Austria (home) I wanna go to Italy, Switzerland, France and so on. This part is pretty self explanatory. No visas needed.
A few ferries in the UK, Morocco and Finland and from Denmark I will take the big ferry to Iceland. (with a stop at Faroe Islands)
This chapter will end at home to do maintenance and make changes on the vehicle if necessary.

https://i.imgur.com/JyOBU3o.png



Chapter 2
North America

North America starts with a container to Canada (Halifax). I chose a container instead of RoRo because my van will have personal belongings in it and I just feel more secure that way.
The route is pretty straight forward again and I will take some flights to Hawaii, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
The “North America” chapter will end at the Darien Gap where I will get another container to cross it.

https://i.imgur.com/ahjPPP2.png



Chapter 3
South America

Arriving in Colombia I will follow the route until I arrive at the port in Montevideo. Also no visas needed for South America.
If everything goes according to plan and Africa is safe at that stage I will apply for African visas with a second passport and ship the van to South Africa (Cape Town).

https://i.imgur.com/cFF1wO6.png



Chapter 4
Africa

In Africa I will take the east route which ends in Alexandria (Egypt) and hopefully there will be ships going to Greece or Italy at that time.
It’s not easy to plan that far ahead with security issues and stuff like that so I’m not even trying right now.
From southern Europe I will drive home again for another maintenance stop.

https://i.imgur.com/E3tW3ZK.png



Chapter 5
Middle East

I will follow the route and again it’s impossible to know now what the situation will be in two years.
Like the other chapters the route is still very rough but I know which countries I want to visit and I also have a pretty specific list of POIs.
I’m hoping that I will be able to go through Myanmar in two years. If not I will ship around.

https://i.imgur.com/aaE4zUN.png



Chapter 6
Asia and Australia

South East Asia I want to travel by car if possible. China, Philippines and Taiwan I will have to fly.
After some island hopping though Indonesia I will ship from Timor-Leste to Darwin in Australia. Container again for security reasons.
Australia to New Zealand with a container as well and then another one to Japan.

https://i.imgur.com/fb7IUdd.png



Chapter 7
Russia

Arrived in Japan I’ll do a ferry to South Korea and another one to Russia.
From there I will drive home along the Trans Siberian with a visit in Mongolia and Kazakhstan. Through the Ukraine and home.

https://i.imgur.com/pJkdMze.png



This is pretty much it so far.
I wanted my trip to be relatively easy at the beginning (Europe and North America) and have the tricky countries at the end.
If worse comes to worst I can also cancel after Europe, South America or Africa. You never know what happens.

What’s next is to figure out durations for each continent, country.
And also make a plan of all the cost.
What bothers me the most right now is all the container shipping but I feel like there is no alternative.

And now I’m so excited to hear your feedback. Thanks a lot in advance.

Just put that on the list, thank you!

I don't know what level of detail your mapping will show, and have even less of an idea what you're asking, if anything. On each of the "detailed" maps I could quibble and find fault: you're not going to Nordkapp? Or St. Petersburg? Skipping Malawi, Mozambique, and PNG, not to mention Northern Laos and Northern Vietnam, plus Serbia, Macedonia, and Bosnia? Crossing the (closed) border between Turkey and Armenia? Avoiding Utah, the Dalton and Dempster Highways, but taking a highly-improbably route from Anchorage down to Portland (or is that meant to represent container shipping, in which case I'd make a whole other set of recommendations)? Skipping New England in favor of the endless, flat boringness of southern Ontario and the US midwest? Etc.

But I bet most of this stuff is a function of your vague maps. Generally, the best way to ask for "a lot of feedback and tips" is to show specific plans and ask specific questions.

What does seem relevant at this stage in your planning is that this looks like more than two years' worth to me, unless you're a really, really efficient traveler. I'd give it three.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Hello
+1
I did only half of that route and it took me 2 years on the motorbike. :mchappy:

In your VW T4 Syncro you're not so exposed to the elements as on an bike (with or without motor), but unless you're into winterdriving the seasons will tell you when you can go where.

Here's a nice tool that might help:
https://weltreise-info.de/route/reisezeiten.html

For shipping I think that shoud not be a big problem since you will take a container for yourself, it's just a lot of money, look here and other places for other travellers to fill the container.

Since you are from Austria, why spending a whole summer in europe first?
If time and money is an issue I would spend it somewhere else.


Have fun planning
sushi

For the Australian leg I suggest heading across to cairns and working south to Melbourne and ship from there.

That drive down the middle is not much interspersed with a lot of nothingness.

:)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was so excited to upload my maps that I forgot to actually ask a question.

What I basically wanna know is if a trip like that is possible at all.

And also how many kilometres/miles I would be able to drive in a day so I can calculate the budget and plan in what month I wanna be where.


Here are my draft distances and days for each chapter.


Europe - 45.000 km / 28.000 miles - 350 days

North America - 54.000 km / 33.500 miles - 420 days

South America - 33.000 km / 20.500 miles - 185 days

Africa - 22.500 km / 14.000 miles - 120 days

Middle East - 33.000 km / 20.500 miles - 175 days

Asia - 22.500 km / 14.000 miles - 200 days

Australia - 24.000 km / 15.000 miles - 140 days

Russia - 28.500 km / 17.700 miles - 120 days


I don't have a lot of experience in overlanding so I'd be happy to hear your opinion on distance and duration.

Of course it's possible, but....

Keeping it very brief: there's no way for anyone to give you what you're asking. None of us know anything about your interests, riding style, or persistence. What makes sense to me (e.g., less time in Russia; more in Africa) doesn't necessarily have any bearing on you or your trip.

Further, none of us know what sort of background knowledge or research you've got at your disposal; I could go on and on about certain visas, borders, roads, places of interest, or weather considerations which turn out to have no relevance. And last, many people have previously asked, answered, and debated your questions about distances and timing; those posts are available in a search.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Hello


Over 250'000 km in almost 5 years. :thumbup1:

Looks like a good plan.
Once your on the road, the details will change, so just keep an idea of the trip.

Budget depends on you, but you can look in generell what others have spent.


sushi

Great advice Homer, if you must see Uluru fly there. 3 of us drove from Darwin to Cairns in a car direct sharing the driving in shifts. We had all done the route before so just wanted to get there. We only stopped to get food, petrol and got to the toilet and it took us 35 hours.

Don't miss the "Great Ocean Road" between Melbourne and Adelaide