Advice from world-wide fliers please

[PaphosAL]

My daughter has just told me that Lydia my 18 year old grandaughter studying languages at Cardiff University, has won a bursary to visit Fiji next July for a month! Staying with a local family and learning their customs and skills.

She will be teaching English (and maybe French, in which she is fluent too) in local schools during her stay. How amazing is that, eh?

The idea occurred to me that her flight from UK to Fiji and back could possibly be turned into an 'Around the World' flight adventure? With perhaps a couple of hotel stop-offs / txfrs included outward and return from Fiji?

Have any of you seasoned world-wide fliers experience of such a travel scenario, please? Any advice warmly welcomed, thanks!

Kind Regards- AL

[Dominic]

I'm with HiC and Lincoln. Let her enjoy one thing properly. She's young, there will be other opportunities for world travel.

[Mike J]

If she is in Fiji she is practically equidistant from the UK so going on around would make sense. However RTW fares are no long as competitive as they used to be what with airlines forming themselves into groups like One World and others charging far more for One way fares etc. Our daughter was 17 when she set off to do her gap year. She used STA http://www.statravel.co.uk/round-the-world-travel.htm but my son used Flight Centre https://www.flightcentre.co.uk/flights/ ... ld-tickets . The only arrangement we added was that we booked and paid for their first couple of nights in a hostel at each pf the places they stopped over on their flights so they never arrived at an airport with nowhere to stay and therefore at the mercy of touts. Hostels are a mine of information once they are there and certainly ours quickly found the best places ( cheapest) to eat and drink and where the next good hostel was if they were touring a bit of the country. They met kids from all over the world as they travelled from hostel to hostel and my son who did it a few years back also said how surprising it was to met many couples in their 60's and 70s staying at the same hostels and doing the gap year they didn't do all those years ago . Your granddaughter should seize this opportunity with both hands and make the best of it by seeing a lot more of the world than just sitting for 20 hrs each way on in a metal tube. She will have an absolute ball and these days with WhatsApp Skype FaceTime etc they are in contact 24/7 if they want though her parents won't hear half of what she is up to.

[Kili01]

Yes, would agree with what Lloyd wrote which seems good advice. I've done quite a lot of long haul flying myself and although there are opportunities for stop overs en route, for an unaccompanied young woman arriving in a strange city thoroughly jet lagged and disorientated is not the best time to take on new challenges! Just changing aircraft in strange airports will probably be sufficient.
I've been to Fiji and I think that she will love it there with lots of new things to discover!
Dee

[WHL]

Hi Al im with you ...try and maximize the experience.

[PaphosAL]

Sincere thanks one and all for taking the time and trouble to respond!

I've emailed my daughter a guest link to this topic so that she and Lydia can ponder the idea from the positive and negative angles. The hostels idea sounds great! This is exactly what Lydia was doing all around France and Spain (rail and air) for six weeks in Summer this year, after finishing college and before starting university.

She is a pretty street-wise gal...

Thanks again, Paphos Lifers! AL

[PhotoLady]

Some info in this article could be useful.... I took a few quotes out of it to give you the gist of it.

Experience trips: Our experience trips are simple; they involve big groups going out to explore one country, together. Best thing is that barely anybody knows each other before they land, so everybody makes friends straight away. 'You are not aloneeeeeeee'

Paid Work: A common solo traveller effort is that of the paid work variety – ie, you travel to Australia, settle down and get a job for 12 months. Simple. Except, Australia is pretty far away and actually, living on the other side of the world is pretty scary. Not! On our 'Paid Work and Sydney Intro' programme, you'll get the chance to meet loads of other travelers who are in EXACTLY the same boat as you and on the Sydney Intro week, you'll get to do loads of cool stuff together. Bonzer.

How we can help:
Our Real Gap Experience team have all been there, done that and got the t-shirt (it still sports a UV stain from the Full Moon Party). We've all been travelling on our own, with mates and with our mums (HI AGAIN!) – so hit us up and we'll dish out the best advice we have to offer. We can even sort out your visas (if so required) and point you in the right direction of the sort of stuff to pack for different trips.

Once you're all booked on to a trip of a lifetime you'll get sent your trip notes, where you can swat up on everything to do with your trip.

You'll then receive your buddy list 30 days before departure. Wahay! Your buddy list will have the contact details of everybody on your trip, so basically everybody Facebooks/emails each other and gets in touch before they travel… so really, it's not so scary after all. You'll know each others life stories before you even touch down in country – sorted.

Full article here: https://www.realgap.co.uk/travelling-solo

[Lee]

Wow, what a great opportunity.
Mike J has some sensible advice as does HiC and others.
I hope she can make the most of her adventures and I wish her well on her travels.

[PaphosAL]

That's comical, Austin! Has your daughter ever thought about playing catch-up, by enrolling for a degree at the Open University? It's never too late...

AL