Back in May, one of my friends posted on Facebook about this crazy deal on Priceline: you could get tickets from JFK to Europe and then on to Asia for a couple hundred dollars. He said to play around with the parameters to see what you could get, so I spend a couple of hours doing just that, worried that the deal would disappear the entire time.
My final itinerary was from JFK to Milan, and then from Lisbon to Bangkok, for $376.
To this I added a one-way ticket from Bangkok back to Spokane for $74 — and a lot of Delta air miles. I got to JFK on a paltry $5.60 fee and 12,000 United points. Mind you, the route was less than ideal, sending me through LAX and taking longer than all but the Bangkok-to-Spokane leg of the journey. From Milan to Lisbon I purchased a one-way Ryanair flight for $94. Total round-the-world flight price: $556.
I tacked all this onto the end of a work trip to Vancouver, BC. I leave in a couple of hours. All told, I’ll be gone for a month and a day, and I’ll travel eastwards the circumference of the globe and then some. My plan is to try to do the entire trip on a $1,000 budget, just to prove I can — and without resorting to sleeping on park benches and eating out of trash cans. More power to those who can do that; I’m too spoiled for such austerity.
As for the budget, it’s about what I’d spend in the month of November anyway on housing (as luck would have it, a friend called and wanted to rent for a month, so I’m getting out of my biggest bill), food, gas, entertainment and so on. So, really, if you look at it a certain way, the trip will be free. I’ll even be working remotely — appropriately, on an issue of our magazine that deals with how cloud-based technology is affecting global business.
I’ve never done anything quite like this before. I’ve traveled enough, I feel savvy enough. I think I can pull it off. But we shall see.
Good luck Katie! It sounds thrilling!
Oh to be free! Enjoy your trip and keep us up to date. At least a bit. 😉 Cary From: “Culture, adventure, stillness” To: caryhuether@yahoo.com Sent: Friday, October 24, 2014 11:00 AM Subject: [New post] One woman, one round-the-world trip, one month, $1,000 #yiv6502661826 a:hover {color:red;}#yiv6502661826 a {text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;}#yiv6502661826 a.yiv6502661826primaryactionlink:link, #yiv6502661826 a.yiv6502661826primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;}#yiv6502661826 a.yiv6502661826primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv6502661826 a.yiv6502661826primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;}#yiv6502661826 WordPress.com | Katie Botkin posted: “Back in May, one of my friends posted on Facebook about this crazy deal on Priceline: you could get tickets from JFK to Europe and then on to Asia for a couple hundred dollars. He said to play around with the parameters to see what you could get, so I spe” | |
Sounds super fun! Be safe, and good luck on your travels!