What are round the world and circle-Pacific travel packages? Round the world tickets let you fly around the entire globe for one price. You can travel continuously in one direction, but can only backtrack once.
"Round the world and circle-Pacific travel packages," says Patricia Blanche, owner of La Cañada Flintridge Travel in La Cañada, California, "were something that appealed to travelers who had the combination of a lot of leisure time at their disposal and wanted to see a lot of the world on essentially one stretch of vacation. People today just don't use them as much as they used to. For one thing, they may have the money but they have so many other obligations in their lives that an extended vacation isn't something they can comfortably make the time for. Those who do plan these globe-trotting trips are surprised to find out that there are a number of restrictions imposed on that type of ticket."
"For instance," she says, "on a round the world ticket, you have to constantly keep moving in one direction and can only backtrack once. Let's say, for example, that you go to Madrid, go to Paris, go to Cologne but start thinking to yourself, 'I'd really like to go back and spend more time shopping in Madrid.' If you think of a round the world trip as an on-and-off bus ride and you're only allowed to board from one side of the street, you get the picture of why this isn't the favorite package of choice for most people because the routing usually isn't what they really want."
"While you can decide where it is you want to go and how many individual stops you want to make along the way," she explains, "people will inevitably go someplace like Asia or Europe, get recommendations on places that they've already passed but not made a stop at all, and want the freedom and flexibility to be able to modify their itinerary or reverse their direction. Unfortunately, that type of ticketing isn't going to be able to accommodate them. The irony here is that the kind of person who purchases a round the world or circle-Pacific ticket is doing so because they're explorers at heart. What they're confined to explore, however, are whatever stops are on their pre-arranged itinerary."
"Circle-Pacific used to be very popular," she says. "The trend we've seen with our own clientele, however, is that people are putting more planning into the areas they are going to and spending more money to get to know an area really well rather than just skipping through it and not coming away with any real sense of its history, culture, and what it has to offer. I think what used to attract people to excursions where they could see 19 countries in 14 days was that the tickets were less expensive if purchased as a package than if you individually made all the arrangements with the airlines to fly to those 19 countries within a 2-week period."
"The downside of less expensive tickets, though," she points out, "is that the timeframes and the locales aren't always going to match your expectations." Blanche advises that if someone is looking into the possibilities of round the world or circle-Pacific tickets, an assessment of what they really want to get out of the experience is in order. "Are you looking to relax, explore, study foreign cultures, learn more about history, shop til you drop? Savvy travelers should also do their homework regarding high and low seasons of their target destinations as well as the prevailing weather conditions."
In addition, travelers need to be aware that ticketing conditions have changed dramatically since 9/11. There are no countries left which allow foreign visitors to come in without an "onward ticket" unless they possess a visa for education or work which allows them to stay indefinitely.
