How do you pack for a round the world vacation?
I’m sure that we all make assumptions about the weather at our destination quite often but when you’re going on a long-haul trip, it makes sense to check what the weather should be like at each stop along your way.
Round the world trips are, of course, by far the most difficult in this respect. Choosing a time of year that provides you with decent weather at each stop over on your holiday is very difficult and may even be impossible if you’ve chosen an unfortunate set of stop-overs. However, t is possible to get good weather if you select your stopovers, the timing and the direction of your travel carefully.
Although you might think that it would be impossible to get good weather right through a vacation that includes both the northern and southern hemisphere in fact it’s not that difficult so long as you can fit your trip broadly into the February/March (heading west) or October/November (heading east) periods. For example, you can usually get quite good weather for Hawaii plus South-East Asia or Australia/New Zealand combinations in these time slots.
What is critical is that you check what the weather patterns are at each stopover you’re hoping to fit in. Never assume that the climate at your destination will be similar to that which you’re used to at home. Whilst many of us will be used to the “normal” four seasons there are a lot of tropical destinations that don’t get a seasonal pattern like that and may have only Wet and Dry seasons. Countries as large as Australia have a number of different seasonal patterns within the country: anytime is usually OK to visit Sydney but that’s far from the case in Darwin in northern Australia for instance.
It’s also worth heading west on the RTW trips as that allows you to avoid jet-lag on quite extended flights (London-Los Angeles-Honolulu is the longest that’s possible in one jetlagless flight sequence). This direction usually gives you an extra day at each stop over if you choose night time arrivals although you’ll lose a day when you cross the dateline.
So, choose carefully and pack light!
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