Hello and welcome back to Trenton’s Travels! It’s been awhile since I’ve last posted and I am very excited to share more about my latest Round the World trip – the first international trip I’ve taken so far in 2024.

Ten Cities. Five Countries. 23 Days.

I spent 52 hours up in the air on 7 flights to travel a total of 21,833 nautical miles.

When I shared these travel plans with my friends, family, and coworkers many were shocked.

Why would I visit so many places on one trip? How can I afford this? Won’t something go wrong?

While I have taken similar RTW trips in 2022 and 2019, this is definitely the most I’ve traveled in such a short amount of time. I hope that this post serves as a solid introduction to my trip before I share more of my destination-specific experiences in subsequent posts.

Why this routing? The Economics of a RTW Trip

As of early-2024, the cost of a round trip flight from the Washington, DC-area to Tokyo, Beijing, or Shanghai have hovered around $1,800-2,750 in Economy making it a very cost prohibitive place to travel. However, looking at departing from the West Coast that price drops to <$1,000 round trip or even further from the UK and mainland Europe.

While playing around on Google Flights in December, I came across some interesting nonstop routes between the US and Japan aboard ZIPAIR Tokyo – a new low-cost carrier currently flying out of Honolulu, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, with flights beginning at $250 one-way. I have never been to Japan and had been itching to travel to Asia after traveling heavily in Africa and Latin America last year, so decided to look into a round-the-world trip incorporating Japan.

Unfortunately, the nonstop Honolulu to Tokyo flight I was looking at had gone up significantly in price when I was finally ready to book, but thankfully I found a nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo-Haneda on American Airlines for an astonishing $237.20 one-way. This was an even better deal than flying ZipAir since AA is a full service airline; my Economy class ticket included in-flight meals, seat selection, and a carry on + checked bag – all of which would have been chargeable extras on ZipAir.

The other countries on my itinerary came about through a combination of personal interest and logistics. For example, I had not been to China since 2019 and wanted to visit many friends & classmates of mine that I have not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic. Morocco is somewhere that I’ve always heard great things about but never had the opportunity to visit on my previous trips. And Etihad’s free stopover program enticed me to stay two nights in Abu Dhabi, while I was able to snag a good deal on United for my flight back to the US out of Barcelona.

Flights

I opted to take direct flights for the duration of my trip with a preference for red eyes in order to maximize both my time in each destination and to save on lodging expenses. Additionally, I wanted to use the United Miles I had earned from work travel in Fall 2023, which meant that ending my itinerary in Europe made the most sense to take advantage of United’s off-peak award fare pricing.

Here is a summary of all my flight costs from this trip:

• Washington to Los Angeles: $88.90 on United
• Los Angeles to Tokyo: $237.20 on AA (plus $120 to upgrade to Economy Plus)
• Tokyo to Beijing: 17,500 Delta Skymiles plus $96.50 USD in taxes on China Southern
• Shanghai to Casablanca via Abu Dhabi: 42,186 Etihad Guest Miles plus $106.10 in taxes on Etihad
• Marrakesh to Barcelona: $66.49 on Ryanair (including the excess baggage fee I had to pay in Marrakesh)
• Barcelona to Washington: 24,100 United Miles plus $39.70 in taxes
• TOTAL: $754.89 USD

This total price could have been ~25% cheaper had I opted to take flights with layovers and not upgraded to Economy Plus on the LAX-HND leg, however, I am very satisfied with the overall cost which is roughly equivalent to a single round trip flight from Washington to a major European city.

Lodging Costs

Taking advantage of my Hilton Honors points balance, a desire for greater comfort since I was traveling so far in such short time often on red eye flights, and the need for more privacy to accommodate working remotely from Morocco – I had chosen to stay entirely in hotels for the duration of my RTW trip, whereas usually I will intersperse some Airbnbs and hostels as well.

Below is a summary of my lodging costs:

• Tokyo – Comfort Hotel Higashi Nihombashi: $190.06 USD (three nights)
• Beijing – Doubletree: 150,000 Hilton Honors Points (six nights)
• Shanghai – Shangri-La Pudong: $107.94 after Amex Travel Credit (two nights)
• Abu Dhabi – Premier Inn Capital Centre: FREE with Etihad Stopover Programme (two nights)
• Rabat – Conrad: 122,000 Hilton Honors Points (two nights)
• Marrakesh – Riad Merzouga: $209.10 (three nights)
• Barcelona – Via Sants Hotel: 44,000 Hilton Honors Points (one night)
• Barcelona – Hotel Indigo Plaza España: FREE with IHG Credit Card Anniversary Certificate (one night)
• TOTAL: $507.10 USD

Ground Transportation

Below is a summary of ground transportation costs:

• Los Angeles – Hertz Car Rental: $85.60 USD (one day – pricey but my first time in LA so I wanted to leave LAX for my 13-hour layover)
• Tokyo – Metro Tickets: ~$15 USD
• Beijing – Metro Tickets & Cab Fare: ~$25 USD
• Beijing to Shanghai High Speed Rail Ticket: $67.80 USD
• Shanghai – Metro Tickets & Cab Fare: ~$18 USD
• Abu Dhabi – Hertz Car Rental: $46.29 USD (three days)
• Casablanca to Rabat Train Ticket: $6.94 USD
• Rabat Cab Fares: ~$20 USD
• Rabat to Marrakesh Train Ticket: $15.67 USD
• Marrakesh Cab Fares: ~$30 USD (with lots of bargaining)
• Barcelona Cab Fares: $35 USD (inflated because I got dropped off at the wrong hotel and had to call another cab)
• Barcelona Metro Tickets: ~$10 USD
• Approximate TOTAL: $375.30

So, should you take a RTW trip? My Verdict

If you enjoy traveling for long periods of time, do not get jetlag/burnout easily, and are semi-flexible on your exact travel itinerary then I would highly recommend looking into taking RTW trips. Given I only allotted myself 23 days for this trip, my hands were tied on the destinations I could visit and the amount of money I had to spend, but when it comes to traveling generally the longer/slower the pace the cheaper the overall cost making a RTW trip even more appealing.

For example, flying from Japan/China to Southeast Asia and then taking buses to cross borders, continuing on to India (flying IndiGo or other budget airlines), then to the Gulf/Mid-East followed by Eastern Europe could have been accomplished for the exact same amount I spent, if I had 2-3+ months worth of time and included Airbnbs/Couchsurfing/hostels in my itinerary.

Another factor to consider when traveling long term is managing boring/mundane tasks that you normally do not think about while on a brief vacation – such as how to handle laundry. During this three week trip, I did my laundry twice (once in China at my hotel using the free credit provided and again in Abu Dhabi at a full-service laundry shop). Also, it’s possible that you may just want to take a ‘day off’ and not really go out sightseeing – which is totally fine and expected! I took one of these days off while in Rabat where I just relaxed at the hotel and did not really do much sightseeing.

Overall, I would definitely take another RTW trip – having a month or longer is ideal, allowing you to maximize both your time and money.

Thank you for reading and looking forward to sharing more about Tokyo in my next post! 😊