[esselle]

If you want to follow up on motor racing, you should visit Brooklands in Surrey, UK. You can still see large parts of the banked track (although there is a supermarket on some of it), visit the excellent Museum and the nearby Mercedes Benz World, where you can see a display of pretty every Benz ever made, and, for a small fee, do a bit of driving on their circuit.

[Bath_VIP]

Charles,

I will comment on the USA side as it sounds like my experience is more extensive than yours (I’m up to about 30 states now and have travelled around quite a bit there and my wife is American with experience of 49 states, all she needs is Alaska to complete the set).

I would give serious consideration to Amtrak trains for some of their routes. I appreciate that you don’t an RV type holiday but the long-distance trains do have a self contained cabin that might appeal and some of the routes are spectacular such as Denver to San Francisco. The other one I plan to do sometime is Chicago to Seattle & Seattle to Los Angeles.

As you have a PPL, I would seriously consider this as an alternative. I spent a week with my father flying around California & Nevada and we got to see sights we would never have otherwise.

Let mw know if you would like more thoughts.

[LuganoPirate]

I think that’s a wonderful idea Charles and something I’m currently booking with Mrs. LP and the boys for March 2017.
Ours will be RTW JNB-JNB with Star Alliance, but alas we do not have the time to take a year out.
We’re doing as follows:
JNB-ZRH-FRA-SFX
Then Honolulu, Auckland, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, HK, Singapore, Delhi, Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dubai and back to JNB.
All told we’ll do this in about 4-5 weeks and the mileage accrued should give Mrs. LP her Gold Senator status.

Having said that, my dream, and maybe something to consider, is a RTW on one of the Queens. I don’t have the luxury of time just yet as it’s +-125 days depending on the cruise, but hopefully in 2020.

The three canals I really want to traverse are the Corinth, Panama and Suez and some of these cruises incorporate that. They look magnificent and I think should be part of any RTW voyage.

All the best with your planning.

[canucklad]

Morning CharlesP
A few more suggestions….
Having a yak in the local last night my mates suggested……

China
Pal was gobsmacked by the 3 Gorges Dam and a Yangtze cruise.
And I agree with tallinsman, linking visits in with events can really enhance the overall experience.
With that in mind I’d suggest HK during the 7’s tournament. Possibly too much of an eye opener for Mrs. P : )

South America
A bizarre suggestion, and maybe a bit off the beaten track. As an aviation enthuiast, flying in old airliners in Bolivia . Although I might now be a bit out of date, but I’m sure the national airline still flys circa 70’s c raft.

In Europe, Lake Bled in Slovenia is stunning

[PeterCoultas]

MrMichael makes a good point about Oslo-Bergen that also applies to places like Iceland and Yellowstone all are worth doing in winter & summer. Staying at the lodges in Yellowstone in winter is a real treat and you almost have the park to yourself and the buffalo but best if you are happy to cross-country ski.

A key to a good trip will be your timing with seasons – will make a massive difference to enjoyment – much planning required.

[Charles-P]

What can I say but a heartfelt ‘Thank You’ to all of you for taking the time to offer your suggestions. Our trip file is now considerably larger.

[canucklad]

Another consideration before it’s gone forever……..
Now that sanctions and relationships are normallising…

Cuba before the Yanks invade and change Castro’s Havana into their Golden Arches nirvana

[Charles-P]

Tallinman – You are of course right and our latest planning means the trip may well stretch to 18 months rather than 12 to avoid the “if this is Thursday it must be Mexico” problem. We do have a number of events in the calendar that we are building around, for example three Formula 1 races, Christmas in New York with our children, Bonneville Speed Week etc. My new problem with all that I have read here is that I now have too many places to visit ! Decisions, decisions.

[Ahmad]

Can’t add much to the many suggestions. If you are contemplating Thailand/Malaysia it would be worth trying the Eastern and Oriental Express between Bangkok and Singapore. Istanbul is another place worth making a detour to (unless you have been there already as part of your Middle East experience). I am assuming you have already been to Petra and the Dead Sea.

[PeterCoultas]

A further point – concentrate on parts of the world a serious distance from your home base…they will be harder to access later, so (from Belgium) I’d miss out this time on mid east, east coast usa, even north africa and concentrate on far away difficult to reach spots. PS forgot to mention that there is much more to Indonesia than Bali…

[Tallinnman]

Its great reading all the thoughts and ideas here – feel a bit of voyeur !

One thought was despite all the wonderful insights and ideas here would be to not plan too much. You might arrive somewhere and hate it and yet somewhere you though was a quick stopover is amazing.

A friend’s daughter just returned after ‘touring’ the Far East – she flew into City A and had a return flight from City B – the rest depended on who she met in the hostels etc.

Also have you thought about returning to home base for periods during the trip – you’ll look forward to getting back and then once home after a few weeks you’ll be looking forward to getting back on the road!

[MartynSinclair]

Hi Charles… its an interesting question FDoS raised.. I remember as a child, my late father would regularly take a Saratoga to the middle east and would be welcomed into smaller airports, generally not open to scheduled traffic.

Would you consider using your aircraft to provide added flexibility and access to more remote places, even if it means needing a second pilot? That may open up other options and interesting places….?

[Charles-P]

MartynSinclair – The answer is yes, we will be using our new aircraft for part of the first part of the journey. We intend to take a series of ‘hops’ from Bergerac Dordogne down to Dubai via a number of stops on the way, once in Dubai a mutual friend together with my son will be flying our Pilatus back to France.

[john]

Given that part of the fun is the trip planning, take a look at Patricia Schultz’s book, 500 Places to See Before You Die.
About £10 on Amazon.

[Charles-P]

Once again my thanks to all those who took the time to write, I am most grateful.

Following a suggestion from a friend, my wife intends to keep an online diary of the trip which we will update as we move around the world, I will post a link here as soon as it is live on the assumption one or two of you might be interested in our progress.

Kind regards
Charles.

[Author]

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