Around the world train trip

[amamba]

Anyone else see this article?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/31/travel/round-the-world-rail-journey/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

This journey only costs $36,000!

 

[SarahZ]

Whoa. I would do this in a hot second. We have zero plans to buy a house, so this might be something to put the savings account toward.

 

[Texan Eagle]

My only complaint against this itinerary is that they are not even trying to get as close as possible to "around the world" by train.

London-New York by flight and SF-Shanghai by flight? Come on, that is too easy, can do better.

If not more, at least go all the way to west coast to UK by train, and take a flight to nearest point in America- Halifax? Quebec?

Similarly, on west coast, at least take train to Seattle/Vancouver and then fly to Japan. How can an around-the-world rail trip skip the country that LOVES its trains?

 

[SubwayNut]

It's clearly catering to a high-end luxury travel market and isn't worrying about being precise. The flight should be to Halifax to only do train or if you want to follow the former easternmost railway in North American to Saint John's, Newfoundland. A fun fact about those flights to London and Dublin is there operated using domestic style, single-asile A320s since its closer to Europe from Saint Johns, NF than the west coast.

In Asia starting in Shanghei seems wimpy wheres Japan and ferry to Vladivostok to catch the trans-Siberian, that's something on my bucket list.

They even fly domestically in China from Shanghei to Xi'an. Probably because there isn't a first class enough train there for the tour. (I know nothing about the Chinese railway network but believe it goes nearly everywhere).

 

[brentrain17]

was wondering what I was going to use that extra $36,000 I had laying around. Sounds fantastic! But all the way West to Halifax makes more sense. I'm going to look at maps and see what an Eastbound trip would look like.

 

[SarahZ]

I wonder if it would be possible to adjust the itinerary a bit? Like SubwayNut said, I'd rather start in Vladivostok than Shanghai, for example.

It's still a very cool idea. I'd love to circle the globe, so to speak.

 

[Trogdor]

A friend of mine had drawn up a theoretical itinerary around the world using only train and ship (maybe some bus connections as well). The challenge is getting certain cruise ships on their repositioning moves.

 

[neroden]

A friend of mine had drawn up a theoretical itinerary around the world using only train and ship (maybe some bus connections as well). The challenge is getting certain cruise ships on their repositioning moves.

Cunard's Transatlantic Crossing makes the Atlantic pretty straightforward to plan for. The problem is always the Pacific. People who have done this sort of itinerary have to plan everything around the Pacific crossing.
I researched this after I swore off traveling through US airports, just to see what was possible.