Round the world overland general considerations · General considerations in Round the world overland
All Destinations | Europe | Asia | North America | Africa | South America | Oceania | Hotels
General considerations in Round the world overland
General considerations in Round the world overland
Crossing from Europe to Asia or vice versa can be done relatively easy - you can take a train from most major European cities to Moscow and travel by the Trans Siberian to Beijing. Travel through Central Asia or Middle East is possible but requires more visas and more changes of buses and trains.
The Pacific ocean is by far the greatest obstacle to completing a circuit around the world overland; There are no ferries between either Indonesia or New Zealand to Australia, nor are there any sort of regular services from Asia or Australia to the thousands of islands in Polynesia. Further north the Bering strait between Russia and Alaska doesn't have any scheduled traffic crossing it either. This means you either have to shell out more money than a plane ticket on the cruise ships that do cover this route - Japan to Alaska is the most economical option - or opt for the option more in the spirit of such a journey; Freighter travel. New Zealand, which maintains loose associations with a number of small islands in the pacific, sometimes offers for people to join on the semi regular freight routes, supplying these islands, but natives are always given priority, and securing a spot on these trips are not trivial, and requires much perseverance.
The Atlantic has similar difficulties, but Cunard Line's proud historical ocean liners, still ply the route between Southampton and New York, and are much more economically feasible than the trans-pacific cruises. Headstrong, experienced travellers with a very loose timetable could attempt to cross the North Atlantic on fishing vessels - Greenland to Iceland is while in no way easy, possibly doable, and from Iceland there are regular ferries to the Faeroe Islands and Denmark on the European mainland with Smyril line . But how to cover the strait between Canada and Greenland is not immediately clear, it may be possible to hire experienced intuits to cross the strait on dog sleighs during the winter. One solution would be flying from Halifax to Reykjavik, Iceland, taking a bus to Seyðisfjörður and the ferry on to Europe.
Perhaps surprisingly another obstacle is the Darién Gap a small 160 kilometre stretch of dense marshy jungle, made even more dangerous by guerrillas fighting in the area, between Panama and Colombia. Yes, this means there are no roads between Central and South America, there are no ferries covering the gap either, but backpacker traffic is so heavy that there is a fairly organised line of private vessels operating between Cartagena and the Portobelo Area or Carti in Panama. See Hostel Portobelo or for more information. It is also feasible to walk along the Caribbean coast line, but unless you have experience in such journeys, this is not something you should take lightly. From Europe you can go by freight ship to Buenos Aires and some of the cruises in the Caribbean also include ports in Venezuela.
Northern Africa can be easily visited from Europe. However if you want to travel further south overland you need to cross the Sahara desert - don't expect any bus connections as there are hardly any roads.
Australia and the rest of Oceania requires flying if you aren't going by freighter or by an irregular and expensive transpacific or RTW cruise. Even the above mentioned bus tour from London to Sydney includes a flight leg from Indonesia to Darwin. Overall getting from one continent to another in the southern hemisphere is extremely difficult by boat.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Round the world overland
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Round the world overland - updated Apr 2024
SAVE up to 75% on Last Minute deals! Search for discount Round the world overland hotels, motels, apartments, hostels, guest accommodations and vacation resorts. Book now and pay at the hotel. Instant email confirmation!
>>> SEARCH FOR DEALS <<<
WHERE TO TRAVEL NEXT IN 2020
Round the world overland Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.