Different airlines offer different types of RTW tickets (it's always "round the world"; everyone likes to drop that first 'a'). We bought our tickets from the One World alliance, which consists of American Airlines plus its partners (British Airways, Qantas, Cathay Pacific etc). Some airline partnerships have a precise RTW mileage-based fee system, but we liked One World because you can choose up to twenty stops for a fixed price--kind of an all-you-can-eat-buffet model; it's a pretty good deal.
There are some basic guidelines: travel needs to be more-or-less in one direction (no backtracking unless its within the same region, ie "Europe" or "Asia"). You have to cross both Atlantic and Pacific oceans. You have to return to your starting point, arriving the opposite direction from which you left. You have up to one year to complete your trip.
As far as restrictions go, there are limits to how many stops you can make in any one region or hemisphere; the details of it are a little boring, so I won't get into it.
You'll see a few odd zig-zags in our itinerary (listed below). Mostly this is due to airline hubs and flight availability, though some of the more arcane RTW restrictions add to the confusion.
For example, let's say we're in Cairo. If we want to go somewhere else on the African continent (like Cape Town), we have to go through London. Heathrow and British Airways have made London an improbable African/middle-eastern hub.
Similarly, getting from South Africa to India involves a layover... in Hong Kong.
With these tickets, there's an additional charge (something like $100 or $150) for each destination or leg we change, but there's no charge for changing our flights to the same destination: if we decide we want to stay longer in 'city A', we can push back our flight to 'city B' without any penalties.
With that in mind, our trip is mostly-- but not entirely-- planned out. Our main city-to-city framework has been set, even though we might change some actual travel dates/flights while we're on the road. In this framework there's still a lot of "in-between" time within a city or country that's open ended. Every new place we arrive by plane, we've made sure to have rooms reserved the first couple nights, so we can relax a bit and get our bearings. But it's unrealistic for us to plan out every detail or every day of a 5-6 month trip, we'd make ourselves crazy trying. We're already buried under mountains of travel guides as it is; we accept that a certain amount of improvisation is unavoidable. *gulp*
So here's our schedule as it stands now--
San Francisco -> London (for a few days layover)
London -> Cairo
We'll be here-- during Ramadan no less-- for my 40th birthday. We'll also be checking out Alexandria and most of the tried-and-true Nile river tourist circuit.
Cairo -> Amman
We'll be hitting the tourist sites in Jordan too-- Petra, Wadi Rum etc.
Amman -> London
This is one of those odd stops I mentioned earlier; we pass through London again on our way to Cape Town. So, we decided to stretch out our layover: during our month "in London" we're taking advantage of those super budget Euro-shuttle flights to go to both Italy and Morocco.
London -> Rome
Once in Rome, we'll work our way up to Milan via train.
Milan -> Marrakech
Call us superficial, but we timed Marrakech to coincide with an awesome eurotrash DJ lounge party in the Medina. Jacqueline is determined to get her picture taken with Bryan Ferry!
Morocco, like Italy, is only partially planned. Essaouira and the Atlas Mountains are definite maybes. We need to be back in London by Oct 30 for our big flight to Cape Town.
Marrakech -> London
London -> Cape Town
Cape Town -> Johannesburg
We're in the process of arranging some kind of safari excursion; maybe a stay in Kruger Nat'l Park.
Johannesburg -> Hong Kong
Hong Kong -> Seoul
So far it looks like we'll be spending Thanksgiving in South Korea.
Seoul -> Mumbai
Mumbai is a sort of home-base for us in December. From here we're heading north directly to Kathmandu, and then working our way back down through India (where we'll be for Christmas).
Mumbai -> Kathmandu
Flying in to Kathmandu the beginning of December. We're hoping for a Tibetan side-trip here somewhere... the Chinese are skittish about letting people into Tibet without a tour group, and the information we're getting over the phone and online tends to be contradictory. We know we'll have better luck trying to arrange something once we're in Kathmandu.
From Nepal, we'll eventually make our way overland back down to Mumbai, in order to catch a new year's eve flight to Sydney.
Mumbai -> Sydney
We have some time planned in Sydney, but beyond that there's still a lot of Australia we haven't figured out yet.
Sydney -> Auckland
Ditto for NZ: we have a couple days in Auckland, but we're still making arrangements for everything else. (I'd love to see some All-Blacks rugby; I haven't checked their season schedule yet)
Auckland -> Santiago
Chile's a little unplanned so far.
Santiago -> Easter Island (Rapa Nui)
(Rapa Nui sounds so much cooler than "Easter Island", doesn't it?) We'll be there for the start of their big Tapati festival at the beginning of February.
Easter Island -> Buenos Aires
Our last stop, in one of the coolest cities in the world. We love BA, we honeymooned there, we have friends there... it seemed the perfect place to start our transition back to the US.
Buenos Aires -> Dallas -> San Francisco
Getting home mid/late February. Whew.
-k
