The route

Before we start the tour I like to mention a few things. First our objectives for this journey: most important for us is to see a little bit from the world and that we just enjoy traveling. We are not in a hurry and we do not plan everything ahead. If we like a place, we stay longer and if not we leave. Even so we have some thoughts what could be interesting and what not and have therefore a route in mind that we will follow. This route is described below. No guarantee at all that we will follow this route. We love the nature and therefore we will go lot hiking. And we love taking pictures and make videos. We like to meet people from other countries as well, but its not the most important thing for us. Second we are traveling on a budget, which means we cannot afford every attraction on the road. We will sleep most of the time on campgrounds. We have our tent with us and in some countries we rented a campervan. Having said that, here is the tour:

USA – West coast and the middle west
We will arrive in San Francisco where we plan to stay at least for 3 days. Of course we want to see the Golden Gate Bridge and the famous hills, ride the cable cars and do everything all tourist are doing in San Francisco. I like the Hard Rock Cafe so I hope we can stop by there as well. From San Francisco we will drive to Yosemite National Park where we will stay as long as we like it. It depends on the weather and the hikes. We hope its not to cold especially at night because we intent to sleep in our tent as we will most time during our stay in the USA. We are looking forward to see El Capitan and many more great mountains. After Yosemite it depends on the weather where we go. Either we drive to Mono Lake and from there through Death Valley to Las Vegas or we go to Sequoia National Park and then to Las Vegas. We are really looking forward to see Las Vegas again, because that’s the town where we got married some years ago ! We will do some gambling there and stay 2 or 3 nights. We intent to come to a rest there, update the website, do emails and stuff like that. From Vegas we want to drive to Zion National Park. We have been there before and we are really looking forward to some of the great hikes we can do here. One of the best there is "The narrows" Its a more then a day hike. I think about 2 or 3 days. We are prepared for more then a day hikes with good backpacks, water filters, LED lamps and so on. Really looking forward to that one. The only downside with "The narrows" is that you have to walk for a while through the water. And we will be there in the middle of October. So it could be that its to cold or to much water and things like that could keep us from hiking through the narrows. From Zion we go to the fabulous Grand Canyon. We hope we get a permit to stay a night on the ground of the canyon, meaning we could do a two-day hike - down and up the Canyon. It could be that we are lucky in October and get one of those permits. Hopefully its not to cold there either. The canyon rim is quite high and maybe its already snowing during that time of the year. After the Grand Canyon it gets a little fuzzy. But fuzzy is good, because we don't want to plan too much ahead. Its better to be like a sailor ship and we are driving wherever the wind blows.

The parks we think about are Sunset Crater, Walnut Canyon, Petrified Forest, Canyon de Chelly, White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns. Carlsbad Caverns would be the return point. It’s quite a drive back to San Francisco so we are not sure if we can make it. From there we like to go to Organ Pipe Cactus N.M. and then to Joshua Tree N.P. If you like to have more information about the national parks just visit the National Park Guide . The parks we visit are mainly in CA, NV,UT,AZ and NM. Joshua Tree will be the last National Park. From there we drive to San Diego and maybe we visit Sea world there. Then to Los Angeles where we go to Hollywood. The last trip in the USA will be the route No. 1 to San Francisco. If we have time left we will visit some friends in Santa Rosa. If not we leave from San Francisco and fly via Los Angeles to Tonga.

Tonga
Tonga is the second country we will visit on our round the world tour. You don’t know where Tonga is ? Never heard of it ? Ok. Tonga is located in the South Pacific Ocean, about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand. Some background: The archipelago of "The Friendly Islands" was united into a Polynesian kingdom in 1845. It became a constitutional monarchy in 1875 and a British protectorate in 1900. Tonga acquired its independence in 1970 and became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. It remains the only monarchy in the Pacific. We are really looking forward to visit Tonga. If you like to know more about Tonga see the world factbook
Our stay in Tonga will be really different from the one in the states. Where in the states we do a lot of traveling and driving around this will be different in Tonga. In Tonga we like to do more or less nothing. Nothing means staying at the beach, go swimming and diving, eating great fish meals, updating our website and get our equipment refurbished if needed. After four weeks in the US we need to take a break. We have not decided yet where to stay in Tonga. At first we will arrive in Tongatapu. Then there are two options. One is to take a plane or boat to Vava'u and stay there for the next two weeks and the other is Fafa Island. Sounds similar, right ? Vava'u and Fafa Island. Fafa Island is not that far away from Tongatapu and we can take a boat that takes only a couple of hours to get there where as Vava'u the boat takes 24hours. But a plane is although available. Not decided yet. Maybe we decide this upon arriving or during our last days in San Francisco.

New Zealand
New Zealand is a country of rare seismic beauty: glacial mountains, fast-flowing rivers, deep, clear lakes, hissing geysers and boiling mud. There are also abundant forest reserves, long, deserted beaches and a variety of fauna, such as the kiwi, endemic to its shores.
Any number of vigorous outdoor activities - tramping (hiking), skiing, rafting and, of course, that perennial favourite, bungee jumping - await the adventurous. We can swim with dolphins, gambol with newborn lambs, whale watch or fish for fattened trout in the many streams.

We will arrive in Auckland. Auckland is on the northern island of New Zealand. Hiking will be our main activity in New Zealand. We have rented a campervan and can therefore move around easily. After exploring the city of Auckland what will take about 2 days (we are not really interested in cities. We think cities are boring) we will drive north to the “Bay of Islands”. From there we drive further north to Cape Reinga and then we return to Auckland on the west coast. We will not visit Auckland again but travel to the Waitomo Caves and from there to Rotorua and Taupo. We are then looking forward to visit the Tongariro National Park where we can do some hiking like the Tongariro Crosswalk. After the National Park we will visit Napier (which is one of the worlds best examples of an art deco city) and then our last stop on the northern island is Wellington.
We will take the ferry to the south island then. First we will visit the Abel Tasman National Park. Here we can do the really famous Abel Tasman Coastal Track, which is a 2 –3 day hike. We have to book the huts in advance in order to get a place there ! We then return to the area of Nelson – there is a lot to do ! Sea kayak, touring wineries, sailing and shopping. From Nelson we will head to the West Coast and then visit Paparoa National Park, before we travel down the coast to the glaciers and Queenstown. Then we are near Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound – here we will do another more then a day hike. Unfortunately the Milford Sound Track is already booked out ! Unbelievable. Many months in advance there is no chance to get a place in the huts. From there we will continue to Christchurch that is the last stop in New Zealand. From here we take a flight to Auckland and from Auckland we continue to Cairns in Australia.

Australia
Our first destination in Australia is Cairns that is at the north east coast of Australia. In Australia we will have a campervan as well. After one or two days in Cairns we like to explore the famous Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the greatest wonders of the world. The Reef is with a length of about 2000km the greatest coral reef of the world. It covers an area of about 350000 square km. From Cairns we can start one or more day explorations to the Reef. We hope we can afford a more day trip on a boat to go diving and exploring the Reef. From Cairns we might drive north to see the Cape Tribulation National Park. Here we can see original rainforest. From there we will drive down the coast to Brisbane. We plan about a week for that. There are a lot of things to see on the way to Brisbane and then further to Sydney. There is the Sunshine Coast, where one beach is more beautiful then the other. It’s like the Cote d’Azur of Australia. With many shopping malls. Really interesting and worth to see is the underwater world in Mooloolaba which shows hosts one of the largest tropical Ocean attractions of the world. The last stop before Brisbane could be Glass House Mountains, relicts of old volcano’s. We will pass Brisbane quick and head further south to Sydney. It will take approx. 4 days for the 1000 km from Brisbane to Sydney on the Pacific Highway. A highlight on that tour will be the Lamington National Park. This park has great tracks and is one of the most beautiful parks of Australia. It protects one of the earth oldest subtropical rainforests. Further down the road there are many options to see historical sites.
Sydney is said to be one of the greatest towns on earth. We are really looking forward to visit Sydney. There are many things to see, from the Harbour to China Town to the famous Opera. Not far from Sydney are the blue mountains where we like to go hiking (again).
From Sydney we continue to follow the Pacific Highway to Melbourne which will be our last stop in Australia. From here we depart to Thailand.

Thailand
In Thailand we will arrive and depart from Bangkok. After arrival we will take the bus to the city. Better to Kao San Road. Here we will look for a room. Shouldn’t be difficult to find one. We think that we will stay about three days in Bangkok. Things we need to see: Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo – you haven’t seen Bangkok if you haven’t seen the Grand Palace. Next to Wat Phra Kaeo is Wat Pho with the huge lying Buddha. Then Wat Arun, Wat Benchamabophit, Wat Saket and many more ! Of course Bangkok is not only a town with great historical and religious places, but as well a great shopping place. Therefore we like to see Silom Road – Patpong – the biggest nightmarket of Bangkok, Sukhumivit Road, Chinatown, Siam Square – here are the shopping malls for Bangkok’s younger people.
After visiting Bangkok we will travel into the north of Thailand. First we will visit Ayutthaya and from there to Sukkothai. Ayuttahya is the former capital of Siam. It’s a great town to visit with a lot of temples and ruins. Best thing to do is renting a bike a cruising around. Sukkothai as well was a former capital of Siam, before Ayutthaya. As well a lot of temples and ruins to see but with a different style then the one in Ayutthaya. After visiting the old capitals we will travel to the second biggest city of Thailand and that is Chaing Mai. Chaing Mai has as many Temples as Bangkok, but it’s not as hot as in Bangkok and that makes it easier for us traveler. Chaing Mai has the biggest nightmarket of Thailand: Chaing Mai offers a lot of opportunities like tours with elephants, snake shows and many more. We like to go trekking in the hills or we make a jeep safari. It depends on our resources (in terms of money) For Bangkok and the north of Thailand we plan about two weeks.
From the north of Thailand we intend to travel directly to the south, either by plane or bus. Plane is preferred, depends on how much that costs. We like to spend our last week in Thailand in the south doing nothing. There are a lot of very nice and small islands like Ko Phi Phi, Phang Nga, Krabi, Ko Samui, Ko Tao and Ko Samet. Maybe we will see them all or we stay on one of those island. Not decided yet and we will not decide it before we are actually there. Most important as already said is relaxing. We are really near the end of our worldtrip then and it could be that we are quite tired. The last country and the last three weeks are then before us.

India
India is our very last country. Some people say we will see more in three weeks in India then in the 5 month before. We assume its really really crowded, many many people around us. Very poor people and some rich people. India will be the greatest adventure of our trip, at least that’s what we expect. Here are our travel plans for India:
We arrive in Delhi where we will stay 3 days. From Delhi we travel to Agra to see the Tajmahal and Fathepur Sikri (Ghost town near Agra – it’s a must !) From Agra we travel to Varanasi where we stay another 3 days. And then for about 1,5 weeks we like to see Rajastan.
India is really a huge country. It wouldn’t be any problem to stay for half a year here instead of traveling around the globe. Maybe next time. It depends on our experiences that we will have during our stay.

Going home
Unfortunately even the longest and greatest journey has to come to an end. When we made our plans I tried to push the end out as far as possible, but we cannot travel forever (we cannot ?) Therefore we fly home from Delhi to Munich and then back to Stuttgart we departed half a year ago.

Thanks for reading.