I Have $6,000 For a Trip to Asia and the South Pacific. Any Tips?

Ask Rolf: Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

08.21.07 | 11:16 AM ET

Rolf Potts

Dear Rolf,

I plan on traveling for a month or two in and around Thailand, then moving on to the South Pacific, Australia, West Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand and then maybe South America. Is $6,000 enough to have a great trip? Any tips to keep expenses down? And any suggestions on when to book flights?

—Vanessa, Simi Valley, Calif.

Dear Vanessa,

Given that you have $6,000 (a nice sum, but not something you can travel on for years and years), I might focus your journey on one region. That is, I think you can find tons of amazing adventures on the Pacific Rim, and save South America for another journey (or vice versa). Trying to fit both in at once will deplete your budget at the expense of experience.

So I’d say fly on an open return round-trip ticket into Asia—Southeast Asia, say, Bangkok or Singapore or Kuala Lumpur—and travel overland from there until you get the itch to go someplace else. It’s quite possible you’ll spend several months (or a year) and all your money without ever leaving Southeast Asia—and that’s fine! The reason I’m not too wild about ‘round-the-world trips is that they limit flexibility and impair your ability to linger in places you enjoy.

If you’ve seen your fill of Southeast Asia and want to move on to India or Oceania, just get a cheap round-trip ticket to Bombay or Sydney or Perth, and make a trip-within-a-trip to India/Nepal/Sri Lanka or Australia/New Zealand/Fiji/Samoa. Then return to Southeast Asia and back to the United States the way you came.

I’ll admit that the South Pacific is not my area of expertise, so you might want to research flights there from Australia or New Zealand. In some cases, it might be cheaper to get a flight pass or multi-stop ticket for that part of the world.

Send your questions to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). If you want to know whether Rolf has already answered your questions, see the Ask Rolf archive.