We’ve come a long way from 1872 when Jules Verne’s classic adventure novel ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ was published.
The fictional story of Phileas Fogg, a wealthy Englishman, and his French valet, Passepartout, as they attempt to circumnavigate the globe in just 80 days to win a bet. Throughout the course of the book, the protagonist travelled through Suez, Bombay, Calcutta, Hong Kong, Yokohama, San Francisco, New York City, and Liverpool, amongst a few other stopovers. He encountered a few hurdles here and there during his journey, but he somehow managed to circle back to where he started, winning the bet fair and square.
Long story short, he travelled around the globe in 80 days.
Considering that, at the time, rails and steamers were the fastest modes of transportation, it was a long shot. And quite impressive.
Well, that’s a story from days of the past before the world connected as one by flights, which changed world travel forever. And if travelling the world meant getting from one place to another around the world, it would take only 47 hours (approximately), assuming you are aboard a non-stop flight soaring at an average speed of 550 miles per hour, flying eastward or westward along the equator.
If we consider a more realistic scenario of multiple stops, the duration of the journey would depend on the number and duration of layovers. It would also depend on the time spent on each destination. For example, a popular round-the-world itinerary involves flying from New York to London, then on to Singapore, Sydney, and finally back to New York. It would take a few days to get around in this scenario.
These, however, are hypothetical situations; unless someone is flying to break a world record, win prize money like our Phileas Fogg or hell-bent on doing it because it would make for a good conversation starter, is it really what travelling around the world translates to? We reckon it does not, not in its true essence.
What good is travelling if you do not immerse yourself in the experience? If you do not experience the adventure the cities offer and only fly above them? The word ‘travelling’ is about more than that. So, travelling around the world would probably take months or years, a lifetime, or even a little more than that. It all depends on how much of the world you want to travel, how much time you want to spend in every place you visit, how many countries and cities are on your Wishlist, and how much you want to take back from each place.
So, even though travelling around the world, in its literal sense would only take approx. 47 hours, in its true essence, it could take a lifetime, if not more.
Start somewhere!
In the upcoming blogs of this series, we’ll share alternate routes to get around the world, how much time you should ideally spend in each place on the route, what you should do while you’re there, and more to help you take off your journey as a world traveller.
Travel the World with Travel Unravel; find & book flights for the route you choose to take on www.travelunravel.com easily!
