Flying to 6 Countries: Italy, Russia, Brazil, S Africa, China, India

Parent Cafe
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<p>I have a logistics question that I’d love to put CC’s minds on.</p>

<p>I have a work project that is going to require travel to the 6 countries listed above: Italy, Russia, Brazil, S Africa, China and India. Each country visit will be about 4 - 5 days.</p>

<p>Now, I have 3 people (we’ll call them A, B and C) that I can deploy to these countries. (I am one of them.) While there are minor preferences here or there, and some visas that already exist (for example, I already have a Brazil visa and another person already has a China visa), no one has any real vested interest in going-to or not-going-to any given country. There is no particular order that the countries have to be visited in; we will determine the itinerary first and that will drive the order. Nor is there any need for certain groups of countries to be visited by the same person (that is, the business in each country is independent of the business in other countries).</p>

<p>The travel cost to my client will be very substantial - I’ve estimated $50,000 - so I have to be mindful of that and try to be as efficient as possible in choosing flights, etc. All of us traveling are based here in Chicago.</p>

<p>From a travel standpoint, I was thinking that it makes most sense to group as follows:
A: Italy, Russia
B: China, India
C: Brazil, S Africa (I know it’s a schlep, but anywhere to S Africa is a schlep) </p>

<p>But, it’s not a requirement that A, B, and C be “equal” necessarily. If it makes more logistic sense, it’s fine to have one person take 3 or even 4 countries. Or, maybe A comes back and does a one-off to Brazil while C just does S Africa. </p>

<p>Does anyone with significant global travel experience have any suggestions on other ways to group these countries?</p>

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<p>I can’t help you much with logistics, but can you hide me in your suitcase when you go to South Africa?? I’ve been twice and would love to go again, but I don’t think it’s in the cards.</p>

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<p>Gosh, I want to work for you. :)</p>

<p>Certainly the Brazil and S. Africa works as does the China and India, but Russia and China works too depending where in Russia. Maybe Italy is a single trip while Russia, China and India are combined.</p>

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<p>I suggest you save some vacation days, if possible, to spend some additional time in South Africa. In general, we just don’t get to Africa very often and I know SA is a beautiful place with some unique things to see/visit. Take advantage of being there if at all possible. Suppose the same is true for China, but Africa–there’s just nothing like an African sunset, especially if you’re on safari… Life’s short, go for it!</p>

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<p>I agree with Beil! Kruger National Park is a must. On our last trip, we saw 18 lions, along with zebras, elephants, hippos (out of the water, which is a little unusual during the day), baboons, giraffes, buffalo, gnus, gazelles, etc., etc. I’m not usually a bird watcher, but I couldn’t believe the variety and number of birds we saw. My favorite were the little yellow weavers. The male constructs a BEAUTIFUL nest that’s connected by a thin strand to a tree or bush. Then the female inspects it, and if it doesn’t meet her standards, she snips the strand so that the nest falls back to the ground. Then the male starts all over again!</p>

<p>CapeTown is also not to be missed. I went for a ten-mile run on the path right to the ocean, with the mountains jutting up close to shore. I need to win the lottery so I can go back.</p>

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<p>There are air travel / frequent flyer forums on the web where there may be more people who can help you with potentially complex air travel itineraries.</p>

<p>If you combine trips, you can use a site like [KAYAK</a> - Cheap Flights, Hotels, Airline Tickets, Cheap Tickets, Cheap Travel Deals - Compare Hundreds of Travel Sites At Once](<a href=“http://www.kayak.com%5DKAYAK”>http://www.kayak.com) or [ITA</a> Software by Google](<a href=“http://www.itasoftware.com%5DITA”>http://www.itasoftware.com) to see if there are convenient flights between (for example) China and India, or Brazil and South Africa, or other combinations of countries.</p>

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<p>South Africa/India might make a good pair.
That would leave you with China, Russia, Italy.
And Brazil as odd man out.</p>

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<p>Thanks - I do use Kayak, but I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. Mathmom - your suggestion of recombining is an interesting one. That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for.</p>

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<p>South Africa and Brazil are linked by being the last two Word Cup soccer venues. </p>

<p>FYI, the distances are not that great (less than 4,000 miles) and the flying time is inside 8 hours. Take a look at the southern end of the globe. South Africa to say Mumbai is a longer trip than SA to Brazil. </p>

<p>It is a small world after all. :)</p>

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<p>Of course, some of the countries are large, so where in the country may make a difference.</p>

<p>For example, in Russia, Moscow would be nearest to Rome or other places in Italy compared to your other destinations, but Vladivostok would be nearest to Beijing or other places in China.</p>

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<p>I just thought there might be more flights from South Africa to India - but didn’t look at a globe to see actual distances. (Lots of Indians in Africa when I was growing up and Ghandi started off in South Africa.)</p>

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<p>bring your own chopsticks.
Always boil your chopsticks.
Eat at street stalls, hot foods only.
Never accept food from people who serve with their left hands.
A course of antibiotics.
Antidiarhea pills
Bring Hersey Kisses. Everyone likes chocolate.</p>

<p>I never travel. :)</p>

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<p>I have a cousin who lives in Mauritius, He’s done it every way (fly) you can think of-there’s no easy way. I’d do the southern hemisphere now and delay the Northern Hemisphere as long as possible-like springtime.</p>

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<p>PG - Do you work for ‘The Amazing Race’?</p>

<p>I think you have them grouped pretty logically. Actual cost doesn’t always pan out by looking at it logically since it can depend on which airlines fly between the points and competition they have on those segments. You’d just need to price it out and see.</p>

<p>I’ve gone around the world before and it was less expensive to do it that way on that trip so you could check into that (but this was a while ago). My trip was USA-Australia-India-Israel-London-USA with a couple of other stops along the way.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Wouldn’t that be the worst thing to take before a trip? Basically, you’d kill off your gut flora that your gut doesn’t mind, so that nastier microorganisms have an easier time getting into your gut.</p>

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<p>

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<p>You could very well be right. In addition, the PG travel puzzle seems more triangular than a mere exercise in round trips. It should be easy to travel from Chicago to Brazil and “hop” to South Africa, but then you have the “schlep” back to the windy city. </p>

<p>This seems to be a wonderful exercise for an American Express Platinum concierge. Two-for-one travel … might inspire PG in selecting a travel companion. :)</p>

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<p>What part of Italy? DH has been in Roma and Venice this fall (alas, without me) and said that one must connect through another major hub (Heathrow, Frankfurt, possibly Munich) to get anywhere else. That might suggest Italy/Russia, if one is staying in the western part of Russia (Moscow, Kiev, St. Petersburg). </p>

<p>S1 went to China and went Chicago/SF/Seoul/Harbin. Return was through Harbin/Seoul/LAX/Chicago. It was 26 hours.</p>

<p>When DH has gone to Tokyo/Singapore/Seoul/Mumbai/Sydney (not all in one trip), he has always flown trans-Pacific. However, he is doing London and Tokyo within one week in Feb. and is thinking he will just keep going east this time.</p>

<p>If you go to St. Petersburg take British Airways or Lufthansa. Do not fly on Russian planes. I have this on expert advice.</p>

<p>A travel agent may have some good advice on how to solve this traveling salesman problem – it seems to me you’re looking not just at geographically close pairings, but also how much time is spent traveling, how many plane changes, how much time from airport to destination, stopover facilities en route for rest, etc. Some airports have mini-rooms onsite where one can sleep for a few hours. Some club locations have showers and food.</p>

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<p>No, no amazing race!! A much more prosaic business client.</p>

<p>Longprime - I need to “deploy” everyone (meaning my A, B and C crew) at pretty much the same time, I can’t wait til spring.</p>

<p>While subject to change, the specific cities I’m working with are:
A: Italy- ROME, Russia - MOSCOW
B: China - SHANGHAI (might move to BEIJING), India - MUMBAI
C: Brazil - SAO PAOLO, S Africa - most likely JOHANNESBURG</p>

<p>We’re pretty senior on a lot of airlines and know a lot about international travel – just wanted to see if my pairings seemed to make sense. The big one is whether Brazil and S Africa stay a pair, or I redeploy so there is a Brazil-and-back and a S-Africa-and-back.</p>

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<p>You also need to consider the possibilities of the people traveling like not sending an asthmatic person to Beijing. The air quality is so poor these days that it is already hard for people without lung problems to breathe in this area. Shanghai is not as bad, but still not the place to go for an asthmatic.</p>

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<p>My favorite airline, Emirates, is based in Dubai and has routes to all those places. I like how they have ‘short’ flights of 8-9 hours to get from Asia to Dubai, then another ‘short’ flight of 8-9 hours into numerous African destinations. Or from Dubai right into Europe with a 4-5 hour flight.</p>