For the past 25 years my friend Jamie has given me one consistent piece of advice: “Go big or stay home.”

Depending on the context this advice has taken on different meanings. For example, when Jamie says it during a game of golf he means, “Go ahead, cut that dogleg – you can take your tee shot over those trees.”

If we were out for a night on the town, the phrase (a taunt, really) would mean something all together different. But we’ll save that discussion for another time – this is, after all, a family travel blog.

Still, Jamie’s advice was ringing in my ears when I picked up the phone to dial the OneWorld alliance to book our round-the-world tickets. I was about as nervous as a person could be. My stomach was in knots. My hands were sweating.

I kept repeating to myself: “Go big or stay home.”

So here’s what I did. I gave the ticketing agent my credit card number. In return, she gave me a confirmation number. Bottom line, we now have four round the world airline tickets.

Our tickets allow twenty travel segments and will take us to five continents. (We expect to hit our sixth continent by land.)

Here’s the basic itinerary:

[Read more →]