Around the world in 80 days… or less

Travel culture reached new heights with the great technological innovations in transportation of the 19th century. Now, how it was shaped is worth a post all to itself, but today I want to focus on one of my favourite works emblematic of that shift: Around the World in 80 Days. For those familiar with Jules Vernes, they might be surprised by it since it seems a lot more grounded that what we can expect from the man. Trains and steamers don‘t have the appeal of underground continents, ludicrous cannons able to shoot the moon (litteraly) and submarines. Yet, they definetly were 50 years before Jules Vernes. Jules Vernes always praised human ingenuity and that book only shifted his focus from the future to the present. Today, I want to similarly shift our focus to the past and give a special hommage to Jules Vernes. In that way, I propose to you my own version of Jules Vernes‘ iconic journey around the globe. I‘m clearly not the first to do so, but it seems like a fun exercise. Let‘s dive in.

Rules

First things first. Let me explain the rules I‘ll abide by.

I need to consider every stop mentionned in the book.
Unless forced to, only travel by boat or train is allowed (no plane if possible).
I‘ll keep track of the cost and price to compare with Jules Vernes (all prices in US dollars).

And that‘s it!

Without further ado, I present to you my own “Around the World in X Days“ (no spoilers yet).

The journey

London-Paris-Turin-Brindisi in 3 days (Rails and Boat)

1 - London-Paris by Rails (via Eurostar and the underwater tunnel under the Channel): 2h30 min and 290$.
2 - Paris-Turin. First, Paris to Geneva by TGV Lyria: 66$ and 3 hours. Then, Geneva to Turin by bus (FlixBus): 15$ and 4 hours. In total, 7 hours and 81$.
3 - Turin-Brindisi. By train (with InterCity) by a correspondane through Milan. 13 hours and 81$.

At this point, Phileas Fogg had travelled for 3 days. We travelled for about 22h30. It cost 450$.

Brindisi-Suez-Aden-Bombay: Here, we are forced to modify this leg of the journey since connections through this region is either closed or considered very dangerous due to current political conditions. We can still bridge up from Brindisi to Bombay by bridging up through Istanbul instead of Egypt, which I will try. Be warned that this alternative will still be pretty hard and possibly politicly difficult depending on situations and your visas/passport.

4 - Brindisi to Corfu (Greece) by ferry (Grimaldi Lines). About 6 hours and 70$.
5 - Corfu to Istanbul by bus (Trikala and ArdaTur) through Macedonia. About 21 hours and 42$.
6 - Istanbul to Theran. First, by train to Ankara (YHT by CAF). Then, to Tatvan by boarding train followed by a ferry to Van and a final train to Theran. Prices are harder to pinpoint, but Transasia last price was 125$ and lasting 65 hours. So, let‘s say 140$ and 70 hours. Sadly, starting from here, our choices are more limited. So get used to approximations.
7 - Theran to Dehli. Trains in India are famously hard to predict. But, based on similar journeys made by others, this part could realisticly look like this: Theran-Zahedan-Quetta (by Iranian Rails), followed by Quetta-Lahore (by Quetta Express), then Lahore-Amristar-Dehli (by Samjhota Express). We can expect 5 days travel and 80$ (if everything goes well).
8 - Dehli to Bombay. We go back to more solid booking information. Here, we can take the Shaheed Sthal‘s Red Line. Should take just about a day and 40$.

Fogg did Brindisi to Bombay in 10 days. Our alternative also took 10 days. It should cost about 360$.

9 - Bombay to Calcutta. Here, Fogg realizes that the railroad to Allahabad from Bombay isn‘t over yet, so he finished the last 50 miles by elephant to finish things by train to Calcutta. In our case, we can go directly from Bombay to Calcutta with Indian railways in 10 hours and at only 10$.
10 - Calcutta to Singapore. Again, not much info and lots of problems. Passing by Singapore by plane seems like the accepted options to limit hassle sadly. In any case, Fogg passed through Singapore on his way there too. Air Asia offers Calcutta to Singapore at 260$. Takes 7 hours.
11 - Singapore to Hong-Kong. You can go by train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, then Butterworth and Bangkok to finaly reach Hong Kong. Similar initaries are estimated to be a week long and about 200$.
12 - Hong Kong to Tokyo. Here we have the most information on slow but comfortable options. In that way, we could take one of the cruisesby Norwegian Cruise Line. The cost is 3600$ and it takes 12 days. At least we can expect and agreable time.
13 - Tokyo (Yokohama in the book) to San Francisco. Here, sadly without being there in person, the only solid option is with a cruise (to avoid planes). A found a cruise from Tokyo to Seattle in 15 days and 1500$ (can‘t go lower than this with such cruises). We could go down to San Francisco, but let‘s go to our other stop directly.
14 - To New York! Easier options are back on the menu! Here I found a direct transit by Greyhound at 380$. It is estimated to take 65 hours. In the book, they have to go back train through Salt Lake City, Medicine Bow, Fort Kearnet, Omaha and Chicago. In our case, we go through Spokane, Billings, Minneapolis, Chicago and Pittsburgh.
15 - New York City to Dublin. Back to water and back to cruises (to avoid planes). I found one going to Dublin by passing by Reykjavik and Belfast in 12 days and 1500$. Fogg had to pass by Queenstown in his case.
16 - Back to London! Here, we can take a frerry to Liverpool (just like in the book) at Dublin Ferryport and then the train to London (Avanti West Coast). In total, about 200$.

And that is all! Harder than it looks frankly. In total, my itinery would take about 62 days and 8360$ in travel cost alone. But wait! Like our inspiration, we have to substract a day from time zone shennanigans. So 61 days! Not bad. That was a fun exercise. See if you can find a faster or cheaper alternative to mine!

I‘ll be waiting. Until then, see you next time.