Vreny’s Travel Bucket List
Afghanistan
When you fly from Herat to Kandahar instead of driving:
Albania
Upon arrival in Tirana, catch a connecting flight to Podgorica Airport, about a 2.5hr drive from Theth.
And then start the following journey.
The Google Maps webpage probably will not be able to correctly reproduce the above map as shown, due to there being more than 10 landmarks in the map.
Here’s the fix: The Complete Trip in AlbaniaIt’s a short drive from the last landmark in Pogradec back to Tirana’s international aiport.
If you were to drive to Theth, instead of flying to the nearby Podgorica Airport, you would have the following journey. This map shows the whole journey as it would be when you were to drive it all, no flights.
Here’s the link to the Google maps webpage that can show this above map correctly. The Albania Trip by car without flights
Algeria
In and around Algiers
The whole trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Ways to shorten the drive
Airports in Algeria
The furthest landmark is Tassili n’Ajjer
The 2 airports nearest to Tassili n’Ajjer, are:
and
You save almost 30 hours with that drive cut out
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
From Tassili n’Ajjer you could fly into the airport nearby the next landmark
This saves another 5 hours
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
You can fly to the next landmark as well:
Without that drive, the trip becomes this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
For that stretch, you could fly to the west
and drive all the way from there to Annaba, then fly from there to Algiers international airport.
The drive then looks like this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
To make this work, upon arrival in Algiers:
- Fly to Tassili n’Ajjer
- Fly to Oasis El Goléa
- Fly to M’Zab
- Fly to Tlemcen (El Mechouar Palace and Mansourah Mosque)
- Roadtrip: drive from there to Annaba
- Fly from Annaba back to Algiers, and from there back home: end of trip.
Andorra
Angola
This is the journey if you drive from Luanda to Mbanza Kongo, then continue the whole journey by car, and fly from Lubango, the last location on the trip, back to Luanda.
There is an airport pretty close to the Kalandula falls. You can fly into the MEG Airport in Malanja and then make the drive to the Kalandula falls from there. That is only a 1hr 11min drive (81km). This is what the trip looks like when you omit Kalandula Falls of the travel plans or fly there instead of driving.
You could also choose to not drive from Luanda Airport to Mbanza Kongo, but fly there instead with a domestic connecting flight from Luanda, and then fly back to Luanda after visiting Mbanza Kongo. The following map shows how much that shortens the trip.
If you do that, and also fly to the airport closest to the Kalandula Falls instead of driving there, you then get an itinerary with only 14.5 hours of driving.
Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda (Wikipedia)
Airports in Antigua and Barbuda (Wikipedia)
Info on some local tours
Argentina
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Ways to shorten the drive
Here are the airports in Argentina
Fly to Iguazu
This saves 12 hours.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
You can from there also fly into the next landmark
and to the next
You can have this little local drive
Or you can fly into Cerro de los Siete Colores
The to the Tampalayas National Park
The longest stretch, where you’d save the most time if you were to fly that distance, is from Tierra del Fuego National Park to Buenos Aires.
Just that stretch, is 36 hours of driving
and only this long a flight
You’d then cover the landmarks in the vicinity of Buenos Aires by car
Armenia
There are possibly more landmarks in this map than the Google Maps site might be able to correctly represent when you click on “more options” in the above map. To get the Google Maps site to accurately represent the above map and landmark listings, click on this link The Complete Trip in Armenia
At the end of the journey, in Tatev, you can drive back to Zvartnots, which is a 4.5-hour drive, or fly back from the airstrip in Sissian. I’d probably just drive back.
The landmarks in Yerevan
Landmarks in Dilijian
Australia
Islands on this trip
Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island
Fraser Island
Flinders Chase National Park
Then there is also the island of Tasmania in South Australia.
Most of these islands, as you’ll see on the following map, are accessible by ferry. (Google draws roads/directions to all but one of these islands).
The complete road trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Fly into Whitsunday Island from Sidney.
There are regular flights to the island. The island is situated east of Australia, hallway the drive between Fraser Island and Herberton Village on the itinerary. You can either take a ferry from the closest port, or fly into it from one of the international airports you pass on the trip (Melbourne, Canberra, Sidney).
I placed the island at the start of the Australia landmarks listing in the book, because I am toying with the idea to just fly to the island first, spend time there, then fly back and then start the road trip. But, it might be more time efficient and adventurous to just take a ferry to it once I am in the vicinity of the island during the road tip, between Fraser Island and Herberton.
Shorten the drive
To visit the 4 landmarks on the Tasmanian Island: fly into Hobart International Airport. That saves 34 hours.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Fly from Melbourne to Canberra
and from Canberra to Sidney, which shortens the drive with another 10 hours or so.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Then fly to Dorrigo National Park. Here’s the drive from the airport to the park.
And from Dorrigo to Fraser Island
The airport is about a 3.5 hour drive from Fraser island.
Then to Herberton
… which has an airport very close by
I could not find flights from Atherton to Kakadu Park (Jabiru Airport). But, I did from the nearby Cairns Airport (Cairns is close to Herberton) and Brisbane.
Here’s the drive from Jabiru Airport to Kakadu Park
You can also fly into the much larger Darwin International Airport to get to the Kakadu Park
This further narrows down the drive to this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
From there; on the closest airport to Purnululu:
Kirkimbie Airport
Ningaloo
Ayers Rock / Kata Tjuta
From there you can fly to Adelaide, and then drive the rest of the journey
Or fly from Adelaide to Mungo
And then fly from there back to Melbourne, where you have this road trip awaiting then:
Airports in Australia (Wikipedia)
Outback float plane adventures in Darwin
Austria
Azerbaijan
This is what it looks like if you drive the whole trip.
You can also, upon arrival in Baku, fly domestically to Sheki, which shaves off 4 hours of the drive time.
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Part of the Bangladesh trip falls on Indian territory.
I’ve noticed that the accompanying page on the Google Maps website (accessed when you click on “More options” in the above map) does’t depict the correct map with all destinations as shown in the above map.
As a fix: you can also access the page on Google maps that links to the above map, by clicking on the following link:
If you rather keep the whole trip on Bangladesh territory (and stick to only visiting the portion of the Sundarbans Delta in Bangladesh): there is an airport pretty close by that you can fly into domestically from Dhaka international airport. The following map shows that airport (Khan Jahan Ali Airport in Khulna).
In case you’d like to greatly reduce the drive time?
The landmark that follows Dhaka is Sylhet City. You save about 9 hours of driving if you fly into Sylhet City’s Osmani International Airport from Dhaka.
You could also reverse the travel path.
Another option is to reverse the journey. Enter the country in Dhaka, fly domestically to Cox’s Bazar Airport, and start the journey from there. When you arrive back in Dhaka on your drive, fly domestically to Sylhet City to visit the landmarks there, then fly back to Dhaka, and further continue the journey by car from there.
After visiting the final landmark, Sundurban National Park, drive to the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in India, from where you can fly back home.
In case Google maps does not show the correct destinations list as shown in the above map, use this following link. (I noticed that the Google site changes Gour to the nearby Kanakpur and Paharpur to the nearby Sompur). Here’s the fix:
The Complete Bangladesh Trip in Reverse
When you cut out the Sundarbans
You might not care much for spending time in eco-tourism or nature type of locations (which is what the Sundarbans really kind of is). In that case, your best itinerary would be to fly from your home country into Dhaka International Airport, and then domestically into Rajshahi Airport. This reduces the drive time on the Bangladesh trip to only 35 hours, as shown in the following map.
In case Google maps does not list the landmark names correctly, use following link:
The Bangladesh Trip minus Sundarbans
Airports in Bangladesh (Wikipedia)
Map of the Airports in Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
I just quickly wanted to point out another possibility. The cities of Grodno and Brest both have an airport as well. Upon arrival in Minsk, you could fly domestically to either of these 2 cities, and then drive the whole mapped out journey till where it ends (see map), then fly back from that city to Minsk. The below map shows how that works.
Honestly: this is just an option I wanted to share, but it definitely is less practical or efficient than the above itinerary, which is the one mapped out in the book Landmark Travels.
The looped journey with start and arrival in Minsk (above map) might take 3 more hours of driving, but you’d end up loosing more than that anyway with the 2 extra flights, airport booking, wait time, and so on. But there you have it.Belgium
Belize
Fly to San Ignacio from Belize City upon arrival in Belize City International Airport.
When you arrive back in Belize City at the end of the drive, you can from there fly to San Pedro aiport domestically, which is probably faster than taking a ferry to San Pedro. The below map illustrates this.
As turns out, Orange Walk, up north, has an airstrip, too.
You could, upon arrival in Belize City, fly to San Ignacio (as outlined in the book), drive the journey from there up to Belize City, fly from Belize City to Orange Walk, fly from Orange Walk to San Pedro, and from San Pedro back to Belize City for your international flight back to your homeland at the end of the trip.I would almost certainly follow the itinerary of the first map (and the book), with the 8.5 hours of driving. It gives me a chance to see more of the country up close, which I’d miss out on if I replace large parts of this relatively short drive with flights.
Benin
If you were to drive the whole trajectory starting and ending at Cotonou Airport, you’d be driving about 24 hours to visit all landmarks.
To shorten this drive, an option is to catch a domestic flight, upon arrival in Cotonou Airport, to the airport closest to the Atakora Department. See the below map.
If you go that route, flying into the Boundétingou Airport close to the Atakora Department, then your journey and drive would be as outlined in the Landmark Travels book, which is shown in the following map.
If you replace the whole drive to and from Atakora Department with flights back and forth between the 2 airports, your drive time cuts down to about 9 hours, as shown in the following map.
Just some ideas.Of all these options, which one would I choose?
Fly into Atakora and drive the rest of the trip from north to south, the 15 hour drive, so I really get to explore Benin.
Bhutan
Airports in Bhutan (Wikipedia)
Some guided tours in Bhutan
Bolivia
The following two locations don’t have roads leading to the location.
The Uyuni Salt Flats
I pulled the road to the town bordering the salt flats at the north side, Tahua
Sajama National Park
I pulled the marker for Sajama National Park to the close by Curahuara De Carangas location so Google would draw a road.
This gives the following complete journey
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Towards the end of the trip, at Lake Titicaca, go visit the following island in Lake Titicaca.
Isla Del Sol
This whole trip requires quite some driving. If you rather reduce the time on the road a bit, you would want to replace some of the drives with flights. Here are the airports in Boliva
Notice that San José de Chiquitos has an airport.
Rurrenabaque has an airport too.
When you fly from La Paz, to Rurrenabaque to San José de Chiquitos, and then back to Laz Paz to start the journey form there, this reduces the drive time a lot. This then becomes the new journey (note how Fort Samaipata needed to be moved to a different location in the itinerary to shorten the journey):
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
There’s also an airport really close to the Uyuni Salt Flat (nearby town Tahua)
When you fly back and forth between the airports of Sucre and Joya Andina Airport (close to the salt flat), you can also cut out that drive, and save another 8 hours.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
It might also be worth it to add in this flight (to Fort Samaipata)
Because while you drive about 6 hours back and forth between the airport and the fort, you save 16 hours overall on the entire trip, which is significant. The following map shows this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Other than that, given the locations of the airports and landmarks, there is not much opportunity to shorten the drive more beyond what the above map with the 61-hour itinerary is showing.
There is one more flight you can add in to shorten the drive a lot, but it requires flying into an airport in Chile.
If you go that route, then you can also cut out the drive to Laguna Verde. The drive then becomes this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
From Srebrenik Fortress, it’s about a 3-hour drive back to Sarajevo.
Here’s the complete drive.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Botswana
Not that you necessarily would want to do this, but if you were to drive the whole journey, you’d have a nice loop that takes 60 hours of driving
Here’s a link to the trip in case the Google Maps site does not depict the above map correctly.
Google Map for the Botswana Trip
Kang has an airport: you can cut out the drive from Gaborone to Kang.
You can also cut out the long drive from Okavango Delta back to the starting point Gaborone at the end of the journey. There is an airport only 81km from the delta.
Unfortunately, and weirdly, it does take over 4 hours just to drive that 81km.Without the drive to Kang and the drive back to Gaborone (from the delta) at the end of the journey, the drive time gets cut back almost 15 hours.
You can cut out the drive from Kang to Gcwhihaba by flying into nearby Gumare Airport.
Here’s what that looks like without the rest of the journey.
That knocks off another 5 hours of driving.
From here, after visiting the nearby Gcwhihaba Valley and the Tsodilo Hills, you can fly from Gumare Airport to Kasane Airport, which is only a couple of minutes away from the Chobe River.
Lastly, from Kasane you can fly to Maun International Airport to visit the last two landmarks.
Then from there fly back to the starting point of the trip, Gaborone International Airport, for your flight back to your homeland.
Even with all those flights, the overall drive time is still about 33 hours. That is a heck of a lot less than the original 60 hours, but one also has to take into account the plane ticket booking times, wait times at airports, the admin for returning and renting cars, and so on. Certain flights or connections might only be available on certain days, adding a lot of wait time to your itinerary. When you take this all into account, it feels like it might almost be better just to drive the whole 60-hour itinerary.
Brazil
As you can tell on the following map: Google doesn’t draw directions because there are too many destinations listed.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps (so you can see the listing of destinations)
The fix: divide the trip in 3 sections
- First leg
- Second leg
- Final leg of the trip
At the end of the trip, visit Ilha Grande. It’s south of Brazil, about 100km/60mi east of Rio de Janeiro.
Ferries leave daily from the town of Mangaratiba, which is near Rio. Other towns from which ferries depart to the island are: Conceição de Jacareí, and Angra dos Reis.
A lot of hours can be saved by flying into Manaus (Amazon Theater)
This shortens the drive to this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
You could also fly from Brasilia to Bonito
This chops off another 17-18 hours of driving
From Bonito fly to Iguazu
From Iguazu to the next landmark (São Miguel das Missões)
From there to São Paulo.
And then maybe drive the rest from there. Paraty does have an airport, but I could not find flights to it from São Paulo.
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
This following map includes the drive from Bani, the last landmark on the trip, back to the international airport in Ouagadougou.
The Google Maps site seems to have a problem, depicting the above map and list of landmarks correctly on their site. It confuses the place Koro with Kouro. Here’s the link to the page that shows it all correctly:
The complete trip in Burkina Faso
Turns out that there is an airport close by Bani (a 40-minute drive):
You could hence cut out the drive from Ouagadougou to Bani.
In case Google Maps messes up the above map, here’s the link Burkina Faso trip minus the drive to Bani
There are also airports in Bobo Dioulasso, in Banfora, and close to Tiebele
… and an airport about 30 minutes away from Douroula.
So you could practically fly to every listed landmark on the trip.
Burma/Myanmar
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Ways to shorten the drive time
At the beginning of the trip, you can fly in Hpa-An (Mahar Sadan Cave) from Yangon and then back after visiting the cave.
That cuts out the following drive:
And the new drive then becomes this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
An option, is to drive the journey to Mount Popa, then drive the 1-hour drive back to Bagan, and then fly the rest of the journey starting from Bagan Airport.
After driving the journey from the above, first map, all the way to Mount Popa, you would then drive back to Bagan.
Here’s the airport in Bagan.
From there, fly to Thandwe Airport, close to Ngapali Beach. That saves a vast amount of time in less time spent driving.
Followed by the final leg of the trip
All in all, with inclusion of the flights, the only driving that remains then is this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
This can be reduced even more, but cutting out the drive to Naypyidaw, which also has an international airport. The following maps show how that cuts the trip into 4 sections
- First leg of the trip
This one is already covered earlier: fly from Yangon to Hpa-An at the start of the trip to visit the Sadan Cave.
- Second leg
- Third leg
- The final leg.
This is the section already covered above, where ypu fly from Bagan to Ngapali Beach to Yangon.
- First leg of the trip
Burundi
Cambodia
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Koh Rong Island
Not sure why Google thinks you can walk to the island over water.
Cameroon
From here to the next location is a 28hr drive (1278 km). Unless you really want to explore the whole country by car, I would probably fly to the airport closest to the Waza Park. The closest airport is in the city of Maroua/Salak. It is then still a 2.5hr (121km/75mi) drive up north from the airport to this park.
If you rather fly to Maroua/Salak Airport from where you get to Waza National Park (which saves you 28 hours of driving time):To get to the 2nd destination: fly from Maroua/Salak Airport to Bamenda Airport, then drive to Bafut from there. A short drive: here’s the map showing that drive to the airport.
Here’s the map of the whole trajectory minus Waza National Park.
Airports in Cameroon (Wikipedia)
Information about Sangha TriNational Park
Canada
Fly from Toronto to St. John’s Airport
Then drive from the airport to the first landmark
The journey from there:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Too much driving to your taste? Here are the airports in Canada:
You could:
- Fly from Toronto to St. John’s International Aiport (east) and drive to Signal Hill National Historic Site.
- Fly from St John’s to Gander International Airport, and drive from there to L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site
- Drive back to Gander International Airport and fly to Halifax International Airport.
- Have a mini road trip that starts in Halifax, and includes Lunenburg, Hopewell Rocks, Bay of Fundy, Percé Rock all the way to Quebec. Or…
- Only drive Halifax to the nearby Lunenburg and Grand Pré landmarks, and back, then fly from Halifax Airport to the next 2 landmarks (Fundy & Hopewell)
- And fly from there to Percé Rock
- The next 6 landmarks/locations all have their own airports: Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa/Rideau Canal, Niagara and Toronto.
- Then fly to the Dinosaur Park
- From Calgary Airport, you can drive all neighboring landmarks, or fly into some of them.
Including Banff National Park, which is pretty nearby Calgary Airport
- From Calgary Airport, fly north to Nunavut
There must be long lay over between flights from Calgary to Nunavut, because the following 2 maps show the flight time to be much shorter between Calgary, Yellowknife Airport and Nunavut
and
- Then fly from there to Vancouver, or back to Calgary then to Vancouver (depending on flight availability from Nunavut to Vancouver)
- Then to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, which, alas, has no airport close by. The nearest airport is about a 4-hour drive, in Alaska.
Then there are still the 2 islands in the travel plans for Canada
- Vancouver Island
The most common way to get to Vancouver Island is by BC Ferries. There is regular car ferry service from: Vancouver (Tsawwassen) ferry terminal in Delta to Victoria (Swartz Bay) ferry terminal (1 hour 35 minutes) Vancouver (Tsawwassen) ferry terminal to Nanaimo (Duke Point) ferry terminal (2 hours)
That is why this island would be something you go visit while you’re in or around Vancouver.
- Ninstints
Since Ninstints is just north of Vancouver Island, it makes sense to go visit this after Vancouver Island.
Easiest way to get there, that I can think of, would be this:
From there I’d fly to Anchorage and have the 4-hour drive to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
Then fly back to Vancouver Airport, and fly home from there.
When Canadians run out of ideas for street names
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Central African Republic (Wikipedia)
Airports in Central African Republic (Wikipedia)
Here’s information in case you want to explore the Chinko Nature Reserve. This info is an 8-day safari, including helicopter flights around the vast park for game-viewing, and guides, which makes this an expensive adventure.
Pictus Safari into the Dark Heart of Africa (Wikipedia)
Sangha Trinational. Another huge wilderness reserve without roads, where wild animals freely roam.
Sangha Trinational UNESCO Herita Website
Some travel websites listed Bamingui, on the banks of the Chari River and Bamingui-Bangoran National Park, which supposedly is the main tourist attraction in this region. I’m leaving this off of my travel plans for CAR for 2 reasons:
- It adds another 7 hours of driving to the east
- It’s yet another African tropical forest or safari. Because there are tons of those in much safer countries, it didn’t seem worth the extra 7 hours of travel time to get there.
Chad
Without the drive to Abéché
The Lakes of Ounianga and Lake Yoa
Faya-Largeau
Not on my bucket list, but another notable mention is:
Zakouma National Park in southeastern Chad, in the Sudano-Sahelian vegetation zone with shrubland, high grasses and acacia forests.
Chile
This is what the trip would look like if you were to drive everywhere from Santiago.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
You’d then fly back to Santiago from the airport in Punta Arenas at the end of the trip.
All that said: I would not drive that itinerary that is shown in the above map though. Driving all the way up north from Santiago, to then have to drive that whole distance back again to Santigo, is an enormous waste. Instead: I would fly into an airport close by Humberstone and Santa Laura Salpeter Works.
or this larger airport, where it might be easier to book flights to.
Then; I’d drive all the way down south from this northernmost of all the landmarks listed in the book. That gives the following journey:
Here’s the link that opens the above map correctly on Google Maps
Now; I really LOVE driving, and I LOVE exploring and crossing through a whole country by car. But for most, the trajectory shown in the above map might still feel like it involves too much time spent in a car.
Here are a couple of ideas to shorten the drive with many hours.
After visiting the salpeter works landmark (Humberstone), drive back to the close by airport, and fly from there to the Atacama Airport. That airport is merely minutes way from the listed landmark in the Atacama Desert.
After your visit, drive back to that airport and fly back to Santiago from there. You could opt to drive the rest of the journey from Santiago. The following map shows that journey.
Still too much driving? Fly to the Aeropuerto Mocopulli, on the island of Chiloé, to go visit the churches on the island.
The fly to the airports closest to the San Raphael Glacier
or to the airport close by Puerto Río Tranquilo
Those two landmarks are only about an hour and 20 minutes apart:
Then fly to the airport closest to Torres del Paine National Park, the most southern landmark. That airport is in Punta Arenas, about a 3.5-hour drive from the park.
At the end of the trip, fly back from that airport to Santiago from where you can catch your flight back home.
When you opt for all those aforementioned flights, the only driving you’d still have are the drives to visit the landmarks in the vicinity of Santiago, as shown in the following map:
… and the drives between the airports and their neighboring landmarks.
Rapa Nui National Park.
Fly into the island from Santiago Airport. It’s about a 5.5-hour flight.
China
First part of the trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Second part of the trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
You can shorten the drive time a ton just by cutting out the drive from Yungan Grottoes to Mogao Caves with a flight.
Unfortunately though: you’re replacing a 20 hour drive with a 16 hour flight. So with the time spent having to check in, get tickets, wait at the airport and all, you’re merely gaining a couple of hours. On the other hand: 16 hours on a flight is physically and mentally much less taxing than 20 hours in a car.
If you are wanting to reduce the drive time further, the following airport info might come in handy.
The remaining destinations
- Karakoram Highway in Kashgar
This is the flight from Mogao Caves (Dunhuang Airport) to Kashgar
Oddly enough, it is only 1 hour more flying if you fly from the much further away airport in Beijing.
As a result: you could visit Kashgar to drive the Karkoram Highway at the very end of your trip, or at the very beginning of the trip upon arrival in Beijing. Myself, I would visit this at the end of the trip after Mogao Caves, and then fly from Kashgar to…
- The Potala Palace in Lhasa
This is the flight from Kashgar to the Potala Palace in Tibet.
It’s an unexpectedly long flight, but still much faster than driving.
- Fujian Tulou
This above map shows what it would look like if you were to drive the remaining destinations. However: I would not do that.Instead: I would fly to Xiamen, rent a car, and drive to Tulou.
Here’s the flight from Tibet
Here’s the drive from Xiamen Airport to Tulou.
Then I’d drive back to Xiamen airport and fly to Hong Kong from there.
Then I’d take a ferry, taxi or Uber from Hong Kong to Macau, and have a little road trip from Macao to Kaiping.
- Ferries/Bus between Hong Kong and Macao
- Kaiping
As you see on the above map, I had to drag the pin for Macao a bit west to help Google find a road that it could draw from Macao to Kaiping.
- Karakoram Highway in Kashgar
Colombia
Upon arrival at Bogota, I’d catch a domestic flight to Cartagena and then start the journey fromm there.
Driving the whole trip from Cartagena, looks like this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
From Las Lajas Sanctuary: fly back to Bogota.
This is the flight time:
Leticia: the access town to the Amazon Forest
It’s best to fly to Leticia
Might be even better to fly directly from Las Lajas Sanctuary to Leticia
Then from there, this being the end of the trip, fly back to Bogota.
Flying instead of driving
Cartagena to Mompox
Flying between these 2 locations, saves about 6 hours on the road. (the airports are listed in the following map)
Mompox Airport is a short drive from the city.
Mompox to Medellin Flight
This shaves off another 11-12 hours of driving.
From Medellin: you could drive to Bogota
Or, you could drive to Guatape and back to Medellin
… and fly to Bogota, where you drive to Villa de Leyva and back
Bogota to Manizales.
Flying between these 2 locations saves another 7 hours on the road.
Manizales to Ibagué Airport
Ibagué Airport to Popayan Airport.
Another 8 hours less driving
Here’s where Popayan Airport is in the city.
From here, drive to Tierradentro, since there is no closer airport to that landmark than Popayan Airport.
Or drive this 12-hour loop of 3 landmarks
You could also choose to drive the rest of the landmarks from Popayan.
Or fly from Popayan into La Macarena Airport, which is only about a minute way from the Caño Cristales landmark
It’s worth the flight, considering that it takes 14-15 hours to drive this distance.
De San Agustin Park
From Caño Cristales, fly into Pitalito Airport, which is about a 45-minute drive from the De San Agustin Park.
The following map shows that that is another 10 hours you save:
From here, Pitalo Airport (San Agustin landmark), fly into Ipiales Airport, a short drive from Las Lajas Sanctuary.
Then finally, fly from there to Leticia to explore the Amazon rainforest.
Comoros
Congo-Brazzaville
Congo Democratic Republic
Congo Democratic Republic (Wikipedia)
Airports in Congo Democratic Republic (Wikipedia)
Virunga National Park, visa, immunization requirements, and travel info.
Here are some more notable nature reserves and parks with rain forests or savannah habitats that are worth visiting, but that aren’t on my bucket list for various reasons, including: too dangerous or, already seen it somewhere else.
- Kahuzi-Biega National Park *
- Garamba National Park *
- Salonga National Park * 8,900,000 acres of lush rainforest landscapes located in the Congo River Basin of Western-Central DR Congo
- Okapi Wildlife Reserve *
- Nyiragongo Volcano, knowns as Mount Nyiragongo. This is an active volcano. The volcano partly overlaps with two older volcanoes, Baruta and Shaheru, and is also surrounded by hundreds of small volcanic cinder cones from flank eruptions. The main crater is about two kilometers (1 mi) wide and usually contains a lava lake. Localized carbon dioxide toxicity, known locally as ‘mazuku’, has killed children even more recently. In locations where the gas seeps from the ground at relatively high levels, without the dispersing effects of wind, its effects can be deadly.
Costa Rica
From Palmar Sur you can take a domestic flight back to the international aiport in San Jose, from where you can fly back hom at the end of your vacation in Costa Rica.
If you love driving instead, following map shows the journey including an extra drive back from Palmar Sur to San Jose.Airports in Costa Rica (Wikipedia)
Manuel Antonio Park
The Manuel Antonio Park Information
Rainmaker Aerial Walkways and Waterfalls
Cote D Ivoire
Airports in Ivory Coast (Wikipedia)
When you consider a guided, planned tour.
Croatia
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Bisevo Island
Take a ferry from Hvar. Visit this island between Hvar and Korcula.
Cuba
This above map shows the entire journey from start to finish.
However: don’t rely upon the embedded link to go to the Google Maps website for this above map.When there are that many destinations, Google seems to be dropping the ball when clicking on the link to go to the Google Maps website. What ends up showing on the Google site is missing destinations/information.
To remedy that… use the following link instead to get an accurate and complete version of the trip on the Google Maps site.
Or in case you rather see the whole trip broken up over 2 maps:
1st leg of the Cuba journey.
2nd leg of the Cuba journey.
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
You can actually fly from Copenhagen into Bornholm. I’m not sure why Google Maps is unable to show flights between those 2 locations, but here’s the flight information
Flights from Copenhagen to Bornholm
If you fly into Bornholm and then fly back to Copenhagen, it shortens the drive as shown in the following map:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Don’t forget to go visit Greenland
It’s a 6-hour flight from Copenhagen
Djibouti
One way trip:
With the drive back to Djibouti Airport
Accounting for the 16km stretch of off-road driving from Lake Abbe, I would say about 7.5hrs of driving for the whole trip, for a distance of 448km/278mi
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic (Wikipedia)
Airports in Dominican Republic (Wikipedia)
Driving directions from Santo Domingo to El Valle Treehouses
East Timor (Timor-Leste)
Mapping out the best travel journey for Timor-Leste was a challenge. 3 reasons:
- The must-see destinations are very spread out.
- It’s only the distinations in the middle of the trip that have a closeby airport.
- The largest, main airport, from where you’d fly back home at the end of your vacation, is a long drive from the outer 2 points of the journey.
First off: the only way you can get into Timor-Leste, is with flights that are currently only available from Darwin in Australia, or from the Indonesian airports in Kupang and Denpasar
IF Abisu Airstrip (close to Fuiloro, east Timor-Leste) is indeed an active airport that serves domestic flights, then following would be a pretty efficient drive journey.
(note that the locations Uaitame and Kibular don’t have anything notable to go visit. Those places are only put in to force the Google map to show the correct travel path outline on the map.
With this itinerary, you fly from Dili’s international airport, where you enter the country, via a domestic flight to Fuiloro/Abisu Airport, from where you make the hour-drive to Ira Lalaro, which is the first destination in this journey.
You then end the journey in Baucau, which has the 2nd largest airport in the country, from which I’d hope you would have a domestic flight back to Dili. If not, then you’d have another 3 or so hour drive back to Dili. All in all: about 20 hours of driving.
I personally would probably go for this following option (which is the one mapped out in the book):
It’s 2 hours less driving. But again in this case, it is contingent upon Abisu Airstrip in Fuiloro still being in use for domestic flights (which I could not find any information on)
Ecuador
The full trip in Ecuador
There is an airport close by Salinas from where you can fly back to Quito
You could also fly into Coca’s airport, and save 10 hours driving.
The Galapagos Archipelago
Of course, the Galapagos Islands have an airport.
Egypt
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Take a ferry to this island, which lies in Aswan, on the drive to Abu Simbel
In Abu Simbel, there is an airport to fly back to Cairo.
In case you would like to drive less
Here are the airports in Egypt.
As you see on that above map, you can cover the whole eastern part of the trip with flights, by flying into Sharm El-Sheikh, and then from there north to the St. Catherine International Airport, which is close by Jabal Moussa/Mount Sinai.
The new trip could then be this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
or this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
After covering the 2 landmarks in the east, you’d then fly to Abu Simble from St. Catherine International Airport, and follow the journey outlined in the above map.
From the last landmark in that journey, you’d drive to Sohag International Airport to catch a flight back to Cairo. Unfortunately, that is a 4-hour drive.
Another option, is to fly connecting flights between the airports of Luxor, Aswan (to visit the island), and Abu Simbel.
You’d then have this little trip around Luxor.
And after this trip, fly to Aswan, then fly to Abu Simbel. From there, lastly, fly back to Cairo. This (with the eastern section also covered with flights) reduces the drive time to 50 hours.
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
You will arrive in Malabo International Airport. Take a connecting flight there to Bata Airport, which is on the country’s mainland.
The mainland journey:
In Bata, book a flight to Corisco International Airport. (That is what it’s called but I don’t think they actually do international travel)
The island is so small, about 5km by 3km, that it seems pointless to look into transportation here. Everything is in walking distance.From Corisco Island, fly to the last part of the trip, Bioko Island, via the airport in Bata.
On Bioko Island
A general note for the country: During the rainy season, roads are frequently impassable without four-wheel drive vehicles.
Eritrea
You can travel from Asmara to Mitsura/Massawa by road, railroad and air.
Estonia
Here’s the link to the above map on Google Maps: The Tip in Estonia
Ethiopia
The international airport where you enter the country is pretty close to the capital.
This is the full trip connecting all the landmarks, in an ideal world where you could start the trip from the most southern landmark, Konso.
In order for that to happen, visitors need to fly domestically from Addis Ababa airport to Arba Minch Airport, which is about 2 hours north of Konso.
At the end of the journey (at the Danakil Depression), you’d then have to fly back to Addis Ababa, to avoid adding a vast amount drive hours. The closest airport to Danakil is Mekele Airport. At this time, the government however decided to suspend commercial flights from Mekele, Gondar, Shire, and Axum amid security operations in that region, where there are problems between the government and rebel factions.
Fiji
The main international airport is located at Namaka, 10 km from the city of Nadi, and 20 km from the city of Lautoka, on the island Viti Levu.
From here, it’s island hopping:
Ovalau
Taveuni Island
Qamea
Fly into Taveuni Island’s Matei Airport, then take a ferry from Taveuni to Qamea.
Boat from Taveuni to Qamea infoMatangi Island
Ferry back to Taveuni and then take a ferry from there to Matangi, or talk to a local on Qamea to take you on a boatride to Matangi.
Vanua Levu
Sawa I Lau Island
There are sea plane tours to the caves on this island that leave from the main island Viti Levu.
You can get there from Nadi Airport (on the island of Viti Levu) with Turtle Airlines.Best Way to get to Sawa I Lau Island
Turtle Island
You’d probably want to skip this detination if you’re not financially wealthy, or only visit it if you have a couple of extra 1000s of $$ to spare.
Monuriki
Mamanuca Island
Beqa
There are almost 30 airports and airfields dotted around the islands, half of which have a regular schedule of flights with domestic airlines.
Keep in mind, they do run on Fiji time, meaning, be prepared to wait and be flexible.Finland
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Shortening the drive
As the following map shows: there are quite a few airports in Finland.
You could fly to Ivalo Airport
And visit the 2 most northern landmarks
Then fly back to Helsinki from that airport, to drive this route:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Or fly from there to
Then fly from there to the next landmark in the list (The snow castle of Kemi).
The remainder of the drive then becomes this:
France
First part
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
2nd part
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Final part
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
The island of Corsica can be visited with a ferry from Nice. That is why I placed it after Nice in the travel plans. If you rather save time there, one approach is to fly from Paris to Corsica and back, either at the very beginning or the very end of the itinerary.
Airports in France
Notice how many of the listed landmarks have an airport: Paris, Val de Loire Airport (Loire Valley Airport), Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Lyon, Strasbourg. You could probably save 20-30 hours of travel time combining flights with shorter road trip sections.
Gabon
If you include the Lopé National Park, this map shows the journey.
Gambia
The map shows the drive time and journey with the Wassu Stone Circles landmark included, including the drive back to the capital Banjul.
Without the Stone Circles, the whole trip takes about 4 hours of driving, which includes the drive back to the capital from which you can fly back home.
Georgia
Because of the many destinations, the trip needed to be divided over 2 maps.
First leg:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
2nd leg:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Note how, for shortest/fastest distance, some of the drive (to the Caucasus Mountains), crosses the border north into Russia.
If you want to replace some of the stretches with flights, here are the airports in Georgia
As an option, you could first visit all landmarks that have an airport, and and then drive the rest of the landmarks.
- Fly from Tbilisi to Gori. The following map shows Gori’s nearest airport.
- Gori to Dashbashi Canyon
Although it would be more time efficient to just drive that distance. It takes less time to drive it, than it takes when you add up the time checking in, waiting at the airport, the flight duration, etc.
- From there to Kutaisi Airport.
- From Kutaisi to Batumi Airport. Just rent a car in Batumi and also go visit Sarpi.
- Batumi to Zugdidi (the palace).
- Zugdidi to Abkhazia.
- Abkhazia to Mestia Airport. Rent a car while in Mestia and also go visit Ushguli.
- Mestia Airport to Caucasus. Here’s the airport closest to the Caucasus.
- Caucasus to Telavi Airport.
- Telavi Airport back to Tbilisi.
If you drive the rest of the trip, this becomes the drive:
Germany
First part
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
2nd part
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Final part
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
From Wartburg Castle, it’s about a 2.5hr drive back to Frankfurt.
Ghana
You could fly into Paga Airstrip, about a 12-minute drive from the Pikworo Slave Camp, which cuts out the whole drive to that landmark.
You could try to get a car or some sort of transportation there to drive to Pikworo and to the nearby Tongo, only about an hour away.
Without the drive to Pikworo and Tongo, the drive to all the other landmarks gets reduced to only 37 hours.
Kumasi and Tamale also have their own airports. If you fly into those cities and into the Paga airstrip to visit Pikworo and Togo, you could divvy up your Ghana trip into following 4 sections of driving, connected by flights.
1st Section: around Accra
You could also fly back from Axim to Accra, from Takoradi Airport
That further shortens the drive with quite a number of hours.
2nd Section: around Kumasi
3rd Section: Tamale
4th Section: Pikworo and Tongo
Greece
First part of the trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
There is one landmark missing in the above map: Mount Athos. It’s omitted in the above map because Google was unable to find or draw roads to this landmark.
Here it is:Notice how Mount Athos falls between Meteora and Lesbos in the travel itinerary (exactly as organized in the book Landmark Travels) .
Final part of the trip
The above maps show the trip if you were to drive everything and take ferries. The best way to shorten the travel time, is by flying into the islands instead of taking ferries.
Grenada
Guatemala
If you drive the whole trajectory starting and ending in Guatemala City, the drive takes about 39 hours.
At the end of the trip, rather than driving from Quirigua back to the international airport where you entered the country, you can fly back. There’s an airport less than a 2.5hr drive from Quirigua.
But you’d probably not save al that much time, considering that the drive straight from Quirigua to Guatemala City is only about an hour and 40min longer than the drive from Quirigua to its closest airport. With the wait time at the airport, booking tickets, and so on, I would probably choose to just drive the distance back to Guatemala City.
The closest airport to Tikal is about an hour away from Tikal
You could domestically fly to Mundo Maya Airport (close to Tikal), upon arrival in Guatemala City, then fly back to Guatemala City, and drive the rest of the journey. You save 5 hours driving if you fly into Tikal instead of driving there. The rest of the journey by car would look like this:
Here are the airports in Guatemala
Guinea
If you want to drive to Labe
You can fly into Labe, or if you like the added adventure, drive there and then fly back from Labe Airport, to Conakry.
For flight info into Mount Nimba Nature Reserve:
Closest Airport info for Mount Nimba Nature ReserveGuinea-Bissau
With the drive back to Bissau
Another travel recommended travel destination is Rubane Island. Rubane is one of the Bijagós Islands in Guinea-Bissau. Groves of tall palm trees fringe the shorelines all over the place, punctuated by the occasional cliff, or even the timber villas of the Ponta Anchaca resort, which is the only place to stay here.
If you want to go see a lot, this is not the place for you. If you, however, are in dire need of some peace and quiet and relaxaction, this might be a place you’d enjoy a lot.
Guyana
With a drive back to Georgetown
Flying back to Georgetown, halves the drive time.
Kaieteur Falls location
Great info about how to get to Kaieteur Falls
ATTA Rainforest Lodge and Canopy Walk in Iwokrama
Apparently there is also an airstrip in Iwokrama, not listed on the Wikipedia airports page, and close by to the ATTA Rainforest Lodge area.
Haiti
The 2nd busiest international airport, Cap-Haitien, is located in north Haiti, which is also where the journey starts.
In case you would like to take a domestic flight back to Port-Au-Prince international airport instead of driving back to the capital:
Honduras
On Roatán Island (Airport)
Little French Key
Hop on a 3 to 5-minute boat ride from the dock at Frenchy’s 44 to Little French Key Private Island Resort.
Maya Key Island
An 11.5-acre private island conveniently located just three minutes across the bay from the Roatan cruise pier and 15 minutes away from Mahogany Bay Cruise Pier.
Airports in Honduras (Wikipedia)
Following Rio Platano Biosphere Travel webpage offers some information about the Rio Platano Biosphere. I wouldn’t trust the information about how to get there all that much (Las Marias and Belen are pretty far away from the park, not sure why these places are mentioned in there), BUT there is valuable information about the park itself.
Hungary
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Here’s the map for the city of Budapest
Iceland
Chances are, given the many destinations on the map, that the Google maps website will alter or mess up the map when accessed from the embedded link in the above map.
Use the following link to access the correct depiction and outline on the Google Maps website.While seaside walks on the pink sands of Rauðasandur Beach sound super appealing, I might leave that for another visit to Iceland. It’s over a 5-hour drive north from the capital and out of the way of all the other must-see destinations.
I might come back for a 2nd visit, and then do the whole Ring Road and fit in Rauðasandur Beach on that trip around Iceland.
Airports in Iceland (Wikipedia)
Iceland Tours including The Golden Circle Route
Skaftafell Ice Cave and Dettifoss Waterfall
I included this in my journey, but you can also book and take full-day South Coast and Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon Day Tours from Reykjavik.
India
First part of the trip in India
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Second Part of the trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
You can also fly back from Varanasi to Delhi instead of driving
There are more opportunities to replace drives with flights. Here are the airports in India:
Indonesia
On that above trip, the Gili Trawangan Island would come right after Bali.
Gili Trawangan
Here’s Gili Trawangan, right east of Bali. A stay on this small island would come after Bali in the travel itinerary, as outlined in the book Landmark Travels.
To get to the Gili Trawangan island from Bali: take the taxi or drive to Padang Bai then take the ferry from there to Gili Meno. Numerous companies offer ferry rides to Gili Meno on Gili Trawangan.
This landmark is followed by Komodo National Park on the itinerary.
Komodo National Park
From there, ferry or fly to Tana Toraja as outlined in the trajectory shown in the first map (above).
From Samarinda to Tanjung Puting National Park (on Borneo)
From Samarinda, you can fly into the Tanjung Puting National Park
20 hours of flying to cover a distance of 450 miles??? How frigging long are the stops between flights? Might not be worth it to keep this park on the itinerary if it is that much hassle to get there. But kept it on the books anyway for now for those who would love to go see orangutans thrive in their natural habitat.
From Samarinda on Kalimantan/Borneo Island, fly to Sorong to visit the Raja Ampat Islands
The Raja Ampat Islands
The Raja Ampat Islands fall just west of Papua.
You can fly into the city of Sorong on the west coast of Papua, from Samarinda City. Sorong’s airport is Domine Eduard Osok.
To get to the Raja Ampat Islands from there: take a taxi from the airport in Sorong to Sorong’s ferry harbor, from where you can ferry daily back and forth between Sorong and Waisai, a town on the Raya Ampat Islands.
You can also combine drives and ferry rides. The following map shows it all
Next: ferry back to Sorong to visit the next location on the travel itinerary: Lorentz National Park on Papua.
As you can see on the following map: it’s all remote, rugged nature, with very few to no access roads. I would simply arrange for transportation, or inquire about guides or the possibilities to visit the park, at the airport.
Better than driving from Sorong to Lorentz National Park, fly into an airport closer to the park: Sinak Airport or Mozes Kilangin Internatioanl Airport.
After visiting the park, fly back to Sorong
Then fly from Sorong to the airport on Bangka Island (as shown in the following map).
Bangka Island
Bangka Island lies north of Jakarta. As shown in the following map, you could take a ferry to the island. However: that’s a long, 34-hour trip. Better to just fly to Bangka Island.
Sumatra Rain Forest
Sumatra is the large island north of Jakarta, and east of the much smaller Bangka Island.
Google Maps shows this ridiculous (road) journey to get from Bangka Island to Sumatra
You’re of course much better off just flying
From Sumatra, at the end of the trip, fly back to Jakarta
Of course, we’re dealing with various islands, traveling, in a sense, becomes a bit “modular”. Meaning: it’s a bit like a puzzle with building blocks that you can stack or organize in various ways. You could for example chose to visit the islands up north from Jakarta first, then fly back to Jakarta and continue the journey from there.
Jakarta –> Sumatra (rain forest) –> Bangka Island –> Back to Jakarta –> Borobudur Temple Compounds –> etc…
Iran
First Part of the trip in Iran
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Somehow Google was unable to draw roads to and from Deir-e Gachin Caravanserai, as you can see on the following map.
Deir-e Gachin Caravanserai falls between Hamadan and Qom in the itinerary. I added Rey after Hamadan in the itinerary, to help situate Deir-e Gachin Caravanserai, which falls right along the straight, ancient trade route between Rey and Qom.
Second Part of the trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Qeshm Island
Kish Island
I checked and there are fights between the islands Kish and Qeshm, but somehow Google maps is not showing those connections. The flights between the islands might run via Tehran or Isfahan.
Airports in Iran, to shorten the drive a bit with flights
Iraq
Ireland
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Here’s the Ring of Kerry. You want to insert this little side adventure where you hit the “Ring of Kerry” location in the above journey.
There are also 2 islands on this trip, which are not included in the above itineraries.
Spike Island
Sceilg Mhichíl
With those island visits scheduled into the trip, this becomes the complete journey:
Israel
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
The nearest major airport to Red Canyon is Eilat Airport
From there you can fly back to Tel Aviv.
Jerusalem
Italy
First Part of the trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Second Part
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Final Section
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Rome
Here’s a map showing all the landmarks as listed in the book.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Here’s a map showing some extra great locations you probably might want to visit while in Rome.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
An idea to get around the city: Hop off Hop on Bus Tours of Rome
The Aeolian Islands
The following map shows there are ferries to the islands
Sicily
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Airports in Italy
You can of course greatly reduce those travel times by flying to the Islands (Sicily and Sardinia) instead of taking ferries. Quite a bit of the drives on Italy’s mainland can be replaced with flights, too.
Jamaica
Japan
Because this journey has more destinations than Google Maps can handle, it’s not showing roads
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
That is why I needed to break up the journey over 3 maps:
First leg of the trip
Second leg of the trip
Last leg of the trip
Hashima Island
Ways to shorten the time driving
Fly to Okinawa
Fly to Yakushima Island
Fly to Shirakami Sanchi
This is how close the airport is to Shirakami Sanchi
Fly from there to Mount Kinkei (Kinkeizan). Google is unable to show flight times, but there are commercial flights between those two airports.
The following map shows the distance between Hanamaki Airport and Mount Kinkei:
Fly from Hanamaki to Senday, and from Senday to Ibaraki Airport (There is no direct flight from Hanamaki to Ibaraki Airport)
Ibaraki Airport to Nikko
From there I’d just drive to Tokyo. It would not make sense to drive back to Ibaraki Airport and fly from there to Tokyo, as it’s faster to just drive to Tokyo.
From there I’d probably just drive the whole trajectory. This is what that would like like, if you took ferries to Yakushima Island and Okinawa.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
If you fly to these 2 islands, as discussed above, then the 80 hours of time it takes to travel the remainder of the above journey, gets cut down to less than half (38 hours)
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
And you can actually save another hour, if you move Nagoya forward in the travel plans. Visit it coming from Mount Fuji, and the drive time becomes 37 hours. Also: I added a visit to Nagasaki at the end of the journey, because that is where the port is from where ferries leave to visit and tour Hashima Island. This following would be the itinerary I’d follow.
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Altyn-Emel National Park is missing in the above itinerary. (No roads are showing to that landmark. It’s about 167km/104mi east of Almaty)
I solved that by dragging the Altyn-Emel National Park pin/marker to a road that runs through the park.
Adding that location to the above map so it includes all the landmarks listed for Kazakhstan in the book, shows the following journey:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
At the end of the trip, fly back to Almaty from Aktau Airport
Here’s the flight duration info:
Ways to shorten the drive
Fly to Nur-Sultan from Almaty, and back.
When the drive to Nur-Sultan is cut out, the journey becomes this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
There are also airports in Turkistan and close to the next landmark Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Baikonur
That cuts out another almost 7 hours of on the road
Kenya
If you were to drive everywhere: the following map shows the shortest/fastest route
Here’s the link to the above map on Google maps: The Complete Kenya Trip by Car (Minus Lamu Island)
Lamu Old Town is on an island.
The best way to get to the island: fly into Manda Airport on one of the islands of the Lamu Archipelago from Mombasa Airport.
Then take a boat or ferry from there to Lamu. It’s a very short distance, about a kilometer.
Tips to shorten the long drive
Visitors who want to shorten the drive can fly into Lodwar Airport, close to Lake Turkana.
Replacing that drive with a flight, gives a savings of 20 hours.
You can also cut out the long drive to Tsavo National Park when you fly into Kilaguni Airport
When you fly into Turkana and into Tsavo National Park, the remainder of the trip gets centered around 2 areas: Nairobi and Mombasa, both of which have an international airport.
Around Nairobi
Around Mombasa
Both those sections add up to about 22.5 hours of driving.
Kiribati
Finding flights to Kiribati, can be surprisingly difficult from Los Angeles. I couldn’t find any flights. There were only a few selected dates where I could find a flight, and those were then very expensive.
Wherever you are in the world, one way around that is to book a flight to a country that is closer to Kiribati, for example, Australia (Sydney Airport), and then fly from there to Kiribati. It wasn’t too challenging to find a great number of flights to Kiribati from Sydney.
For peeps in North American countries, I found that the best, fastest, cheapest way to get to Kiribati (and find plenty of flights), is to fly to Hawaii (Honolulu Airport) and then from there to Kiribati.
Kiribati has 2 main international airports that serve international travel: Bonriki International Airport on Tarawa and Cassidy International Airport on Kiritimati.
Kiritimati (Cassidy International Airport)
Tabuaeran (Aérodrome de Tabuaeran Airport)
There is a dirt road that completely circles the lagoon. There are small dirt trails running in every direction from the road, but be mindful of the native population’s personal property and space when hiking the trails. There is a modest collection of bicycles near the lagoon’s main dock and you should be able to rent one for a small fee.
Tarawa (Bonriki International Airport)
There are regular ferry services from urban South Tarawa to the main villages of North Tarawa, and it is also relatively simple to charter a boat. The road from South Tarawa ends at the channel between Buota and Abatao, but this channel can be easily walked at low tide, so that the southern islets of North Tarawa can be accessed on foot.
North Korea
The main international airport is in Pyongyang. Upon landing in Pyongyang from your home destination, catch a domestic flight all the way north to Orang Airport in Chongjin.
At the end of the trip, Mount Kumgang, drive north to Kalma International Aiport in Wonsan, for a domestic flight back to Pyongyang Airport, from where you can catch your flight back to your homeland.
South Korea
For reasons explained in the book, there is no possibility to create a travel map for South Korea. The country does not allow Google access to its country map. The result is that Google users cannot map out their trajectories or journeys on Google. Most locations in South Korea are not found when searching for them on Google. When you DO find a South Korean location on the map, then it shows like this (without directions, which is not very helpful anyway):
Kuwait
In Kuwait City
Failaka Island
You can reach Failaka Island via a Car Ferry which will take you, and your car together. There’s also another ferry/boat that would take you to Failaka for the day and back (passengers only, no car).
Get your tickets from the Ferry Tickets Office in Ras Assalmiya (Near Kuwait Scientific Center and Lulu’at AlMarzouq). Make sure to inquire about the ferry’s departure and return times.Not much in the form of hotel accommodations on the island. In case the hotel is full, might be good to make this just a day trip.
Kyrgyzstan
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
The Yurtcamp Mito location on the map is a camping site on the banks of Son Kul Lake
The “A365” location on the map refers to the Chatyr-Kul Lake. (I had to position the marker on the map to get a road to show to the vicinity of the lake).There’s one landmark missing in the above itinerary: Kol Suu. It’s so remote, there are no nearby roads to the lake.
The closest camp to the Kol Suu Lake is Jyrgal’s Yurt Camp. It’s about 5 miles north of the lake. You can contact them for more info.
Info on Google for Jyrgals Yurt Camp at Kol Suu
They also have a Facebook page: Jyrgals Yurt Camp at Kol Suu on Facebook
For the shortest route, a visit to the Kol Suu Lake should fall between the visits to the Son Kul Lake (Yurtcamp Mito on the map) and Chatyr Kul Lake (A365).
The following maps shows where Kol Suu is in relationship to Chatyr Kul: about 88km/54mi east of Chatyr Kul
At the end of the trip, Manas Ordo Complex, you can fly back to Bishkek from the nearby Talas Airport.
A map of the airports in Kyrgyzstan
Laos
In Vientiane
This is what it looks like if you were to drive to all landmarks on the list, starting from Vientiane, and not including the drive back to Vientiane after visiting the last landmark.
To cut out the long drive to the final landmark, Vat Phou, fly into Pakse International Airport, about an hour (48km) away from Vat Phou.
Without the drive to Vat Phou, this reduces the drive time with 5 hours.
There’s also an airport close by That Ing Hang, Savannakhet Airpor.
With that drive cut out, you get:
Or even better
Sam Nuea has an airport. With that drive cut out:
There is an airport less than a 2-hour drive from Huai Xai
That could take care of this part of the trip
This further shortens the drive
Luang Prabang also has an airport.
With that drive gone, you get:
Latvia
Here’s the page on Google Maps showing the above map: The Trip in Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
In case the Google Maps website accessed from the embedded link would not show the accurate map as depicted above, here’s the link
Liberia
Airports in Liberia (Wikipedia)
See Pygmy hippos at Sapo National Park
All you need to know about vising Sapo National Park, fees, forms, etc.
Libya
The whole Libya trip.
Here’s the link to open up the above map on Google Maps: All Landmarks in Libya
From the last location, Shahhat, you can take a flight back to Tripoli airport.
Turns out that you save a lot of time and drive a lot less if you reverse the journey. Upon arrival in Tripoli International Airport, immediately catch a domestic flight to Shahhat Airport and start the journey from there.
Here’s the link to open up the above map on Google Maps: All Landmarks in Libya, reversed, shorter journey
In case you greatly want to shorten this very lengthy drive.
There is an aiport close by Gadamis
There is an airport close by Ghat
And there’s an airport about 15 miles from Wadi al Hayaa District
If you fly into those 3 locations, you save a vast number of hours in less time spent on the road.
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Luxembourg City
The whole Luxembourg trip
If the map on Google Maps doesn’t like right or the same as the above map, here’s the link that fixes this:
North Macedonia
Madagascar
The following map shows the journey as outlined in the book Landmark Travels. From Toliara Aiport, fly to the island of Île Sainte Marie, known as Nosy Boraha. From there fly back to Antananarivo.
It’s easy to miss. Here’s Nosy Boraha Island.
If you rather cut down a bit on the 50 hours of driving, you can fly into Morondava Airport from Antananarivo. The airport is a 30-minute drive from the Avenue of the Baobabs.
From there you can fly into Toliara Airport. With no more drives to Morondava (Avenue of the Baobabs) or Toliara, this reduces the driving to about 22 hours.
You can cut down more by also flying into Toamasina from Antananarivo. Then your only drives would be from Antananarivo to the Royal Hill of Ambohimanga (44-minue drive and back) and from Toamasina (Airport) to Fenoarivo and back.
All together, this adds up to about 7 hours of driving, instead of 50 (not accounting for the drives between airport and landmark for the other landmarks in the list, for which you can possibly take Uber rides)
Airports in Madagascar (Wikipedia)
Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve
Malawi
Airports in Malawi (Wikipedia)
Nkhata Bay, where you can take a ferry to Likoma Island.
Malaysia
On the mainland
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
On Langkawi Island
Fly into the island from Kuala Lumpur
It’s a short distance from the airport to the Cable Car
I’d probably take taxi rides on the island.
On Borneo Island
Notice how the map shows all 3 landmarks, but how Google maps is unable to find and draw roads to the locations. That is because the Gunung Mulu National Park is very remote. When I take it off the map, then Google is able to draw roads.
The following 3 maps show that all locations on Borneo Island have an airport.
Kuching
Gunung Mulu National Park.
Kinabalu Park
To save time driving, I’d probably fly from airport to airport to visit the landmarks on Borneo Island.
Maldives
Malé
Vaadhoo
To get to Utheemu Island, first catch a flight to Hanimaadhoo (Haa Dhaalu Atoll). Then take a ferry from there to Utheemu.
Kudahuvadhoo Island.
Addu City
Conrad Maldives Rangali Island
Airports in Maldives (Wikipedia)
This is where you can find Jetty Number 1 or the President’s Jetty, which is where the meeting point is for the Whale Submarine pick up.
Mali
Or you could follow this alternative itinerary: fly from Bamako to Timbuktu, then after visiting the Timbuktu landmarks, fly to Gao, and follow this much shorter driving distance trip:
Malta
Marshall Islands
Majuro
Ebeye Island
To get from Majuro to Ebeye
The United Airlines island hopper will drop visitors at the US Kwajalein Base. Depending on your nationality, a visa and/or authorizations may be needed. Once security processing by the US authorities is complete, a free boat run by the US Military will take you to Ebeye. The boat takes base employees to and from Ebeye where they live. So the boat runs early in the morning and at the end of the working day.
Mauritania
Minus the drives to Kaédi and Banc d’Arguin National Park
You can reduce the driving time to a bit over 6 hours, when you fly from the airport to Afar International Airport
Mauritius
Here’s a link to access the above journey on Google Maps. (the embedded link in the above map doesn’t always depict the info accurately on the Google Maps website when there are more than 10 destinations).
Mexico
Before sharing the itinerary maps for Mexico, a quick word about 2 landmarks that don’t have a route drawn on the map.
- No roads to Copper Canyon showing
There is one destination that Google can draw roads to: Copper Canyon.
This following maps shows where the Copper Canyon is
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
As you can tell from the map, Copper Canyon lies north and comes after Casas Grandes in the itinerary, between Casas Grandes and Zacatecas. As Google shows, the Copper Canyon landmark lies in some rugged territory with no close by roads showing on the map.
But this above.It is this much north from Zacatecas:
- Islas Marietas
Visitors can fly into the islands from Mexico City, or include a visit to the islands in the drive between Mazatlán and Tequila as part of a road trip.
If you choose to fly to the island from Mexico City, a visit to the island would either fall at the very beginning of the the journey, when you arrive in Mexico City airport from your home country, or move up later in the itinerary between Mexico City and Xochicalco.I could not get Google to show ferry or road lines to the islands, so I chose the closest point to the islands, which is Nuevo Vallarta
As the following map shows, if you skip the drive to Islas Marietas to fly there instead, you save almost 5 hours in driving. (Part of which of course you lose waiting at the airport, but on the other hand, when you drive to the islands, there might be nothing to see either for 5 hours on a highway).
In any case, in the book, I listed Islas Marietas based on its geographical location in relationship to the other destinations, which is between Mazatlán and Tequila.
Anyhow…
Here’s the complete itinerary for Mexico.
First Part of the trip in Mexico
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Second Part of the trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
There is an international airport in Cozumel, at the end of the trip, from where you can fly back to your homeland.
Flights that shorten the travel/drive time
- Fly north to Casas Grandes from whichever airport you enter Mexico at, to start the journey. That airport, as shown on the above map, is Ciudad Juarez International Airport. Then drive back to that airport to fly to Chihuaha, which is the closest airport to Copper Canyon.
- Copper Canyon
Closest airport is in Chihuahua
Interestingly enough, the maps indicate you might just want to drive from Casas Grandes to Copper Canyon instead of flying.
Here’s the flight time:
And here’s the drive time:
- To the next landmark: Zacatecas
With such a surprisingly long flight time though, you are really only gaining 2.5 hours, which you probably lose in wait time at the airport anyway, as shown in the following map.
- Because Acapulco is a bit out of the way, I might simply choose to fly to Acapulco from Mexico City at the start of the trip.
It’s only a 1-hour flight, but replaces over 5 hours of driving.
With all those drives cut out, the journey then becomes this:
First Part of the trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Second Part of the trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
That’s already a reduction of 21 hours. Granted, some of that time will be spent at the airport, wait times, drive times to airports and back, etc., but it’s 21 hours less spent in a car.
Airports in Mexico
This following map should give you more ideas, in case you want to further reduce the drive time to lesser time spent in a car.
Notice how you can also fly to the next landmark, Mazatlan, and later in the itinerary you can cut out drives to Puebla, Oaxaca, Merida, Cancun and Cozumel.
One thing to always keep in mind of course, is that for every flight you add, the trip becomes more expensive. You can save hours on the road, but you add an extra (sometimes significant) expense to the vacation.
- No roads to Copper Canyon showing
Micronesia
This is where Micronesia is
On Pohnpei Island
Location of Black Coral Island
Chuuk Lagoon
It’s about an hour and 20 minutes flying from Pohnpei
Kosrae
It’s about an hour and 15 minutes flying from Pohnpei
Moldova
From Tipova Monastery, the last landmark on the trip, it’s less than a 2-hour drive back to the international airport where you entered the country at the start of the journey in Moldova.
Monaco
Mongolia
Mongolia’s international airport is about a 45-minute drive away from the capital city.
Mapping out Mongolia is really challenging. It’s a pretty large country with vast areas of remote, rugged nature without roads. Because of that, there are 3 landmarks in the book, which Google can’t find or show roads to. First, here are the landmarks that Google does show roads towards.
The 3 landmarks that Google can’t show roads for are:
- Amarbayasgalant Monastery
If I move the monastery location to the road shown closest to the monastery on the map, a location named Khushaat shows up.
Here’s the distance from Khushaat to the monastery
- Khongoryn Els
If I move the location of Khongory Els down a bit to where I hit a road, Google maps shows that location as Sevrei
Within the full journey, it looks like this.
- The Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain
As you can tell from this following map showing both the capital and the Burkhan Khaldun Mountain locations, there’s isn’t really any close-by road access to the mountain.
Enlarging those above 3 maps, you should be able to get a sense of where those locations are in relationship to the landmarks on the first map posted above.
Shortening the drive
The Altai Tavan Bogd National Park is pretty far out. I might try to fly into an airport in North China, Altay Airport, about 54 miles (87km) south of the park.
As you can tell, Google maps is not showing any roads from that airport to the park either, which means that it might be a drive of a couple of hours given the terrain and lack of roads leading to the park.
Not accounting for that drive from the airport to the park, flying into that airport, would shave off a whopping 24 hours of driving from the trajectory shown in the first map.
If you rather stay within the Mongolian borders, the closest airport to the Altai Tavan Bogd National Park is Ölgii Airport, about 3 hours away (139km)
Thankfully, as shown in the map, there actually are roads from that airport to the park that Google can find. Flying into that airport, you’d drive about 6 hours back and forth between the airport and the park, BUT, you’d save 24 hours in the overall trajectory. Accounting for those 6 hours (from Ölgii Airport to the park and back), you’d save 18 hours in drive time overall.
If you want to cut out the long drive to the Darkhad Valley, alas, the closest airport are almost 6-hour drives away.
and
With the drive back, you’re almost better off just sticking to this driving trajectory:
Although without the drive from the above map, you get this
Kharkhorin has an airport. If you fly into that airport, the journey becomes this:
It looks like this is the closest airport to Delüün Boldog
And this is the closest airport to the Khamariin Khiid Monastery,
This map of the airports in Mongolia should help
- Amarbayasgalant Monastery
Montenegro
Morocco
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
I would probably drive the whole journey, because that is what I love to do.
If you would love to shorten the drive time, you can fly into some destinations. Here are the airports in Morocco.
Note that you could fly from Casablanca, to Rabat to Tangier.
Rabat Airport
Tangier Airport
When you cut out those drives, you get:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Of course, while you save hours in less driving, you miss out on the drive along Morocco’s coastline, which I gather might cover some pretty gorgeous stretches.
I might also fly into one of the airports in the Western Sahara to go explore that section of the country for a couple of days.
Mozambique
If you drive the whole journey.
If you want much less driving, fly into Tete, drive to the island. After visiting the island, drive north to Nacala Airport for a flight back to Maputo
If you want less driving than that, you can fly from Tete to Nacala Airport. The only driving you do then during the whole trip, is from Nacala Airport to the island, and back upon departure from the island back to Maputo.
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
In case the info on Google Maps (when you click on the More options” link in the above map) is not correct (wrong trajectory info, missing landmarks), use following link instead. The Drive in Nepal (minus Gosaikunda Lake and Namche Bazaar
Two landmarks that are in the book are not included in the above map: Gosaikunde Lake and Namche Bazaar. You see why in the following map: there is no road to access the landmark.
Gosaikunda Lake
As you can tell from the map: when I enter Kathmandu and the lake, Google is unable to give me directions because there is no road that leads to the lake.
There is, however, a road showing on the map, about 6.60 mi (10.63 km) west of Gosaikunda Lake. That is the closest access point to the lake. If I drag the marker that shows the location for Gosaikunda Lake to that access road: Google shows that location as Pasang Lhamu Highway, which is about 4.5 hours (103km) away from the Kathmandu.
Here’s the link showing the same map on the Google Maps website:
Kathmandu to the road that is closest to Gosaikunda Lake
The closest town is Dhunche
There are trails from there or close by Dhunche to the lake.
Namche Bazaar
Same situation with this location in Nepal: Google can’t give directions from Kathmandu to Namche Bazaar because there is no road to Namche Bazaar.
If I drag the marker that shows where Namche Bazaaar is, down 17.88 mi (28.78 km) south to the road shown on Google maps that is closest to Namche Bazaar, the map shows that that location (Dudhakunda) is only 279km away from the capital Kathmandu, but that takes 8.5 hours of driving.
Here’s the link that shows the above map correctly on the Google Maps website.
Kathmandu to the road that is closest to Namche Bazaar
Adding in these two locations, gives the complete itinerary of all landmarks listed in the book.
To open up that map on the Google Maps website, use this link: The Complete Trip in Nepal
Shortening the drive
Phaplu airport is close by Dudhakunde (Namche Bazaar).
If you cut out that drive to Dudhakunde, it shortens the drive as follows:
Here’s the link:The Trip in Nepal Minus the drive to Namche Bazaar
You could also replace the drive to the Sri Muktinah Temple with a flight
Without that drive, you save more than 10 hours
Here’s the link that opens up the above map on Google Maps
The Trip in Nepal Minus the drives to Namche Bazaar and Sri Muktinah
Netherlands
New Zealand
If you were to drive the whole journey to all landmarks:
Missing on the above map: Te Wahipounamu
As you can see on the following map: there are no access roads to this location.
But, thankfully, there IS to Milford sound, which is mentioned in the book as a landmark worth visiting in the Te Wahipounamu region.
There is also an airport in Milford sound, so you could fly into the area.
The following map shows the trip with Milford Sound added in the journey
Click on this link to open up the above map on Google Maps accurately: The Complete New Zealand Trip
To cut down on the time driving, you could divide the trip up in 2 sections, centered around Auckland and Christchurch. The following 2 maps show this.
Auckland
Christchurch
Nicaragua
In case the Google Maps website doesn’t depict the map as shown above, click on following link:
Niger
W-Arly-Pendjari National Park Complex of Niger
To drive from Agadez to visit the Air and Ténéré Natural Reserves, the following is recommended:
- Drive with a couple of cars for safety reasons and support
- Carry 285 liters of diesel per vehicle, when leaving Agadez.
- 80 litters of water.
- Then there’s also luggage, spare parts, sand ladders, spare tyres and food.
Most travel agencies in Niger are not willing to provide a guide for a short tour of the Ténéré desert for a couple of days. They all want to book longer +7day tours. There is, of course, more money in that.
If you’d like to experience a full Sahara vacation with an extended tour, Google “tour the tenere desert in niger”
The travel agency insisted we must carry 285 litres of diesel per vehicle, when leaving Agadez. Fuelling and stowing the 570 litres for the two cars took quite some time. With four persons (including the guide) in our car, 285 l of fuel, 80 litters of water, the luggage, spare parts, sand ladders, spare tyres and food, the car was fully loaded.
Nigeria
To get back home at the end of the trip, catch a flight in the closest airport in Maiduguri, to Nigeria’s International Airport.
There is an airport closer in north Cameroon, Maroua Salak Airport, which is only about a 2.5hr drive away. However: I couldn’t find good info on that airport, which led me to suspect it might not serve Nigeria.
If you want to shorten the travel time a lot and drive much less, you could fly from
Zaria to Kano
From Kano to MaiduguriNorway
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Instead of driving all the way back to Oslo, fly back.
You would do so from Alta Airport, only about a 10-minute drive from the last landmark.
That reduced the drive as shown in the following map:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
From Oslo you can fly to the Lofoten Islands
You’d think that it would be smarter to fly there from the Alta Airport, because that is closer, but the following map shows how that is a much longer flight
On the other hand, if you fly from Alta to Lofoten Islands, and then to Oslo after visiting the islands, that is one flight less.
Alta to Lofoten to Oslo, instead of Alta to Oslso to Lofoten to Oslo.
Oman
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
This following map shows some of the UNESCO listed towns with Aflaj Irrigation systems.
The Wahiba Sands
Empty Quarter
I’m providing the above desert information in case you can’t get enough of it and want more desert adventures. I will probably stick with the first 19 landmarks in the book. So much of the drives between those landmarks is in the desert, I think just that might be enough to satisfy my need for desert adventure.
Ways to shorten the drive
Fly into Salalah Airport.
Visit the landmarks in that area
Then fly back to Muscat for the following drive:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Another long drive is the one to the Oman Fjords. There is an airport near that location too
Just these couple of flights make a vast difference, as the following new itinerary shows.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
A smart plan: upon arrival in Oman, fly first to go visit the fjords, from there then fly to Salalah in the south, then fly back to Muscat to start the much-shortened roadtrip from there.
Pakistan
Upon arrival in Islamabad, fly north to Gilgit Airport, rent a car, and drive to the first landmark, the Hunza Valley.
The rest of the trip from there, if you were to drive it all, looks like this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
To save some drive time, rather than driving from Karachi to Hingol National Park, you can fly from Karachi to Ormara Aiport, and drive from there to the national park.
Palau
On Babeldaob & Koror
Milky Way
Best way to experience and get to the Milky Way, is with a local tour
A fun 5-6hr tour that includes swimming in the Milky Way Lake
Palestine
Panama
Drive to the airport at the end of the trip.
Papua New Guinea
To Madang
To Lake Kutubu
Flight to Mount Tavurvur
Flight from the airport at Fort Moresby to the Kuk Swamp
To Goroka
Kitava Island
Not a whole lot of driving here. It’s mostly flying around to visit all the different destinations.
- Port Moresby to Goroka (50min flight, same island), and back.
- Port Moresby to Madang (1hr flight, same island), and back.
- Port Moresby to Kuk Swamp (1hr flight, same island), and back.
- Port Moresby to Tavurvur (1.5hr flight, Island of New Britain), and back.
- Mount Tavurvur to Kimbe Bay (50min flight), and back. Fly from here, Tokua Airport, back to the main island to:
- Lake Kutubu (and fly from here back to Port Moresby)
Paraguay
Peru
Unless you have a lot of free time to do this, and/or you absolutely LOVE driving and doing road trips, you probalbly would not want to drive this whole following journey, starting and ending at Lima airport.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
A more efficient travel plan would unfold if you flew to one of the airports closest to the most northern or most southern landmarks, upon arrival in Peru, and then drive the whole journey form there.
For Mancora, there are 2 airports.
and
For Arequipa in south Peru
Or from Puno in south Peru
The plan I might follow: fly from Lima, upon arrival in Peru, north to Mancora, have a road trip from there to the southern landmarks, and fly back from there back to Lima, as shown in the following map.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Google Maps shows there are no road to Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is located northwest of the Sacred Valley. Coming from north, you’d fit a visit to Machu Picchu into the itinerary between Nazca Lines and the Sacred Valley. (That is how it is mapped out in the book Landmark Travels).
Shorten the drive with more flights
You could cut out the drive between Nazca and Cusco.
Nazca Airport.
Cusco Airport.
That cuts the whole drive into the following 2 drives
and
That saves another 13-14 hours.
Philippines
Luzon Island
This is what it looks like when you drive to all landmarks.
It’s a ton of driving only to see a couple of landmarks. There is an airport pretty close by the Mayon Volcano: Bicol International Airport. It’s only about an hour drive from the volcano.
To save a vast amount of time on the road, you could fly domestically into Bicol Aiport upon arrival in Manila Airport from your homeland, and then drive everything else from the volcano all the up way up north to the last landmark. The following shows that trajectory. Notice how this saves you 10 hours less driving.
Another scenario, is to fly from Manila International Airport to Bicol, visit the volcano, then fly back from Bicol to Manila. That cuts out that whole drive, as shown in the following map. (Only about 17.5 hours of driving).
The outer most northern landmark, Vigan City, has an airport that is only about a 10-minute drive away from Vigan City, Mindoro Airport (also called Vigan Airport).
You could fly from Manila to Vigan Airport, visit the landmark there, and the rice terraces in Banaue, then fly from Vigan Airport to Bicol Airport and visit the Mayon Volcano, then fly back from there to Manila. The only driving you’d then have is from Vigan to Banaue and back, from Bicol Airport to the Mayon Volcano and back, and around Manila to visit its landmarks.
From Vigan to Banaue and back is still a good 16.5 hours of driving though.
You could of course also fly to the airport closest to Banaue, but that still comes with a 5-hour drive (Airport to Banaue, and back to the airport)
For only a bit of extra driving, you could just drive all the way to Vigan then, and you’ll see more of the country, than you do driving back and forth for 5 hours between Banaue and its nearest airport. You could then fly from Vigan airport to Manila.
Because I love driving and exploring a country by car, and also because of how much driving it still takes even if you fly into an airport close to Banaue (Bagabag Airport, 2.5hrs from Banaue), my preferred travel plan would be:
- Arrive at the international airport in Manila. Visit the city for a couple of days to recover from the flight.
- Book a domestic flight to Bicol Airport, to go visit the Mayon Volcano.
- Rent a car and drive all the way north through the island to Manila again, then on to Banaue, Sagada, and Vigan.
- Book a domestic flight from Vigan airport back to Manila.
It’s about 29 hours of driving.
While I think that is what I would do, there is always the likelihood that I might suddenly dread long stretches of driving highways without all that much to see. That is the beauty of having all the above airport information and drives available on the site here with direct access to these worked out maps on your phone: it gives you the freedom to change your mind and do whatever you feel like while on the ground there, without having to go through the hassle of having to figure things out while there.
The places to visit in Sagada (on Luzon, a bit north of Banaue)
Hundred Islands National Park
Corregidor Island
Coron Island
Palawan Island
Cebu Island
Bohol Island
Poland
Portugal
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Madeira (Archipelago)
The Azores Archipelago
Azores to Lisbon
Qatar
If you want to look into sight-seeing tours:
Romania
Russian Federation
Kizhi Pogost
This landmark is located on an island in west Russia: Kizhi Island
You can fly to it from St. Petersburg
From there, Petrozavodsk, Kizhi Island is about two hours by hydrofoil boat.
The Solovetski Islands
This archipelago lies further north, but in west Russia as well.
To get to the Solovetski Islands, you can fly from St. Petersburg to Arkhangelsk
But that doesn’t really get you anywhere because you then still have this following drive:
Which is silly, because it takes less time to actually just drive the whole trajectory from St. Petersburg
Depending on how I feel the moment I am there, and how much time I have available to travel, I might skip Solovetski Islands all together.
Luckily, there IS yet another option. You could just rent a car at the airport in Petrozavodsk (that you flew into to get to Kizhi Island) and continue on from there to the Solovetski Islands
Then drive back to that Petrozavodsk to catch a plane back from there to St. Petersburg.
The Golden Ring
I’d fit this in as a trip within the trip, when I arrive at Moscow.
The rest of the road trip by car
If you were crazy enough to drive the whole journey: this is what the most efficient route looks like:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
For this journey to work, you’d:
- Fly to St. Petersburg from whatever airport you entered the country at.
- First visit the 2 islands as outlined above.
- Get back to St. Petersburg, rent a car, and start the drive following the above map of landmarks.
- Fly back home (or to whatever international airport in the country that will get you home) from the international airport in Vladivostok.
Ways to shorten the drive
Here are the airports in Russia
The last 4 locations on the list all have a nearby airport
To Yekaterinburg
To Listvyanka
To Natsional’nyy Park “Lenskiye Stolby” (Lena Pillars)
And finally, Vladivostok has an airport
If you connect these 4 locations with domestic flights, then the drive (not accounting for trips between airports and landmarks) becomes this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
To make it even better: cut out the drive to Derbent by flying into it from Moscow.
And the new drive without Derbent becomes this:
Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Kitts
The two islands are separated by a 2 mile channel. If you arrive in St Kitts, you can take a short taxi journey from the airport to the ferry port and take the 45 minute scenic ferry ride to Nevis. The ferry goes twice daily. Check times with the Ministry of Communications.
Nevis
Both combined
Saint Kitts and Nevis (Wikipedia)
Airports in Saint Kitts and Nevis (Wikipedia)
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
On St. Vincent
Port Elizabeth
Mayreau
Samoa
Savai’i and Upolu
The Blowholes
In Upolu
San Marino
Here’s a link to the correct mapped out journey on Google Maps, in case the Google Maps website displays something different from the above map when accessed from its embedded link.
São Tomé and Principe
The trip on São Tomé
Sao Tome and Principe (Wikipedia)
Saudi Arabia
This following map shows the shortest, most efficient route for those would like to drive through Saudi Arabia
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
It’s a lot of hours driving, which luckily, can be reduced a lot with flights.
Damman has an airport
This covers following landmarks.
Abha has an aiport too
That takes care of the landmarks in that area
Even better: rather than driving from Abha to Hima Cultural Center, fly from Abha into Najran Domestic Airpot, which is only minutes away from Hima.
With these landmarks covered by flights, gives the following, much shorter drive
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
There are also airports in Medina and Tabuk. So you could make the drive even shorter if you so desire.
Senegal
Senegal’s main international airport is about a 2-hour drive away from the capital city Dakar.
The trip starting and ending at that airport, looks like this
In case the Google site doesn’t show the above map (or complete list of 12 stops on the itinerar) correctly, here’s the link that fixes that The Complete trip in Senegal
The Island of Goree
Shorten the drive
Two remote locations on the trip, happen to have an airport: Niokolo-Koba Airport and Ziguinchor Airport. Even better: those 2 locations follow one another on the trip. The drive only takes 24 hours anymore when you fly into these two places.
Serbia
The whole trip starting and ending in Belgrade
Google Maps link to The Trip in Serbia
There’s an airport in Subotica, but you don’t gain anything by flying into Subotica, as that merely takes off 2 hours off the drive time. All locations are close enough from one another, to the point where flying to any of the locations almost becomes a waste of time on the journey.
Seychelles
Mahé
St. Anne National Marine Park
The Aldabra Atoll
Praslin
Sierra Leone
Singapore
With so many destinations on this trip, I doubt that the Google Maps website will show all of them when you click on the embedded link in the above map.
You can use this following link instead to get the full itinerary accurately mapped out.Slovakia
Slovenia
The Complete Slovenia Trip on Google Maps
At the end of the trip, Piran, you can catch a plane back from there to the international airport where you enter the country
An option that involves less driving
You could fly into Maribor’s international airport from Ljubljana, visit Maribor, then fly back, and start the drive from Ljubljana.
Solomon Islands
Honiara
Munda
Roviana
East Rennell
Pavuvu Island (Russell Islands)
Somalia
Somalia a pretty darn big country. If you’d drive to all the way to all destinations, you’d be driving 33 hours.
That is not including the long drive back, which would add up to almost 60 hours of driving. Some of the drive runs over Ethiopia.You’d think that if you instead, flew from Mogadishu to the airport closest (Garowe International Airport) to the next 3 destinations in north Somalia, that you’d save a ton of time. As the following map shows, that is still 25 hours of driving (not including the drive back)
The best solution?
From your home-country: fly into Mogadishu, stay there a couple of days to explore the city. From there, fly to Djibouti, and start the rest of the Somalia journey from Djibouti’s International Aiport. Only 13.5 hours of driving, 567km/352mi. (not including the drive back to Djibouti’s airport)
You can then just fly back to your homestead from Djibouti’s airport.If you want to road-trip it to Mogadishu, you’d have the following journey ahead:
Or you can of course also start in Mogadishu, and do this whole above trip in reverse, with ending stop at Djibouti’s International Airport.
Laas Geel
South Africa
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Robben Island
Robben Island is a must-visit during your stay in Cape Town. That is where you would fit a visit to Robben Island in the above, mapped out itinerary. There are daily ferries that depart from Nelson Mandela Gateway, at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.
Airports in South Africa (Wikipedia)
Here are the airports in South Africa.
Shorten the drive
First visit the landmarks around Johannesburg
You could then fly into Aggeneys Airport FAAG, to visit Richtersveld.
Then fly from there to Cape Town Airport. This following map shows how many hours you save not driving that distance
This is what the rest of the journeu looks like if you drive from Cape Town
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Or you could drive around Cape Town, and then fly to Durban (King Shaka International Airport).
The airport is a short drive from Durban
You then only have this section to drive:
Spain
First part of the trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Second part of the trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Balearic Islands
Best way to visit the islands, is by flight from Barcelona
Canary Islands
There are flights from Majorca to Tenerife
Sri Lanka
South Sudan
If you were to drive the whole journey (This is not including the drive back to Juba):
Flight to Raga Airport, close to Deim Zubeir
Flight To Bentiu Airport, close to Sudd
Because I hand-drew the travel path on the above map, Google maps might be showing it incorrectly on the Google website when you click on the link embedded in the above map.
If so, following link shows the correct drive:Sudan
The Naqa sites
For those who rather fly than drive that much:
Then you’d only drive this:
Suriname
With the drive back to the airport:
Central Suriname Nature Reserve
Airports in Suriname (Wikipedia)
Ticket & Info Inquiries for the Central Suriname Nature Reserve
Swaziland
Sweden
Upon arrival in Stockholm, catch a connecting domestic flight all the way north to Kiruna Airport, a 13-minute drive from the Ice Hotel.
From there, the following trip unfolds:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Birka Island and Hovgarden Island
The island of Birka is best visited along with the nearby island of Hovgarden (inlcuded in the above travel map), between Drottningholm Palace and Kneippbyn (Pippi Longstocking home)
Switzerland
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
The one landmark missing in the above itinerary is Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch.
I’d go visit this after the Gemmi Pass, and before driving to Lauterbrunnen.
Syria
Sometimes the Google Maps page that opens up when clicking on “More options” in a map that has such large number of destinations entered (as the map above),has landmarks missing.
The fix, click on this link instead: The Complete Trip in SyriaYou can shorten the 26 hours of driving by replacing some of the drives between landmarks with flights. There are airports in Tartus, Aleppo, Deir ez-Zur and Palmyra. You can drive the journey to Deir ez-Zur and then travel the rest of the journey flying from Deir ez-Zur into Palmyra and from Palmyra into the airport in Damascus, from where you can fly back home.
It’s only a couple of miles south of Lauterbrunnen.
Tajikistan
Adding in the drive that gets you as close as possible to Tajik National Park via main roads:
Adding in the drive back to the airport/Dushanbe, you get a nice loop around the country.
Tanzania
To start the trip, book your flight from your home country, to Zanzibar International Airport. After exploring Zanzibar, fly from there to the international airport in Dar es Salaam.
The complete remainder of the trip from airport to airport
If you prefer a bit less driving, cut the whole route into 2 sections (see following 2 maps), and fly from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma.
First section
From Julius International Airport fly to Dodoma Airport, for the start of the 2nd section of the trip
It’s still a combined 28 hours of driving, but you save 8 hours.
You can possible further diminish the hours in your car by covering more stretches of the trip by plane.
Here are the airports:Airports in Tanzania (Wikipedia)
Serengeti National Park Travel Info
Ngorongoro National Park Travel Info (Check the reviews for guide contact info)
Thailand
This is the drive
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
James Bond Island: Koh Phi Phi.
To Shorten the Drive
Fly into Phuket instead of driving
That takes care of these two landmarks
Then fly back from Phuket to the airport in Bangkok to end your trip.
Without that drive to Phuket:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
You can also cut out the drives starting from Chiang Mai (Chiang Mai Airport), to Chiang Rai (Chiang Rai Airport) to Ban Chiang (Udon Thani Airport). In other words: upon arrival by car in Chiang Mai, you can just fly into your next location and then fly from there to the next.
If you want even less driving, fly from Udon Thani Airport (Ban Chiang landmark) to Bangkok Airport. Rent a car and drive to the nearby remaning landmarks: Pha Kluai Mai and Pattaya City. Then drive back to Bangkok Airport to fly to Phuket.
Togo
You can greatly cut down that drive time if you just fly into one of the 2 airports in the north.
• Djangou Airport in Djangou
• Sansanné-Mango Airport in MangoHere they are:
By cutting out the long drive from north to south, the whole trip would divide into two sections, as shown in following two maps:
First section
Second section
or
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad
Tobago
Both combined
Tunisia
Turkey
It’s a large country with a vast, impressive history, and a ton to see. That is why I needed 2 maps to be able to depict the whole journey. Here are the 2 maps.
The first part of the trip
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
The remainder of the trip
The airports in Turkey
This is helpful information in case you would like to shorten the travel time with some flights.
You could fly from Istanbul to Bursa.
Then fly from Bursa to Izmir, from where you can visit/drive all the landmarks on Turkey’s west coast.
Then fly from Antalya to Konya Airport.
You basically follow the airports along the direction of the landmarks in the above maps.Turkmenistan
The following two destinations don’t have roads on Google Maps, which is why they’re not showing on the above map.
Gonur Tepe
Dekhistan
To get to Dehistan, keep driving past Kow Ata
The Google Maps site won’t depict this correctly when accessed from the “More options” embedded link in the above map. The following link fixes that.
With the added drive to Dehistan
Dekhistan is just a couple of of km/miles north of where the blue line stops. You need to go off-road there up north with a 4×4.
Gonur Tepe, is a short drive north off-road from Ancient Merv.
Airports in Turkmenistan (Wikipedia)
Airports in Turkmenistan
To cut down on the overall drive time you could cover some of the distance by air.
Dashoguz Airport, Turkmenistan (Международный аэропорт Дашогуз) is close to Köneürgench in the north.
Mary Airport is very close to Merv
When you fly to these 2 locations, and then fly from Mary Airport to Ashgabat, the only driving you have is:
Use the following link to access this correct travel path on the Google website
Tuvalu
Motulalo and Funafuti
Uganda
The Ssese Islands
Airports in Uganda (Wikipedia)
Airports in Uganda
You can tell from this above map, that you can greatly shorten the drive time, by flying into
- Mbarara Airport, instead of driving to Lake Bunyonyi (in the west)
- Jinja Airport in the east, instead of driving to Jinja
Upon arrival in Entebbe, you could fly to Mbarara Airport, rent a car and drive to Lake Bunyonyi from there.
Then drive back to the airport and catch a flight to Jinja Airport, then from there fly back to Entebbe, and drive to the rest of the destinations on the trip.Ukraine
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
When you start the trip, by first flying to Odessa to visit that city after you explored Kiev, and they fly back to Kiev to drive the rest of the trip, the journey minus the Odessa drive becomes this:
United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates (Wikipedia)
Airports in United Arab Emirates (Wikipedia)
Airports in UAE
United Kingdom
Fly into Aberdeen in Scotland to start the following amazing journey.
First Part of the trip in the U.K.
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Second Part of the trip
United States
Arizona
California
Los Angeles
Sometimes the Google website chokes on maps that have more than 10 locations. If so, following link will show the correct listing of landmarks on Google maps, as shown and outlined in the above map.
Catalina Island
San Francisco
Hearst Castle in San Simeon
If you would like to drive to the 4 main locations listed for California.
Note that Long Beach, which I added on the above map, is where you take a ferry to Catalina Island.
Colorado
If you drive the whole trajectory
You can greatly shorten that drive if you fly in Cortez (CEZ) Airport, close to Mesa Verde National Park.
Without the drive to Mesa Verde
You can also fly into Aspen, and cut out that drive.
That leaves only this.
Florida
If you rather minimize the driving, following 2 maps show how you can divvy up the trip in 2 sections, with flights between Miami and Orlando.
Miami section
Orlando section
Hawaii
Pearl Harbor and Honolulu are on the same island.
Hawaii Volcanos National Park
Illinois
Chicago
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
To avoid having to drive all the way back from Cahokia State Park up north again to Chicago, you can fly from the nearby St. Louis Airport
Kentucky
An even better option is:
Louisiana
Instead of driving back to New Orleans airport from Poverty Point, you can drive to the closer Shreveport Airport.
The Mississippi River Delta
Massachusetts
Michigan
Detroit
If you also want to hang out at Lake Michigan’s beaches
Of course, instead of driving all the way back to Detroit’s airport, from Lake Michigan, you could also drive to this much closer airport
You could also opt to explore and hang out at the much closer (to Detroit) Lake Huron and Lake Erie beaches.
Minnesota
Mississippi
As you can tell from the below map, most of the Mississippi Delta, actually falls in Louisiana.
Nevada
Las Vegas has its own airport.
New York
New York City
Niagara Falls. It’s probably best to fly into Niagara Falls International Airport. It’s about a 7-hour drive from NYC.
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Puerto Rico
South Carolina
South Dakota
International travelers enter South Dakota at Sioux Falls Airport.
As the following maps shows, unfortunately, just driving from that airport to Mount Rushmore and back, takes a whopping 11 hours of driving
You save a couple of hours if you fly into Wyoming Airport.
The best option is to fly into the regional airport of Rapid City. That airport is only 1.5 hours away from the monument.
Tennessee
Nashville
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Memphis
Nashville and Memphis are only 3 hours a apart
There’s an airport close by the Smoky Mountains Park
You could drive it all. Fly into Memphis, visit Memphis, drive to Nashville, fly to the Smoky Mountains Park, fly from there back home.
Texas
If you drive to all landmarks
You could also fly into Houston and Austin. Both cities have airports.
Utah
The below journey takes 12.5 hours of driving. It starts in Salt Lake City, which is where the main airport of Utah is, and ends at the Flaggstaff Airport in Arizona.
If you stay within the state, and drive back to Salt Lake City after visiting Monument Valley, then the drive takes 16 hours.
Virginia
If you were to drive the whole trajectory starting and ending at the same airport
The following journey is a much better plan. Instead of driving back north, catch a flight at the airport closest to the last landmark.
Washington
Seattle
Clicking on “More Options” in the above map might open up a Google Maps webpage with missing landmarks or info. Here’s the fix: The Seattle Trip
Washington D.C.
In case the Google Maps website (that opens up when you click on “More Options”) chokes on displaying the more than 10 landmarks correctly that are shown on the above map, the following link fixes that.
Uruguay
You can cut out some of the drive time by flying to Punta Del Diablo instead of driving there. This divides the trip into two sections, as shown in following 2 maps:
Or you can fly to Fray Bentos
For the least amount of driving, fly to Fray Bentos Airport, then after your visit, fly to the airport close to Punta Del Diablo, then drive to Monntevideo and Colonia del Sacramento.
As it happens, there’s also an airport right next to the Colonia Del Sacramento destination: Laguna de los Patos International Airport. When you also cut out that drive, you get this:
In this set up, you fly upon arrival at Montevideo airport to Colonia Del Sacramento, from there to Fray Bentos, from there to the Treinta y Tres Airport, rent a car, drive to Punta Del Sol and Montevideo. In the first two stops, you can just get around with a cab from the airport.
Airports in Uruguay (Wikipedia)
Airports in Uruguay
Uzbekistan
You greatly reduce the amount spend on the road, if you fly into Urgench International Airport in west Uzbekistan.
That would only leave this drive
But you could shorten it more. There is an airport in Bukhara. So instead of driving from Khiva to Bukhara, you could fly into it, that reduces the time and distance on the road to this:
Termez International Airport is very close to Fayaz Tepe, so you can cut out that drive too from Bukhara
Samarkand has an airport too, which cuts out the drive form Fayaz Tepe to Samarkand. You can fly from Termez Airport to Samarkand Airport. This reduces the drive to this:
You could also choose to fly from Samarkand to Tashkent instead of driving. This breaks up the remainder of the trip in 2 sections, as shown in following 2 maps.
and
In case you’re interested in what I would do, I love exploring a country up-close, by car. I would do the whole trip as in the first map, but fly back from Urgench International Airport at the end of the trip instead of driving back all the way to Tashkent, as shown here:
Airports in Uzbekistan (Wikipedia)
Airports in Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
The location of Luganville and Efate
Efate
Espiritu Santo
Vatican City
Venezuela
This following map shows the Venezuela trip without Mount Roraima and without the Orinoco Delta, which are remote areas off of the beaten track.
Los Roques National Park on the Los Roques Archipelago.
To visit this island group, fly into Los Roques Airport.
For the 2 locations that Google can’t find or show roads for:
Mount Roraima
The road closest to Mt. Roraima, is shown on Google Maps as “Troncal-10”
If I draw the road up till there:
Orinoco Delta
No access roads anywhere close to it, but there is an Orinocoa Delta National Park. More info here: Orinocoa Delta National Park Info
The closest access road to the Orinoco Delta Park is Troncal 15
When I add in these 2 locations (Troncal 10 and Troncal 15) with the rest of the landmarks in Venezuela, this becomes the complete journey:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
The longest drive between landmarks:
That is a distance I probably would want to travel by plane.
Luckily, there is an airport only minutes away from Merida
And Ciudad Bolivar has its airport too
That cuts out over a 1000 kilometers of driving.
From there (Ciudad Bolivar), you can fly to Canaima Airport to visit the next landmark, instead of driving there.
From here, Canaima Park, you can drive to the Mount Roraima park area, and back.
From Canaima Airport, you can fly into Tucupita Airport.
With those drives replaced by flights, you now get following 2 shorter sections:
from Merida is where you continue to the next landmarks with flights, as outlined in the previous maps. From the Orinoco airport, fly back to Cuidad Bolivar, rent a car there, and continue the rest of the journey as shown in the next map.
The time on the road can be shortened even more, by flying into Coro, etc. Here’s a map showing the airport in Venezuela
Vietnam
When you drive the whole journey, that looks like this:
Here’s the link that opens the above map on Google Maps
Ways to reduce the drive time
Drive up to the landmark Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, and after visiting that, catch a plan at the nearby Dong Hoi Airport.
From there you can fly to Hué Airport, visit the Imperial City Hué, then drive back to its airport, and fly from there to Da Nang.
This cuts out this whole drive:
I probably would drive it all, because I would love to truly explore Vietnam, and because a significant part of the 7 hours you save driving less, get lost anyway waiting for connecting flights in airports. I much rather be out and about seeing the country, than waiting inside airport buildings.
Yemen
To shave off many hours on the road, consider catching a flight from Aden Airport (in the south) to Marib Airport (the last destination), then catch a flight from there back to Sanaa.
Socotra Island
More airport info
Yemen is currently in a civil war and Sanaa airport is out of commission and prohibited to be used for international travel by a military led intervention of the Saudis who back the Yemeni government against the Houthi rebels.
Zambia
If you were to drive the whole journey, starting and ending in Lusaka, the journey looks like this:
With a flight to Lake Tanganyika instead of driving.
With a flight to Lake Tanganyika and no visit to the South Luangwa National Park
Airports in Zambia (Wikipedia)
Airports in Zambia
Zimbabwe
That trip doesn’t have the Victoria Falls included. Because that adds yet another long drive, I would fly into Livingstone Airport, which is close by the falls.
If you would wanna drive it all, this is your best trajectory:
Use this following link to open up the above map on Google maps:
The Zimbabwe full journey by car
There are a ton of eco-tourism/wildlife/nature parks in Africa. Unless that is what you are really into, you could possibly leave Mana Pools out of this trip. This further reduces the driving: