The process of planning a trip around the world – or any long term travel for that matter – can be as simple as getting on a plan or as complicated as a couple of month’s worth of planning and preparation. For us, it was somewhere between the two.
Where to go
The answer “everywhere” is natural of course if you’re like us. But it’s a useless one. So we narrowed it down with a few criteria:
- Is it hard to reach. It doesn’t make much sense to travel someplace if you could experience it while employed using a regular 2 or 3 week block of time. Destinations like the USA and most of Europe are ruled out here.
- Is it expensive. Again, to travel the world for a year can be done cheaply but it takes a lot more effort if you’re in the first world verses the third. Japan is out here.
- Is it safe. We know our limits. We’re not career reporters that have a lot of front line battlefield experience. And honestly, We are not looking for that. So for now, much of the middle east is going to have to wait.
- Have we been there already. We didn’t want to get to a lot of the destinations we’ve already been to. France and India are out for this reason.
How to get there
An RTW trip doesn’t have to use an RTW ticket such as those that are offered from vendors like One World. In fact, it doesn’t really have to take you completely “around the world” at all. In our case, we are splitting the trip into two legs. The first leg will travel from Toronto (our home base) to Sydney Australia. It will have two open layovers. That means while technically our flight is a simple round trip ticket, we will be able to get off in Bangkok for three months to explore South East Asia before continuing on to Sydney. We’ll do the same trick in London to get over to Rome and then onwards to South Africa. The second leg will be a flight into Brazil and out of Peru with significant overland travel in between. In both cases, we are using the services of The Adventure Travel company to take care of all the difficult planning of the flights, tours and so forth. Jeff, our rep, has been great and I really recommend working with him and The Adventure Travel company again.
An RTW ticket can be very effective if you are interested in hitting the major hubs and aren’t planning on deviating from the “canned” packages significantly For example, Virgin Atlantic has a very cheap RTW ticket but it only visits the major hubs: London, Sydney, Hong Kong, Los Angeles. But if those locations are generally what you’re looking for then it may be a great option.
The last option, if money is not a problem and you’re a bit older and prefer the comfort of a cozy bed, is a cruise liner. These tend to be relatively fast (the longer trips are around 100 days). They tend to be much more expensive and very structured but what a thrill it is to see a huge chunk of the world with all of the details taken care of for you. Try World Cruise Central for some ideas.
How to pay for it
This is what everyone wants to know: how are you going to be able to afford all of this traveling? This is actually easier than you might think but does take some planning.
- Save money. Setup an automatic savings account and have it drop $100 or so in every week or so.
- Pick your destinations carefully. Getting to Laos from North America is not cheap. But once you are there, the on the ground costs can be as low as $20 per day. Try doing that in Rome.
- Stay with family or friends. Keeping your accommodation expenses down is key. Stay with friends or family. Explore your second degree network to see if anyone would let you stay for a few days.
- Eat local. Once you’re on the ground, don’t eat at the fancy restaurants. Try the food stalls or local food shops.
- Sell your belongings. You probably have more stuff than you know what to do with and what’s worse, it’s likely making you unhappy. Sell your stuff and spend the money on travel.
Just do it
Most people will have a real hard time actually doing a trip like this. There’s a lot questions and fears. Can I find a job when I get back? What about my family? But I have children! There are lots of excuses to be had. The truth is, most people’s fears are overblown. What we worry about most often never happens. So there’s no simple way to get over your fears and hesitations except to just do it. Let your dreams and aspirations guide you, not your fears and doubts.
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