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Questions Please
Marco entertains your questions.As promised in my previous post, I am following up with Volume 2 of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
Many questions have focused on how we could plan a trip of this magnitude. We have fielded questions such as: “I wouldn’t even know where to begin, how do you start planning something like this?”; “How did you determine where to go and what to visit?”; “How did you determine how long it would take you?”; “What will you pack with you?”; “Where will you sleep?”; How will you get from one destination to another?” and the list goes on. Thank you all for asking all of these questions. Some of your questions have prompted us to conduct a little more in-depth research. Since the 13th of February 2008, Lynne and I have been conducting vast amounts of research on planning factors for this trip. The answers you will read below reflect OUR planning methods only. As we were conducting our research, we found that the more we read, the more evident it became that everyone has their own method of planning and organizing their extended travel plans. Our plans are extracted from a wide variety of sources and may not work for anyone else.
Planning of a trip of this magnitude began with one simple concept—A DREAM.
Our dream began to materialize by sitting down and figuring out the destinations we wanted to visit. We sat down to a large map of the world and began to write down dream destinations. Lynne and I shared many of these common locations, but both of us had some must see locations the other cared nothing about. We sat down early and came up with our initial list. Each of our lists were quite extensive. We then sat down and combined our list. We had to negotiate the places we would keep and those we would eliminate.
Early on in the planning, we decided that we would realistically shoot for a 9-month journey. The 9-month plan is a very loose plan and will be modified based on multiple factors. We have the flexibility to modify this timeframe easily.
After reading Paul Otteson’s book
The World Awaits—How to Travel Far and Well, it became crystal clear to both of us. His Lesson #1 “YOU CAN”T SEE IT ALL” really hit home for us. We then sat back and began to look at why we wanted to visit these locations. Reasons included: historical value, natural wonders, 7 Wonders of the World, cultural experiences, fantastic beaches, geothermal spas, and a variety of other reasons. The list dwindled as we began our more realistic planning.
We had to develop a plan of the type of travel we could accommodate and still work within a budget. We opted to go the budget route and sacrifice luxury so we could immerse ourselves a little more into local culture. Lynne agreed to this concept with one condition. Her condition was that we would “take a vacation from traveling” at least once a month. What in the heck does that mean—vacation from traveling? We agreed that we would do a luxury treat at least once a month. We would spoil ourselves and do a 5-star retreat for a weekend so we would not get burned out on the budget lifestyle for an extended period of time. We will see how we do with this aspect.
Now that we had a semi-finalized list of destinations, were able to continue with the next phase of the planning. We had to figure out a starting point and which direction we would travel around the world.
Some people will start from the west coast and depart from Seattle, San Francisco or Los Angeles and begin with the Pacific region. There plans typically have them completing their journey on the west coast, Canada or Mexico.
Lynne and I opted to begin on the east coast and begin our journey in Iceland. This will give us an easterly direction around the world. One of our planning factors dealt with weather. Although we typically like to travel to destinations during an off-peak season, we would have to adapt to traveling during some of the peak seasons to avoid some of the weather related concerns.
After determining the general direction we wanted to travel, the fun and excitement began. Lynne jumped on the US State Department website to explore visa requirements for every country we desired to visit. She then put all of these visa requirements into a simple spreadsheet. We deleted those countries with difficult or next to impossible visa restrictions and focused on those we could get with no difficulties. On the top of the list of countries we deleted was Russia. I won’t get into detailed reasons, but if you are interested, just check out the application process and restrictions involved. We agreed to bypass the Middle East, India and Africa because we have visited some of these areas already. We also eliminated places with volatile situations which could put us in jeopardy. Our eyes were on some of the issues in Central and South America.
After fine tuning the list again, we began to scratch our heads to figure out how we would pull this plan together. We ordered numerous around-the-world related travel books, travels guides and scoured the intranet for information. I will tell you now that doing a simple Google search for this type of travel can be a challenge. Most sights are commercial sites offering to sell you something in exchange for information. We were successful in finding several “gateway” websites that really opened some new doors of knowledge to us. These websites had links to other websites which then lead us to other sites which, in turn, let us to still more websites. I have literally found thousands of hidden websites I would have never found by doing a simple Google search.
Some of these websites were absolute goldmines of information, while others contained links to real life stories of independent travels who have blazed the trail for us. The more research we do, the more we realize that there are more than a million ways to build a better travel mousetrap. WOW—now how in the world do we apply all of this conflicting information to our trip? Great question! We are still modifying plans as we go.
How are we going to get from point A to point B? There are so many possibilities on this subject, it could cause serious brain hemorrhaging.
Some people opt to book all of their air travel on the front end. This gives them specific locations, dates and confirmed airfares which can be cheaper when rolled into an entire package. Planning like this offers a detailed plan with little room for deviation as you go along. There are many pros and cons of booking travel arrangements in this manner. There are companies out there that will assist people with booking this type of travel arrangement and takes the hassle out of bargaining for discount airfares.
After conducting vast amounts of research, Lynne and I decided to purchase tickets for the first two legs of our journey then book onward air travel as we progressed on the trip. As you may already know, we have confirmed and bought our tickets to Iceland then onward to London. Lynne did a remarkable job of finding discount airfares for both of these legs of the trip. She is the master at finding great deals and is armed with all of the websites for discount airfare.
Although we plan to stay in Europe for about two months, the beautiful thing is that we are not locked into this timetable due to pre-purchased airline tickets. If we decide to stay in the Greek Islands for a few extra weeks, we can do so. We do know that from Europe we will plan to visit Nepal next. We just don’t know where in Europe we will depart from yet. There are so many possibilities and that is over 3 months away. Heck we may even decide to go overland in lieu of flying to our next destination.
Besides airline travel, Lynne and I will be using just about every other means of transportation to get around. In Europe, we will do a significant amount of travel by train. Trains in Europe offer so many alternatives to a tight, rigid schedule and allow us to modify our plans on the fly. We have purchased a Eurail pass which will be good for two months once we activate it on our first train ride. When we venture off the beaten path, we will rely on other local transportation. This includes buses that will carry us to far away places. On several occasions, we will be maximizing water travel by using ferries. This hold true for the Greek Islands, the Mediterranean, as well as onward locations such as the islands in Indonesia and Micronesia. Our first planned ferry ride will be across the English Channel.
As you can probably tell, we will not be staying in luxury accommodations while on this trip. As independent, budget travelers we will be taking advantage of low cost options for a majority of the trip. This primarily comes in the form of staying in hostels, guesthouses, pensions and sleeping on overnight trains. We are also exploring options to be able to do “work for stay” along the way. Work for stay is a pretty simple concept. We find a host who is willing to provide room and board for exchange of a variety of services. These are typically short term arrangements and we take the room and board in lieu of taking payment. If we work along the way and receive payment, we would legally need to secure a work visa. By trading services, we do not need a work visa. There are so many opportunities available, but we will be competing with all of the other independent travelers for these opportunities. Work for stay in Europe will be a challenge, but let’s see what pans out.
Another cost savings measure is the camping option. Some travelers highly discourage camping along the way, others recommend it. We decided to pack minimal camping gear which will allow us the opportunity to explore areas not typically visited by travelers. This also adds to the spontaneity Lynne and I are accustomed to while traveling. Many destinations offer inexpensive camping at great locations with adequate facilities. In other locations, we will be doing some “stealth camping” and we will be in the extremely primitive mode.
This leads into the question of what we will pack. We begin our trip with everything stuffed into our backpacks. The camping gear has added ten pounds to my pack, but I am confident these ten pounds will be well worth toting around. I will have a separate post dedicated to our final packing list so I will not address the specifics yet. Lynne and I will head out this weekend for one final function check and shakedown on our gear. Our first function check revealed some flaws in our original plan and we have made some adjustments.
My next update will address some additional questions. Some of the information I have provided in this update may have been a little generic, but trust me, I will be expanding on some information as we continue down the road.
When we wake up tomorrow, we will have two weeks until our departure. The dream is rapidly becoming a reality and we are both getting excited to jump on that first airplane which will carry us to places we only dreamed about before.
Please feel free to leave a comment. I know some of you have enjoyed reading other peoples comments but have been a little reluctant to post yours in an open forum. Maybe your comment will be beneficial to someone else who may be reading this blog.
Happy Trails Friends and Family
“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” ~Christopher Reeve~
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Dawn
non-member comment
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