What’s Your Long-Term Travel Plan?

If you are considering a year long adventure around the world, it doesn’t matter how many guidebooks you read, maps you study, travel blogs you subscribe to, travel forums you chat on — it’s almost impossible to plot out your entire trip whilst sitting at home.

Your best decisions will be made on the road. What you thought would be a great place, may end up not appealing to you at all, and vice-versa.

You can’t really get a feel for a place from a far, and you will also meet fellow travelers who will recommend places and activities that you never knew about.

So don’t stress too much about the logistics of travel. The key is to be flexible.

We personally find that you can’t really get a feel for a country and experience it’s culture, unless you spend  at-least a month there, and to be perfectly honest, depending on the country and it’s size, several months!

So just bare that in mind when putting together your list of places.

Below are some important questions to ask yourself when planning your trip.

Where Do I REALLY Want To Go?

Cape Town anyone?

The countries or regions you would like to visit will affect your budget, and your budget will directly affect the length of time you can travel. So ask yourself a bunch of questions to come up with a general itinerary….e.g.

• Do you want to visit more cities or country areas?
• Beaches or the mountains?
• Adventure travel with lots of physical activities or leisure and laziness?
• Group or individual travel?
• Do you want to work whilst abroad or volunteer?
• Do you want to take courses of study?
• Do you want to party, chill out, or a combination of both?
• Do you want to rough it, or have some comfort?

What’s the weather like in my desired destinations?

Sunshine in Thailand anyone?

Seasonal Weather – Make sure you know what season you will be going into . Tropical areas can have continuous rain for months. Not good if you plan on laying on a beach, camping, or hiking in the mountains.

Personally, we like warm climate’swhere we can get outside and be active. Where all about island and beach living, or hiking in the mountains. Whilst we have lived in cold places and the scenery can be beautiful when it snows, we hate having to hibernate too much.

What about you? What type of environment and climate makes you happiest?…

What’s my travel budget?

saving money by camping in the Rocky Mountains Colorado

This will greatly depend on your style of travel?

• Are you willing to rough it in hostels, guesthouses or go camping, or do you need some extra comfort?
• Are you willing to stay in dorms, or do you need a private room?
• What are your eating habits likely to be like?
• Are you willing to eat street food and cook for yourself  if your accommodation has kitchen facilities?

Personally, we have eaten a lot of street food and market type food. We find it is usually fresh, you can see what is being cooked and that it is cooked thoroughly, and it is great value for money.

We also make it a priority to stay in places that have fully equipped kitchens – cooking your own meals can be a big cost savings!

We also spent most of our time in developing regions like Southeast Asia and Africa where your money goes a lot further and you get a better “bang for your buck!”.

In contrast, places like Australia, North America, and Western Europe can put serious dents in your travel budget.

Do I Need a Visa to Get There?

How difficult and expensive is it to obtain a visa for the particular countries you want to visit? Also, can you obtain the visa at the point of entry, or do you need to get them at a neighbouring country or your own country?

Some countries can be trickier than others, and each country will have different lengths of time that they allocate their visas for! Check out this Visa Service Directory for more information. Embassy World which is a directory of every nations embassy!

What about travel insurance?

Keep traveling safely and with peace of mind by making sure you are covered! You can get travel medical insurance, or general travel insurance, or both. We (Caz and Craig) have used World Nomads Travel Insurance.

They also come recommended by Lonely Planet.

You can buy, extend and claim online even after you’ve left home. Recommended by Lonely Planet, World Nomads travel insurance is available to people from over 150 countries and is designed for adventurous traveller’s with cover for overseas medical, evacuation, baggage and activities such as skiing and snowboarding.

What’s the Political Situation?

It’s always smart to be up to date on a countries political situation. The news media has a habit of over playing the dangers of traveling abroad, but in all honesty,  there are very few places that are too dangerous.

But use common sense, know the situation, and if it doesn’t feel right just don’t go – there are too many other choices to risk putting yourself in danger!