Planning a year and a half of travelling. It wont be until 2010 so I have plenty of time to organise and really think about what I want to do and where I want to go. I have a rather larger budget than normal (ok much larger budget) as I am taking two years of solid work (I am hoping I will still be alive at the end of it :) lol), living with my parents to save up for the trip as I want it to be the trip of a lifetime.
So my question is, if you had around £25,000-£30,000 and a year and a half to travel. What would you do? Where would you go? or more importantly where would you miss? even with a large budget there are still places that many would not want to go to. Dont worry about what sort of traveller I am or my interests for now. Just pretend its you and tell me where you would like to go.
I will be looking forward to reading your ideas and thoughts.
Many Thanks.
Your question is absolutely impossible to answer. What I would do might be very different from you as our interests and experiences are likely quite different. You might start by indicating what your interests are and where you have been in the past. Where I would go would depend upon where I had already been, so many of my personal choices would be different from yours as there are some places that I have been that I would not return. But there are places that I have been that were I a young traveler who had not been many places, I would definitely want to visit.
Also for some countries to which I would return, the places I would visit would be places less commonly visited because I had been to the more commonly visited places before.
And finally, there are some places that I would not visit because I would know that getting there would be easy at some later point in life. For example, were I a UK resident, I would probably eliminate all or almost all of Europe from my plans on the theory that I could get to most places for a week easily at some point in the future and thus would focus on places that were further from home.
Ruth
wow, if I had this sort of money, I would: Go from Australia to Bolivia (friends, family and the Salar de Uyuni) to Peru (Macchu Piccu) Ecuador (friends again) and other South American fun... then I would go to the US and Canada and see all my friends there (hire a car, probably) then I would go to the UK (friends, family again) and cover it thoroughly- missed Ireland and Wales last time. Europe- doing Europe backpacker things, then down through Spain to Morocco, Tunisia, the north of Africa to Egypt, then up to Asia, do the trans Mongolian/Siberian, down to Singapore (family) and then home.
Most likely broke. :)
omg what wouldnt i do??! i think i would travel overland thru europe, get the siberian train from russia to china. then travel through asia, australia and nz. then head over to south america and travel overland up to the usa and canada before heading back home. that would be my perfect trip. u would see every continent apart from africa but im not that interested in going there.
op have u any ideas what u would like to see and do? i would just work your trip around those interests.
Some interesting ideas there everybody! Thanks for replying!
To Number 1 poster - I know its impossible to answer if you were telling ME where to go - the question was what YOU would do. I was just curious! Its interesting as two people have said the siberian train - which would suggest to me that it is worth a look at - so its amazing what you can work out by asking people what they would do.
Number 4: I have some ideas - my money will be mostly spent with medical work experience and language courses - both of which are must does. I would like to see Africa, Asia and South America definitely. I have plenty of time to work it out. I have great fun planning it - especially on rainy days! :) I like the sound of your trip actually - although someone once mentioned to me about flying the other way around the world as its easier on the jet lag/weather apparantly!
One thing I cant decide is I know in two and half years I can earn upto £30,000 - do I go wild and spend all on my travels or do I pay off my student loan and only use £15,000-£20,000 for my travels? Part of me is saying leave the loan and go for it and part of me is saying dont be rediculous you cant spent £30,000 on a trip round the world? or can you????????
:)
I would take a VW bus and travel in one and half years from north alaska the Panamericana down to Chile and visit perhaps the antarctis!!!
hmm thats a hard decision, i know i would WANT to spend it all but might be worth saving some for when u get back. i leave for my trip in december and am gonna be spending every penny ive got plus more so i will be in dept when i get back which is not a prospect im looking forward to. then again it will all be worth it ! :-)
Way too much money. Save some for when you get back in an eISA or something, you can still get it if you need it. We, my hubby and I, had that much and there are 2 of us and we've been on the road for 18 mths and have a fair bit left, and I've bought all new clothes and a nice digital camera. Just to give you and idea, we did the following so far on our 18mths.
Flew EasyJet to Talinn, took the bus to St Petersburg.
Took the train to Moscow and did the Trans Sib, stopping off a Lake Baikal, Irkutsk. Train to Ullan Bataar and 1 month in Mongolia.
Train to Beijing, 2 mths in China. Train to Vietnam, one month there. One month more or less in each, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand. Then to Malaysia and Singapore. If we'd had more money we'd have gone to Japan from Shanghai, we actually had the ferry booked, but didn't think we could afford Japan and NZ.
Flew to NZ from Singapore and bought at RTW ticket. 1 mth NZ, but you could easily spend longer.
Flew to Joburg, 1 mth in SA. Then hooked up with a mate and did a safari through Namibia, Botswana, ending in Zambia. You could actually treat a friend to this!
2 mths in Zambia. 25 days in Ethiopia, but with your budget you could also go to Kenya and Tanzania.
Stopover in London, saw friends etc. then to Rio, Brazil. We worked our way down to Patagonia via Buenos Aires. You could do some Spanish lessons, we were outta time! You could also do an Antarctic trip with your budget! We didn't, no funds, wrong time of year, we want to have some cash when we get back. We then went up through Chile, into Bolivia, by flying, then overland to Peru, up to Ecuador, where we are now. We fly outta Quito in 8 days to Rapa Nui and then to Oz and then to NZ again.
You could go to the Galapagos as well though. Personally if I were you I'd save at least 5K for when you get back and go to Antarctic and Galapagos, as well as do some helicopter rides where available and still have loads of cash left over. I wouldn't start staying in expensive hotels all the time, as you meet interesting people in hostels. But once in a while would be nice. Whilst you could spend 30K on a RTW trip, go first class, never take public transport, eat in fantastic places, go to expensive places, I think you would isolate yourself from the experience too much. It would be better to splash out every so often when you need a bit of luxury.
Personally we had some budget for a posh hotel, which we never needed but because we didn't do it, we are going to stay for 2 nights in the Hyatt on Sydney harbour and I am going on a major shopping expedition! We have spent about 24k for 2 people including flights, camera, tours, food and everything. It works out at around 47 pounds per day.
Hope this helps!
That sounds amazing!!!!!!!! It help a lot -thankyou!!!! If you dont mind me asking - how much did you book, plan before you left? or did you just get on a plane and fly to where ever you fancied? Im not sure I have the confidence to do that! :) Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip!!!! :)
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