What would you do?

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. :)

Have a mental week in Vegas. Yeah baby!

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!!!! :)

#8 - Wow, I hope 18 months from now I can write a similar route based on my upcoming RTW trip! Sounds like you covered a ton of ground.

As for my response, it's easy because I've got it in a spreadsheet

I'm budgeting about $25,000 for 18 months, and that includes the cost of insurance, storage, etc. I've budgeted $5,000 to get me started again once I return home (or should I say "if I return home).

I'd skip the places that are easy to get to on shorter trips (for me central america) and the places that would eat into my budget quicker (Europe). So I'd probably take 6 months to work my way from Quito to Buenos Aires. Fly from BA to Cape Town. Take 6-months to go overland up East Africa to Egypt, then 3 months in India and 3 months in SE Asia. Then again having seen much of SE Asia on other trips, I might focus on China at the end, then head home via the Trans-Siberia Railway.

I'm in the same boat :)

My plan is to take a year to eighteen months and travel from the UK to South Africa... and live in a bit of luxury along the way! Planned on doing it next year, but looks like 2009 now... I don't want to travel around the world, I just want to travel through Africa :-) I would rather see and travel slowly that take in lots at once.

My tentative itinery is something like this which basically fits in with the "best" weather:

June / July / August - in Europe - Hiking; Slovenia; Italy; Corsica; Sardinia
September - Libya (can get a ferry to Tunis and go through Libya... I am hoping by the time I go independent visas will be allowed again!)
September/October - Egypt
November,December - Ethiopia
January - Kenya
Feb/Mar/Apr - Kenya/Uganda/Rwanda/Lake Turkana - I have three months to kill; probably learn to scuba dive and/or sail during this time! This is the only part of the trip where the weather isn't perfect.
May/June - Wilderbeast Migration
July/August - Kilimanjaro, Malawi, Zambia
August/Sept/Oct - Botswana/Namibia/Cape Town

And generally lots of hiking in between...

If you've that much moolah, try spending some time in Southern Africa: July/August/Sept-to-mid Oct are best in Zambia, Northern, Botswana and Namibia for wildlife viewing.

@niam - very inspiring. We are doing something very similar starting next year with £50k plus £600 / month rental profit income - not fixed timescale but a few years in mind. Chucking in our jobs. Won't be excluding Japan under any circumstances as I have a few firework displays too see there :-)

to the OP - regarding the loan - pay it off. It'll be the best thing youy have ever done. What you will be left with will be a huge amount compared to most travellers and being debt free is one of the most liberating experiences you can have. Imagine travelling the world, seeing all those things, then having the knowledge you have to return to a sizeable debt.

We (wife and I) have been saving for over a year so far and have 8 more months to go. The 1st 8 months was paying off all debts/credit cards etc. Set yourself tight monthly budgets. Put your spending money in it's own account/cash. Treat it as a challenge and it soon adds up :-)

Wanttotravel2007, our booking-planning process was pretty simple.

Hubby really wanted to do the tran-sib and did loads of research. We realised going to Estonia and then to Russia cost about 30GBP each whereas a flight to Moscow cost about 400 each. Depends on timing obviously. So we basically prebooked our hostel in Tallinn, our train tix as far as UB, Mongolia and booked hostels in St Petersburg, Moscow cause timings were tied up, due to train dates. We could have just turned up and done it, but like you we wanted some idea to start with. The rest of our planning included a scribbled list of countries we always wanted to go to. You could read some posts on here but don´t buy too many guidebooks in advance, they are heavy, bulky to carry and we didn´t use the Japan & India ones we bought!! You just want ideas really, and a list off the top of your head is as good as any. Check out some of those lists like top 10 places people like and just wander. Often the best places are the ones you know nothing about and which surprise you. We loved Laos and Lesotho for that reason. We had no expectations so we were pleasantly surprised!

Now, down the road I recommend planning no more than 1 week in advance unless you are going somewhere in peak season and it´s going to be rammed. ie. Macchu Picchu in July or Rio Carnival. In lots of areas you can just leave somewhere when you´re ready or stay if you´re loving it! So plan a bit for the first few weeks, until you get in the swing, and then have a vague idea of places you´d like to visit. Don´t forget you have to allow time to chill and not schedule yourself too much. The whole point is you can do whatever takes your fancy and sometimes you only know when you meet someone who´s just come back from there. Right now we´re in Quito looking at the map of Ecuador and just picking towns randomly, we´ll get a bus and see what it´s like. Sometimes that´s the best way!

Poster 10 - Thanks for posting your spreadsheet - it really help me get a few ideas for my organisation. Unfortunately, I like things to be organised - I even have different bank accounts for different things. One for general spending, one for saving for things like car insurance etc, one for general saving for future and now my gap year account which is with a bank that doesnt charge for taking your money out abroad!

Niam - Thanks - TBH, I dont think i have the confidence to just go with the flow. That and I would have my family worrying sick, which makes me worry more! Although the idea of it does sound fascinating and a great way to do things. Ill be 25/26 when I go. What is the safety like in Asia? I have some say its fine and others say it spells danger!??

niamhandcathal have said exactly what I thought when I read your post - they're out of time. That's the bottom line: you can throw all the money in the world at something but unless you take TIME to look around and soak it up you'll end up feeling cheated. We have a budget similar to yours for 4 of us and 12 months to fill but it's time we're lacking to see everything not money. Hey ho looks like RTW no.3 won't be that far off...

Watched the movie 'A Good Year' the other day - he asks his boss about the original Van Gogh in his vault: 'When do you ever look at it?' Plan your time and it costs what it costs.

If I had hands down had more money, I wouldn't spend it on posh accomidations and food (except for the occasional splurge). I would go to Antartica on this cruise, or one similar and I would go overland through Africa. Maybe with this company or something like it.

I would also go slowly through Europe, or at least hit the major highlights I was thinking about skipping.

And I'd still go every where else....I'd just go slower and longer.

Pay off your debts before leaving. There is nothing worse than returning home and being faced with large amounts of debt.

Ruth

What would I do? Well as I'm getting old and am still fairly fit and well I'd travel in places where the going is a bit rough and where I might not want to go when I am older. So where I wouldn't go would be Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. I'm saving these for my old age. I'm based in the UK I would think of:

1. Learning Spanish and spending all the time in South and Central America and Mexico.

2. Buying a Land Rover and spending the time in East and Southern Africa.

3. By rail to Moscow and TranSiberian with lots of stops and down to China then Vietman and SE Asia.

4. Rail to India and closeby countries some treking in the North and relaxing in the South and possibly onto SE Asia.

But of all things I want to take time and to be able to stay at places I like and change my plans if I want.

Also a possibilty to spend time in various Monasteries.

And then again perhaps a long sailing trans-ocean trip.

Am I going to live long enough?

Thanks for an interesting question.

Rory

If I had a large budget, these would be on my list:

Easter Island.

Antarctica.

Iceland and Greenland. Geographically, one is very young and the other is extremely old, and I'd love to compare the amazing natural features of both.

Find the real-life version of my image of a paradise island (The first place I'd look would be the Seychelles).

Scuba-diving somewhere exotic.

A hot air balloon flight over a great landscape.

All this planning is nasty in my opinion. Before I head off I have an idea of where I might be heading but that is about it. My planning for this trip was getting a new passport - get some dollars in cash and traveler's checks, some euros as well and my train-ticket from Denmark to Berlin. I thought of either buying an Interrail card in Berlin or travel down Eastern Europe to Istanbul and maybe eventually ending up in North Western Papua New Guinea traveling surface.
In Berlin I went into a bookstore and got a look in LP Eastern Europe informing me I didn't need a visa for Ukraine and Moldova so that's where I went. In the same bookstore I saw the LP Arabian Peninsula that mentioned I didn't need a visa for UAE. Hmmm, I've got two friends working in Dubai - maybe I should visit them. Saw on the Thorntree that getting a visa for Armenia was much easier and cheaper now (USD30 at the border) so now I'm in Tbilisi spending the night in an internet cafe having decided on the slow train connection to Yerevan but not tomorrow as I thought 12 hours ago but maybe in a month. I read on the TT as well that there is now a bus connection from Oman to Yemen so I won't return to UAE ater a visit to Muscat as I had otherwise thought. From Yemen there is a ferry to Djibouti so maybe I'll end up sailing down the Zaire/Congo River from Kisangani/Stanleyville instead of sailing along the Indonesian islands on the way to New Guinea. Who knows. I certainly don't!

30k?! i'm currently doing overland asia and the middle east on 5k for 14 months, and it goes a little something like this....

russia (trans-sib), mongolia (GO HERE, it's beautiful, had 2 weeks which just wasn't enough), china, pakistan, india, nepal, india, pakistan, afghen if they'll let me in, iran, turkey, syria (arabic language course), lebannon, jordan, israel and palestine, egypt for the windsurfing if i have any money left, and then sailing home through the med from greece or turkey to france and getting the train back to london. i'd see the best bits of every continent and then take my snowboard to oz and canada for 6 months if i were you.

beck