What would YOU do?

You can get to Ethiopia for 350 Euros, Kenya for 450. Both are places I'd quite like to go. There's some excellently cheap flights to Argentina at the moment too.

To be honest, if you really haven't got any ideas of your own, maybe you'd be better off just spending the money on a car or something.

Depends which month, weather should play a part in your choice.
And it's a lot of money, my recent 6 week trip (India) cost less than that for 2 of us.
At 18, anywhere is going to be an adventure, what do you enjoy doing?

if your not going anywhere in particular and want to get far away just browse for cheap flights and see if any of the destinations catch your eye.

also everybody has a different idea of adventure so you might want to let people know what excites you.

hi, make a trip roud in tuscany, italy, you found there wonderful places, like Volterra

Thanks for all the help guys. I'm still none the wiser what to do with my gap year.

When I read about people who just wing there travels and end up having a great time I just think I should do that too! But then I actually start to think about the details and I start to convince myself otherwise.

Me and my girlfriend have been thinking about driving over to France from the UK and exploring as much as possible, there would be no time restraint, just the amount of money between us. Does this sound naive at 18? I just want to be able to tell some stories haha. So hard to decide what to do. I'm rambling.

Adam

No, it doesn't sound naive, sounds like the start of a plan to me.

The only drawback with France is that hotels are pretty expensive, but there are about 8000 campsites in the country, often with facilities like swimming pools (take trunks, no swimming shorts allowed in France!) and restaurants.

Take a tent and some cooking equipment (the little Trangia stoves are brilliant) so you don't need to eat out all the time and just go wherever you like.

The only other things you need to do in advance are get your EHIC cards (just in case), book a ferry crossing and buy a Michelin map of France so you can work out where you're heading.

If you just want to stay until the money runs out, buy your return ferry ticket on line, NOT at the port. It will cost about 3 times as much to buy at the port offices, a real rip off!

Why not?
Good advice #16

Maybe learn a few words of French as well..that will get you a warmer reception ;-)

Thanks kaz and lucapal, they were really promising responses. It seems like this idea could be finally be one that doesn't require a 'lot' of planning or expense before we actually leave, meaning we can leave when it's convenient for us. Considering we're both 18 and just leaving college (looking for jobs etc) it's really hard for us to both commit to a date. Thanks guys

I understood from your first post that you already had the money saved for this trip - if so, you are just making excuses not to do anything. If you want to go camping in France you should go between now and September so you get decent weather.

It sounds like you both feel a bit nervous about heading off on your own and the best way to deal with that is just to get on and do it. Book the ferry crossing NOW for 2 weeks after you finish college. That will give you plenty of time to get organised and pack, and you can look for jobs when you get back. A bit of independent travel will look good on your CVs anyway!