Travel companies or go solo?

I'm starting to think about planning a great adventure abroad, and am stuck on how to plan.

From a question I asked recently, I was advised not to go with a company that can plan my gap year for me. Can I ask if anyone has travelled through companies such as gap360 or realgap.com?

I will be travelling alone, so if I didn't go through a travel company, I would feel a bit cautious going solo. Is it cheaper to do it independently? Also, being alone for that length of time would drive me mad, will I have the same experience of meeting other travellers if going alone?

My plan is to spend a month in Thailand, then travel to Australia where I'll hopefully work for up to a year, then go on to South Africa and volunteer with animals like lions, tigers, elephants etc, then go back down to New Zealand, and maybe work for up to a year, then travel to Canada where I plan to work for up to a year, then travel around the US for three months before returning home. I have no budget yet.

Seeing as I want to volunteer and work, would it not be best to go through a company, as I wouldn't know what to do to get a job once over there?

Also, is it even possible to get this many working holiday visas? I've been told it is, but is it?

Hope this question made sense. Thanks to all responses in advance.

Cheaper...yes,for sure.Even the budget companies will cost you a lot more than do it yourself.

Will it drive you mad? I doubt it! It is pretty easy to meet other people,if you want to.You don't need to be 'alone'...but you can be when you want to be.

There are many advantages to being able to go where you want,when you want and how you want.

The one I have seen on gap360 lets me got to Thailand for a month, Australia or a year and New Zealand for a year, it includes all accommodation in Thailand and for the first week each on AUS and NZ, as well as a fair few meals, and the chance to see some great places - some I would never have thought of myself - for £2600. Can I really get this cheaper if I booked it independently?

Go solo.

Just so you know most people on this forum are independent backpackers, myself included, who have travelled independently for a long time, so you could argue you may get a biased view, but i will do my best to give you impartial reasoning.

First of all it is always cheaper to travel independently if you budget right. You can of course spend a lot more too, it depends how you travel. But to get the exact same experience as the company offers, it will always be cheaper to do it independently. These companies are there to make a profit, and that is what they are doing. They arent giving you the trip at cost.

Furthermore if you go with a company you are locked into that itinerary wether you like it or not. By going independent you can rip off that exact itinerary but take away things you dont like, add more things that take your fancy and take advantage of places you discover along the way. it would be a huge shame for you to fall in love with a place, fancy staying there a bit longer or heading to an island everyone you meet raves about, but you cant because your
party is moving on. I have met a few people on organised tours over the years and they have all said they wished they had done it independently if they could go back with what they know now. Then they have to leave while i stay and relax in the place I am in.

As for travelling alone, dont worry. I LOVE travelling alone, and so do many others for good reason. You will always meet other travellers along the way and you will never be short of company. I can understand the temptation for a new backpacker to have that ready made group there with a tour group, but what if you dont like them or dont get on? youre stuck with them! if you dont like the people you meet in a hostel, a long distance coach, a backpacker bar etc, you speak to someone else! all it takes is for you to say hello.

Now the working holiday visas, yes you can get them in Oz etc. You are wanting to go on a well travelled backpacker trail, thousands of peiple do this every year.

The volunteering is a different story. I dont want to sound horrible but you are being completely naive and unrealistic. You want to volunteer with lions tigers etc? seriously? Are you a vet? Do you have a masters degree in conservation? Then why on earth would any reputable ngo let you anywhere near animals like that? Please for your own sake do a LOT of research on voluntourism and the harm it does, as well as egotourism and the reasons people want to do stuff like this.

@mikehuxley - Thank so you much for your very informative comment, it really is a lot of help. It's really nice to know that I can do the same things for a cheaper price. However, I still don't know how I would go about finding a job on my own in AUS, NZ or Canada, do you have any experience here, or know anybody with experience? I'm not really sure where to look.

It's also nice that I'll still be able to socialise with other travellers if I choose to.

As for the volunteering part, yes I suppose I am being naive about it. I'm not really sure where to really look for this either. I've just been looking at this and thought it sounded like a terrific idea > http://www.realgap.co.uk/south-africa-big-5-wildlife-and-community#axzz2OfshX0zX

I wouldn't be doing things an actual qualified vet would be doing, more keeping things tidy and running smoothly, with maybe - and hopefully - bottle feeding some cubs. I don't know, it was just an idea, and I know that I need to research more. Thanks again!

mikehuxley said all the things I was going to say, and probably more. I think the main benefit of independent travel is the flexibility; being able to leave a place if you're not feeling it, or stay for three weeks when you planned for 3 days, or take a completely unexpected opportunity to do something cool.. these are all things you won't get when someone plans an itinerary for you. Southeast Asia is very easy to travel on a low, low budget, and you won't be saving any money by having them pay for it. Hostels and hostels can be as cheap as £2 a night, and not bad quality either.

Like others have said, you'll meet people on the road. I've made some good, fast friends that way; the girl I met in Laos visited me in Philadelphia, and I visited the Israeli guy I met in Vietnam at his place in Jerusalem. You can hop on a bus or train with people you meet, and then part ways when you get sick of them, or plans change.

The work thing is something I can't speak to, but after getting the appropriate visa of course, you could look for work the same way you would at home. There are resources like HelpX and WWOOF as well. Volunteering is a tricky subject; just do a search for that or "voluntourism". I don't think it's impossible to find a good, honest place to volunteer, but it takes a lot of research and awareness. I'd never been comfortable with the idea of visiting an orphanage for a day when I was in Cambodia, and after reading up on this topic, I'm incredibly glad I didn't go.

I'd be very surprised to find tigers in Africa too!

Don't want to shoot you down in flames, but do you fully grasp what you're writing here? You're super presumptuous saying you'll simply go to NZ, Aus and Canada and work for a year in each. These plans can go to tatters if you can't get a job, or if you simply don't enjoy it. A year is a very long time, and there's no chance you can plan four years in the future (which is what you're doing) and assuming you'll know your mindset. You might love Thailand so much you'll want to stay, and once you get a taste for it you might decide you don't want to wait tables for three years with no stable relationships/home base

blakout3, if you read closer, she said she'll "hopefully work for up to a year", not that it was a guarantee. The travel company she was looking at going through would've placed her there for a year, whereas she's saying that it's not a guarantee if she does it independently.

If you are travelling solo I think you need to take an honest look at your own personality. Are you outgoing? Do you make friends easily? The first time I travelled solo in NZ I thought I would meet people as I went at hostels and whereever, but didnt take into account my own naturally shy personality, which made it difficult to meet people and it can become rather lonely. Working while travelling gave me the opperunity to make friends and enriched my experience.

Travelling with a companion can be tricky, but can also be rewarding. When looking for someone to travel with you have to be completely honest with each other about expectations, lay everything on the table. Are you going to be two peas in a pod, or go your seperate ways here and there? While being individuals, its also important to dicuss budget.

Just some stuff to think about before even worrying about your itinerary.