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When you’ve taken the plunge and went from that dreaming stage to the actual planning stage of a RTW trip, it can be overwhelming to consider all the possibilities. I know when my wife and I first started planning our RTW trip, we (wrongly) assumed we would be able to go everywhere. For someone whose longest trip up until then had been 3 weeks, a year seemed like forever.
But once you get into the nitty gritty of the planning stages, you quickly realize that while yes, you can visit all seven continents over the course of a year, there are some major deterrents for doing so. One, the cost. The more stops you add, the more expensive those flights become. Two, for many, the enjoyment of a trip like this is really getting the chance to dig into a culture by exploring it in depth. When you’re constantly on the move every few days, that makes it impossible to do so.
So how do you choose your destinations? What activities, cities, and places do you build a trip around? Recently, BootsnAll started a new series called Indie Flight Hacking. The idea behind these new articles is to get travelers new to the long-term travel game thinking. We want to help these new RTW planners by looking at real itineraries, giving some tips on how to plan around these itineraries, and make you think about all the important information that doesn’t automatically come to you your first time planning an extended trip.
The first Indie Flight Hacking article we published followed a simple, hub city RTW trip to New York, London, Delhi, and Bangkok. The great thing about this trip is the flexibility of it. By flying in and out of these few major hubs, you can get a plane ticket for a good price, and the overland possibilities from each city is endless. If you only have a short time (3-4 weeks), you can do it. If you want to expand it to 3, 6, 9, 12 months, you can do that, too.
The second article follows the route that my wife and I took on our RTW trip through popular backpacking regions of South America, New Zealand, SE Asia, and India. We even provided sample pricing for the flights (both the RTW ticketing options and the buy as you go option), as well as information on why we chose this route, how we chose the order in which we visited these places, and how we planned around things like weather, holidays, and high and low seasons.
For first-time planners of an extended trip, it’s helpful to get into the minds of the planner and see some real examples of trip itineraries. We realize that everyone has different preferences for what they want to get out of a trip like this, but we hope this provides a start. These itineraries can all be adapted to fit your specific wants and needs.
The next Indie Flight Hacking article will be published on Monday, May 12, and will highlight a trekking RTW trip.
What other types of trips would you like to see profiled on this series? Comment below to share your thoughts so we can help you get out on the road.
Wanna plan a trip around the world? Let the folks at BootsnAll help out!
Photo courtesy of the author and may not be used without permission.
As independent travelers we discuss the best light weight gear or how to save pennies. But what about something that weights nothing and can’t be bought: common sense.
Like, pavement is more slippery when wet.
Rolling down the highway earlier today, I recalled a lesson my Grandfather taught my mother. “Drive five miles slower when it’s raining.” The charcoal sky began to pour and within moments even my windshield wipers–on high–did no good. Vehicles on all sides dropped from 70 to 40mph, and I decided to pull over and wait it out at a gas station. I got a cup of coffee and read another chapter of my book. Down pour turned to hail, then back to rain, and eventually subsided. A ways down the highway a wreaker truck was busy pulling several crumpled cars from a muddy meridian. I was thankful not to be one of them.
Yes, accidents do happen that aren’t always avoidable. But following your GPS when it tells you to drive into the Pacific Ocean is avoidable. Three tourists in Australia actually did that back in March. It was no accident. I’d say more like lack of common sense.
Car submerged in water Fairfax Media/Getty Images
Of course this doesn’t just apply to driving and isn’t a new concept. Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet about it in the 1770’s. But it still seems people have a hard time using, “the basic level of practical knowledge and judgment that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way”, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary.
Vagabonding almost requires common sense. The more you apply, the richer the experience can be.
Girl wearing sunglasses. Photo: Helga Weber / Flickr
When it comes to the vagabonding life, you’re quite literally going on the path not taken by most people. As we get older, sometimes the itch to answer the question “what if?” becomes more urgent.
Although not strictly related to travel, this GQ magazine article got me thinking: Eric Puchner finds the cooler version of himself.
On the surface, it seems like an impossible mission. Puchner surveyed his friends with one question: “Do you know someone who could have been me, but cooler?”
An excerpt from the piece explains his motivation:
Lately, though, perhaps because at age 41 I’d begun feeling less like the captain of my life and more like its deckhand, I’d started wondering if there was someone out there who embodies not your worst self, but your freest one—a person who encapsulates everything you’ve ever dreamed of becoming. Let’s call him your Cooler Self. All those dreams that got lost along the way, the ones that were casualties of chance or duty or cowardice: There’s a “you” out there—a mountain climber or war photographer or race-car driver—who brought them to fruition.
The ironic thing is that a “happy ending” would have been sad. He mentions having a bit of dread over the outcome of his search. What if he found someone who was living an awesome life that he could have had? If only he’d taken more risks, not given up sooner, the doubts would pile up on each other.
Getting back to vagabonding, it’s about making that choice to live the life you want much sooner. This can avoid the fountain of regret that can erupt later on in a mid-life crisis.
Upon reading that article, I couldn’t help but think of the reverse question: what would you have been like if you hadn’t traveled? The longer you live abroad, the more acutely you realize what you’ve given up. Have you reflected on things like this? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Let’s face it, finding time and discipline to write well on the road can be really, really tough. Traveling takes a lot of mental stamina. At the end of a long day, once you’ve found a dinner and settled into the hostel, the last thing you have the mental juice for is thoughtful writing about the day’s events. At that point, your brain doesn’t want to process or reflect. It wants to rest. It’s checked out for the night.
But I try to force myself to journal every night on my travels. I’ve got bags full of bits and pieces from my travels sitting in my closet, but the most important physical souvenirs are the small, leather-bound journals that gather dust on a bookshelf. The journals—weathered and worn—contain the thoughts and impressions of places and experiences recorded in the moment. Some entries are shallow and quickly scribbled; some are well-thought out and insightful.
Most travelers will tell you the same thing; their journals are frayed little time capsules of emotions and experiences they wouldn’t part with for the world. Sometimes they’re written on a rickety milk run train in the countryside, sometimes they’re written while perched on a rock high in the Alps while cowbells jangle in the distance. Sometimes the entries are well-crafted insights inspired while sitting in a soaring cathedral during evensong; other times they’re scribbled late at night while the eyelids are forcing themselves closed and the synapses are shot.
It takes discipline to keep up a journal on the road, but it’s well worth it. We’ll return to the smudged pages at some point in the future and be reminded of a vivid memory, surprising impression, or fleeting thought. And we’ll be glad we had the discipline to stop and record it, even when the train ride was bumpy and the eye lids were heavy.
Pick up that pen, open the book and record a memory to cherish.
As I was sitting in Patan’s Durbar Square a few weeks ago, I noticed a couple elder tourists escorted by a guide: they were taking pictures, bending into unnatural shapes. The DSLR cameras they were shooting with looked like some sort of futuristic gear they could barely handle. They seemed quite clumsy and out of place, as they had been cut out from a lifestyle magazine and pasted into another wrong centerfold.
Instantly, I was reminded of the persistent, conservative way of thinking I was pushed to accept back home: before you may travel and enjoy your life, you will have to work a day job and bend your spine behind a desk for 30 years. Kow-tow to the Gods of corporate business. Enjoy the rat race. Then, maybe, you will be able to travel and see the world on a pension.
With a smack of teenage angst, I would promptly reply: “Cool. See the world, on a wheelchair?”
Seeing those tourists made me think that the way I travel in Asia now may not be replicable in about 30 years. Who would be able to take that umpteenth bone melting night bus ride after hitting the 50 years old line? Who would be able to enjoy the tastes and smells of an Indian public bus crammed to the roof with humans and sometimes cattle? And ultimately, who would have the strength to travel slow, soak into a culture or trying to fit into the holes left by mass tourism?
Certainly, not the average Old Joe. Let’s face it: the older you get, the lesser you would be likely to travel hard, especially when you have not been used to it as a young man. And furthermore, when the kind of world we live in constantly conceives travelling as a recreational activity that cannot be taken as a lifestyle, or not even as a part-time occupation.
Me with two "Incredible Old Joes": Ibrahim and Saida from Spain. (Picture by Kit Yeng Chan 2012)
Nevertheless, it is quite a contrast – and a funny one – to observe the travelling habits of many older people, some at their very first foray oversea. It appears that so many years spent leading organized, normal lives have not been able to gift these people with a natural inclination to feel relaxed in foreign places. It seems like their movements are harder, slower, filled with the atavist fear of the unknown. They attempt to do what they may have dreamed for many years, but they are doing it with a total regret of having left their comfort zones.
But let me say that I have also met some “Incredible Old Joes”: some were biking from Europe to South East Asia, or doing the same route by walking. Some decided to avoid taking any bus ride longer than 2 hours, to stress less, and see more of the countries they visited. All of them, however, had a common feature: they had been travelling a lot in their younger days. You could clearly see how travelling had enriched their souls… these people may have also been grinding at the office, but oh boy, how freer they were than any of my friends’ –and my own – parents!! I could sit in awe for hours just listening to their life stories.
As much as the mode of travel we use will most likely change or evolve overtime, it appears that to do it with ease we better start young. It surely does not matter how young; but that attitude needs to be embraced early in life, in order not to appear lost in a foreign square taking a bunch of pictures later. In order to actually fit in the broader World, and not be forced to end up lonely on a couch, hypno-entertained by a flat Tv screen.
Have you ever met some experienced older travellers, and do you agree with me? How do they compare to your own older folks at home? I would like to hear some stories.
father time pointing to date 12th January on astronomical clock
On the left, just inside the main door of the Lund Cathedral is a wooden astronomical clock built around 1424. Tangled within a euphoric stare five years earlier, I’d marveled at the intricate details, inhaled the aged wood, and relished the silence which filled the air. The experience rooted such a vivid impression that I’d vowed to return. But expectations were paused as my two friends and I walked in to find the clock being cleaned; all its guts taken apart. Two enormous posters illustrating the clocks face blocked the space where workers placed a table with paint brushes and other tools.
My Dutch friend looking at the astronomical clock
The night before we all went to Lund, I’d expected to perhaps feel the same bliss again in those sandstone walls. Maybe I’d even find the little used book store diagonally across the way with the half-dozen stuffed owls perched on the top shelves. Neither was the same. The clock was in pieces, and the book store gone. But somehow I didn’t feel disappointed, just pensive. And ended up discovering a small tucked away surface where an open book, pen and flickering candle sat. The sign beside said in English (and Swedish), “Do you want to share your prayers with others? Please feel free to write them down in this Book of Intercessions. The book is placed on the altar of the Baptism Chapel during The Service of the Holy communion every Tuesday morning at 08.00 am.” I’m not distinctly religious, but decided to write a prayer in the book.
My written prayer in the Book of Intercessions
My return expectations were very different from the reality of being there the second time. Have you ever felt so moved, even years after, to return to a place? What did you find?
Planning a trip can be a logistical tangle. At any one time, I’ll have more than half-a-dozen tabs open in my web browser, each a different website. For example:
Cross-checking between so many sites can be daunting, even for an experienced vagabonder. The new site Georama aims to change that by tying together different travel needs into one online platform. The slogan is “Plan. Book. Share.” Still in private beta, but you can sign up to get advance access.
It’s certainly an enticing prospect. You’d save a lot of time from flipping from one site to another. On the other hand, it seems very much like the same idea behind web portals. Yahoo and MSN are prime suspects that the portal model can seem bloated in this age of lean, agile, focused applications.
Would you use Georama? What sites do you use for travel planning? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
As someone who is now in the travel business, I often think back to those first few weeks of planning after my wife and I decided to take a RTW trip. We were clueless on where to begin, and everything seemed completely overwhelming. So when going over article ideas in our editorial meetings at BootsnAll, we came up with a plan for a new series called Indie Flight Hacking, designed to help those people planning a RTW trip.
The premise behind this series is to give guidance and offer ideas on where to go, what to think of, and how to plan an epic, RTW trip. In the first installment of the series, the author breaks down a hub-city RTW trip that visits New York, London, Delhi, and Bangkok. She discusses best times to go, options for expanding this to other cities and countries nearby, and even gives budgeting information for each destination.
In the second article, the author delves into the RTW trip that he and his wife took a few years back. This Classic RTW Trip visits some of the most popular backpacking and long-term travel destinations in the world – South America, New Zealand, SE Asia, and India. In addition the same type of practical information you’ll find in the first article, you will also find sample airfare pricing both for a RTW ticket and a DIY ticket.
If you are planning or thinking about planning a RTW trip, are these types of articles helpful? What more (or less) would you like to see from this new series? Comment below to leave your feedback.
If you do decide to throw caution to the wind and travel the world, the first thing you’ll want to look at is airfare. Your options are many, but be sure to keep your eye on different deals around the web. BootsnAll has monthly deals that can take you all over the world, so be sure to check out the following deals, which are good through May 31, 2012:
If you are looking for something a little different in your round the world trip, then start planning your trip of a lifetime with our RTW trip planner And don’t forget to sign up for BootsnAll’s RTW newsletter, delivering special deals, RTW trip planning advice, and resources via email every single month. We also have a Facebook fan page and Twitter page, so be sure to like and follow those to keep up to date on all your RTW travel needs.
Girl posing with a movie clapperboard. Photo: HerMorningElegance / Flickr
Travel is taking an active stance. Society funnels people from school to career to family. However, when you travel, you’re making a conscious decision to stop following the script that you’re given. Instead, you start to write your own script for life.
On the personal finance blog “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” (sounds scammy, I know) there was a great post on this topic: The invisible scripts that guide our lives. After reading that, I couldn’t help but think about the “script” that society says about going abroad:
Got any more you can add to that list? What’s the script you wrote for yourself? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
P.S. On a complete tangent, there was a terrific comment on there by woman who arranged a low-cost, high-fun wedding.
Yesterday I came across this article that addressed updating Child Labor Laws in America. And tried desperately to wrap my brain around a logical explanation, why restricting youths from agricultural involvement was a good idea. After a period of extreme frustration with the absurdity of the issue; I settled with the fact at its core, it has nothing to do with exploiting child labor; it had to do with fear–in this case, safety.
It makes a few moments of my past weekend more precious. After explaining the basics of horse psychology to a group of young girls (ages 6 & 10); the youngest and smallest one volunteer to carry a sledge hammer. This was a vital tool needed to loosen and re-sink an iron stake to relocate a pony stallion to a new spot for fresh grazing. The five girls did it all by themselves. As a teacher, I only verbally offered techniques, such as how to loosen the stake and pull it from the ground, and how to lead the stallion–who’d rather bee-line it for the barn—by turning him in a circle to redirect his focus. A slight drizzle fluttered down from sky, so the children took that into account and situated the pony where he could get shelter under the leaves of a deciduous tree. This simple action displayed empathy, follow through and accomplishment for these girls.
During sharing circle around the campfire later that night, many of the children said their favorite moments of the day included being around the horses. Such as, riding the draft horse mare bareback; watching me rescue a horse from a dangerous situation; and moving the pony to a fresh spot of grass. These experiences connected the children with a larger awareness of their surroundings and let them apply the horse psychology and safety I’d taught them at the beginning of our class.
Fear shouldn’t prevent us from living and learning new things. No matter what age.
