A lot of people advocate for “travelling while you’re young”, and often this is associated with a lack of responsibilities. For example, it’s best to go before you’ve settled down, bought a house, started a career, had a family etc.
I won’t deny that travel is probably in many ways easier before all these commitments. But there is another side to the debate.
Continue reading
While preparing for long term travel I spent a fair bit of time researching which backpack to buy. I narrowed my choices down using certain criteria:
▪️Small enough to take on as hand luggage (40L max)
▪️Top and front loading (for easy access)
▪️Airflow back panel
▪️A pretty colour (yes, this is a totally unnecessary, girlie criteria)
And in the end I settled on the Osprey Sirrus 36L (in purple), which ticked all the boxes. Especially the pretty colour! Continue reading
Without a doubt, the best way to travel around New Zealand is with your own set of wheels. It gives you flexibility and independence the buses and tour companies just cannot offer.
Should I buy or rent?
This is likely to be determined by the length of time you plan to stay in New Zealand. Continue reading
One of my biggest packing dilemmas before leaving home was the question: glasses or contact lenses?
Being incredibly short sighted (-6.5), and unable to see more than a few inches from my face without corrective lenses, I did worry about how I was (literally) going to see the the world. Continue reading
When I trekked to Everest Base Camp in October 2015 I made the decision to carry my own pack. As I’m a bit of a weakling it was imperative to keep this light and only take the essentials. When I hopped on the flight to Lukla my bag weighed in under 7kgs – phew!
Of course if you are hiring a porter (or are stronger than me) it is possible to take more but rather unnecessary. Continue reading
After making the decision to travel the world I calculated I would require around £20,000 for a 10 month trip. This is probably larger than most people’s budgets as I had to ensure my mortgage and related expenses were covered while away.
Unfortunately £20,000 is not a small amount and unless I won the lottery I realised I would have to do some serious saving.
Continue reading
The bulk of my travel savings came from work and a commitment to saving for travel. But there were a couple of extra little bits I did to pad this out. These little extras are unlikely to fund your whole trip but may pay for some luxuries along the way.
Sell the stuff you don’t use
My cupboards were full of clothes I didn’t wear, broken laptops and unwanted gifts. I made an effort to sell as much of this as possible and more. Continue reading
One of the most difficult aspects of planning a round the world trip is getting the funds together. Although long term travel needn’t be expensive the costs involved do require some consideration before taking the leap.
A good first step is deciding which countries you plan to visit and for how long. From this you can usually work out how much you’ll need for day to day expenses on the trip. For example for each month in New Zealand I budgeted £1500 ($2150) and India £500 ($715).
Continue reading
I set myself a little challenge before leaving – to travel through multiple climates with only 36L carry on sized backpack.
Turns out it was fairly simple – you just take less stuff! Below is what I took (plus what I chucked and picked up along the way).
Continue reading
doingbeingbecoming 