Hey ! Im new the new guy. Help!

[NachoCat]

So my girlfriend and I have made a pretty big decision. We are going to take a year off and make a RTW trip. 2 other friends will be coming with us. We have been talking about it for several months and have decided after A LOT of thought that this is something we really want to do. I've only done a little research about the actual logistics on this so far. Our tentative plan is to leave spring of 2013 and travel for about 1 year. A friend of ours is getting married in Costa Rica and we are going to start our trip from there. Really excited/scared, but mostly excited.


First of all I have been reading a lot on the forums here and it seems like a great place for advice and talking to like minded people, so thanks in advance!

I wrote an email to my friends today about my thoughts on our trip. I know its lenghty but here is what I wrote this morning. Can you guys tell me if you think im on the right track here. Any advice would be much appreciated!

...

OK, I’m in. After doing some research and reading a lot of stuff online I am ready for this shit! (Boom) As of right now we have 17 months for planning and saving. Saving…. Umm yeah. That’s one part of the logistical side of this I wasn’t ready for. We are going to need more than I initially thought for this trip. Of course we can try to find work/trade along the way but for the most part we need to bring as much money as possible. I think at bare minimum we need 9,000 EACH( US dollars)…. Anything over that would be great.

I’m basically going to be selling everything I own, TV, dressers, Car. But other than that selling everything. One of the biggest things I have learned is we are going to need as much money as we can possibly can save . We will need money for flights, food, accommodations, and of course fun. Having as much money as possible will allow us to pack light. This is another very important thing.

Packing light – Pretty much every blog/website/message board I have looked at has stressed the importance of packing light. The best thing we could do is having our bags small enough to be a carry on for flights and busses. That way we are not separated from our bags, we don’t have to wait for them at airports, we can walk long distances, we can run to catch a train etc. Plus if they were to get stolen, we would be at a minimal loss. I know this will be tough for the girls but it is a very important piece of this. One really good blog I was reading gave some great advice “Set out everything you think you need to bring, than cut that in half and bring twice as much money.” I think that’s really great advice as we can pick up items we need along the way.

Transportation – I think for the experience and cost we are looking for, a lot of our travel should be on the ground. Busses, Taxi’s etc. We are going to need/want to take some flights as well though. This is going to be a big part of the expenses for us. There are several companies out there that do RTW flight packages. Ranging anywhere from 5-12+ flights to get around the world. Now I definitely want to be on the low end of that scale. But no matter how we slice it we will definitely need flights to get from point A to B sometimes. I believe you can buy open date tickets as well. Basically it has a few different flights and destinations but that dates are loosely open, which would be ideal for us.

Planning – We should all probably pick a place that is a must see for us. Then tentatively plan our trip around that. We can’t plan this with to much detail because there is going to be a lot of unexpected things we run into. We might really love a place and want to stay there for a while. We might have a place and want to move on. We might be persuaded to go somewhere we didn’t initially want to go to. Through our research we should probably have an idea of where we want to go and be open to the idea that that can, and probably will change.

I know there is a ton of planning, saving and research to be done still but this is what I have found so far….

[travelpunk]

Hey, congrats to both of you on your decision to travel for a year! That's awesome. For the most part, looks like you've got the main gist of what you need to do from packing light to not planning too much into detail.

I think the only thing that I would do is raise your bare minimum. Because, if you did only reach your bare minimum in savings for a year of travel, then that's only a little over $800 a month. If you spent one month in Europe, that's only about 600 euros. You will seriously be on a bread an water diet only for a month and probably a water only diet in the UK.

I know some countries will be more expensive than others, but in every country I think you should treat yourself to a really nice meal or something. It might be one night only, but it could whack your budget $50 to $100 in one fell swoop.

Sometimes, you both might want to treat yourself to sleeping in a private room instead of hostel dorm beds for a year.

In my experience, whatever number I set for travel savings, I usually achieve and rarely am able to go above that because as soon as I hit the number, I pack up and go.

So, I would set a higher "minimum" number like maybe "$1,500 a month for a full year" (really, that's only $50 a day). And if you stay within your daily budget, you'll be excited to see that when your trip is halfway through, you'll have a lot more money per day for the remainder of your trip.

Aim for a lower number and you'll hit it. Aim for a much much higher number and you may not hit it, but if you come close to it, you'll be much happier than if you hit your lower number.

Hope this makes sense!

Congrats and keep us in the loop!

[expatben]

Congratulations and welcome to TPunk!!!

[NachoCat]

Thanks guys. Great advice I really appriciate the help. Already started saving.

[tumblezweedz]

A follow-on suggestion re your budget. Not only are some countries more expensive than others, but also some regions are more expensive (eg. Scandinavia v. southern Europe, Europe v. SE Asia, Japan v. most of the rest of Asia). As you plan your route, try to mix up those regions to give yourself more bang for your buck.

[marc873]

Im agreeing with the above!!! The monthly budget def needs to be higher... And the thought of making a per country budget is pretty smart!!!! And you are absolutely right about packing light!!! The busses and walking with a shit ton of gear is hard!! The lighter the better, and you will probably find that you wake up in the morning and put the same clothes on from the day before... It happens on the road!!!

[Canadian Bacon]

I would advise you to learn bartending -- it may come in handy as extra money, even if you're just mixing drinks in the hostel bar.

Any 'special skill' that you could develop for some extra cash would be good!