I have a blank itinerary for travelling the world, help me fill it!

Snoogins

Hi all,

I've recently decided that it's time I went travelling, I mean really went wild for a year (or few years) grow a big massive beard, wear sandals, smoke a lot of perfectly legal substances and got to see what this blue marble has to offer. There are a few things I want to do already, but in general I only have a vague idea. If you guys have any suggestions of cool places to go, things to do, etc I'd be really grateful.

I want to hit every continent on my way, and realistically I'll be doing this on the breadline. (I'll have a good ball of cash in the bank if I need it, but only as an emergency measure) This means Hostels, etc are what I'm after. I can spring for air travel no problem, but I'm open to all suggestions for getting around.

I'd like to dip into doing a few things like charity work along the way, so if you have any contacts you could refer me that'd be awesome.

Any tips for security, good practice, etc would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys!

bamboozle

as prep work for hitting central & south america hit a spanish school in lake atitlan guatemala. Guatemala was by far the most mind blowing of places i've been and lake atitlan is unreal. great spot to get the spanish up to speed and cheap as chips.

Argentina a must also.

tigerblob

Get the book '501 Must-Visit Destinations' and see how many you can cross off!

wexartgirl

I'm in the same situation as you.. All i want to do is stick a backpack on my back and start travelling, But i have NO idea where to start.. could be laziness on my side but also finances and family won't let me go.. (in my family's case they won't let me go alone).

I also don't really plan ahead, i go with the current really so recently I've decided to go on a few small trips, one to Spain for a week, maybe inter-rail around Europe. Maybe i might meet other people along the way and learn about where to go and how to go about it. I'll see when the time comes, however if you are an "i need and organised plan" type person, this idea probably won't suit.

I wish you luck anyway!!

Snoogins

Ah no, an organized plan wouldn't quite appeal to me, I just want to go wandering, a few ideas are all I'm after

Tipperary animal lover

India- fly into Mumbai(plenty of charity work available) head up to Rajasthan(2weeks) fantastic state, head back to Mumbai get train(cheap seats)down the west coast to goa, enjoy what goa(budget accommoadtion) has to offer- beaches parties really laid back vibe, head onto Kerala by train another lovely state, after Kerala head up the east coast To city of chennai, fly up to Delhi and head to agra(Taj mahal) down to Varanasi(pyres burn 24hr a day here on the shores of the Ganges a site to see really) this is only a small sample of incredible India!!!
We did Singapore to Hanoi in 3months, singapore(over rated and €€€) train into malaysia(Up long the east coast) train into thailand(so much to do!!) into Cambodia(fantastic country/people) into Vietnam(hcmc to Hanoi by train with plenty of stops on the way).
You can go from Hanoi unto hong kong(was in hk 18ys ago it was the best city i was ever in) Beijing if your game, one day we'll get to do this.
Been to Indonesia( Bali java Sumatra Lombok Komodo island) great country and cheap.
Asia is very cheap/easy to get around. Hope this helps

wexartgirl

Tipperary animal lover wrote: »

India- fly into Mumbai(plenty of charity work available) head up to Rajasthan(2weeks) fantastic state, head back to Mumbai get train(cheap seats)down the west coast to goa, enjoy what goa(budget accommoadtion) has to offer- beaches parties really laid back vibe, head onto Kerala by train another lovely state, after Kerala head up the east coast To city of chennai, fly up to Delhi and head to agra(Taj mahal) down to Varanasi(pyres burn 24hr a day here on the shores of the Ganges a site to see really) this is only a small sample of incredible India!!!
We did Singapore to Hanoi in 3months, singapore(over rated and €€€) train into malaysia(Up long the east coast) train into thailand(so much to do!!) into Cambodia(fantastic country/people) into Vietnam(hcmc to Hanoi by train with plenty of stops on the way).
You can go from Hanoi unto hong kong(was in hk 18ys ago it was the best city i was ever in) Beijing if your game, one day we'll get to do this.
Been to Indonesia( Bali java Sumatra Lombok Komodo island) great country and cheap.
Asia is very cheap/easy to get around. Hope this helps

Wow, Sounds exactly like what i need to do. When did you travel these areas? was it in the last few years?

Snoogins

Cheers Tipp, looks like you had a great trip there! I was looking at USIT as well, any experiences with them? good/bad?

You could start of doing some Eastern Europe, make your way up to Moscow and get the train through Mongolia to Beijing.. Head down through China into Vietnam and the rest of SEA. From there, fly to Sri Lanka and up through India.
You could make things interesting by making it back to Asia and paying to be a deckhand on a sail boat over to South America.. Not much more expensive than a flight. After that, Make your way up to Mexico.
After that, fly to Africa and come up through there and back home.

Save Western Europe, America, Australia and Canada for holidays.. I'd love to be in your position.

Tipperary animal lover

Hi again, never used uist sorry, usually book flights and maybe 2 nights in the city I fly into just to get over the jet lag and go from there,It's really easy to sort out visas yourself but if your not comfortable doing this use

Wexartgirl- every year we head off travelling for 1 to 3 months a year, mostly head to Asia as it's really cheap if you stay out of the tourist traps(Bangkok phuket Singapore kuala lumpur). If You get the chance go for it, my favourite places are India Vietnam Cambodia Laos Indonesia, less Thailand Malaysia singapore south Korea.

Have a look on tripadvisor eg tripadvisor india - tripadvisor Mumbai etc etc I find it a good site. Happy travels

WhatNowForUs?

You seem pretty cool.

Why don't you do a tour of Ireland first. Then do the world tour. after the world tour do the exact tour of Ireland again and see if your perspective on the people and land has changed.

just an idea.

Third_Echelon

Vietnam is a must... beautiful country and people....

Japan and Brazil also two of my favourite trips that I did...

dory

Central America is a very easy place to travel in. I'm in Guatemala now. The Spanish schools have cottened on to how lucrative volunteering is so now they all have volunteering options as one of the extras you get for choosing their school.

With my rtw I just picked a continent, south America and after that just went where sounded cool. Enjoy!

jt_dublin

Snoogins, you lucky thing. I would love to be heading off again for a year!

I too would recommend studying Spanish at the start of any trip to Central & South America. I found it wonderful to be able to talk to the local people and learn about them, their culture etc..

I also studied in Guatemala as they say the spanish there is quite pure with clear pronunciation and not much dialects.

I would recommend this school in the mountains outside Xela http://www.escuelamontana.org/

All classes are 1-to-1 with wonderful teachers and are out in the garden in little huts, so a lovely environment to learn in. It is total immersion and you will be surprised how much you will learn very quickly.

They are a community school and all profits go to supporting about 4 local communities to improve their standard of living, educate the children etc.. You also get to eat with the local families, so you see how they live, learn about their struggle to get to where they are now. I spent 3 weeks there and it was a wonderful and unforgettable experience. You talk about doing charity work. This would be similar in that you also can spend time teaching the children to read, organising entertainment for them etc.. There are field trips at the weekends to various interesting sites. You can climb active volancoes and we even took part in a Mayan religious ceremony.


It was also a great way of meeting other travellers, getting to know them, hearing about places they had been or maybe even travelling with them on the next part of your trip.

Best of luck.
JT.