The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Post-FIRE => Topic started by: spartana on January 14, 2020, 02:25:22 PM
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If you are FIRE, or just plan to take longer sabbatticals, and wanted to do a round the world trip how would you do it? How long would you/could you take? How much do you think you'd spend? What mode of transports would you use? What kind of accommodations? Would you do it as one long trip and break it up into smaller trips over time with returns to a home base in between? Etc...
More or less a nosey hypothetical question at this point but am looking at ideas and inspiration.BTW full on gloating about your awesome trips is VERY welcome. No humble bragging please, just bragging ;-).
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Am I allowed to chime in, or have you already heard enough from me? :)
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Definitely by road, with the obvious shipping of the vehicle by cargo ship. First, finish Mexico (we've been crisscrossing Mexico for the past three years) and Central America, then ship the truck over the Darian Gap from Panama to Colombia, travel the continent, then off to South Africa...then who knows...That's the plan, once we iron out a few practical details and get over a significant setback (truck, truck camper, and all my camping/tools/outdoor gear were stolen in Calgary last December, a day before heading south...truck recovered with damages, camper and everything still missing, currently fighting with the insurance company about coverage for the truck camper itself) so we can resume our adventure and take it to the next phase.
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We plan to combine boats, planes and automobiles.
We plan to start our post career life by cruising on a sailboat. That will sometimes require other means of transportation to get inland and sometimes entire seasons (aka hurricane season) of doing something else. Either during hurricane season or after getting tired of the sailboat, we will likely get an RV. For example, we might leave the boat in Australia for hurricane season, while we travel inland Asia or get an RV in Europe.
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We've talked about starting FIRE off with a RTW trip. I'm interested in the idea of doing RTW without flying and I'd love part of the trip to be on a sail boat, but SO isn't so keen on either of those ideas. I find air travel to be disconnecting, so I don't feel a sense of continuity from one location to another when I fly. (For that reason walking is my preferred method of travel, and I have plans of doing some longer walks in the future, but no interest in walking around the world.) Our compromise would probably be: trains as much as possible, cars when trains aren't an option, and some connecting flights between land segments.
Here's the thing--the longest vacation I've ever taken as an adult was 10 days, so I have no idea what six months or a year of travel would be like for me. But I like the sound of taking a whole year for the trip.
I haven't looked into the economics carefully, but from reading a few different travel blogs I could easily see spending $50k on the trip (for 2).
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I did an around the world trip many years ago. I started in New Zealand, and kept going west...Australia, Singapore, Philippines, China, India, Nepal, Kenya, Egypt, Turkey, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, England, Scotland, Ireland and home to the U.S. I stayed mostly in hostels. I had an around the world plane ticket and used public transportation within countries. It was an amazing year. I thought I might repeat it when I retired, but now I think I would much rather do several shorter trips—a maximum of 3 months at a time, unless I have work or friends to visit somewhere to anchor me a bit.
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Definitely no planes and possibly no plans. Just jump a steamer bound east or west and take it from there. I would head to either Europe or Japan first and then take it from there. Ships, trains, cars, bikes, etc should manage the rest. I would spend most time in eastern and southern Europe and SE asia. I've had enough of Australia, NZ, Southern Africa, South America and Antarctica. And would probably skip large parts of Russia, China, India and the mid-east.
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After visiting Europe this spring, maybe you'd enjoy taking the Trans-Siberian Railway (https://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm) from Moscow to Beijing? From China, or maybe Hong Kong if things have settled down there by then, you could get a cheap flight back to SOCAL...
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You might like reading the "Vagabonding" book by Rolf Potts:
https://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180
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I get homesick after a month of travel with or without dogs:)). We are going to Europe for a month in August and hope to keep the costs down to 10k. We are going to Warsaw, rybnik, Vienna, Prague, Ireland and Scotland. Very excited!
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If you are FIRE, and wanted to do a round the world trip how would you do it?
Though I like staying in my nest I have thought about taking a trip around the world.
I don't like to fly and I enjoy trains so I'd definitely travel the world by ship and train. And probably a rented or fold-up/portable bike.
How long would you/could you take?
IDK, maybe a year? I do know I wouldn't be in a hurry. I could take as much time as I wanted.
How much do you think you'd spend?
I'm not a traveler so I don't have a frame of reference as to cost. Maybe $100,000 - $150,000 for a year-long trip?
What kind of accommodations?
I'd stay in hotels in small towns/small cities off the beaten path.
Would you do it as one long trip and break it up into smaller trips over time with returns to a home base in between? Etc...
I am certain it would be 1 long trip w/ no return to home base until my trip was over.
More or less a nosey hypothetical question at this point but am looking at ideas and inspiration.BTW full on gloating about your awesome trips is VERY welcome. No humble bragging please, just bragging ;-).
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After visiting Europe this spring, maybe you'd enjoy taking the Trans-Siberian Railway (https://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm) from Moscow to Beijing? From China, or maybe Hong Kong if things have settled down there by then, you could get a cheap flight back to SOCAL...
I like trains.
If I ever take a trip around the world a ride on the Orient Express is a MUST.
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After visiting Europe this spring, maybe you'd enjoy taking the Trans-Siberian Railway (https://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm) from Moscow to Beijing? From China, or maybe Hong Kong if things have settled down there by then, you could get a cheap flight back to SOCAL...
I like trains.
If I ever take a trip around the world a ride of the Orient Express is a MUST.
I hear the Rocky Mountaineer through Western Canada is pretty great.
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After visiting Europe this spring, maybe you'd enjoy taking the Trans-Siberian Railway (https://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm) from Moscow to Beijing? From China, or maybe Hong Kong if things have settled down there by then, you could get a cheap flight back to SOCAL...
I like trains.
If I ever take a trip around the world a ride of the Orient Express is a MUST.
I hear the Rocky Mountaineer through Western Canada is pretty great.
I've heard about that trip or one that's similar from people who took it.
I'm sure I'd enjoy it.
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Heading off on our small sailboat this year, not with plans to circumnavigate but "initial" goal is New Zealand and it might take us 10 years to get there. There's a lot to see between here (US East Coast) and there! We love sailing as a way to travel for a lot of reasons, but taking our own home and being self-sufficient ranks right up there.
Part of our budgeting focus is making sure we have enough funds to enjoy land travel in places where that experience is unique. We cruised (lived and traveled on the same small boat) for 3 years in the early 90s and still remember being in Venezuela, where fellow boaters were planning a trip to Angel Falls. $200 a person for the 3 day adventure. We had to pass. Unless things change drastically in Venezuela, that option won't be available again.
I wouldn't trade the time we had aboard back then for anything, but one of our compromises on boat size (keeping the same boat we've owned since 1992) is to allow us to NOT pass on opportunities like this when they come up.
We love markets and learning about local foods as a way to get insight into culture.
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We plan to combine boats, planes and automobiles.
We plan to start our post career life by cruising on a sailboat. That will sometimes require other means of transportation to get inland and sometimes entire seasons (aka hurricane season) of doing something else. Either during hurricane season or after getting tired of the sailboat, we will likely get an RV. For example, we might leave the boat in Australia for hurricane season, while we travel inland Asia or get an RV in Europe.
Yay another cruiser!
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Hi
If i were to one day do a Round the world trip, i would like to follow similar footsteps: eg follow the journey of the book Round the world in 80 days or other similar themes like Marco Polo or Paul Thereoux :))
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We plan to combine boats, planes and automobiles.
We plan to start our post career life by cruising on a sailboat. That will sometimes require other means of transportation to get inland and sometimes entire seasons (aka hurricane season) of doing something else. Either during hurricane season or after getting tired of the sailboat, we will likely get an RV. For example, we might leave the boat in Australia for hurricane season, while we travel inland Asia or get an RV in Europe.
Yay another cruiser!
We have only done the local coast, so far. But we did live on the boat for four years before the commute got too bad. DH did the Baja Haha with a friend this year. Boyz only :(
Current plan is to sign another two year lease on the condo, then leave June 2022.
@Ozlady , plenty of books about sailing the world!
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Has anyone had any experience with Workaway? I am interested in doing this in the future. My future travel plans are to try and travel in 3 months blocks as after three months of travelling I am usually craving for normalacy again.
It is definitely a plus to have a round the world airfare even if you do not use it as Customs can give you a bit of grief if they suspect that you intend to work or stay illegally. CUstoms in the U.K., Canada and USA did not really believe my having a six month break to travel story. Having the return airfare ticket did help.
In the U.K. I joined a housesitters website andthere were heaps of opportunities for short term housesitting looking after people's animals whilst they went away. I did not end up doing this but it would be a good way to travel more cheaply as accomodation is the biggest expense.
I have also looked at Earthwatch as they offer short interesting stints helping with scientific research. I would not say it is a cheap travel option but certainly would be a great experience.
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Has anyone had any experience with Workaway? I am interested in doing this in the future. My future travel plans are to try and travel in 3 months blocks as after three months of travelling I am usually craving for normalacy again.
It is definitely a plus to have a round the world airfare even if you do not use it as Customs can give you a bit of grief if they suspect that you intend to work or stay illegally. CUstoms in the U.K., Canada and USA did not really believe my having a six month break to travel story. Having the return airfare ticket did help.
In the U.K. I joined a housesitters website andthere were heaps of opportunities for short term housesitting looking after people's animals whilst they went away. I did not end up doing this but it would be a good way to travel more cheaply as accomodation is the biggest expense.
I have also looked at Earthwatch as they offer short interesting stints helping with scientific research. I would not say it is a cheap travel option but certainly would be a great experience.
@Magnolia Our family of 3 did Workaway on a small farm in NZ in 2017. It was generally a good experience. Allowed us to get to know a local family and see what their lives were like. I enjoyed the physical labor on the farm more than my wife and, at that time, 8 year old daughter. It was nice to not have to pay for accommodations for 2+ weeks, but the trade off was we weren't really free to do as we liked every day. Since the farm was in the middle of nowhere and we didn't have a car, in two weeks we only, actually, left the farm once. Most days, after we completed our assigned farm chores, we just hung out at the farm, reading books, taking walks on the property, helping to cook dinner, talking, etc. I wouldn't mind doing Workaway again, some day, maybe when our daughter is a little older, so she can contribute to the work exchange, as well.
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We have travelled plenty over our lives and with FIRE approaching I had been planning long RTW victory lap.
But now, with FIRE imminent, I am feeling RTW trips are for people who are time constrained. Sounds a bit silly since there is no time limit on a RTW trip (unless you buy a RTW ticket of course), but I feel the concept of RTW means that you keep moving progressively around the world, which is to me sounding a bit too much of a commitment heading into FIRE.
I think my post FIRE travel will be much more leisurely, spontaneous and random. One way air tickets can be bought cheaply, and I imagine I will enjoy flying home when I feel like it, and not having the self imposed obligation to keep moving around the globe. I can imagine that some times I’ll want to rent a place in some far flung city or village for a few months at a time, and other times I’ll want to tour from town to town by car, boat, bike, plane or by foot. We may buy a RTW ticket at some point, who knows??
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You might like reading the "Vagabonding" book by Rolf Potts:
https://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180
I heard of that book before but never read it. I'll see if my library has it. A friend of mine calls me the Wandering Waif as a joke because I like the super low budget kind of travel. Apparently I look more like a homeless vagabond street urchin then a sophisticated world traveller so that book is probably right up my alley.
I know you've travelled a lot recently so am curious as to how you'd do it. I guess kids and family obligation tie you down now so may be harder to envision. After a couple of years messing around in the US west with part time van camping, I think that kind of travel would be great with kids of any age. I'd like to be unencumbered from a vehicle if I travel again and think it would be great to take trains, buses, bikes, feet. I do hate flying though but hard to get around that unless its a long overland trip.
FWIW I'm once again a home owner but have a roommate who's rent covers all my expenses. So even though I'm somewhat tied down I feel a bit freer (no pets any more) then I have in the past. I think my budget would be around $2k/month solo and less if sharing expenses.
On the book, it's a bit more philosophical up front but then has some more practical sections later. There is also a section on women traveling alone in there. The book is supportive of low-cost travel IIRC, so that would align with you.
I still have "wanderlust, but..." syndrome. There are things that tie me here - providing a home base for my kids and helping them as needed, my house that I own, my cat that owns me, and my 83-year-old Dad who is doing well now but does need some help. So my "someday around the world" trip is getting put off. But I don't know if I should put it off until those things resolve, or if this is just an example of there will never be a right time.
If I did go:
1. I'd do it mostly on my own. I'm very introverted and self-sufficient. I might swing by my kid's house or my sister's house or something as a convenient way point, but I really value the ability to go where and when I want to and do what I want to.
2. I'd probably do it without a vehicle. Lots of places in the world have transportation for hire - buses, taxis, rickshaws, walking, Uber, etc.
3. I would not buy a RTW ticket. I want the flexibility to change my plans even more than the wide flexibility those offer (I think they let you take a year?).
4. I would do hostels and VRBOs or AirBnB type situations probably. Maybe even camping depending on weather.
5. I've always imagined it as a more efficient way to just pick a direction (East or West), and then do a traveling salesman route to all the places I want to go. The Potts book suggests that I would change my mind partway through anyway. That'd be OK. I'd probably want to stay in some places longer and some places shorter.
That's just me. YMMV.
P.S. - Sorry about your dog (?)
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This is my favorite daydream topic.
I honestly don't think personally I'd want to pursue any grand goals like circumnavigating the globe or visiting every country. I think for me it would prevent me from being able to get the most out of the places I do visit and would impede some flexibility on being able to change plans based on events, new discoveries, deals, etc. I probably won't stay out for more than a month or two at a time, since I think DH will probably not want to come on most trips.
The one exception is that I would like to take the bus from the tip of South America back home. I'm fascinated and jealous how effective and even sometimes luxurious bus travel can be in Latin America.
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^Tell me more about buses. I hadn't thought of long distance buses but that could be an option. I guess I just need to get the image of a ratty long distance Greyhound bus out of head ;-). My sister took the Green Tortise bus once on a multiweek trip to Mexico (travel and sleep on bus) and it was cheap and fun but not luxurious. Although looking at their current website it looks much more expensive and luxurious compared to when she went. And they don't seem to go to Mexico or central or south America any more just the US. And shorter term. Oh well. https://greentortoise.com/
Buses in Latin America really run the gamut depending on where you are and what your budget is. There are the crowded reused old yellow school buses and old beat up vans, but in more and more areas you can upgrade to really nice non-stop buses like the literal Mercedes bus I rode in in Peru. It was the "VIP" upgrade for $10 for 200 miles, and it had big plush seats, lots of leg room, big windows, a bathroom, an attendant, and sandwiches for lunch. Also, if there's a road there probably is some kind of bus or shared van that runs down it.
I don't think you need a tour bus once you get south of the border. Mexico specifically is one of the countries where you can get really nice buses on the main routes. It seemed like the fancy buses there cost a little more than some of the cheaper countries, but $30 for 200 miles still didn't seem too bad coming from the US.
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I caught a bus in Peru where the chairs reclined very far and had a leg rest to allow a fairly comfortable nights sleep.
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I remember how ridiculously excited I got about premade sandwiches the first time I got one of these buses.
As a woman traveling alone, the real advantage was that there single seats on one side of the bus. Even on a first class bus, there can be some creeps if you are stuck sitting side by side.
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I remember how ridiculously excited I got about premade sandwiches the first time I got one of these buses.
As a woman traveling alone, the real advantage was that there single seats on one side of the bus. Even on a first class bus, there can be some creeps if you are stuck sitting side by side.
The metro in Mexico City actually has special cars reserved for women and children.
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I remember how ridiculously excited I got about premade sandwiches the first time I got one of these buses.
As a woman traveling alone, the real advantage was that there single seats on one side of the bus. Even on a first class bus, there can be some creeps if you are stuck sitting side by side.
The metro in Mexico City actually has special cars reserved for women and children.
And for very good reason...
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^Tell me more about buses. I hadn't thought of long distance buses but that could be an option. I guess I just need to get the image of a ratty long distance Greyhound bus out of head ;-). My sister took the Green Tortise bus once on a multiweek trip to Mexico (travel and sleep on bus) and it was cheap and fun but not luxurious. Although looking at their current website it looks much more expensive and luxurious compared to when she went. And they don't seem to go to Mexico or central or south America any more just the US. And shorter term. Oh well. https://greentortoise.com/
Just commenting on green tortoise here, I have some friends who've taken trips and it's not luxurious, it's probably just the website branding. I can't speak to the prices. My friends did Yosemite and Alaska and both enjoyed it very much.
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There was an epic show in the UK called Race Across the World (BBC, might be on YouTube). Couples traveled from London to Singapore (no planes, no phones, no planning, no cards only the cash value of two economy plane tickets and the option to work on the way). It looked really fun. I'd do something like that, but slower.
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Ohhh love to think about this.
I agree with @itchyfeet that calling it a RTW trip sounds like it's time constrained/comes with expectations or obligations.
Once upon a time I decided to take a trip around the world. I felt time constraint as I had a bf waiting for me at home. As soon as bf and me broke up the time constraint disappeared and so did the 'the world' in around the world. I still went around, but stayed in one continent for a full year. Half of it was traveling around, the other half was spent working in my favorite country out of the 9 I visited.
The best decisions I made there?
1. Not booking any tickets up front beyond the initial one-way ticket. I had consulted a travel agency about a RTW ticket and am forever grateful I found the same trip for cheaper when looking at individual tickets and keeping it off. I would've felt obliged to take the flights and would've missed out on 99% of the amazing experiences I ended up having. At some point even tickets booked a month in advance felt like a constraint as I couldn't just tag along with any cool new friends!
2. Dare to change the plan. In the first weeks I met great people, but often said goodbye to them as our plans didn't align and I even if their plans sounded awesome I wanted to stick to my own because of point 1. At most I'd hang around in a city for a day extra, but always having in the back of my mind that I'd have to substract a day in another city for that. Post-breakup I stayed everywhere a day longer on average. Cost per day went down, cool people met went up, unexpected adventures skyrocketed, confidence to be alone increased, waiting for good opportunities to show up increased, willingness to take risks/have insecurities (e.g. couchsurfing arrangements or going places with a reservation resulting in 2h walks around town looking for a hostel) went up and led to better experiences.
What I'd do different for a next time:
1. Feel less stress about 'the future' or forced to go back at a certain time. I felt very insecure about my career options after a year of slacking. Yet when I started applying I got interview invites for every single thing I applied for. The fact that I had done some actual work experience in a semi-relevant job on the other side of the world turned out a big plus on my resume, which I hadn't seen coming.
2. Don't feel obliged to do 'all the things' or to 'move on'. Traveling gets tiring after months. The 7th waterfall ain't as good as the 1st. Staying in one place for a long time to work got me both the chance to actually built up a life in a whole new place and to be excited again about seeing new places. Waterfalls are more special if you haven't seen one in a month or two.
3. People over places. I learned sometime halfway that for me, a big part of the fun is the people I'm surrounded with. Doing exactly the things I want is awesome, but heading from place to place by myself looking for folks to hang out with is exhausting. Now I stick with the people I like and we make seperate plans where it fits. E.g. I'm a morning person and one of my travel besties is a full blown 'won't get up before noon' person. So I plan my own stuff in the morning and drag her out of bed for lunch once I get back. I meet people on my morning activities, she with her nightly adventures and we unite them all in our lunches or dinners.
I see lots of different strategies working out for people:
A friend of mine will go in her 3rd year of travel soon. She spent her first travel year in Asia. The second was devoted to Mid-America. Now she wants to move on to South America. She literally visits only a handful of countries each time, maybe 5-6 at most, going back and forth between the ones she likes using public transport. She makes sure to go home every year for a few months and works some low-level, many-hours high season job to save up cash again.
Another friend who's FIREd has been traveling for the same 3 years. He travels higher pace and has networks everywhere after years of visiting everywhere. He usually travels 2-3 months at a time, visiting 2-4 countries in that timeframe. Then he heads home for a couple weeks and off again to another part of the world. He was the one who made me realize that traveling/living of your investments is actually possible.
Personally I'd like a pace somewhere in the middle. I'd prefer to travel slow, mostly by public transport and stay in a country as long as my visa allows it (and come back later so see the rest). Yet I'd also like the freedom to fly over to another place on a whim because some friend happens to be there. Accomodation wise staying with friends is no 1, hostels no 2 and hotels somewhere far down the line. I'll be traveling with a boyfriend soon and I'm already resenting the idea of staying in hotels for some of the days :p
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If I got laid off today, we would hook up our 17’ fiberglass Casita camper and take a minimum of 3-6 months traveling North America as I have about 2 years of Sabbatical cash on deck. If I was FIRE’d, we’d stretch that into around 2 years or so. We could easily do 6+ months in the U.S., then up to Alaska, time in Canada, Baja, Mexico, Central America, and South America. For the America’s, I’d like to drive as I like that form of control. I also like our camper as it’s easy and convenient.
We’ve done two months in Asia, and found that 1-2 weeks was enough for us in most locations being’s we wanted to see a lot. If we had no timeline, we’d spend much more time just relaxing in huts by the beach. Right now, I’d be pretty happy going straight back to Phuket and spending a month or two there just bumming around. Lifting weights, running, going to the beach, markets, night clubs, etc.
I agree with other posters that my plans would be very loose. Not booking too much ahead of time as I may find I want to spend more or less time in a single location and don’t want to be overly constrained to a schedule. The best part about slow travel and not working is not needing to have any real schedule. For example, when we flew to Bangkok, we spent two weeks there and would’ve been better with 7-10 days and moving onto the next place.
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We're taking off on a 4 month sabbatical in October (Japan and SE Asia). Quickly discovered that travel hacking and a loose itinerary are mostly mutually exclusive since one has to reserve award flights well in advance. I'm trying to find free-cancellation lodging options using points where I can. Overall I'm happy with the tradeoff since we'll be spending a heck of a lot less than we would have otherwise.
We're going to bop around quite a bit for the first 2 months, then stay put in Penang for 6 weeks to see what that's like. Our typical trips have been 3-4 weeks and our longest stay in one place was 9 days in Oaxaca city last year, so this will be a new style of travel for us. Testing our "slow-travel in FIRE" hypothesis I guess! So far the plan is to use public transport and not rent cars.
I suspect it's gonna be really hard going back to work when it's over!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
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We're taking off on a 4 month sabbatical in October (Japan and SE Asia). Quickly discovered that travel hacking and a loose itinerary are mostly mutually exclusive since one has to reserve award flights well in advance. I'm trying to find free-cancellation lodging options using points where I can. Overall I'm happy with the tradeoff since we'll be spending a heck of a lot less than we would have otherwise.
Depends on how you do it. In 2016, a few months before we left the US, my wife and I each opened Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve CCs. Using the bonus sign-up points from those 4 CCs, our family of 3 were able to fly, pretty much for free, all the way around the world and back again. The only reservation we made in advance was our first flight to Japan. From there, we just booked flights as we went, mostly using the Chase Travel Portal.
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@Shane, that's true, using the portal could make flexibility easier. In our case, the flights we wanted would have been double or triple the points through the portal vs transferred to partners. I like optimizing my points, at the expense of flexibility in this case.
Excited for FIRE to find out what travel would be like with no end date!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
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After visiting Europe this spring, maybe you'd enjoy taking the Trans-Siberian Railway (https://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm) from Moscow to Beijing? From China, or maybe Hong Kong if things have settled down there by then, you could get a cheap flight back to SOCAL...
My plane ticket is round trip but could blow off the return as it was inexpensive. Also am a dual passport holder with the UK so that opens up longer stays in Europe so that's probably what I'd do first. Also want to visit Russia as I've never been (my Mom is from a former German city on the Baltic that now belongs to Russia so would like to go there ). After that??? Not sure how I will feel about going longer than 4 months at time but that seems so short now. I will be going solo but have a semi-FIREd BF who can meet me for long stretches so that's helpful for longer stays..
Total side note but the time thing is one of the things I'm psyched about with FIRE. A lot of people think getting a two week vacation is the ultimate in decadence; knowing that 4 months can feel short is a different ball of wax entirely. We're asked how long we like to stay in a place on the boat - our answer: "until we run out of tomatoes or we get bored."
Love your idea of going to Russia "because I've never been" as well as the background. What a perfect combination of reasons to visit a place. I'll be watching.
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Returned a couple of weeks ago from 3 months. All planes and rental cars in this case as it was mainly Australia and NZ but in general I typically set some dates to begin and end in a place for some level of structure and fill in the gaps as I go.
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What a perfect thread to stumble upon.
For a little bit of context, slow/perpetual travel was my biggest driver to FIRE as early as possible. Being born/living in the USA but spending most summers growing up in Eastern Europe were my entire family is from, I got to travel more than most of my friends. I've always wanted to be able to spend extended time in Europe as an adult, and have strong wanderlust to other parts of the world as well. Going as far back as 2011, I would daydream at work about all of the possibilities that some money in the bank and low overhead could provide. Well, fast forward to 2019, and I pulled the plug on work at the age of 32 with only ~$500k nest egg. It's not enough to FIRE forever, but enough to take a year or three off to travel around the world.
My wife and I recently purchased one way tickets from NY to Portugal, and depart the second week of March. As far as accommodations go, we have yet to book anything, and will likely only snag our first 4-5 nights in Porto via AirBnB, and then get places to stay as we work our way down the coast to Lisbon and across the rest of southern Europe. Due to visa length we are traveling as slowly as possible, primarily by private bus (Flixbus), and public train/bus, limiting air travel to necessity. Our route is very loosely etched in pencil, and subject to change for any number of reasons. Rewards flight from USA to Portugal then land travel in this general order -> Southern Spain -> Southern France -> Northern Italy -> Switzerland/Austria -> Southern Germany -> Czechia ->Slovakia -> Hungary -> Romania -> Ukraine -> Poland. We have 90 days in Schengen from when we land in Portugal till we leave into Ukraine, after which, Poland has a separate 90 day visa agreement with the USA, and we will be taking full advantage of those 90 days to spend time with my family and explore the entire country. From Poland we will either come back to the USA for a few weeks in the fall, before heading off to SE Asia, or go straight there from Europe.
Spartana asked about costs, and I recently shared my estimates in my journal here on MMM forums, so apologies for a few of you who already saw this and commented over there......
"The trip will be broken down into three large segments; Western/Southern Europe (3 months), Poland (3 months), and SE Asia (5-6 months). All costs are total for two adults.
For Europe we estimate the costs to be the highest, mainly due to lodging. Budgeting $100/day which we estimate will break down to;
$50 lodging (AirBnB/Hostel/Guesthouse)
$20 food (groceries, outdoor markets, some eating out/boozing on the local fare)
$10 activities/entertainment
$10 transportation (train, bus, ferry, local metro, etc)
$10 misc (travel/health insurance, mobile data, laundry, gym access, incidentals)
$9000 total for 3 months
For Poland, the costs drop to $75/day because we will have a free place to stay part of the time, and food is slightly cheaper;
$35 lodging (Family, Hostel, Guesthouse)
$15 food
$10 activities/entertainment
$10 misc (travel/health insurance, mobile data, laundry, gym access, incidentals)
$5 transportation (train, bus, ferry, local metro, etc)
$7000 total for 3 months
For SE Asia, we anticipate ~$80/day because we will be moving around more and doing some more expensive things like getting the wife PADI Scuba certified + refresher course for me, some island hopping around southern Thailand, surfing lessons and rentals in Bali, and some time in more expensive areas like Borneo and Singapore;
$30 lodging (AirBnB/Hostel/Guesthouse)
$15 food
$15 activities/entertainment
$10 transportation (short haul flights, trains, bus, ferries)
$10 misc (travel/health insurance, mobile data, laundry, gym access, incidentals)
$14,000 total for 6 months
Which breaks down to ~$30k estimate for one year of living a completely nomadic lifestyle on a day to day cost basis. This does not include any large and sporadic costs over the year (medical care, transcontinental flights, returning to USA in fall for my brothers wedding, unexpected "emergencies") for which we are estimating an additional 20% buffer. Depending on how those pan out, our year abroad could end up costing slightly less than our normal life over the past 12 months in the USA, or slightly more. If our estimates are shit, it could be a whole lot more, in which case we have to decide whether we eat the cost or just cut a portion of the trip shorter."
Hope this is helpful to some, and I'm interested in the continued discussion. Already learned a lot re: travel from the people here, and looking forward to meeting some of you along the way.
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I've done this a few times...
Traveled 20 months at age 31-33 hit 6 continents. AFter age 40...Took a 12 week LOA, went part time a couple years ago and took some extended trips since then (8 weeks driving to Alaska, 8 weeks traveling the Balkan countries, 7 weeks in Ethiopia, Somaliland, Djibouti).
I made the mistake of booking a RTW airline ticket with fixed dates, and moving around too fast the first time. As a result, I never got to take my last 2 flights, and I had to pay for changes (which weren't too expensive 15 years ago, the change fees really jumped after the recession).
The van trip was super good... loved the flexibility to go where the wind and good weather took me. I want to do more van trips.
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I did a round the world trip in ‘89. It took four months. I traveled on planes, trains, buses, foot, bike, boat, oxcart, and more. A week in Japan, a week in Hong Kong, seven weeks in China, three in the USSR (by way of the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Beijing), two in Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia), and three in Western Europe (Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, England). It was amazing. Some of it was very grueling (e.g. hard-seat train travel in China), other parts posher (getting a lift from the Black Forest in Germany to Geneva in a Mercedes), but it all was cheap - I think it cost $6k for everything including boarding fees for my cats.
These days, I take shorter, one-destination-oriented trips as I miss being away from my sweetie for too long (she’s not FIREd and also doesn’t hike which is high on my list of my preferred travel experiences), so typically six 2-2.5 weekers (although I’m soon off to New Zealand for five weeks) a year. Coincidentally it adds up to about the same four months of travel but spread out over the whole year. Annual travel budget is now $15k.
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I would like to do a RTW cruise at some point. I'm not adventurous enough any more to do it by sailboat. My concern is that so many sea days might get boring...and I don't want to gain 50 lbs.
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@Omy, that sounds like my version of hell.
Cruise ships are akin to giant shopping malls, and the epitome of waste and gluttony.
I'd love to bicycle around the world.
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Coincidentally it adds up to about the same four months of travel but spread out over the whole year. Annual travel budget is now $15k.
We are heading into FIRE with a travel budget of around 25K USD for two of us. I hope it will give us about 90 days of travel a year split into 2 or 3 trips. Maybe one 2 month trip and 2 x 2 week trips. Something like that, maybe.... I am figuring on an average spend of $200 a day and about $7K for flights. We will live in Australia so will spend a lot on flights if we want to spend time in Europe. The $200 a day considers spending more in Europe/ Nth America and less in Asia/ Latin America and will need to cover accom, food, entertainment, land travel etc.
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We have taken 6 cruises and love them. The longest was 3 weeks. That’s long enough.
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I bought a new suitcase today! just happened the zipper failed on my other one during my last business trip. But since I'm retiring in a few months I'm getting excited about having a brand new suitcase for my travel adventures. I'm going to put stickers on it for all the places I visit Post-FIRE. Only 1 trip (to Europe) planned so far, but this thread is good for inspiration. I haven't travelled for more than a month at a time, I think that's my limit but who knows.
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We have taken 6 cruises and love them. The longest was 3 weeks. That’s long enough.
I've taken 3 (all with extended family) and it's been a lot of fun. None have been longer than 7 days, so I need to try a 3 or 4 week cruise before committing to RTW.
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Omg, ours was a repositioning Cruise so lots of sea days but tons of things which kept us busy. My husband enjoyed being in the choir and taking a acting class. Then at the end of the cruise they all performed. There was also a mystery to solve and you did it in groups of 8 people. It was really challenging with the clues they gave.
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I'm currently day dreaming about biking across the US. I'm thinking I'd head out from my current east coast locale, patch together a few Adventure Cycling routes to make my way cross country. I'd mostly camp/warm showers/stay with friends or family wherever possible with an occasional motel/hotel if the weather is looking treacherous. Then the way back would be a leisurely train journey with layovers in a few locations to break it up and see places/people. Maybe 3.5-4 months all in.
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Spartans, we have been to Alaska, New England and Canada and various cruises to different Caribbean islands. Our cheapest was a week in the Caribbean for 500 each. But there are many additional charges such as port fees, taxes, gratuities, etc. Then do you need airfare to get to the port. The 3 week cruise had a base price of 3k before everything else added in. We have spent anywhere from 3-8k depending on the destination, deal we find and cost of the airfare. Caribbean cruises are cheaper and so far Alaska the most expensive.
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In May, 2018, my family and I enjoyed 7 days on the Hurtigruten Ferry in Norway (https://www.hurtigruten.com/destinations/norway/classic-voyage-north-bergen-kirkenes/#itinerary). It was kind of like a cruise, but the Hurtigruten is also a working ferry. Every day, our ship stopped in several little ports, where we picked up and dropped off vehicles, cargo, and people. Our trip started in Bergen, in the SW, and ended far above the Arctic Circle in the little town of Kirkenes. We paid about US$1500 each for the entire trip, which included 3 delicious meals/day and one of the cheapest rooms for 3. At each port, if there was time, we usually got off and walked around the town or took a short hike up onto a hill overlooking the harbor. Each day, the shipped stopped at one port for 3-4 hours. The other stops were shorter, say, 20 - 30 minutes each. Just like a cruise, the Hurtigruten offers excursions at each of the ports where it stops for a few hours. We never took the excursions, because they were pretty expensive. Didn't find out until the last day of the trip, but the Hurtigruten has bicycles on board that passengers can borrow for free to ride around the towns where the ship makes longer stops. Next time, I'll definitely take advantage of that.
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I've actually been wondering what it would be like to go to a country and gradually walk a long distance maybe 10 or 20km at a time. It seems like it would be better in a country that's fairly densely populated where distances between lodging and food is short, like India, Egypt, or the Netherlands.
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In May, 2018, my family and I enjoyed 7 days on the Hurtigruten Ferry in Norway (https://www.hurtigruten.com/destinations/norway/classic-voyage-north-bergen-kirkenes/#itinerary). It was kind of like a cruise, but the Hurtigruten is also a working ferry. Every day, our ship stopped in several little ports, where we picked up and dropped off vehicles, cargo, and people. Our trip started in Bergen, in the SW, and ended far above the Arctic Circle in the little town of Kirkenes. We paid about US$1500 each for the entire trip, which included 3 delicious meals/day and one of the cheapest rooms for 3. At each port, if there was time, we usually got off and walked around the town or took a short hike up onto a hill overlooking the harbor. Each day, the shipped stopped at one port for 3-4 hours. The other stops were shorter, say, 20 - 30 minutes each. Just like a cruise, the Hurtigruten offers excursions at each of the ports where it stops for a few hours. We never took the excursions, because they were pretty expensive. Didn't find out until the last day of the trip, but the Hurtigruten has bicycles on board that passengers can borrow for free to ride around the towns where the ship makes longer stops. Next time, I'll definitely take advantage of that.
We did the Hurtigruten trip once too, but broke it in half with 4 days on the Lofoten islands. We took one ship to Lofoten and then another on to Bergen. We’d love to do the trip again even more slowly with even more extended stays in places like Trondheim and Andoya
Other awesome boat trips we have done include taking a Dahabiya up the Nile (best way to travel the Nile), cruising the Galapagos and Seychelles in small cruisers, sailing the Kerala backwaters in the very fancy Oberoi floating hotel and sleeping on the poop deck on the ferry through the inside passage to Alaska. All of the trips were really fantastic in their own way.
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I've actually been wondering what it would be like to go to a country and gradually walk a long distance maybe 10 or 20km at a time. It seems like it would be better in a country that's fairly densely populated where distances between lodging and food is short, like India, Egypt, or the Netherlands.
Europe has tons of long distance walking paths so check them out. Most are off road but have many overnight options. Look for @arebelspy journal as he and his (pregnant) wife walked the long one in Spain (Camino Santiago I think it's called).
Yeah, I think the Camino de Santiago is a Catholic pilgrimage route, but being as they're well established, maybe major pilgrimage routes might be a good idea even for non-religious folks.
Now that you mention it, I remember seeing pilgrims in India getting ready to go on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala temple which was over 1000km from where I was at. Holy smokes! I just looked it up, and it looks 40-50 million people go a year. That's like the entire population of California and Arizona all converging on Tucson, many of them walking the entire way barefoot. That might be an interesting trip.
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Re: cruising for RTW travel
There are some smoking deals for repositioning cruises that would be awesome for people traveling in pairs (or someone who could find a cruise partner) that wanted to go from continent to continent. I didn't retire this year but was thinking of it. Was in South America for an Antarctica cruise in December. Was thinking about making my way to Brazil for Carnival, then taking a repostitioning cruise to Europe for the spring.
Here are some interesting ones right now>
* Rio to Barcelona, Spain $909 for 17 nights, stopping several stops in Brazil, Canary Islands, Funchal, and Lisbon.
Santiago Chile to Port Canaveral, FL $399 for 15 days including stops in CH, Peru, Costa rica plus a full panama canal transit.
* Cape Town to Singapore $1499 for 24 days, lots of stops in Indian Ocean
* Sydney to LA $1749 for 29 days, stops in NZ, Hawaii, and south pacific islands.
Even with the tips, you can do these for (sometimes well) under $100 per day, would be a fun way to cross the ocean.
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Wow 2Birds1Stone, that sounds amazing, though a little tiring/daunting in my head to do all at once.
I guess that looks like a perfect guideline for me to use over few years (maybe 3 months on one continent per year returning home each time, as I don't like to be rushed traveling, but guess I do really like home).
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@Shane I took a Norwegian ferry over night from Stockholm to Helsinki (then train and buses from there to Narvik, Norway and South on the coast to Oslo). The ferry was great even though I didn't have a cabin and just slept on the deck like the other grungy backpackers, and I thought it would be a wonderful way to see the fjords. Mine was included in my Eurrail pass (as were several other ferry routes) and your experience made me think ferries could be a low key inexpensive way to see and visit some interesting area along a coast.
My sister took all the ferries in Alaska starting from Bellingham, WA and going as far as Dutch Harbor. She did get off at every port big or small and stay several days at each (tent camping) and slept on deck like many others did even though you could also book cabins when in transit. It wasn't too expensive and she really saw ALOT and took all summer long. She went up there 4 summers in a row (May to Sept) and travelled all around in various ways (including hitchhiking) and didn't spend much. I'd like to do the ferry system in Alaska like that someday.
@spartana The ferry from Bellingham up to Alaska is something I've always thought of doing, as well. Kind of surprisingly to me, though, even sleeping outside on the deck of the ship isn't necessarily the cheapest way to get to Alaska. Last I checked, a plane ticket was actually less $. Obviously, the ferry offers things a plane does not, though. Some day...
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Re: cruising for RTW travel
There are some smoking deals for repositioning cruises that would be awesome for people traveling in pairs (or someone who could find a cruise partner) that wanted to go from continent to continent. I didn't retire this year but was thinking of it. Was in South America for an Antarctica cruise in December. Was thinking about making my way to Brazil for Carnival, then taking a repostitioning cruise to Europe for the spring.
Here are some interesting ones right now>
* Rio to Barcelona, Spain $909 for 17 nights, stopping several stops in Brazil, Canary Islands, Funchal, and Lisbon.
Santiago Chile to Port Canaveral, FL $399 for 15 days including stops in CH, Peru, Costa rica plus a full panama canal transit.
* Cape Town to Singapore $1499 for 24 days, lots of stops in Indian Ocean
* Sydney to LA $1749 for 29 days, stops in NZ, Hawaii, and south pacific islands.
Even with the tips, you can do these for (sometimes well) under $100 per day, would be a fun way to cross the ocean.
Repositioning cruises sounds really interesting to me too. Sometimes I search on CruiseSheet (https://cruisesheet.com/) to see what's available, but haven't actually taken one yet. It's amazing how cheap some of them are.
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Cool...sounds interesting to me as well. Thanks for the link.
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Yeah I've read about some of those pilgrimage journeys and they are pretty epic. Lots and lots of non-pilgrimage long distance walking paths in most EUropean countries that have close by lodging and camping along the way. There are even large "walking events" that cover hundreds (thousands?) of miles too. Wikipedia lists a bunch of long distance walking paths and trails. Probably lots more out there. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_long-distance_footpaths
Honestly I'd prefer walking roads when it's safe. I definitely like some time with nature and solitude on trails, but I'm honestly more drawn to people watching. I've gotten into the idea of thinking of sidewalks as trails and hiking across cities the same as you might go hiking in the woods.
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I got a few brief glimpses of the Cinque Terre from the train years ago, and I really wish I had stopped. It looked so cool. I'd like to go some day, but I don't know if it would be irresponsible now given that I've read that those villages are really struggling with overtourism recently. I'm more fascinated with Asia and Africa anyway.
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A few years ago we cycled 700+ kms along the Danube from Passau in Germany down to Budapest. We met people who were doing the same trip but walking it rather than riding.
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We walked sections of the GR 34 route in Brittany and it was a great mix of nature, villages/harbors, ancient sites like standing stones, and cideries. Oh, the cideries: so good and so inexpensive. Hard cider is definitely one of my gazingus pins.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
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A few years ago we cycled 700+ kms along the Danube from Passau in Germany down to Budapest. We met people who were doing the same trip but walking it rather than riding.
An old friend's uncle used to tell stories of when he solo kayaked that route, camping in his tent each night along the banks of the Danube.
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A few years ago we cycled 700+ kms along the Danube from Passau in Germany down to Budapest. We met people who were doing the same trip but walking it rather than riding.
An old friend's uncle used to tell stories of when he solo kayaked that route, camping in his tent each night along the banks of the Danube.
We’d love to do it again. Especially the first half to Vienna. If we went again we’d like to do it in a small group with some friends. Nothing better than eating and drinking with friends!! A morning of cycling each days working up an appetite makes the eating and drinking all the more enjoyable
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I got a few brief glimpses of the Cinque Terre from the train years ago, and I really wish I had stopped. It looked so cool. I'd like to go some day, but I don't know if it would be irresponsible now given that I've read that those villages are really struggling with overtourism recently. I'm more fascinated with Asia and Africa anyway.
I visited Cinque Terre in February (2017) and I met exactly 5 people on the trails. Main tourist source that time was Chinese folks (Lunar NY period) and they don't do the hikes or stay in the towns. Going off season gstill gives you all the options. Weather was also perfect for hiking that time of the year.
Overtourism is certainly an issue there, but mostly in spring/summer months and tour-group based.
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A few years ago we cycled 700+ kms along the Danube from Passau in Germany down to Budapest. We met people who were doing the same trip but walking it rather than riding.
An old friend's uncle used to tell stories of when he solo kayaked that route, camping in his tent each night along the banks of the Danube.
We’d love to do it again. Especially the first half to Vienna. If we went again we’d like to do it in a small group with some friends. Nothing better than eating and drinking with friends!! A morning of cycling each days working up an appetite makes the eating and drinking all the more enjoyable
Where did you guys stay at night @itchyfeet ? Tent? Hostel? Hotel? Did you carry a camp stove and cook your own food?
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We stayed in hotels.
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I visited Cinque Terre in February (2017) and I met exactly 5 people on the trails. Main tourist source that time was Chinese folks (Lunar NY period) and they don't do the hikes or stay in the towns. Going off season gstill gives you all the options. Weather was also perfect for hiking that time of the year.
Overtourism is certainly an issue there, but mostly in spring/summer months and tour-group based.
Good to know. I didn't know there was that much of a drop-off in the off season. I think Italy is also one of the places where winter isn't that bad.
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We went to Italy in February and the temperature were between 45-60. It was still crowded but nothing like summer.
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So, what’s everyone got planned for 2020 in terms of global travel?
For us it’ll be a bit less travel compared to recent years as we need to go back to Australia 3 times which will bite our bank balance. Still we have some things planned for the summer.
We will do a driving trip around Transylvania (Romania) with another couple and then we will fly over to Tokyo for the Olympics. We are really looking forward to both halves of our vacation.
This trio will either be our last vacation as full time employees, or our first post FIRE trip. So doubly exciting.
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@itchyfeet, I posted at the bottom of the first page in this thread, a detailed breakdown of our upcoming year of travel. This was before the Coronavirus outbreak, so our second leg in SE Asia might have to get changed a bit.
TL;DR: We will be traveling around the world for 12 months, and are taking off in a few short weeks :)
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My plan for this year assuming retirement by July - Spend August in MN, take my parents on a road trip. Late August, fly to Copenhagen, do Copenhagen, Stockholm, ferry to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, fly into Minsk (need to fly in and out for VOA) visit Belarus for a couple weeks, Fly to either Lviv or Kyiv, spend some significant time in Ukraine, making way south to Odessa, then Moldova, keep heading south. My friend will come back to US for Christmas, so I might fly to Tbilisi or Red Sea for a month to stay put for awhile. He'll fly back and we also want to check out Cypruss, Greece, Lebanon, Egypt (i've been there). Not sure how good those places will be in the middle of the winter, won't be swimming I guess. This will put me over 100 countries visited (depending on the flight plan either Estonia or Latvia will be my 100th).
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Leaving for Japan in October, then on to KL, Singapore, Raja Ampat, Penang, and Thailand. Back home and to work in February. Turns out a friend is getting married to a Thai woman so we are probably going to a fancy-pants traditional Thai wedding at some point during our sabbatical.
Anyone want to house/cat sit? 85+ acres of wildlife habitat, mountain views, and nearby downhill and cross country skiing opportunities could be yours for the winter! Snowshoeing from the front door is a wonderful thing. :-)
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@JoJo , was visiting 100 countries something you have been targeting, or mere happenstance?
We have been to 70 something countries (I have counted but can’t remember the precise number), and I have wondered whether we will get to 80 something and then, as it is within reach, 100 will become a goal.
I can imagine a scenario with us us never getting to 100, even though we have prob 30 more years of travel left in us, as we don’t have a deep need to visit that many places we haven’t already been to... I do expect we will stumble over 100, but I am curious to see whether it becomes a goal for us.
From where we are to reach 100 the regions we would prob tick off more countries would be
- Central America/ Caribbean maybe 12 (as we haven’t visited that part of the world)
- Pacific islands. 3 (close to home so we should visit a couple. I haven’t even been to Fiji)
- Asia 5 (Japan this year, then Indonesia is prob the only other country we will def go to that we haven’t been to already. It’s also probable we will go to Uzbekistan at some point this year).
- Baltics and Balkans say 7 (I have only been to Serbia so plenty to see in those regions)
- Other 5 (at least Iceland, Morocco, Colombia)
So 100 is certainly likely.... we shall see whether it becomes a goal....
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Sounds like we will all meet up in Stockholm.
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I am going to walk for two weeks the part of the Camino that runs in France (not enough time to do all of the France part sadly). I have heard it is less crowded than the Section that runs through Spain.
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So, what’s everyone got planned for 2020 in terms of global travel?
For us it’ll be a bit less travel compared to recent years as we need to go back to Australia 3 times which will bite our bank balance. Still we have some things planned for the summer.
We will do a driving trip around Transylvania (Romania) with another couple and then we will fly over to Tokyo for the Olympics. We are really looking forward to both halves of our vacation.
This trio will either be our last vacation as full time employees, or our first post FIRE trip. So doubly exciting.
Flooding in New Zealand caused my February trip there to be cancelled, and I’ll visit the Atacama Desert in Chile instead.
Covid-19 caused my April hiking trip to Hunan Province to be cancelled, so I’ll move up my trip to the Baltic States (originally planned for August)
June: Sumatra and Sulawesi
August: Kilimanjaro and Kenya
October: Australia for the T20 World Cup
December: Northern Brazil
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@itchyfeet
I'd like to get to as many countries as possible in my lifetime, but not necessarily all of them. My passport makes some countries impossible right now. I thought it would be cool to get to 100 countries by age 50, and it looks like I'll get it a couple years early at 47.
That being said, I'm not really going out of my way to increase my count like some of those "record-breakers" who visited all countries and spent like a day or two in each. In fact, in 2019 I traveled over 4 months of the year and didn't get any new country count. (drove to alaska, arctic ocean, montana, and cruised to antarctica with a couple weeks in patagonia (which included stops in Argentina and Chile of which I had already spent some time))
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I'd like to get to as many countries as possible in my lifetime, but not necessarily all of them. My passport makes some countries impossible right now. I thought it would be cool to get to 100 countries by age 50, and it looks like I'll get it a couple years early at 47.
That being said, I'm not really going out of my way to increase my count like some of those "record-breakers" who visited all countries and spent like a day or two in each. In fact, in 2019 I traveled over 4 months of the year and didn't get any new country count. (drove to alaska, arctic ocean, montana, and cruised to antarctica with a couple weeks in patagonia (which included stops in Argentina and Chile of which I had already spent some time))
It's fun to count countries, but I don't want it actually to affect how I travel. I took a second trip to Mexico last year instead of checking off a new country. Maybe I should have gone somewhere new like the Netherlands or Colombia, but there's so much to see in a country like Mexico. I can't imagine spending a few days in a country, especially one that's so big and diverse, and consider that as having checked the box.
So, what’s everyone got planned for 2020 in terms of global travel?
Nothing major until next year. I'm trying to focus more on getting to FIRE because hurrying there then hurrying back to work isn't fun.
Flooding in New Zealand caused my February trip there to be cancelled, and I’ll visit the Atacama Desert in Chile instead.
You really wanted to make sure flooding wasn't a problem again :)
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So, what’s everyone got planned for 2020 in terms of global travel?
For us it’ll be a bit less travel compared to recent years as we need to go back to Australia 3 times which will bite our bank balance. Still we have some things planned for the summer.
We will do a driving trip around Transylvania (Romania) with another couple and then we will fly over to Tokyo for the Olympics. We are really looking forward to both halves of our vacation.
This trio will either be our last vacation as full time employees, or our first post FIRE trip. So doubly exciting.
Flooding in New Zealand caused my February trip there to be cancelled, and I’ll visit the Atacama Desert in Chile instead.
Covid-19 caused my April hiking trip to Hunan Province to be cancelled, so I’ll move up my trip to the Baltic States (originally planned for August)
June: Sumatra and Sulawesi
August: Kilimanjaro and Kenya
October: Australia for the T20 World Cup
December: Northern Brazil
I think you are FIRE already so have you thought of combining your trips into one or two longer ones that are close to each other? Save on travel/airfare costs, time and hassles, and greatly reduce your carbon footprint.
I would love to, but my girlfriend isn’t FIREd and we miss each other too much if I’m away too long, so it’s usually six weeks home, 2 1/2 or so away (NZ would’ve been an exception, I had a five weeker planned).
Fortunately I’m fatFIRE by MMM forum standards (not so much by Bogleheads standards perhaps :-) ), and I travel on the cheaper side, so the extra airfares aren’t a killer for my $15k travel budget.
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@jeroly the number of airfares per year has been a bit of a wildcard question in my FIRE planning.
I think we will have about $10K USD/yr for 2 of us for flights, and will have to make it work. If we fly economy it will go along way. If we fly premium economy/ business then not so much.
Our 2019 was a bit like your 2020, but we were somehow holding jobs down in between trips
- Feb - Denmark
- Mar - Sydney Aus (old mans 80th)
- Mar - Portugal
- May - Oman (just for 3 days. We drove over so doesn’t really count)
- Jun - Kyrgyzstan
- Aug - Sweden (3weeks in which we chartered a boat for 1 week)
- Nov - India (golden triangle)
- Dec - Sydney for XMas
This year will see much less travel, but next year post FIRE might see us flying all over the place once more. I have no idea and no firm plans....
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@jeroly the number of airfares per year has been a bit of a wildcard question in my FIRE planning.
I think we will have about $10K USD/yr for 2 of us for flights, and will have to make it work. If we fly economy it will go along way. If we fly premium economy/ business then not so much.
Our 2019 was a bit like your 2020, but we were somehow holding jobs down in between trips
- Feb - Denmark
- Mar - Sydney Aus (old mans 80th)
- Mar - Portugal
- May - Oman (just for 3 days. We drove over so doesn’t really count)
- Jun - Kyrgyzstan
- Aug - Sweden (3weeks in which we chartered a boat for 1 week)
- Nov - India (golden triangle)
- Dec - Sydney for XMas
This year will see much less travel, but next year post FIRE might see us flying all over the place once more. I have no idea and no firm plans....
I don’t specifically budget for flights as in general the pricier flights tend to be matched to cheaper destinations e.g. SE Asia, Africa etc. It seems to be around $1k/week overall the way I’ve been doing it, including airfares. Australia (3 1/2 weeks in March 2019) and Kyrgyzstan (2 weeks in May 2018) were outliers on the high and low ends respectively.
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As we’ll be based out of Australia, cheap flights will get us to cheap Sth East Asia and expensive flights will get us to the rest of the world.... one of the few downsides of calling Australia home.
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I'm kind of the opposite and would rather be gone from an SO longer while travelling but also stay home for a longer period of time (and have SO join me somewhere for a bit when he can). It is less disruptive for me personally. I'm not big on traditional vacations of a week or 2 here and there as it takes me that long just to adjust (plus I hate flying). That's why one mega RTW-type trip is very appealing to me or at least a couple of months or so at one time done several times to different areas.
On our RTW trip, we found that staying about a month in each place worked well for us. A month was long enough that we could settle into our Airbnb apartment or house, get to know the neighborhood, hopefully meet some people, find places we liked to shop, eat, drink and have coffee, and really get a feeling for what it would be like to actually live in that city. Since many Airbnb hosts offer big discounts (20-60%) for stays over 28 nights, month-long stays also made accommodations much more affordable than paying by the night.
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I am still working, so my travel has to be in shorter stints. I am a homebody, but also seem to have a streak of wanderlust. Also, I travel solo.
This year I am taking the month of October off and will slow travel in France.
Paris - 5 days mainly to get over jet lag, and because I have been there before it is in my comfort zone.
Then I will take the train to Avignon and rent a car. Other places that I have booked are Uzes, Goult, Mausanne les Alpilles and Antibes.
The Camino in France sounds really intriguing. I am going to research that and see if it is something I would want to do when I retire, and there are no time constraints.
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I've changed my mind about how I'd do the trip.
Instead of taking a ship to a continent and then traveling mostly by train I'd live on a cruise ship and when it was in port for a few days take some short trips inland by train/car/bike.
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Thank you for this thread . . . many inspiring stories here, and I am learning a ton!
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I've been lurking and learning on this thread as DH isn't ready to retire yet. Now I'm wondering how y'alls plans might morph, given the effect of the corona virus. I know you will keep traveling, but how will you switch it up? Muchremains to be seen.
I once heard Rick Steves talk, and one of his key points was Go Anyway. Don't get overly flummoxed by what the media is screeching about. I suppose the general fear of traveling will create some incredible opportunities.
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If I was young I probably wouldn’t cancel travel plans. Being 65 with a few chronic conditions including asthma is a different story.
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We're not leaving until October, so we are planning as if we are going and will just have to wait and see. It will probably come down to whether any of our flights, especially the first one to Japan, or the Japan to Singapore leg, get cancelled; then we would be able to use our travel insurance.
But yeah, the thought of leaving our fairly isolated existence for big Asian cities is a little freaky right now.
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I'm not sure whether or not I'd travel right now. If not it would really just be out of to trying to help to contain the virus as opposed to any serious fear. It's still really uncommon. It's academic for me, though, since I didn't have any immediate travel plans anyway.
If the virus isn't contained soon, the world will just have to accept it as another endemic disease like the flu, and go on with business as usual. It sounds like it's a little more virulent than the flu, but it still sounds like the vast majority of people won't get sick enough to need a hospital visit. At that point there won't be any reason to change any plans. It's just another one of the risks you accept when you travel. Wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your face before you do. You should be doing that anyway to keep from getting a cold or the flu.
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If you are FIRE, or just plan to take longer sabbatticals, and wanted to do a round the world trip how would you do it? How long would you/could you take? How much do you think you'd spend? What mode of transports would you use? What kind of accommodations? Would you do it as one long trip and break it up into smaller trips over time with returns to a home base in between? Etc...
More or less a nosey hypothetical question at this point but am looking at ideas and inspiration.BTW full on gloating about your awesome trips is VERY welcome. No humble bragging please, just bragging ;-).
Momma has always wanted to go to Budapest, so we start there if she says so.
However, for the convenience of a flight out of NYC, perhaps touch down in Iceland first.
But, if we are truly free, then I'd do as @Nords advises and hit up the military jumps and see where we land......eventually, of course, getting to Budapest eventually.
I'd like to alternate between swanky hotels/AirBNBs, train travel, boat and flight, and at least 1 meal of fine dining every week, if not every other day.
I'd also like to stop in and see friends, have a part of the trip with my kids, and another just the 2 of us.
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We will travel like normal with no changes to plans unleaded they are forced upon us.
Of course in airports and the like we will keep hand sanitizer at the ready.
Really hopeful the Olympics proceed as planned.
We do need to fly to Australia in May and again in June, so hopefully the borders stay open.
Fingers crossed.
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We're still going, albeit cautiously keeping our hand on the pulse in regards to how things shape up in Europe while we are there.
Right now Italy is not looking good for mid-April, but that too can change.
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Omg, ours was a repositioning Cruise so lots of sea days but tons of things which kept us busy. My husband enjoyed being in the choir and taking a acting class. Then at the end of the cruise they all performed. There was also a mystery to solve and you did it in groups of 8 people. It was really challenging with the clues they gave.
Never heard of cruises with choirs! Which line was it? My partner and I would enjoy that and the acting class.
Cruising or cargo ship would be my choice (instead of flight) and then train travel through Europe.
Cargo ships weren't any cheaper than cruising and have a lot less entertainment and food choices. And they're less crowded and the environmental impact is much different since you're tagging along on a transport vessel instead of creating a big footprint just to amuse yourself. Boyfriend would rather take a cargo ship (he doesn't think cruise ships are amusing).
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In May, 2018, my family and I enjoyed 7 days on the Hurtigruten Ferry in Norway (https://www.hurtigruten.com/destinations/norway/classic-voyage-north-bergen-kirkenes/#itinerary). It was kind of like a cruise, but the Hurtigruten is also a working ferry. Every day, our ship stopped in several little ports, where we picked up and dropped off vehicles, cargo, and people. Our trip started in Bergen, in the SW, and ended far above the Arctic Circle in the little town of Kirkenes. We paid about US$1500 each for the entire trip, which included 3 delicious meals/day and one of the cheapest rooms for 3. At each port, if there was time, we usually got off and walked around the town or took a short hike up onto a hill overlooking the harbor. Each day, the shipped stopped at one port for 3-4 hours. The other stops were shorter, say, 20 - 30 minutes each. Just like a cruise, the Hurtigruten offers excursions at each of the ports where it stops for a few hours. We never took the excursions, because they were pretty expensive. Didn't find out until the last day of the trip, but the Hurtigruten has bicycles on board that passengers can borrow for free to ride around the towns where the ship makes longer stops. Next time, I'll definitely take advantage of that.
This ferry was recommended to me in the strongest possible terms by the wife of a Norwegian. She said it stops in places that none of the big cruisers can, and that you get the best sense of what the fjords really are like. She said the food was great.
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Missy, it was a passenger choir with the music director. You showed up to practice daily if you wanted to perform for the ship at the end of the cruise. Same with a Michael Jackson group moonwalk dance. It was Royal Caribbean.
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Missy, it was a passenger choir with the music director. You showed up to practice daily if you wanted to perform for the ship at the end of the cruise. Same with a Michael Jackson group moonwalk dance. It was Royal Caribbean.
Thank you! i have been looking at different cruises but hadn't seen those activities mentioned. Lots of my family members would get a kick out of that stuff, if we ever mananged to get everyone together.
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In May, 2018, my family and I enjoyed 7 days on the Hurtigruten Ferry in Norway (https://www.hurtigruten.com/destinations/norway/classic-voyage-north-bergen-kirkenes/#itinerary). It was kind of like a cruise, but the Hurtigruten is also a working ferry. Every day, our ship stopped in several little ports, where we picked up and dropped off vehicles, cargo, and people. Our trip started in Bergen, in the SW, and ended far above the Arctic Circle in the little town of Kirkenes. We paid about US$1500 each for the entire trip, which included 3 delicious meals/day and one of the cheapest rooms for 3. At each port, if there was time, we usually got off and walked around the town or took a short hike up onto a hill overlooking the harbor. Each day, the shipped stopped at one port for 3-4 hours. The other stops were shorter, say, 20 - 30 minutes each. Just like a cruise, the Hurtigruten offers excursions at each of the ports where it stops for a few hours. We never took the excursions, because they were pretty expensive. Didn't find out until the last day of the trip, but the Hurtigruten has bicycles on board that passengers can borrow for free to ride around the towns where the ship makes longer stops. Next time, I'll definitely take advantage of that.
This ferry was recommended to me in the strongest possible terms by the wife of a Norwegian. She said it stops in places that none of the big cruisers can, and that you get the best sense of what the fjords really are like. She said the food was great.
@Missy B Yes, your friend was right. The food was amazing! Each day, it changed to reflect specialties from the region of Norway the ship was passing through. We have fond memories from our week long trip on the Hurtigruten and are hoping to do it again some day.
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If I was young I probably wouldn’t cancel travel plans. Being 65 with a few chronic conditions including asthma is a different story.
I agree with you Cassie, as I am 66 and hubby is 70. Although we are fairly healthy, I just had a bout with pneumonia in January and spent 2 days in the hospital! It really kicked my butt, have never been that sick. Took me almost 4 weeks to totally get over it. We had planned to book another tour in Europe for the fall, but I am going to wait and see how things work out with the Coronavirus. We may just hook up our camper and travel the U.S. again.
Miss Prim