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.