Where do you start your research?  What questions do you ask?  When do you ask them?  Where do you find the answers?  Good news!  The trip that you’re thinking about taking is a possibility.  Actually, a trail has been blazed, although sometimes it may be hard to see the path.  That’s the reason that we made this website, so hopefully you can find the answer somewhere within this site.  If you have any questions that you can’t find as you go through your planning or while you’re on your trip, please type your questions out and we’ll be happy to provide you with some feedback.

 

1.  The first part of your preparation should start with some research.  Go to a bookstore and pick up some travel guides.  There are several to choose from and you will probably use several different ones throughout your planning.  What you want to find out at the beginning is where you want to visit.  Once you have decided on the places you want to visit, the rest of your planning will begin to take shape and you will be able to narrow down the rest of your preparation.  As you go through these books, you don’t have to get into heavy details like places to stay and bus schedule.  Skim through at first because you will be making a list, not an itinerary.  Some questions and thoughts that will help you decide on your destinations are:

 

    • What types of activities do you want to do?
    • Are you OK being in uncomfortable situations and living conditions?
    • What types of things do you value:
    • Adredaline rushes or history?
    • Art or nature?
    • Remote areas or big cities?
    • Beaches or Mountains?
    • Do you want to learn anything while on your trip
    • A new language
    • Surfing
    • Scuba diving
    • Yoga
    • History of a city
    • Salsa dancing
    • How to cook Thai food

-I’m not going to say you can’t have it all because the reality is that you can.  Be aware that you will have to make some decisions on what comes first.  You’re not going to find as much sushi in South America as you will in Asia and you’re probably going to see a lot more soccer in Europe than in Australia.

 

 

2.  Make yourself a list of places that you want to visit and things that you want to do here.  When you have read all of your books and looked at all of the websites you should have a pretty good list.  Go through your list and rate everything on a scale of 1-10.  Don’t cut anything out, even if it has the lowest rating. 

 

-Try not to think of your timeframe as much as the places at this point.  Your timeframe will come soon enough.

 

-Eventually you’re going to have to make a few decisions.  If you have one thing that interests you in all of Asia and forty things that you want to do in South America you’re going to have to look at some pros and cons.  Further and more thorough research is a good idea here.  Don’t count out that one thing in Asia yet, especially if you rated it highly.  You’re going to have to do some more serious research now.

 

3.  Now is the time that you want to look at how to travel around the region.  Make yourself some notes that you can refer back to when putting together an itinerary.  Include things like:

    • Activities
    • Travel means (plane, bus, train, boat)
    • Time (100 miles can take 10 hrs on some buses)
    • Price (Most regions have some sort of price range that you can expect for the type of travel you want.  This may depend on the time of year, too)
    • Dates/times of year that are good/bad to travel
    • Festival dates
    • Season (Don’t expect to be surfing on the beaches in Australia in the middle of winter)
    • When you put your itinerary together, you’re going to need to know these things, so do the work now and you'll save yourself a lot of time when it comes to making your itinerary.

-Success story because we knew:

    • We planned to be in Rio De Janeiro for Carnaval, so we made sure we took two overnight bus rides and made it there just in time to see the Rolling Stones play a free concert on the beach to kick off the festival.

-“20/20 vision” moment:

    • We spent St. Patrick’s day in Barcelona when we could have gotten a flight to Dublin and seriously celebrate it for just a $20 flight.

The more info you have, the more you’ll be smiling on your trip!