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RTW FAQ
"Be prepared." -The Boy Scout Handbook
Planning for this trip has been a lot of fun; it is much work, but work that is challenging and interesting! In order to help others who are interested in undertaking an adventure like this, or if people are just curious about how we prepared, we have compiled a frequently asked questions section. Many of these are questions we have asked others who are on RTW (round the world trip...we are learning the lingo) and questions we have been asked. If you have a question, please email us at travel@ourlifejourney.com and we will add it to the list!
How did you decide where to go?
This is a life dream for us. When we first married we wrote a list of things we wanted to do and places we wanted to explore in our lifetime. The list has grown exponentially with every trip we take as we realize how much more there is to see and learn. An RTW trip was on our original life list, and we thought this dream would have to wait until we retire. Then we started seeing books, articles, and websites on couples our age doing it now. And we decided why not! We do not have kids (yet) and we can afford it for a year. We consider this our first RTW with hopefully more to come.
How did you decide when to start the trip?
We decided that a year would be a good time frame to prepare ourselves, our families and everything involved. Keith had a year left to complete his masters when we decided to take this journey and also felt he should let work know at least 6 months in advance. Lea thought a year would be a good time frame to sell the house, get the finances ready and figure out a good general itinerary. This is how we decided to leave in January 2001.
Another consideration should be the weather in the countries you are visiting; this needs to be thought through carefully since much of the world is covered in monsoon rains at times. We decided to do some serious backtracking in our itinerary to accommodate good weather. Unfortunately this added a significant cost to our plane tickets, but we thought it was worth while.
How did you decide where to go?
This is the most fun and most difficult part. At this time, we have a pretty good itinerary, but it is still subject to change. We started out with a National Geographic special issue (the 50 places of a lifetime) and our original list of where we most want to visit in our lifetimes. We prioritized the list. We then tackled the issue of how much time. Rather than quickly visit everywhere, we wanted quality time in each country. So we decided to see what countries we could visit for at least 2 weeks to a month in a 10-11 month timeframe. Based on this criteria, and checking weather patterns and potential travel routes, we developed the current list. The next step was timing where we would go first and in what order. We know we do not want to trek in Nepal before May; we know we want to travel west because we will gain hours as we travel; we know we want to tour Europe last because we have been there before and want to devote more time to the regions we have never visited.
What are the visa requirements?
Please see our visa spreadsheet. We learned about these through visiting the State Department website which has links to the individual embassies.
How much money does a trip like this cost?
It is not as impossible as people think. Save, save, save! This year we had planned on buying a new car, we decided an around the world trip would be a more satisfying expenditure. Basically, the most expensive part of the trip is the plane tickets, anywhere from 1500-5000 a piece depending on the route. After that, the daily costs are based on lifestyle and region. We plan to live modestly, but are hoping to stay in our own room with bathroom, enjoy meals out at a modest level with occasional splurges. This can be $50 total a day to $100 depending on where. Email us and we'll send you the budget we prepared.
How do you handle your money on the trip?
We will still have some bills to pay while on the trip (credit card, storage, etc) so we set up on line bill paying through our bank - BankofAmerica. In addition to paying bills, we will continue to use Quicken to track our investments, checking and saving accounts, credit card charges, etc. Lea's Dad will also be able to pay with checks (only if we cannot get to the internet) and do our taxes. Note: if you are planning on taking a laptop computer, we recommend arranging some file back-up process remote from your computer (theft, breakage, loss are very real possibilities . . . ) Quicken offers an on-line back-up that stores your financial files on a remote server for a modest fee.
As for actually acquiring money on the road, we are using American Express, Visa, and our ATM card. Most of the countries we are visiting have American Express offices in the major cities; we are going to use these offices to get traveler's checks. Also, ATMs are available in many of the major cities; therefore we should be able to use our ATM cards or Visa cash advance.
What did you do with the house?
Sold it. This decision was based on that we are not sure where we want to live after the trip so we wanted to free ourselves of ties to Norfolk. We also got a great price and it sold within 24 hours...
What to did you do about your jobs?
Both of us talked to our managers 6 months out and received great reactions. Neither group wants us to leave, but all understood why we want to do this and are supportive. We will be on leaves of absence.
How do you get your travel arrangements for around the world?
This is another challenging task. For air tickets, we must decide whether it is better to purchase around the world tickets or individual tickets. Around the world tickets are often less expensive, because they are purchased from one airline, but they are also more restrictive. Additionally most around the world tickets allow you to only travel in one directions. These tickets are often limited in number of stops and how long to stop in each country. Individual tickets may be a bit more expensive, but allow flexibility in our routes and timeframe. We found an agency, www.diatravel.com that allows us to create our itinerary and then they search for discount tickets and routes. Ask for Mike Hashem, he is the General Manager and President. They are very prompt in response to questions and phone calls. We also looked at Air Treks, www.airtreks.com which provided good service and prices, but DIA was able to provide us the specific itinerary we wanted.
As for lodging and tours, we are not planning on prearranging before we leave the States. We will have our Lonely Planet guides sent to us throughout the trip and use those for lodging references and tour guides. Additionally, we hope to run into other travelers with suggestions. The only tour we are definitely pre-purchasing is a safari in Kenya. We would probably be all right waiting until we get there, but do not want to take the chance.
How did you pack for the trip?
We both bought Eagle Creek Endless Journey packs. After visiting the many sites of fellow travelers we developed a packing list. As an overview, for clothes we are each bringing 2 pants (convertibles), 2 shorts, 2 long sleeve, jacket, underwear, swimsuit and 2 short sleeve shirts. We used www.travelsmith.com and www.llbean.com for the majority of clothing items. Also we each are bringing hiking boots, tevas and another pair of walking shoes. Each of us are carrying a toiletry kit with the general items. Lea is carrying the medical kit. Keith is carrying the laptop, NIKON and digital camera. Check out Lea's Pack Items.
What's the deal with the shots?
There are a lot of them. Get them. We called our local Health department and met with a travel immunization nurse. She went through each country with us and the CDC recommendations. So far we have been in for 3 visits and have about 3 more. Major vaccines needed are yellow fever, hep A, hep b, typhoid, rabies, tetanus, MMR,.... Visit our shots sections in the pre-trip journal where I include a table with the shots.
How will you deal with malaria?
The public health center does not prescribe, so we found another local doctor who deals with travel. After paying $70 each for a 10 minute consult, he did some research to determine our needs. (We also visited www.cdc.com to confirm his findings.) For our countries, he prescribed Larium, which supposedly does not produce many side effects, but we have heard stories. There are two other types of prevention pills for areas where Larium is not effective, but we do not need them. Basically we start taking a pill a week before Thailand and continue for four weeks after Kenya. We do not need them in Australia, but the interlude there is not enough to stop the pills. We will let you know the effects. As a side note, I recently read that Malarone is a new preventative with less side effects, but the doctor we saw did not prescribe it.
What about insurance?
After what seems forever - researching companies policies, we finally purchased travel medical insurance. We considered cost, amount of coverage, company claim policy and the reputation of the company. We decided not to continue our company health insurance through COBRA because of the excessive expense. Instead, we purchased the Atlas Extra plan thrugh MNUI - www.mnui.com. This covers us for medical evacuation, any health problems, ambulance, and also one month in our home country. As for baggage, we have renters insurance through USAA for all of our household good in storage. We found this insurance also covers baggage while traveling. (USAA is a great company!) We are also investigating trip interruption/cancellation insurance. As soon as we decide, the company and its coverage will be listed.
What will you do at the end of the trip?
Go on another trip! Okay, not right away, but we would like to continue travel throughout our lives. We will want to resume our careers, because we find the career journeys challenging and fulfilling. We do not know what state, or for that matter, what country we want to end up in after the trip. We are lucky to have great parents who have offered us shelter (for a time!) upon return.
How do you plan on staying online?
Staying online (and particularly uploading information) is important to us; it is so important that we are willing to deal with the equipment that must be hauled around the world. We thought that since we won't be able to see our friends and family for so long, maintaining a web-site would be a good way for everyone to enjoy our trip and see the things we are seeing. So, we bought a notebook computer (Dell Insipron). It is not the lightest notebook computer, but seems durable and costs less than some of the new super light ones.
Most of the world doesn't have the same electrical connectors that the United States has, so we purchased the Power WorldPak from Teleadapt; it comes with about 8 connectors that, hopefully, will allow us to plug our laptop into foreign sockets. Note that most of the world works on 220V, but most laptop power bricks are equipped to handle the extra juice.
We next had to consider the phone connection; in the USA we have RJ-11 phone cords, throughout the rest of the world there is an assortment of phone jacks. Again we purchased adapters to connect our phone cord with foreign phones. If you go to Teleadapt they have different packages to suit the region you are traveling too or you can make your own. That is what we did, Teleadapt offers a Custom Package that allows you to pick 6 adapters. Visit the Teleadapt web-site or call, they were very helpful and the web-site has lots of information.
O.k., so that covers the hardware; to actually get connected there are several options. America Online offers service in some countries though not as many as we like . . . unpopular amongst my computer coworkers, we are AOL fans. In order to gain access in all the places we wanted, we joined a local ISP that offers access to the IPass network. IPass offers access in a lot of countries. To gain access you need to join an ISP that grants access. You are then charged an extra hourly fee when connecting to you local ISP through the IPass network. The way it works is you login to YOUR ISP through an ISP in the city you are visiting. The rates seem expensive compared to USA rates, so we plan on using it sparingly, i.e. to upload the web-site.
Finally, for simple email, bill paying, and research, we plan on using cyber cafes throughout the world. As I previously mentioned, IPass access seems expensive and it is kinda reclusive from a hotel room. We want to get out and meet other people in the cafes.