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Where
did this idea come from? Why do this?
A:
We got engaged on the 4th of November, 2000. We immediately
set about planning our nuptials (which we were paying for
ourselves), to take place the following summer. According
to The Knot, the average
wedding in this country costs $19,500, and ours was taking
shape to be above average. Planning what seemed like a normal
wedding, with half-a-dozen bridesmaids and half-a-dozen ushers,
we quickly got into the mid 20s. And for what? 5 or 6 hours
of fun?
Peter's
Mother actually came up with the idea. One day, after we had
done enough research to know what we were up against, but
before we'd booked anything, she suggested that we do a small
wedding on the coast of Maine. "For that kind of money,
you two should take a long trip," she argued, "just
do a small wedding, and we'll all pitch in to help."
Well
we didn't have to think about it too long.... Peter has a
friend from College who, with her now-husband, spent a year
on the road on just such a trip, so we called them up and
talked about how one goes about taking a huge trip. Natasha
and John were very very helpful and open about their trip,
and they made it sound so.... possible ... that we decided
to do our own.
So
the wedding was on the 14th of July, and everyone pitched
in to help with it. The ceremony was small and took place
overlooking the beach with close friends and family around
us. Peter's brother, Sam, agreed to host a reception in Boston
for friends who weren't at the wedding, and it doubled as
a going-away party.
Why
a whole year?
A:
As Natasha and John, friends who have spent a year on the
road, pointed out when we were originally planning a 3 or
4 month trip: once you've quit your jobs, put your stuff in
storage, purchased the flights, the insurance, and the gear
to travel for an extended time, you're 90% of the way there.
The places we have chosen to visit are expensive to get to
but cheap to travel in, so the difference in cost between
3 months and a whole year is pretty small.
The
other consideration was our route. At first a year seemed
eternal, like we could explore every remote region of every
continent. But no, it just ain't so. We first decided to skip
anywhere we had been to already or could get to again easily.
That eliminated Europe (and we've included the Middle East
here), North, and Central America. Then we dropped another
continent, namely South America. Then we started planning
and realized that we still had too much area to cover,
so we dropped Africa. A year isn't nearly as long as it seems,
but it's as long as the basic RTW tickets allow.
How
long did you prepare and plan for this trip?
A:
We had committed to the trip by about early December, 2000,
and we leave 4 September 2001, so about 9 months. We also
planned our wedding, which took place in July, so we probably
actually spent 6-8 months planning the trip. One could plan
such a trip in less time, but we wouldn't advise giving yourself
less than about 4 months, and even that is really pushing
it. It takes a lot more time than you think to figure out
where you're going, research trip costs, figure out how to
pay for it, navigate leaving your jobs, and then move everything
you own into some sort of storage. And don't forget immunizations!
The Hepatitis A and B series take 6 months to complete, so
the earlier you start, the better. It makes our heads spin
just remembering all that stuff we had to do...
Where
did you get your flights? One of those great RTW flights where
you can get on any flight that is heading your direction (East
or West) as long as you don't backtrack? (hint: those don't
exist.)
A:
We've heard these vicious rumors of a round-the-world flight
that works similar to a Eurail Pass: you pick a direction
(say, East) and you get on any flight that goes that direction.
You can fly to any destination as long as you do not back-track
to end up West of where you currently are..... Hate to burst
your bubble, but as far as we can tell, these tickets don't
exist outside of Urban Myth.
What
you can get are genuine Round-The-World (RTW) tickets. You
pick the cities up front and they quote you a price depending
on your route (and mileage) around the world. These tickets
come in two flavors:
- First,
as a string of one-way tickets. Places like AirTreks
specialize in these. They purchase each leg of the journey
wherever in the world they are cheapest, so, for instance,
a flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok may be expensive in both
of those cities, but it may not cost much to purchase in
Moscow. Companies like these seek out the best price for
each leg and string them all together to make a full RTW
ticket.
- Second,
as a consortium of airlines (eg Star
Alliance and One
World Alliance, which is the one we are travelling on,
purchased through Global
Village). A number of airlines from around the world
gets together and offers RTW tickets on their planes. You
can go anywhere that these airlines fly to. There are a
number of these consortiums out there, and you just have
to figure out which one is best for you.
The
other thing we did to save some cash is to book the tickets
from London. Flights seem to be much cheaper from there; so
much cheaper that you can factor in the one-way ticket to
London to start the trip and still save money. Our tickets
cost us about 1300 Pounds Sterling per person (about $1850
USD when we purchased them in July). The same tickets out
of the States were more like $4400 USD. This is also true
of the alliances.
Where
will you stay? Do you have reservations for the whole year?
A:
We have a reservation with First48
for the first two days in Delhi, and we've been given as a
gift a night at the Oriental
Hotel in Bangkok. Aside from that, we'll figure it out
as we go. This is the nature of backpacker travel: take a
good guide book (we are travelling on Lonely
Planet) and figure it out as you go. We have planned our
trip down to regions of the countries on the itinerary,
but not yet more specifically than that.
What
about your jobs? Your apartment? Cars? How will you deal with
bills?
A:
We quit our jobs. We actually gave a full month's notice,
which seems sort of unheard of here in the States these days.
The apartment was rented on an annual lease that expired August
31, so we just set our departure date for right after that.
One of our cars is being loaned to friends for the year, the
other is going to sit in rural Maine (while it's not Maine
Law yet, it's something of a Maine understanding that you
have an unused car sitting in your yard). We have a State-side
proxy to deal with anything that comes up, but mostly bills
can be dealt with online these days. Just like we'll be checking
in to and updating this website periodically.
Where
is your wonderful dog, Cyrys, going for the year?
A:
The hardest thing we had to deal with. Cyrys is going to stay
with friends outside of Boston. They have a big house and
a fenced yard and a dog that Cyrys gets along with. <sigh>
we'll miss her and she'll miss us, but she's the only thing
we really can't bring along....
What
about medical insurance?
A:
There are lots of travel insurance companies out there. For
a trip of this length, however, you have to be careful to
read the fine print. Even insurance policies that cover a
year of time sometimes have per-trip limits. The coverage
we feel is important is: medical coverage, emergency evacuation
and repatriation coverage, and trip cancellation coverage
should we have to cut the trip short in an emergency.We were
finding prices of around $700 each for the year for all this.
One of the big companies offereing coverage in the States
is IMG. If you poke
around for insurance you'll find that they underwrite coverage
for many other travel insurance companies. We found ours in
London (at Global Village)for
less than half the cost of the US, and for better than 10
times the coverage. The one big caveat is that you're only
covered if you are travelling from the UK. If your
trip begins in the US, you better check the fine print and
email the underwriters. Our coverage begins when we leave
London as we're covered by the US COBRA policy until then
(since we have just left our jobs).
What
will you do when you return?
A:
We have made sure that we have a nest egg that can carry us
for a couple of months when we return. We'll find jobs, maybe
buy a house, do something. Dunno yet, really. We'll hit the
ground running though.
How
much does this sort of trip cost?
A:
That depends on whom you ask and what you want to do. Flights
cost anywhere from $1500-4500 USD per person, then add in
another few hundred for insurance. Factor in whatever it'll
cost you to store your stuff (or put it all in a friend-of-the-family's
barn the way we did, then you only have to insure it), then
figure out how high on the hog you want to live. We have friends
that spend two months in India for about $190 each per month.
We have other friends that travelled all around the world
for an average of just over $2,000 per month. These are both
backpacker travellers too... It all depends on where you want
to travel (ie Europe is vastly more expensive than rural India)
and how hard you want to travel, meaning how basic accomodations
you care to dip into and how much you want to eat out of supermarkets
vs restaurants. You can live on a song, but do you want to
for 12 months? We plan on travelling fairly hard, but we've
also agreed to spend one day per week doing nothing and at
least one night per month in a really nice hotel so we don't
get too burnt out. We'll see though....
Can
I email you with questions, comments, thoughts as you travel?
A:
Of course you can. Email away! See the contact
page for deets.
RTW
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