So, are you thinking about making your one-year round-the-world flight and leaving the 9 to 5 life behind? Well that’s great, there are a lot of people who think about going and never make it. Thinking and worrying about what could go wrong, and what if in life that paralyzes them and does nothing, like a deer in the headlights. Personally, I think you should worry about losing your chance, your opportunity, your dream; much more than the unlikely worst case scenarios that could happen if you ever were. But that’s me. You are here now reading this which I hope will help give you that information, help and advice you need to move forward in booking the fight and just say; “What the hell is this going to be great!” But who am I? What do I know? I’m just a guy on the other end of the world, why should you listen to me? You have a point.
I’m just a guy, there’s nothing special about me, but the places I’ve been, the things I’ve done and the people I’ve met are. At 24 I left my hometown of Hull in the UK to go find out what’s in the world. Now I am 30 years old and in those years I have been in more than 30 different countries, I worked about 2 and a half years to stay financed. I have been home to the UK several times, but never for long. At 24 I thought I couldn’t do it but I did it anyway. What was there to lose? There are always jobs if you really want one. But if you’re going to work to live and not live to work, who cares, go and find life, not the work that supports your weekend, but the life that supports your happiness. If everything goes wrong, you can go back to your old career. , back home, and back to 9 to 5, and be a more interesting person, with some great stories, and a renewed love for life. So where to start?
Have you chosen where you would like to go? There are many options and not just flights around the world. There are many companies that offer worldwide flights and multi-stop flights, but I would also look for charter and regular scheduled flights on engines like Kayak.com and SkyScanner.net, where the cheapest flights are compared. If you want to spend a year in South America or Asia then this is the best way, you could easily spend a year in both if you have the budget, South East Asia is much cheaper. So take a look and get an idea of the cost of the flights and when you want to go. I personally go where I have never been before. There’s a great place on TripAdvisor.com where you can get inspiration.
Below are the things you will need. How much of these things do you need to buy? How much are you going to spend? You could spend as little as $200 on these things and as much as $2000 and up. Also check the cost of your insurance. For backpacker insurance, check out comparethemarket.com and other comparison sites as well. Now you know how much the flight costs, how long and where you want to go. You can calculate how much money you will need what you need to make your dream come true. You could go to several countries in several months. How do you find the cost of each country? Just ask Google, Lonely Planet books also give you a daily budget for each place. Now add to the totals that you have insurance, flights, big trips (eg Galapagos Islands, Machu Picchu…), and add the cost of any new equipment you’ll need to bring with you. Now you have a cost for your vacation. Too easy. I will give an example of a typical round the world trip from the UK.
Asia; Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, China; 3 months $3,600 to $6,000
Asia; India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Indochina; 2 months $1,500 to $2,100
Australia and New Zealand; 5 months $6,000 to $10,500
North America; 1 month $1,500 to $2,100
flights $2,000
Sure $200
towers $500
Additional features $300
bag $100
Clothing $200
Totals
number of months 12
Low total budget $15,600
High total budget $23,700
Now as you can see there are two very big jumps here, I would like the high end if you can but you can easily do it on the low end budget but you will miss out on a few things. Also the Idea of going to Australia for 5 months would be to work a little. There are many jobs there and they pay well. Let’s say you work for 4 months out of 5 at about $15 an hour 40 hours a week, that’s an extra $9,600 you can take off the budget, which means your trip around the world could cost you as little as $6,000 per year. $15 an hour was the wage in Australia when I was there in 2007 for chefs, plus we get tips. Bar staff is $10-$15, in the mines you will get more. Fruit picking if you want, but the point is that with this plan you also get 1 month of vacation in Australia as well as the experience of working and living in a different country.
Asia is very cheap, so you could change the time in Australia to a month and have more time in Southeast Asia and have the whole year free. What else is there to say about the budget? Be smart about. If you run out of money or don’t get a job in Australia, you can change your flight and go home early or ask family and friends for money, you wouldn’t be the first or the last to do it. You could just fly back to Asia and spend the year living cheaply and traveling around there as there are so many places to visit. I have never flown around the world. I have always flown to one part of the world and then taken buses, flights and trains from there. There is no greater feeling of freedom in the world. Now you might be thinking that maybe you are too old, too scared, too shy and whatever is holding you back. Well, if you’ve read all this way and are still making up reasons (apologies) why not go. Well, why did you keep reading? Do you want to go!
We do many things in life that we have to do, that we should do. Well, it’s not to fill your wants and needs in life that we should… NO, WE HAVE TO DO! It doesn’t matter if you’re 18. 60. Boy. Little girl. Go with 5 friends. Going straight only. gay Black. White. Brown eyes. Blue eyes. Wheelchair user. He has tourette syndrome. Introvert. Outgoing. If you have the desire and the drive, you can do it. I have seen people from all walks of life in my backpacking years, and they are following their own dreams of travel, some to see the lost temples of Anchor Watt, some to see the lost city of Machu Picchu, some to find the beaches. perfect, some to find the best parties, others to find inner peace and others simply to find their own.
Now that you know that money is not what stops you from doing it, what else could stop you? Follow the suggestions below and see if it’s really a reason to stop doing what you wanted to do or if it’s a way you’ve justified yourself for not going.
If you still want more convincing, why not do this? Write down the worst case scenario of what could happen, and then give it a 1-10 of how bad it would be in your life one for going and one for not going. So give it a 1 in 10 chance of that happening. Now do the same in the best case. Then do a most likely case scenario, same thing again. Write the scenario and rate it.
What was your score? Convinced?