1 year! - world wide - tips and advice needed

[raysen]

Okaies, You may have seen my last thread in a debate about weather me and matt (my boyfriend) should move in together or should we travel..

(I think you may like our descision)

WE ARE TRAVELLING FOR A YEAR!!! WOOOOO

Anyways here are the list of places we ideally would like to visit - although going to do research into some coz not sure how safe someplaces are.

So it's not dead set in stone or anything but I would like your advice about what to see . where to go in countries or if you think they should be avoided - how long you may recomend to stay there for etc etc :D

In no particular order we would like to go

America (Amtrack pass again had such an amazing time last time)
Australia (Maybe rent a car for a while?)
NZ(Visiting a friend in Wellington)
Canada
Alaska (visiting a friend in anchorage)
Thailand
China
Alot of Europe (get the train around here and ideally fly home from Prague as it is a nice cheap place to end with :D )

Eygpt (although been hearing stories from people who have been about bad illnesses - going to and from toilet if you get me drift hehe)

South Africa (are there any 'less' dangerous places there? Matt has a friend who has moved over there, not sure where exactly, but it seems pretty shady nd I have a friend who moved from south africa a few years back)


Um Not sure where else. Oz, NZ, USA, want to spend alot of time in these places)

Anyways

Tips advice, warnings all welcomed

[raysen]

Forgot to say we also may include Ireland and Scotland in our little trip somewhere too :D

[maracle]

If you're worried about getting sick in Egypt you could ask a doctor for a prescription for Xifaxan...its an antibiotic for travelers diarrhea.

What kinds of things did you like on your last visit to the states? I can suggest some places but it depends whether you like cities, nature stuff, etc.

When I was in Australia one of my favorite things was the Daintree Rainforest in northern Queensland. Its a world heritage area and is not very developed, power is even supplied by generator rather than running electric lines. I stayed at a hostel called Crocadylus. You can also take a tour to the great barrier reef from Cairns as long as you're headed this far north (liveaboard boats are best because they can go to better reefs and you wont find yourself anchoring at the same place as a bunch of other boats).

Sounds like an awesome trip! I've always wanted to check out Indonesia next time I'm down towards Australia/NZ...

[raysen]

Oh my has such a fantastic time we went everywhere NYC, Seattle, Boston, Memphis, La, San Fran, Oakland, Orlando, Kissimmee
We want to go back to some places to check it out more though and o to others we didnt get to go to.

We did the usual things in NYC - Wouldn't mind going back there to go and see Les Paul play 9if he's still alive by then fingers crossed, my mates went a few weeks back and saw him said it was well worth the 50$ for food and a couple o glasses o wine as well i think ! sounds like a bargin to me

Not fussed about not going back to florida though we spent alot of time there and and have been before so dont want to waste valuable time hehe

Memphis is a nother must we have to go back to though because we went to sun studios but i had heat stroke and was very ill so didnt enjoy it as much and want to go to staxx museum and poss grace land too

we are open to anything in america where the trains will take us - We havea good idea about america really
it's mainly the other countries as we have never been there before. only to a couple of europeon places :D


How long where you in Australia for? Am also intrested in working at some point in this trip we may probably have to work - where is best for this australia good? Did you rent a car?

Thanks for your feedback sofar

[kiwichick]

australia is probably better than nz for work wage and opportunity wise although sum one told me our visa system is easier/better?
let me know/pm if theres anything i can help with in regard to nz or aus

[c0urt]

i think you made mthe right choice, good luck with all of that

[Esterina]

Raysen, what a projet you have there !

Thailand and South East Asia is a good place to balance your budget because it's so unexpensive. With $15 or even less you can have a pretty nice life out there. If you have time, travel overland to China, via Laos or Vietnam (or China to Thailand). I think you should save this part for the end, in case you are running out of money. Take in consideration moonsoon, mostly during the summer, when you plan your stay in Asia.

Also, you may want to consider doing more of Central/Eastern Europe than Western. It's very interesting and more budget friendly.

About South Africa, here's a thread with usefull tips : traveling in South Africa

[simply_angelic]

Hey! Well if you're in South Africa anytime between Jan '08-Jun '08 we'll have to meetup!

As for shady places....I highly recommend staying out of Canada! I mean seriously it can be pretty darn scary in most places, especially small towns!

Congrats and have fun!!

[aliz]

where are you guys from? working in australia is pretty easy. depending on what time of year you'll be here, you can work in resorty type places like hamilton island, airlie beach, or in the ski resorts if you're here in winter. they're all great working holiday places because there's lots to do and most of the other workers are travelling or on holidays or a gap year, so making friends is very easy. but if you don't really want to work in hospitality, there's plenty of jobs in the capital cities, its just a matter of having the right visa

[lauren313]

Stay in New Zealand for the whole year!!!! Well, that's what I'd do, ahaha.

[blinkchick2134]

I can totally recommend going to Anchorage, AK!! We had an awesome time there and didn't want to come home. Seriously, we DID NOT want to come home. Ask your friend to take you down the Seward Hwy to check out Girdwood (little hippie-ski resort town), Turnagain Arm and the Kenai Penninsula. The views are awesome from Seward Hwy...you won't be dissapointed! :D

[maracle]

I once heard that something like 20% of people who visit Alaska move there. Seems hard to believe but who knows?

I wasn't in Australia for too long, only a few weeks. Basically I spent some time in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, then went up to Cairns to scuba dive for a week, then into the rain forest. I didn't rent a car, though I'm sure driving there would be easy. Sydney has a pretty good public transit system and there are trains out to the blue mountains. I flew to Cairns but if you have time you can take a bus (or a train I think...) up the gold coast which is probably a nice scenic drive. Plus I really regret never getting to Brisbane and its right on the way.

Cairns itself is kind of a horrible tourist town (more Digeridoo shops than permanent residents I bet...) but all the activities you can do based from there are completely worth it.

It looks like you've covered a lot of the states, I think Seattle and Vancouver are awesome though so you might want to check that out. Good rafting in washington state too, and if you like to ski Whistler is the biggest ski resort in north america and its about 2 hours from Vancouver. Other than that it looks like you skipped the middle...I'm not sure how good the trains are for this but the badlands, yellowstone, grand canyon, any national park in Utah, and similar places would all be good to visit. Maybe rent a car if necessary, you can often get them for around $20 a day from airport rental locations although it varies quite a bit. Also, I really like Chicago...

Although I think I agree that a year in NZ might be the way to go, I haven't had a chance to visit there yet!

[raysen]

Ohh I'm really excited I go to work and some back with about 8 new posts! - I want to reply to you in one big hug it hehehe. But I shall try to Reply back to your comments individually sosorry if this message seems to be a bit long i am HIGHLY grateful to you all..

Kiwichick: Would probably prefer to work in Australia because in NZ i will want to spend the whole time being able to enjoy it all and seeing my best mate too. So tell me about how I go about the work visa if we decided Australia was deffinitly where we want to work. We never had a visa of any sort in america so any and all info on visa and working visa would be HIGHLY useful thank you. xx

C0urt: Thank you. I think we have made a good choice (it's the feeling i get in my tummy when i see the map hehe)

atchoum: Have been reading about thailand in the forums on here and was making me get all excited especially when reading about the prices, I think we were thinking of leaving thailand as one of the places to leave till last, because then the can travel not to expensive around europe - We aren't too fussed about spain or greece or maybe not even france. But we deffinitly want to go to Italy (My sisters husband has family there) although the do live in a remote part so not very accessable unless we link it in with my sister and her husband going there also ;-) We would llike to go to hungary, Germany (I just found out there is a ramones museum there i want to go to), Ukraine, (Basically places who always beat us in the eurovision haha so all of europe then) Also my brothers mate mentioned about transylvania - anyone been? should it be avoided? - Will also check out that South Africa Link too thank you.

simply_angelic: Where abouts are you going in Southafrica, what are your plans there to travel it all? Have you been before? - I dont think we will be there then unfortunatly but thank you anyways - I thought Canada was supose to be a generally safer country than America?

aliz: We are from England, I guess we want to be there around winter time (That would be our winter not theres) so end of the year so we get the best of the weather in other places? Is it best to get a visa and then try to find jobs when over there, how do we go about it do we ask at the hostels etc or best to go online and email and book something? I would love to work with animal rescue or welfare ideally but hey for the time we are there I will pretty much do anything I physically can.

lauren313: If my matte has anything to do with it she will keep us there for the year! hehe.

blinkchick2134: Wow that is great to hear about anchorage, i am assuming Girdwood (Hippie is my middle name! hehe) isn't too far from anchorage, but what else is there in Alaska much? Don't know much about it to be honest
. Will mentiona btou Seward HWY to her hehe and will say I have been instructed hehehe.

maracle: We did go through the middle - to kansas (albeit breif) and memphis was amazing, we wanted to go to new orleans but wasn't sure what it would be like especially after always seeing it in the news over there about the state it is in. As said before we would like to relive a few places and go to places we didnt get a chance to see or do - Is it best to turn up at car rental places at airports and sort it out there or pre book online?(i would assueme the later) - But when we looked before I think it seemed quite expensive but can't remember exactly. Does it put ALOT of the price if you want to pick up in one state and drop off in the other?


OOOHHHHHH thank you all again - Look forward to any/all responses


xxx

[freespiritz]

That's a lot of ground to cover - and I'm sure it'll be a kickass trip! Out of the places on your list I've spent about a month traveling Canada, three months in China and about a week in Thailand. Not sure exactly what you're looking for, but if you have any more specific questions, fire away.

Canada - I highly recommend doing the drive from Jasper - Banff through the Rockies. One of the most amazing sights I have ever seen in my life. Check out Montreal and Quebec City for something different.

China. Get out of the cities if you can, but be prepared for a complete lack of English there, but expect beautiful places and beautiful people and not so beautiful toilets! Yunnan is beautiful, so is Sichuan if you can get up into the mountains in the fall especially...gotta love the Himalayan foothills! I had a blast in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia too. Must sees, obviously the Great Wall.

[raysen]

Haha do you know what al this time my mind has been whirring about it all and it totally skipped about the great wall of china hahaha what a muppet i am! of course will have to go there! Is it hard to get by without knowing any chinese? especially if barely anyone speaks english?
What is the CANdollar like compared to USAdollar? do you get more for your money would it be maybe worth our moneys worth to amtrack as per plan in USA but drive in canada?

xx

[freespiritz]

there's almost no difference between CAN and US right now...US is a wee bit higher. Actually, despite that, gas was even more expensive in Canada when we drove over to Toronto last week...so I'm not sure if you want to drive cross Canada!

I speak sort-of survival Chinese, and I will admit even with that there were frustrating times. But that's all part of the travel experience. I'll recommend picking up whatever Mandarin you can - how to buy train tix (China's train system is extensive, and pretty nice, and affordable), and numbers and stuff for bargaining (which you will have a blast with). It's all part of the fun though, and I love the days of stabbing blindly at menus and seeing what turns up on your plate! :D

[maracle]

One way car rentals are going to cost a lot, yeah...if you can take a train somewhere, then do side trips for a while with a rental and return it the same place that might work out though. And then continue on the train. Maybe not as time efficient though.

I think there are some websites where people coordinate having cars moved (so someone will be looking to have someone drive their car from say chicago to LA because they moved there and flew, or whatever). I don't know what they are though, I'll see if I can find someone that remembers.

[LiveFreeorDie]

The exchange rate for Canadian dollars to U.S. is that 1 Canadian dollar equals about 92 U.S. cents - near to equal. However, Canada has higher sales taxes compared to many parts of the U.S. and so it can be more expensive to buy things there.

Make sure you leave a lot of time for south east asia. Once people get there, they tend to spend a lot of time there....it sucks you in with the cheapness, the relaxed lifestyle, the warm weather...you will see.

What about India? I have yet to go there, but most real travelers I know found traveling in India to be a near spiritual experience. You may want to give it a go.

Good luck...the planning of a massive trip is always so much fun. Of course, it can be hard to narrow it down. Make sure you identify priorities for yourself and try to decision make from those. It's easy to start feeling overwhelmed from all the choices.

[raysen]

Livefreeordie: Yeah it is very easy to be overwelmed by all of the options But we know the places we want to go to for the most amount of time(May cut of canada as a big trip and make as a bypass to anchorage and spend more time in china or thailand? - India has passed my mind, I know someone who has been a few times in the past whille have to speak to her about it. I don't know why maybe its my british sceptilaism(sp?) but I just assumed it was quite an unsafe area ? Are there any places in India which aren't best to go to?Where abotus to most people go? I deffinitly can see how people find it spiritual though which I think is what has drawn me to think of it.

Maracle: Yeah that is a thought will look in to the driving someones car for them I assueme there are specific compny which do that? but then i gues you have time limits to drive them don't you? - I'm sure we will think of something - I Tthink matt would probably prefer to drive in Australia than in USA - I can't drive and I think even if I learnt before we went I wouldn't be able to be put on the car rental as it wouldn't have been very long since passing my test (to assueme i would do hehe)

Freespiritz: Ohhhh that sounds like fun - just randomly picking something on the menu sounds exciting :d Ok so maybe I'll learna little manadrin - greetings and plesantries? Is it really hard to learn the basics like that? - I have a friends who has been learning japanese for years and its just crazy stuff .

[joe7f]

Originally Posted by raysen

I don't know why maybe its my british sceptilaism(sp?) but I just assumed it was quite an unsafe area ? Are there any places in India which aren't best to go to?

Kashmir is obviously not a real safe place to go (you can PM SpaceVirgin for more information she made a trip there). I think other than that, if you are traveling alone, you may have to be a bit more careful but I think I would feel a lot safer traveling in India than in the Middle East (or even parts of South America) right now.

--Joey