Gone Travelling?

[Oriadin]

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who was talking about going traveling for about 12 months. Has anyone here ever done that? What was it like? I know a few people that have done it and said it was the best time of their lives. For me, I would love to do it but im too big a chicken to try it. I mean, how do you start something like that off? What kind of preperation would you do? Perhaps if you have been traveling, you might have a funny experience you'd like to share or perhaps a good story?

[JMK]

If you're young, unmarried, childless, live with mom & dad, and are out of school - do it. Save some cash with the intent on travelling for a set number of months. It doesn't have to be a year, even a month or 3 would be an amazing experience. I blew my chances to go travelling and I'll probably regret it for the rest of my life. I know quite a few people that did do it, and none have ANY regrets.

[Jaime Tomahawk]

Who cares about the young bit? Just GO. See the world when you can.

There's simply no preparation to be honest. You just go, because no preparation can ready you for the experiences. The list of countries I've been to isnt huge (USA, Canada, Vanuatu, New Zealand, Fiji ,New Caledonia, a couple of islands in Samoa I think and one other Pacific island nation I cant remember the name of) but that's at least 6 more than so, so many others would go to. I want to go to Europe in two tyears time, see Finland, Norway... Russia maybe?

I also harbour a desire to see North Korea.

But I am going to see more of my own country first.

[Leten Snat]

That's better than my list of countries that I've been to. My list is only Canada. If you want to go for provinces that i've been to, the list is British Colombia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba (only like 2 km into that province).

That still leaves New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Québec, and Yukon Territories in my own country to see.

I know i want to see other places other than Canada, but I guess i just want to see my own county before I go off and see other people's.

[Razielle Alastor]

I haven't really travelled much out of the country (US). Even though its a state Hawaii was pretty nifty, especially going from island to island. :) I've been there a few times, when the Grandparents still lived there. I am, however, huge on roadtrips, even now that I'm married with kids we still just get random ideas of places we want to see and just GO! :lol

Before we were married though, I wanted to take my husband to see where I grew up, (Salem, MA) and we just got in the car one day and went, stopping at every state on the east coast from FL to MA to see what was interesting. We had mishaps, which at the time were a major pain, but now we look back fondly.

I think it's a great idea! :D

[Wyl Staedtler]

I spent a number of months island hopping around the Bahamas, the Caymans, Jamaica, DR, etc. and it was one of the best experiences ever. Grungy, but best. :) I'd love to do Europe one of these days.

[Crystal]

It's something I've always wanted to do, but I haven't got around to it yet. I'd like to visit other countries, so I'd have to have a bit of money saved up. I worry that I'm going to wait too long and get "trapped" by something like a nice job I wouldn't want to leave.

I wish I was rich so I could just travel the world and move whenever I wanted and not have to worry about the cost. I'm terrified of "normal" life.

I'm not really sure where I'd go. I want to see some part of Europe and Asia, just don't know what part. I don't think the location actually matters to me as much as the experience of it.

[Oriadin]

Over anything, I want to see the Grand Canyon and Niagra Falls. I want to meet my friend in Tennesse. Some way to combine all three in one trip would be my ideal, but money would be the issue.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I want to go to Italy, Greece, and Australia.

I've been to Mexico (living in California, who hasn't?), Canada (Vancouver BC), France, England and the Netherlands. But the last two were when I was quite small, so I'd love to go again, at least to England. :)

My hubby and I plan to arrange it so we can go on one nice vacation a year, most likely traveling somewhere for a week and a half or so.

[Morgan Evanar]

I've only been to Australia, but that was almost totally awesome. I've been to several States in the Union. Canada is on the list, but I think I'll end up in Finland and Norway first :D

[Lion El' Jonson]

This summer, about a dozen of my friends and I went on a trip across (eastern) Asia. Living in Beijing, we'd seen that part of China a billion times, but the Jing isn't really representative of Asia, or even China as a whole.

We were gone for nearly two months, and along the way we hit Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong (and Macau), Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia (Kota Kinabalu is a blast). We ended the trip with a couple weeks in Japan, taking the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo out to Kyoto and Osaka for short trips, but mostly just enjoying Japan (and completely emptying our pockets in the process).

It was definitely one of the best things I've ever done in my life, but I don't think any kind of trip has to be that far-reaching. Given the choice, I'd've liked to have spent some more time in a couple of countries, and have skipped a couple others completely. I'd also advise caution in a few places; if you don't know where you're going, you're liable to run into someplace sleazy. It's safe to wander around Tokyo at midnight; it's stupid to explore the backalleys of Phuket if the sun is down.

As for preparation, we actually had a lot of help. Once again, living overseas meant that I had a lot of cultural diversity among my friends, so we had parents from Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, China and Taiwan to help plan our trip; that was definitely a big help. We also had help from a score of travel agents, and older siblings who'd done the same thing previously. Also, if you have trustworthy friends to stay with wherever you're visiting, it really helps keep costs down. If you're in a big enough group, I don't think hostels are really too much of a problem, although you still have to be very careful.

As for a good story: a bunch of Thai...erm...prostitutes (hey, it didn't trigger the filter) offered us their services (note that there were boys and girls traveling with me), and to get them to go away we just said "See you later" (this was around 7pm, when we were headed to dinner and fun).

When we got back to our hotel around 2am, they were waiting for us in our rooms. We were packed up and out of there in less than 15 minutes. :lol

[Oriadin]

Wow, Lion. That sounded brilliant (except the prostitute part, how wierd!). How much does a trip like that set you back? How old were you at the time? How long were you away for?

[Lion El' Jonson]

That trip was this summer, so I was (just barely) 18 at the time.

As for prices...I honestly can't remember. It was largely organized by one person, and everybody's parents chipped in as a graduation gift, so I never got to see the total cost. I know that flying to and staying in Malaysia cost about $300 per person, but that was with group rates and some other discounts. I wish I could tell you more, but I wasn't really privy to many of the details regarding planning. We did take trains across China, however, to keep the costs down; the most expensive part of the trip was purchasing plane tickets to hop around the islands.