Logistics

Many people, especially the ones that have not travelled internationally, ask us how we travel. Do we take ship cruises? Do we hire travel agents? Do we go on organized tours? How do we know where to go? What about language; How do we communicate with the “natives”?  Do we have people waiting for us at the other end? And many other questions.  So this is what we have been doing when we travel:

We like to organize our own trips: No cruises, no travel agents, no organized tours (with a very few exceptions, that we will expand later on), and no one waiting for us at the other end.

We like to travel at our own pace. We have seen some many large groups of people throughout the world , following a person with a flag (or an umbrella or a pole, so that everyone can follow the leader ) that stops for 5 minutes in front of a marvelous place, says a few words, and moves on to the next attraction. No time for enjoying the places you like at your own pace.  Therefore we do our own planning and we allocate our time as we wish.

Regarding the language, there is always ways to communicate with people, plus most people love to practice their English with you.  If no one speaks English there is always ways to have fun by embarrassing yourself with all kinds of body language. Always these conversations ends with success and people having a good laugh.

For this trip, we are buying one way tickets. We go to Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Webjet, etc searching for the best ticket prices. We search around to see if a day or 2 makes a difference. We are very flexible with dates, so this helps us get better prices. We have seen that distance has very little to do with the cost of the ticket. Short flights can be very expensive, while other long trips are half the price.

Depending on the location we might rent a car (like in New Zealand) or a camper van (like in Australia). In New Zealand and Australia you still have to drive on the wrong side of the road, but that is OK. If we rent a vehicle we like to rent them with GPS since that makes travelling so much easier. The new GPS models even tell you that is time to take a break because you have been driving too long and you need a break. When we are not renting a car, we might take a taxi, public transportation or just walk to a hotel if it is nearby. We are flexible and we also know that things might change at any time.  So we keep in mind that we are in a different place and the little inconveniences are nothing compared to the wonderful and amazing places we are about to explore!

When planning for a long trip, we have to keep luggage to a minimum, we have multiple travel books in a tablet, so you don’t have to carry all that weight anymore. We have a tent, sleeping bags, snorkel equipment and very few clothing. Scotts shoe size is 16 wide and that is one thing very hard to find anywhere in the world. He will be taking 3 pairs of shoes (that fills most of the backpack), but is certainly a high priority. Also he is taking a wet suit since he is so large and most scuba renting places do not have large scuba diving skins.  In summary we will not be on the best fashion, but we will have comfi cloth, we will be able to pitch a tent if needed, and enjoy the ocean. Plus Scott will be able to have a pair of shoes!

In summary we are travelling in a budget and we hope the money will last for us to complete the “whole enchilada” as Scott calls the full list of countries we would like to visit.

Forgot to mention the exception to “organized tours”. Those are needed in countries where there is no much internet for us to plan the trip. For example Mongolia, the land of the Genghis Khan, is one of those places. We found a company that does a few days tour and we will travel with them.  Requested some changes to the tour program. I refuse to do a day of horseback-riding and they agreed that I can ride a vehicle and leave the horses to the young and the able.