Itinerary
Our itinerary has gone through several stages, but I think this is pretty close to what we’ll actually end up doing. It’s been the same for a couple of months now, which is a good sign.
The Itinerary (a table…):
| June ’08 | July ’08 | Aug ’08 | Sept ’08 | Oct ’08 | Nov ’08 | |
| Ecuador | Ecuador | Ecuador Peru |
New Zealand China |
China | China Thailand |
|
| Dec ’08 | Jan ’09 | Feb ’09 | Mar ’09 | April ’09 | May ’09 | |
| Thailand | Thailand | Thailand Egypt |
Bulgaria | Romania | Hungary France |
|
The Hows and Whys:
I think we went about planning an itinerary in a pretty good way. Since we’re traveling together and on as little $$ as possible, it was important to do some compromising. We started off by just dreaming about all the places we’d love to visit. Then we did some research on those places and cut some things out.
For example, I really wanted to go to Iceland. I still really want to go to Iceland, and I’m holding onto the hope that since Europe is the last stop on our list maybe we’ll still be able to fit it in. But basically it was cut because it’s sort of out of the way, but more importantly it’s insanely expensive. I’ve found some couchsurfing-esque websites that could help us out if we do somehow end up with an excess of money at the end of our trip. But, alas, Iceland might have to wait for anther trip one day.
India also made our cut list. While it seems like a beautiful, colorful, fragrant country, in the end it just seemed a little too much for us. The visa issue alone put a damper on our plans to visit there. Maybe one day, India, but for now watching Bollywood movies will have to suffice.
There were lots of other cuts along the way, but those are the two most memorable. But enough about the cuts, why did we choose the countries we did?
The two easiest were New Zealand and Thailand. Steve and I both want to visit/live/tramp forever in New Zealand. The beautiful landscape, amazing tramps, environmentally-conscious people, and pleasantly mostly-absent from world politics (and power) are all big draws for us. So, we had to put that on the list. Unfortunately, because it’s an expensive country we’re only planning on spending a couple of weeks there, and we sort of cut out Australia since it’s also expensive. But we still might swing by to dive around the Great Barrier Reef and visit our Green Tortoise friends Dan and Charlie (if they’ll let us crash at their respective pads).
And what do I need to say about Thailand? I don’t think anything really, but just in case: amazingly inexpensive, beautiful beaches/islands/mountains/scenery, smiling people, awesome food, and elephants! I can’t wait!
Egypt was big on my list just to see the Pyramids. How can we go on a trip around the world without seeing the Pyramids?! So, that will be a short 2-week stay as well, just to be touristy. Sort of a vacation amidst our trip.
China was big on Steve’s list, and the more I’ve read about it, the more excited I am to visit there as well.
We both wanted to go somewhere in South America, and Ecuador seemed like the best choice since it’s small, has a wide-range of scenery, and just sounds nice. It’s also bordering on Peru where we want to travel through to go see Machu Picchu.
We both wanted to go back to Europe, but with the Euro on the rise and Western Europe so expensive, we decided that Eastern Europe would be better for our budget. Plus neither of us has really been too many places in Eastern Europe, so we plan on traversing our way through Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary seeing some castles on the way, but generally taking it easy. We’ll hopefully end our trip in France with some of my extended family where we can ease back into the hustle and bustle of our former lives.
There’ll be more on each country and our plans later.
Tags: Itinerary, Pre-Trip Planning, rtw
montarsig
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