Preparation
How do you prepare for a worldtrip? We will tell you what we did and try to give you some tips if you are thinking to
do the same.
Taking decisions
About 1 year before our departure we first thought of making this trip. After the very first thought, we decided we needed
more time to think about this idea. It is not something we had already been dreaming about for years and so we first
wanted to be sure we really wanted to do this before taking any decisions or further steps. The only immediate step we took
was to start saving money!
Before deciding for such a trip there are certain things and risks to consider:
- What to do with your house?
As we were living abroad for our work and rented a house, the decision to give up the house was easily made. (although with the great house and garden that we had, a small regret exists)
For the time that we're travelling, we have stored our furniture in a storage room. The first few days after we return we will be camping at our parents' place and then we will first rent a house or apartment temporarily until we decide where to work and live. - What to do with your job?
We decided we wanted to move back to Holland after our trip and so have to change our job anyway. We also wanted to get a taste of true freedom and did not want to have a job commitment that would play around in our minds during the trip.
That meant we also quit our job. With a certain security that we can join the company after our return to Holland if there is a nice job available, and otherwise we are confident to find another job. - What about family?
We do not have any kids, that makes the decision to give up our securities easier. Ofcourse we will not see our families and friends for a long time, but there will be plenty of time afterwards to catch up.
Planning the trip
As soon as we got the idea to make a big trip, we started to think about which countries to visit and how long to go.
We decided to go travelling for 6 to 8 months and a few countries were fixed on our list: Nepal, Tibet and Chile.
Planning the route has taken us a lot of time and thought. First we planned to use 2 return tickets to Nepal and to South
America, that would be the cheapest way. But after we added Japan to our wishlist, a Worldticket became the best option.
With a Worldticket, many more options became available, due to the high number of flights that you can take for the same
ticketprice. That meant new options, new choices to make and new routes to plan.
On the Route page you can see what we finally decided for, however, this may change during the trip.
Even though 8 months may seem a long time, it is by far not enough to see all the countries we would like to. So we had
to skip several countries from our wishlist. Considerations with those choices were: we chose countries which are best
to do with a backpack and without children. Countries which are better to do with a mobile home or easily accesible,
we saved for later in our lives.
We have bought several travel guides (Lonely Planet for Nepal and Japan and Footprint for South America) and found a lot of
information on the internet to prepare ourselves. We have not read into the deepest details of each country, we will
decide on the details when we get there.
General things to take care of
There are many larger and smaller things that you need to take care of before you can leave. Think of:
- Health and travel insurance.
We are officially unregistered from Holland, which means we don't need to take the expensive basis health insurance. For a longer trip like we take, there are several special insurances to choose from: Isis, Europeesche, Elvia. See for extensive information The Joho Company
Make sure you check the coverage for luggage if this is enough for all the luggage you take. Otherwise an additional luggage insurance might come in handy (e.g. for photo or film camera equipment). - What does it cost?
The budget you need for a worldtrip depends on what kind of traveller you are and what you are planning to do. Also, a worldtrip where you take more time and sometimes stay longer at one place, will be less expensive as a 3-week holiday where you want to see and do as much as you can in a limited time. We can only tell you what we have budgetted, based on our past travel experiences and what we have read online. We will travel with our backpacks and use local transportation like buses and trains. For the night, we choose basic hotels, but with at least our own bedroom and private bathroom (no dorms). The daily costs will differ per country, because for example Chile is much more expensive than Bolivia, but with an average daily budget this should fit.
Generally you can divide the costs in certain categories: things to buy before you leave, the tickets, daily costs for food, hotel and local transportation, and special events (e.g. trip to Galapagos Islands, skiing, etc.)
For us, these categories look like this:
- Things to buy before you leave (clothes, backpacks, guidebooks, vaccinations, etc.): € 3000,- for 2 people
- Tickets, we have Round the World tickets from the One World Alliance: € 3000,- p.p.
- Daily costs for food, hotel and transportation: we budget for an average of € 1000,- p.p. per month.
- Special events: € 4000,- for 2 people
- What to bring
We have carefully picked special clothes for the trip: light-weight, quick-drying, breathable and comfortable jacket, fleece, shirts, zipoff pants, thermal underwear, socks and towels. No jeans (too warm in summer, too cold in winter), no regular sweaters, no regular towels (too heavy and don't dry quickly enough) and no nice-looking-but-uncomfortable shoes.
Furthermore non-clothing items like first-aid kit, tape, pencils (write better than pens in cold and wet weather), multi-tool pocketknife, headlamps (lighter and handier than regular flashlight), balloons (used as give-away to children), rope, and only 1 reading book (you can exchange that later against another second-hand book in bookshops or with other travellers). - Photo equipment
For those who know us, you know a big hobby of us is photography. We have a comfortable backpack for the camera equipment which can also be used as daypack. We take 2 memory cards with us. When one is full, we burn 2 cd's and use the second memory card. We send one cd home and after getting a confirmation that the pictures on the cd work on the pc, we can throw away our second cd and start re-using the memory card. - Administration
Preparing a worldtrip brings along a lot of administration hassle. Certainly for us because we're also leaving Germany at the same time. It meant, amongst other things: quitting house and job, finding storage for cars and furniture, taking care of tax adminisration in 2 countries, taking care of bank accounts in 2 countries, registering an official representative for our administrative business during our trip, researching which visa and vaccinations are neccessary, researching what to bring and finding all that stuff, prolonging passports, driving licences, bank and credit cards, getting travel health insurance, etc.
Be sure to take enough time to prepare yourself and your environment for your plans. We needed several months to decide where to go, figure out the best route and finding tickets, reading about the countries, planning the budget, taking care of all administration hassles and certainly to mentally prepare ourselves for such an adventure.