For the past three years, at varying degrees of self-awareness, I have been preparing for an extended, solo travel trip.
At first my "prep" amounted to little more than cutting pictures of New Zealand and Bhutan out of travel magazines and decorating the walls of my new San Francisco apartment with them. A few months later, I began the tedious processes of renewing both my Danish and US passports without any specific trip in mind. Pretty soon the glitz and glamour of my yuppie lifestyle had begun to fade, and I started facing what had grown into a serious bout of travel fever. I took the only action I thought possible and acceptable at the time: I applied for a Fulbright teaching fellowship in Malaysia.
When the news of my rejection rolled in in early January 2014, I was at a loss. Without a prestigious program to sponsor and then shepherd me around the world, how was I going to be able to see it? It took the better part of 2014 to shake this paralyzed indecision but by September, I knew what I had to do. I stopped waiting around for someone to give me permission or a stamp of approval, quit my job and started planning my own self-propelled trip through Southeast Asia, New Zealand, India and Nepal over the course of 2015.
I'm four months into that trip (Hello from Queenstown, New Zealand!) and want to share the steps I took to get here. Unstructured, self-propelled travel is not clear-cut, and there's no one-size-fits-all guide to preparing, but these ten steps reflect the actions I took and some of my reflections from the road (see Notes). It's the guide I wish I'd had--long, but comprehensive and geared towards longer-term, go-until-you-run-out-of-money travel. I hope it will be useful to those out there contemplating similar trips.
Save Money & Earn Points
I had a good job and saved like crazy for 2.5 years. There's no way around this step, but a lot of ways through. Rolf Potts proposes three in his book Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel (which I highly recommend): stop expansion, reign in your routine, and reduce clutter.
Stopping expansion has to do with not acquiring assets: cars, furniture, clothes, expensive gadgets...the stuff that weighs you down. I thought I did a pretty good job of this in two years of renting rooms in San Francisco, shopping at secondhand stores, and using my bike/public transport to get around. But I had to leave a ton of useless crap I had still managed to accumulate behind when I left. If traveling has taught me anything, it's that I don't need much more than what I can fit into a 40 litre pack. Resist the temptation to define and curate yourself through consumerism and put that money towards the travel fund.
Reigning in your routine means cutting the unnecessary, habitual expenditures out of your day-to-day. Here's how I did it: start viewing price tags in terms of how far it would get you in Southeast Asia. $12 cocktail? That's 2 nights in a decent hostel. $20 cab ride? That's 20 street stall meals, or food for a week. $50 haircut? You get the picture. It drove my friends crazy, but I saved a massive amount of money (massive by SEAsian standards) by setting small rules for myself like: only take a cab when absolutely necessary, cook at home during the week, make rather than buy coffee, get cheap haircuts or let my friends do it. And believe me--drinking a $1 beer after a $4 Thai massage in Chiang Mai is so worth the $50 I saved not doing it in San Francisco.
Finally, reducing clutter is about remaining eternally skeptical of subscription services or other recurring expenditures that accustom you to a lifestyle you can't walk away from. Ask yourself if you really need that monthly service or car (or whatever) and do the math before you sign up or buy. Even $10 a month over three years becomes $360. Just how many street stall meals do you think that is?
You will need to spend money, and the money you spend you want to be earning points on. There are loads of resources out there on this (ex. Nomadic Matt and The Points Guy). I'm not an expert, but I did my research and chose a card with a significant sign-up bonus and a spending threshold I could meet with my regular expenditures. I went with Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard, but credit card offers are changing all the time. Look for one with a big signup bonus (40,000 points or more) and no foreign transaction fees, and start racking up those points. These will translate into free flights or upgrades when you're on the road. I'm stockpiling mine for a free flight home when I need it, regardless of the status of my checking account--a good idea if you're planning to go until you run out of money like me.
Break Up with your Comfort Zone
In my case, this involved quitting my good job, disappointing my parents and leaving comfortable life I had built in San Francisco over three years. I know it's a lot harder for most people.
I can only tell you what worked for me and what didn't. Beating up on myself did not work. Telling myself that I should be happy with what I have only made me feel worse. Promising that I'd leave when I had X amount of money, or when I got X promotion delayed my departure much longer than it should have. Here's what worked:
1. Using death as a tool. Senseless tragedies like Sandy Hook and the Malaysia Àirlines flight were sobering reminders of my own mortality and the inconstancy and unreliability of all factors. They forced me out of my mind-projected future space, where I hold all the cameras and call all the shots, and into the present moment, where anything is possible. From there, it was a simple question: 'If I died tomorrow, would I be proud of how I lived today?' Answer 'No' to this question as many times as I did, and you'll be out the door too. But you have to ask. Keep death close like this and you'll watch fear evaporate.
2. Getting off the hamster wheel. I had to take a major break from my San Francisco routine to work up the courage to leave it. The break took the form of a two-week yoga teacher training in the mountains above Santa Barbara during August of last year. With no cell service and no forms of entertainment/distraction other than yoga and meditation, I had some space--literally mental space (see below)--but also some physical space from all the things I surrounded myself with in SF to cover up the gnawing sense of unease: work projects, hobby activities, weekend trips, romantic-dramas, etc. From a distance, I saw my situation clearly--the proverbial forest through the trees. I was young, healthy and unattached. If not me, I asked myself, who? If not now, when? I put in my one-month's-notice at work the following Monday.
3. Getting quiet and calm. The catalyst for the process described above was the fact that I was meditating and doing yoga every day on the retreat, sometimes for multiple hours. It's hard to use words to describe what meditation and yoga have done for me, but suffice it to say: if you have an activity that quiets your mind and helps you climb back into your body and the present moment... do that thing. Only from a place of calm will you take giant leaps.
Book a Flight & Renew Passports
Book a flight when you're in that moment of calm. It is not a lasting victory, and you will be battling back the self-doubt every day. (Again, I've found meditation to be an excellent weapon in this ongoing struggle).
The question then becomes: Round-The-World (RTW) ticket or a bunch of one-ways? Well, it depends on what you're doing and what you want out of it. The rules associated with an RTW ticket stressed me out (must keep flying in the same direction, finish travel within a year, etc), and I wanted the freedom to stay in a place I liked, so I went with a couple one-way tickets and a lot of open ends. I'll probably pay more in the long run but, alas, the price of freedom.
Note: one-way tickets are viewed with suspicion by security and immigration personnel. I've been warned on several occasions that without proof of an onward flight or appropriate arrival visa, I can be forced to purchase a departing flight upon arrival (at an unfavorable price). I haven't had to yet, but I know people that have. Something to consider if you're leaning towards one-ways.
Whatever you choose, book using your travel rewards credit card and be sure to check skyscanner, momondo and Google flights for the cheapest one-way fares.
Make sure your passports are up to date and have at least a couple years before expiration. You might run into some trouble on the road if your passport is currently valid but soon to expire. Renew to be safe and get it done early. You don't want to be waiting on the floor of the Federal Building for five hours on the day before your flight for a rush passport to come through (been there).
Note: If you're getting passport photos taken, buy in bulk, esp. if you're going to Southeast Asia. You'll need them for visas, and they'll charge you more if you don't bring you're own pictures (esp. at sketchy border crossings with corrupt officials). Costco does 'em in bulk for cheap!
Health Prep
Get your immunizations and meds. Biology, left ignored, is really the number one thing that can ruin your trip or cut it short.
Check the CDC travel website for the destinations you plan to visit and write down the immunizations and meds they recommend for those areas. Take this list to your primary care doctor; she will get you what she can and direct you to a travel clinic for the rest. The travel clinic will be better prepared to handle the nuances of your trip (for example, if you plan to be off-roading/trekking in remote places, you will need more meds/shots than the city-hopper). I went to Passport Health in LA where they walked me through what I needed to know and gave me a booklet of health-related information for the countries I planned to go to.
Note: Do NOT skimp on malaria meds. I got Mefloquine (the cheapest option) and have seriously regretted it--lots of undesirable side-effects (dizziness, weakness, crazy/violent dreams etc.), many mefloquine-resistant malaria travel areas, and I'm having trouble getting the pills changed. Go with what they recommend (usually Malarone).
Get covered. If you're quitting your job to travel, make sure you have healthcare in place domestically. This will cover you in the case that you need to return early for some unforeseen reason, or in the extreme scenario that you need to be evacuated back for some procedure you can't get wherever you are. Travel medical insurance will cover you while you're traveling but not when you're back on home turf. I went with World Nomads + Obamacare. There are cheaper options for travel medical insurance, but at the end of an exhausting search that dead-ended into a lot of 6-months-max plans, I wanted something quality, tested and convenient. World Nomads covered the adventure activities I'm doing (trekking & surfing) and allowed for easy renewal/extension = good for long-term, indefinite travel. Note: I've already had to use my medical insurance once. Needing it is real.
Get the meds you need but don't buy for every possible scenario. I packed only allergy meds and pills/creams for recurring conditions and have been able to get everything else I've needed easily on the road at local pharmacies or travel clinics. Don't buy one of those adventure first aid kits. They contain a lot of things non-medical professionals don't know how to use. Buy some athletic tape (and learn how to use it) and that plus some neosporin, ibuprofren, and bandaids will go a long way. Also Cipro--do NOT leave without Cipro (your doctor will know).
Do Your Research
I can see your eyes glazing over just reading that final word. Here's the thing: knowledge is power, and the more you have going into your trip, the less screwed over/taken advantage of you're going to be. That said, the internet is an infinite deluge of information that will drown you under its weight if you let it.
Set up parameters for your research. I stopped trying to read every blog and every Wikipedia page about a month in and started working mainly out of a couple of Lonely Planet books. The "Plan Your Trip," "Understand," and "Survival Guide" sections at the beginning and end of the most recent editions were comprehensive, concise, and very psychologically manageable. Plus, the location-specific book and movie recs were great if you're like me and would rather consume art than a ton of non-fiction.
Note: If you're going to Southeast Asia, I recommend Lonely Planet's Southeast Asia on a Shoestring Budget. It's saved me from tons of potential scams and made me a way better negotiator than I thought I'd be (by telling me what things should cost). But get it in e-book format; it's huge.
Sort Out Your Phone/Technology Situation
If you can make do with only a smartphone, do it. Lugging around and protecting a bunch of technology from theft during overland travel is a hassle and a headache. An unlocked smartphone covers you for most of your communication/online needs and is lightweight and easy to protect.
If you need to do any serious typing, photo upload/editing, etc, I'd recommend one of two alternative set-ups:
- lightweight laptop + cheap, simple phone (like a flip phone or old Nokia)
- smartphone + tablet + Bluetooth Keyboard for tablet
In the first option, the laptop will cover you for all your computing needs and the cheap phone will be easy to set up with a SIM + local phone plan when you want to be able to call and text locally. Skype, Hangouts, email, etc. will be more than enough to keep you in contact with your people back home and the laptop will be nice when you need to do some serious computing (or just watch a movie now and then).
I went with the second of these options. The pros are that the tablet is super lightweight and portable, I can blog (fairly) well with the Bluetooth keyboard, and the smartphone is mine, meaning it has all of my app data from back home. The cons are that the tablet is not a laptop replacement; you'll be using the mobile rather than desktop version of all your sites and it will be a bit redundant together with the smartphone. I've found myself missing my laptop immensely on the road, especially as I've paused to linger in certain destinations (like New Zealand) longer than I had originally planned.
If you do plan to bring a smartphone, make sure it is unlocked and GSM capable so you can use it anywhere in the world. When you want to be able to call locally, just pop in a prepaid local SIM card and you'll be good to go (Check out Too Many Adapters for which SIM cards to get where). When you don't, you can still use the phone in wifi-only mode to keep in contact with friends and family back home (again, Whatsapp, GroupMe, Hangouts & Skype have been more than enough for this).
Whatever you decide, make sure everything that connects to the internet is VPN-capable...
Get Data Secure
I was going to bring an old 2012 Kindle Fire tablet I had laying around until I read Nomadic Matt's No-Nonsense Guide to Data Security for Travelers and discovered it wasn't VPN-enabled. Free and complimentary (hostel) wifi is NOT secure and you don't want to be sending your passwords, banking and credit card info over it (for booking flights, for example).
I bought the Nexus 7 for cheap and signed up for Private Internet Access VPN Service, which has worked splendidly so far on both my phone and tablet (and is cheap and good). It's also been handy for viewing content (like Hulu and YouTube) that has been blocked in the country I'm in.
Enable 2-step verification for everything you can, update all your online passwords and you'll be good to go. Make the passwords ridiculously difficult and then store them in an encrypted password manager (like Lastpass, as the article recommends). You can even generate really complicated ones within the app, if you run out of ideas on your own. I can't recommend this enough; Lastpass has made my online life so much safer and easier to manage.
Money Stuff
Five things: get a card with no foreign transaction fees, eliminate ATM withdrawal fees, notify your banks, backup your important docs, and create a budgeting system.
First, make sure the credit cards you are carrying have no foreign transaction fees. Those suckers will add up overtime and take an unecessary cut out of your hard-earned travel savings. Call up your bank or CC company and make sure.
Second, avoid ATM fees. In many less developed areas of the world, you won't be able to use your credit card as your primary method of payment, and the $3-5 fee for every ATM withdrawal will start to hurt pretty quickly. I avoided these fees entirely by opening a Charles Schwab high yield checking account before I left and using only this account for ATM withdrawals. There's no monthly service fees, no minimum deposit, and Schwab reimburses all your ATM fees at the end of each month. It's a great way to keep your money in your pocket and out of the bank's.
Third, call your banks and credit card companies before you leave and let them know where you'll be going. For most of mine, I was able to just list off the countries I planned to go to, and they set an advisory to keep my card open and operable in those countries for 6 months. Schwab required a little more detail and more frequent call-ins, but I haven't had any card shut-downs yet. Get the international call-in number for each in case you're cards get lost or stolen or your plans change, and store them someplace safe.
Fourth, scan the front and back of all your cards (and passports) and put the files on a jump drive. If your wallet gets stolen, this will be your lifeline.
Last, create a budgeting system. I'm keeping it simple with a good, old-fashioned spreadsheet on Google Drive but there's plenty of good apps to help with this. Keeping track of my weekly and monthly expenditures has helped me make realistic estimates of how much money I'll need as my plans change.
Note: Make sure you have electronic access to your W2s and other tax docs, or someone at home who can send them to you. I had to file my taxes on the road and electronic access streamlined the process.
Gather All the Crap You Need
Actually Go!
Don't wait for the perfect moment or the perfect person to do it with. Neither exist. Preparation is tedious, but so worth it when the end result is absolute freedom to wander the world.
If you don't want to take my word for it, take it from long-term traveler Lavinia Spalding, whose friends and family often tell her they're living vicariously through her: "Don't live vicariously. This is your life. Live."
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