Planning The Route
While planning in general can suck, planning the route can be a ton of fun. Below is the tentative route we’ll be following with each marker representing a country, and then also some things to keep in mind while planning.
Click on the pins to view the countries we plan on traveling to or click “View” to have the full interactive map:
HAVE FUN.
Dreaming and planning where you want to go should be the most fun part of this. When we started planning we started throwing down every place that came to mind in a document. Some of them were realistic and places we actually wanted to go and others we had never heard of until we saw an Instagram post of a really tan good looking couple laying in a hammock on the beach. If you have fun thinking of places then it will give you something to look forward to during the dog days of planning and saving money for 2+ years.
Stop having fun and be realistic.
Kidding. Kind of. As the time gets closer and as you continue your deep research dive into places then you’ll have to start making cuts to your dream list because it’s impossible if you don’t. Here’s an example of some of the places we cut:
Patagonia - This place looks unbelievable but in the end it’s hard and expensive to get to. Once there it doesn’t get a lot cheaper. We also would be butting right up against their winter season.
Scandinavia - Similar to above. Very beautiful, but very expensive. We will have to make this a separate trip.
New Zealand and Australia - We’ve already done New Zealand and it was my favorite trip of all time. No need to add it to this itinerary. We had a layover in Australia for like 6 hours so went and saw the Opera house. That’s good enough right? Kidding, some day we’ll make it back.
Africa (below Egypt) - Our original plan was to do Africa. We wanted to start in Egypt and make our way down to where a friend lives in Malawi and eventually end up in South Africa. However, our schedule would put us in that vicinity in the December time frame when my friend returns home for the holidays. That along with the difficulty of getting from North to South Africa made us reconsider this portion of the trip.
weather.
The weather can play a big part while planning your route. We want to do as much hiking and walking as possible so trying to be in locations when it’s nice out was a priority for us. Unfortunately being in nice weather compared to crap weather is going to be a priority for other people too, which makes the destinations crowded and more expensive. Oh well.
ask friends where their friends live.
I thought it was bonkers how many people said “I have a good (Fill in blank with friend or family member) that lives in (Fill in blank with city or country), you should visit them. They would love it!” We wouldn’t drastically alter our route to seek out these people but damn… if they are close then why not? You get to stay somewhere for free, get great information, and actually get to experience the culture more than you might elsewhere. Don’t be afraid to take advantage of this situation when someone offers it up.