Cemesis,

Congratulations on your trip. I am leaving for a 22month round the world on Feb 28th and am on a budget of $30,000. With your budget you will be fine and able to accomplish a lot and see everything you want to. I hope you are blogging your pictures so we can see.

I am also traveling with a 5D(spectacular camera), Which two lenses did you decide to bring? I am forcing myself to carry 5. (17-40 f/4, 24-105 f/4, 70-200 f/4, 15mm Fisheye, and a 50 f/1.4). I would love to narrow this down but I have no idea what to give up without sometime in the next two years being distraught for not having the right lens.

Rob
http://blogs.bootsnall.com/RobertCPaetz/

Hi Cemesis,

Congratulations on your trip! It sounds fantastic. (Leaving on my own long rtw in May.)

Driving the US is the very best way to get around. We are (unfortunately?) best seen by car. Trick is to find cheap rentals (buying IS impossible). Vegas is probably the best place to get good cheap rentals and my very very very favorite road trip through that part of the country is driving from vegas to LA via Joshua Tree (US park mecca as far as I'm concerned), Palm Springs (fantastic architecture/scenery). From LA (former home) you can go up route 1, via malibu, Ventura (very cool town, another former home, take a boat to the islands for some whale watching), Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo etc. I've driven that route through British Columbia to Alaska and I highly recommend it if you want some stellar breathtaking scenery. LA to Ketchikan is about 3000 miles and can be done in about a week (same for NYC to LA). I crash-camped by myself (slept where I could) and as a female, felt totally safe. In fact, I don't think you'll have any problems at all with safety.

Call me crazy, but instead of hotels or other alternatives, you may want to spend your money renting a wee RV. There are plenty of campgrounds (the entire route 1/coastline is practically a campground) and you will have a really great experience.

Some other favorite US highlights are:

Marfa TX - Donald Judd compound
Chicago! - FLWright architecture, fun city
NYC (hostels are well placed and suprisingly nice, great int'l community, etc., current home)
and DC of course
Death Valley in May
LA can be really fun - Silverlake and Echo Park have great communities, art, music
Philadelphia is a surprisingly wonderful city to spend a few days in
Boston too
Yosemite - you'll have to camp or stay at the booked-well-in-advance Ahwahnee hotel. Don't miss it!

I agree with what mtnshine said about Salt Lake and Houston. Worth driving through maybe but that's about it.

My little input. Have a fantastic time. Write if you have LA or NYC Qs.

quote:

Originally posted by RobertCPaetz:
I am also traveling with a 5D(spectacular camera), Which two lenses did you decide to bring? I am forcing myself to carry 5. (17-40 f/4, 24-105 f/4, 70-200 f/4, 15mm Fisheye, and a 50 f/1.4). I would love to narrow this down but I have no idea what to give up without sometime in the next two years being distraught for not having the right lens.

I'm taking the 24-105 and 70-300 DO. I have used all of the lenses that you are taking (bar the fisheye) and for various reasons have slimed my choice right down to that. If you want to go into reasons why (lots of tests and reasoning went into my final decision), do email me at my username @ a very warm mail provider dot com.

otherspoon - The More I look into America the more I feel what you are saying might be best. I'm almost tempted to spend a whole year in the Northen American continent but I think I'm going to be limited to 6 months. So many people have said that its best to be in certain places at certain times to see things and its going to be hard to decide if I should just wing it or put lots of thought into a plan to be efficent with time.

24 months is a long time to travel, don't forget to take the time to chill and give your body some rest...while traveling you will learn to live on very little based upon what you want to see in your sourroundings; as a challenge to yourselves i say cut your budget in half and you will still be able to do all the things you want to do....and i am soooo jealous of you! best of luckon your travels!

Why not just skip the US and visit another time? Or visit at the end, then you can see how much money you have to work with. I imagine you would want to travel the US during the Summer, and at this time lots of dorm rooms around the country are available for cheap use.

quote:

Originally posted by Cemesis:
A friend and I are planning a 2 year round the world trip

just curious, how well do you know this friend?
are you both putting in an equal share of 100k into the pot?

zopa


ps

round trip between boston and niagara falls will be a loooooooooooooooooong and tedious drive. there is NOTHING in upstate new york. just trees and rednecks with yankee accents.

Hi there-

I keep saying this: for RTW trips I recommend to spend as little time in first world countries as possible. They rarely give you the kind of raw excitement as other places. We had quite a reverse culture shock when we came back to the US after a year. In Bolivia we climbed Huayna Potosi. The did not ellaborate on the fact that the summit was ice climbing at almost 20000 feet. Back here we took a tour of San Diego and on the bus were reminded at every stop not to stand up until the vehicle comes to a full stop and hold the rail while getting off the bus.

Go third world!!!

Your budget is more then plenty. BTW Easter Island rocks!!!

Yeah D-evil

You reminded me of when I was in Bolivia myself, somewhere in the vicinity of Uyuni. We were wandering around this desertlike environment with loads of steaming geysers coming out underneath are feet. On the way back to the jeep we encountered a barely legible sign with paint peeling off it warning of the "Danger of death".

New Zealand seemed very tame in comparison after that. The railings don't let you get anywhere near the geysers there.

Good thread, with some super replies. To get on the planning aspect: some others have alluded to this without stating it flat out: Be willing to be changed by your trip. Will you get a chance to give English lessons in Japan? Maybe you'll find an idyllic spot where you can both stay for a month for a pittance.

I'm all there for paying the price for the one-shot destinations like Easter Island (although there are actually employment opportunities in Antarctica too). I would personally nominate Alaska and the North Asia Pacific Rim as spectacular places to lose yourself for a few months. You could easily spend $10k for two weeks in Kamchatka. Why not make a game out of seeing how much you can see for free that others pay up the wazoo for?

Travel isn't static, it's dynamic. Go with the flow. Save the money, and then you'll have it to totally go to hell with yourself just when you need it most.

BTW some of the most luxurious creature comforts hinge on context. Have a super-awesome trip and be sure to tell us all about it.

what is it like to work in antartica?

imagine a group of extreme sports enthusaiasts, all with a teenager mentality/maturity/relationship to alcohol. now imagine being trapped with them indoors for six months. yippie!

'course the fat old check for 10k is pretty sweet at the end, but shit you could work at a WAFFLE HOUSE and make that in 5 months.

zopa

Its all going well so far from a money persepctive. I'm still trying to figure out when exactly to go. It will be in 2007 but I don't know if it will be earlier in the year, around the summer or nearer the end. At the moment its looking like the summer.

I do think I'll be changed by my trip yes, thats partly what I'm hoping for but I also want to really put myself out there and live abit.

For the moment I'm just trying to get money together and looking into doing a website as I go.