BootsnAll Travel Community

Hey i'm booking a RTW soon. And i'm reading non-stop on places to go, things to do... etc. It seems alot of people will, for instance, fly to Peru for 3 weeks and jam-pack loads of stuff in (for a large fee) But if i'm on a year long RTW and plan on staying in SA for 6 months i can't do activities every day or even once a week for that matter.. it might be once a month if i'm lucky.. as an inca trail is close to €400 (which is 20 days of travel in SA on €20 a day)

What does a general day entail? I know when i make friends on the road this will be easier as i can just hang out, walk-about.. What did YOU do on your solo travels? Was it tough? Or did you make friends too soon to even worry about it? What does a typical day entail?

Lots of ?'s!

I think everyone travels differently and you'll have to find out how you travel.

I for one, would never be good at travelling on my own. I find travel really difficult. I have a short attention span and get angry really quickly. (So I need someone around to help calm me down).

And for travel, you really need to stay calm. Everything takes a long time, place take a long time to get to. A three hour bus journey, more than likely, will take five. And soon enough you'll be taking ten, or even fifteen hour bus journeys.

I think the worst things travellers do is rush. They become tick list tourists, it becomes about places they've been and things they've done, rather than actually enjoying the experience.

If I was planning a round the world trip, I would make a huge list of the places, and sites I've always wanted to see. Then I would work out the cost of those things, and work out other practicalities, like, are there two or three things in one area to see.

This is important because you can end up travelling for miles, sometimes even days to see one thing, and if that one thing is pants, the journey could be seen as a waste. But if there are a couple of things to do in one area, then it doesn't matter so much if one wasn't so fun.

Once you have your list, and costs and practicalities you can start narrowing it all down. If something you've always wanted to do will cost half your budget, it might be an easy one to cross off and leave for another time.

Better to do half the things you want to do, with enough money to enjoy them. Then cram in too much and do them half-arsed.

As for meeting people, I think that's easy enough if you stay in popular back-packing places. Just be chatty. You can take more risks talking to people than you might back home, because if the person is funny with you, or doesn't want to chat, then you never have to see them again.

It's all good stuff though, and planning is part of the fun.

I still don't know exactly (as I haven't left yet!) but from reading travel blogs it seems like a fair proportion of time is taken up by the nitty-gritty of travel: getting bus/train tickets to the next location, finding a hostel, doing laundry, finding internet cafes to write blogs/emails/research destinations, etc. Additionally most people take a day or two after arriving to a new location to just walk around the city and get acclimated.

Generally, you meet people at hostels and spend a portion of time hanging out with them. There are usually inexpensive or free museums or parks or generic sightseeing activities, or sometimes just relaxing with a book, journal, ipod, or whatever...

I think a good ratio is, for an average week on the road: 1 day spent traveling, 2 days spent relaxing, 1 day spent taking care of business, and 3 days spent sightseeing or other activities. I have no idea if that's what actually happens though

thanks for the replies guys.. i just dunno what to expect?!
I think i'll be fine traveling on my own.. i never do anything on my own.. which is the main reason i'm going solo.. but i don't get mad easily..

I'm swaying more towards sticking around a few countries for along time rather do the "tick list" that's why i was wondering what do you do.. say if i decide to spend a month iin columbia and i have the 1 day travel done.. my 2 days to get aquanted with the town i'm in.. then i've 27 days left! Was hoping to maybe make friends etc.. and hang out with locals etc..
Or is this not done? and people are always on the move inside a country.?

I think you'll find it easier once you know what there is to do in each country you want to visit.

We tend not to rush around, so we'll travel for one or two days, depending where we're trying to get to. Then just take it easy the next day, and do whatever it was we went to the place for the day after.

Then if where we are staying is ok, or there is something else to do, we'll do that, the day after that, then we leave. That's if there is a bus/ferry/plane, out to where you want to go.

We're no heading back down to Manila, we want leave for Jakarta but we have to wait around till Monday - remember the travel won't always be in your control.

Still we get to watch AVP2 this weekend so not all bad.

I would Google 'top ten things to do in X' - X being where you want to go. Then see if you fancy any of them. No point hanging around somewhere if there is nothing to do.

What you planning on going?

quote:

They become tick list tourists, it becomes about places they've been and things they've done, rather than actually enjoying the experience.

Wise words from dharker.

I think you'll find, after a few weeks, that you'll get into your own rhythm. That's the beauty of a long trip. If you fall in love with a place, you can stay for ten days, or twenty, rather than three. And I don't think you'll have trouble finding places to fall in love with.

A great book, which I used to prepare for my own RTW, is The World Awaits, by Paul Otteson. There are other books out there on long-term travel, but I liked this one. One useful piece of advice I got from the book was this: if you're on a long trip, you may need to take a vacation from traveling. By that he means: just stop for a while, don't worry about what you *must see*, upgrade your lodging for a few days, catch up on your email, refresh and recharge yourself. I did just that for a week in Delhi.

As far as what to do and what to see: well, famous sights are often famous for a reason, but I find my most precious memories are from the events that happen between the sights, and from the things you couldn't plan; the small celebration you stumbled across, the secluded place that was magical in the mist, the unexpected kindness of strangers, and so on and so on.

I plan to go in March.. flying into New York.. then head to mexico after a month and on down to SA..
well i have a few things i want to do/see and i was thinking of volunteering too.. maybe at a wildlife conservation..

cheers agian for the replies.. helps alot

You cannot anticipate what you might want to do for the 27 days in Columbia now. I would have a rough idea by reading, looking through books etc and then once you get there talk to the hostel folks, people you meet and keep an open mind.

Maybe you will be somebdoy who is heading out into the country for a hike and may ask you to join them. Or you might become pals with the front desk person and they might ask you to come see a festival. Anything can happen.

You should also be preapred for some quite lonely times. Sometimes you don;t meet people. Sometimes the front desk person could care less about you...so in times like that..have a book, listen to some music, write in your jounral etc.

Just like at home you will go through moods on the road. Its not that different.

Also you will have to do mundane things like laundry. Some other activities like sending post cards etc. What every you have to do it becomes a adventure in iteself as you are in a new country.

Have no expectations and take one day at a time.

thanks that's great advice everybody!

Flynn,

Like Madhu says you can best prepare for you trip by reading about the places you want to visit. The more you know about a place the more in-tune you will be with what you want to see and you won't regret 'missing' that something spectacular because you didn't know about it. Secondly, if you are concerned about your personality type and travel, read blogs from other people who have performed sustained travel.

As you travel you will spend a lot of time on your own which means reflection time. Quite a few people are not prepared for this and quickly get depressed, homesick, or feel lonely. Yes you will meet people and make friends, but you will have a lot of alone-with-your-thoughts time as well. Take a journal, sketchbook, or something to capture what you go through intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.


I think the one skill that anyone who travels for a long period of time is 'patience'. If you don't have it know, you'll learn it.


You trip may get surprising dull if you are moving from tour to tour, so try to mix it up with with some work, volunteering, class taking, relative visiting, or something other than seeing monuments, museums, wildlife, etc.

Quite a few people blog their trip, are you?

Thanks Slip,

that's great help.. i did a bit of research today on volunteer work and think i'm going to spend 2 months in bolivia doing this. I'll be bringing a guitar and hope to write an albums worth of songs on my trip so i'll put that alone-time to good use!

Yeah think i'll blog too, i learned alot from blogs the past few weeks.
the hardest part is picking the route i think.. still havn;t booked because of this..