I'm leaving at the end of the year for a big trip around the world, starting in America and going south to the tip, then over to Easter Island, New Zealand and Australia, then up through Asia to Dubai, down to Madagasca and then South America upto Egypt and through Europe to home (UK).

My decision involves how I go about the trip. I can either go with a stripped down outlook and very little in the way of 'stuff' or I can take a LandCruiser and tour the world in that.

Both have huge merits and massive disadvantages. I'm a keen photography and wanted to take some photos as well as write about the journey. My cameras are quite expensive and whilst I'd probably only take one, its a massive security concern of mine. Dossing in hostels with a £2k camera will always keep me on my toes and I wonder if I could ever relax. I could just take a cheapy one but thats not what I want, I want the quality that I get from my photos at the moment.

Having a vehicle that I could store these things in would be much better but I'd be stuck with it all the time and when I wanted to visit somewhere without it (like a cruise upto Alaska) I'd have to leave it somewhere for weeks and must return to the same spot to collect it.

For touring around the US though, a vehicle is great as with lots of other parts of the world (NZ, OZ, SA etc...) but the costs of making it legal to drive in these countries (as opposed to a hire car) may be vast. But having the vehicle to be able to sleep in and travel fairly cheaply are also massive pluses

I've thought about it all so much I'm not not sure what to do

This is really a quandary...

when I was traveling across Africa I met a British couple with a Land Rover. At first I thought it was a great idea - the freedom of being able to jump into the car and go anywhere.

And then two things happened. On the mountain road from Asmara to Massawa in Eritrea, the car died. It took us an entire day to repair it and limp back into town - in temperatures in which you could fry an egg. I wasn't so impressed by then.

We went out for dinner that night to reward ourselves for a job well done on the car - and the couple spent the entire dinner rushing outside to make sure the car was still there/intact/unbroken. I got stressed just watching them!

I don't necessarily think leaving something in a car is safer than leaving it in a hostel room - I've had a vehicle broken into but not a car (and I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who've had the exact opposite!).

Still, all things considered, using public transport brings me closer to people and I like that. A car would turn me into a loner.

I'm afraid I'm raising more questions rather than answering them, but I'm hoping to travel to the tip of South America at some point and I've decided against a car - although I am giving serious thought to a motorcycle.

More questions are fine, I need to hear it.

I guess the ideal solution is to do both. Buy a vehicle when I need it and sell it when I don't. Then I can still maintain the freedom. But I can see complications in even that. In the UK you need to insure any car driven on the road but you cannot do that without a fixed addres...which I won't have.

I presume other countries like the US are the same.

I have heard of europeans buying a car in the us then selling it. Insurance wouldn't be a problem if you bought the kind that pays for everything on the spot if you have a passport to prove thats who you are.

It would be more expensive, naturally, but clearly, rental agencies have no problem selling insurance to you.

about 4,000 dollars gets you a reasonable vehicle, though it goes to 12,000 dollars for a reasonable 4wd subaru!!!

700 gets you a car that may make it across the country if you buy it from an old man that only drives on sundays.

Have you heard of these guys - http://vwvagabonds.com/? They spent a lot of time driving around the world in a VW van. They have now ditched the van in favor of bicycles, but they say they really enjoyed having the van. Might be worth it to contact them to get both sides of the story.

quote:

Originally posted by Tortuga_traveller:

about 4,000 dollars gets you a reasonable vehicle, though it goes to 12,000 dollars for a reasonable 4wd subaru!!!

700 gets you a car that may make it across the country if you buy it from an old man that only drives on sundays.

Baah.

$1000 should get you a late 80's early 90's Honda or Toyota in any part of the US that will run fine and re-sell instantly while getting over 30mpg and being fixable in any town in the country.

There is a lot on these boards and others about buying a car in the US and insurance if you search. Of course it is possible but a real pain by al accounts - certainly put me off.

With the weak dollar renting a car in the US is very cheap - even longer term (we are going to do three weeks driving around the west coast - compromised from the original idea of buying and selling and driving for a few months).

Driving inter-continentally sounds very romantic - and I would love to traverse asia in a camper - but I have also seen how much preparation and what an enormous support crew they had in the Long Way Round. A motor is not to be taken lightly.

id say in the USA and New Zealand rent a car in both...i looked up prices for my friend to rent a car in NZ and you could get it as low as 20something NZD...campers are more money...in the USA definitely rent and rent a foreign car...you can get insurance....

I guess another thing to think about, as Scribetrotter alluded to, is the solitude of that car (assuming you're traveling alone.) Now I can't lend a whole lot of insight from a traveling-the-world-and-meeting-people perspective (which I think is fairly obvious), but I have spent too damn long in my car, by myself, all alone. Having to work out of town for a year and a half with a 4 1/2 hour commute twice a week - it doesn't really matter how much XM, ipod tunnage, cell phone chats or sketchy gas station attendants you include, it gets old fast.
I guess no matter how you travel, there's always going to be the absurd cost of fuel, but I guess it just rings in my ear a bit more painful (to your wallet and the environment) having to take on that burden all by yourself. And with gas prices being as totally f'd as they are right now...

A thought on comfort - any car that's going to get any sort of decent mileage probably isn't going to be desirable accommodation for an extended period.

Lots of random thoughts, and obviously so much more to weigh - how long your tips would be between stops, whether or not you like the isolation, and on and on and on.

Good luck!

The flaw I'm seeing in your logic is the camera's relative security.

If you bring the Land Cruiser, clearly you're drawing some attention, of the "this guy's got money and expensive stuff in here" sort. Not in the states, or other parts of the world where newish cars are common, but if you're travelling in Africa, S. America.... If you go by transit, you can bring the camera in a backpack that's designed to stow it, and then you look like just another backpacker. The camera's there, you can get great shots, but when it's stowed, there's nothing to draw attention to it.

Also, if that's a major argument for getting the landcruiser - you can buy a lot of four thousand dollar cameras for the price of a LC, not to mention the intercontinental shipping costs.

And yes, I wouldn't want to travel by car for a long time. I'll rent cars now and again when I travel, but I find that I spend too much time isolated, looking out a car window at the road. And that's even when I'm travelling with someone. Travelling solo, I think driving would be depressing. Not to mention the navigation frustrations. I'm always happy after the car experience to get back to public transit...it's so much more relaxing.

When I was 11, i went to the USA with my family for 2 months. We bought a really cheap, really crap SAAB for US$700 in Chicago, then drove across America to San Fransisco in 2 months and sold it for $800. Of course we had paid at least $100 in minor repairs, but we still made that all back. I'm not sure if we had insurance or not though...

Before our trip across America, we also traveled around Europe for 4 months in our Peugeot 405 (also crap) and a fold-out camper van thing.

I have to say that having our own vehicle had both benefits (freedom of movement, sleeping in the vehicle when we needed to or if we arrived too late, etc.) and problems (breaking down! all the time!). And we were never worried about it being stolen (mostly because it was crap). We were kinda worried about the rest of our stuff, though...

Of course if you had a better vehicle than us (which you do), then you'll obviously break down less, but on the other hand you'll also be more worried about theft, damage, etc.

Another thing to think about is meeting people. If you've got your own, private transport you'll never meet people to actually travel with. sure, you will meet some people in hostels, etc, along the way. But you won't meet people on (eg.) buses, trains, taxis, etc. Plus, trying the local transport is always a fun experience (tuk-tuk!).

Lastly, I myself am an Avid photographer and am planning a similar RTW trip starting December 2009. I'll be flying from Australia to Indonesia, and them making my was by bus, train, boat and foot up to London. I'll be bringing 1 SLR (Canon EOS 40D, i think) and a compact (Canon Powershot G7). Of course I am a little anxious about theft, but If i spend all my time worrying about it, I wont really enjoy the experience, will I?

Wow, that was an epic post. Well done if you read it all! Hope it helps

Renting a car sounds like a good compromise. You don't have to worry about repair costs and whenever you find you don't need the car for a while you can return it.

My personal opinion is that if you aren't SURE you need to bring a car, just travel without it and rent as needed (for example, in Australia or the United States.) I don't have any evidence for this, but I think with carnets, gas, insurance, shipping, and the like, bringing a car is more expensive than buying plane tickets, bus tickets, or renting.

I think having a car would make it even harder to relax, security wise - you'd always need to worry about it, particularly when driving in the less safe parts of the world. I have a relatively expensive camera and laptop (over $2k total) and as long as they're kept locked up I feel relatively secure... plus if anything happens, I have insurance and hopefully will be in a position to replace them as needed.

Your trip sounds like fun... I'm jealous of Easter Island and Africa!! I think in your case I'd go without, and apply some of the money you're saving by not having to ship and insure a car towards long-term car rentals. I've driven quite a bit in the US so let me know if you have any questions!

This couple has been traveling the world in one car for more than 23 years. ...food for thought:

http://www.weltrekordreise.ch/a_starte.html

Another down side I hadn't thought of...

The paperwork. Each border will need its own certificates and from what I understand this is often not straightforward...