A friend and I are planning a 2 year round the world trip and plan to leave in October of 2007. We both have good jobs and we plan to sell everything we have of any value and should have £30,000 each by then to spend. Thats to cover everything but we want to see and experience as much as possible.

24 months is a long time and we wanted to start in the UK and head West to the USA and then go from continent to continent.

3 months in the USA, then 3-4 months in South America and so on...

I have some experience of travel but nothing on this scale and whilst I have lots of questions, most are answered from other posts I've been searching through. But I'm wondering if we are stretching too far and if the budget is enough.

I'd like to do alot, so Antartica is on the cards($3000 per person I believe), as is Easter Island ($700 each)and lots of thrilling sports in Australia and safari's in Kenya (£100 a day each).

I figured $100,000 is $135 a day for the pair of us and that includes flights (which will be alot but we could use other methods to travel). It just doesn't seem enough but I don't want to miss out on anything.

As you can see I'm still very much in the planning stage but I welcome any thoughts.

hey cemesis. all ican say is, yes, you can live for 25k a year per person and do and see a shitload of cool stuff. naturally, your money will last longer when you are spending it less .
good luck!
why dont you ask ssome more specific stuff on here cuz in general i think most folks here would read your post and agree with me...what else do you need to figure out?
zopa

I'd agree with Zopa. 100K is LIVING LARGE. There are some parts of the world where it is almost impossible to spend $135 per day. For the US and Europe, though, its not that difficult, especially if you eat at restaurants and stay in hotels. I would say the best way to manage your budget would be just to stay in the more expensive places for a few months tops, so when you get to, like, I don't know... India, lets say, you'll never have to leave.

Yes, early days yet as far as budgeting, and there'll be some people who will say give me the $100k and I'll be gone the rest of my life.
You could the $100k in a mix of longer term deposit and at call here in Oz. getting 10%/7.5% interest so the $100k will earn something like another $10-15k over the two years, and though you say you want to do UK and USA first, they'll be of the more expensive areas.
Do Central/South America, Africa, Middle East, Asia first and you'll be tapping into the funds less at the start and letting interest accrue more.

You will also experience the greater cultural differences within those areas rather than in the more developed western nations.
Your $3000 for antartica btw may be a little light on.

There are many ways in the more developed countries to also extend the budget while get good life experiences or just enjoying yourself at minimal cost.

For instance - wwoofing - wwoof.org, and similar orgs.
USA has autodriveaway.com for driving other peoples cars all over the country, sometimes with them paying a petrol allowance. Similarly in Oz.and NZ there is standbycars.com.au for campervan relocations.

If you are still young enough, you can get a 12 mth. whv for Oz., with eligibility for a second if you do three months seasonal work, and NZ has a straight off one for Brits now of 23 months.

Yep, all things considered you could go for ten years!, but your start date is still a ways away - plenty of time to get into the detail a bit more.

Cool, all good replies.

We are avoiding Western Europe as we have seen most of it already and thats a good thing as it will enable us to save money by avoiding some of the expensive countries.

We live in the UK and planned to go from there to USA first because it will allow us to get acustomed to being away from home and travelling around on our own.

I was thinking of starting East but it kind of throws us in and we are still quite new to travelling outside of Europe without the standard vast saftey nets.

So we thought 90 days (maximum of the vistors VISA) in the US. Then through Mexico into South America to Argentena, across to the Antartctic, back upto Santiago to Fly to Easter Island for a week or two, then from there to New Zealand and Australia and then Japan and through Asia.

By the time we hit Asia we would of been travelling a year and would enjoy the experience more. All through Asia to Dubai and then to Madagasca and Africa, then Cairo, a few other places and home.

We thought it best to buy a car for the US but it seems (after reading posts on here) that insuring it and registration would be hard so its probably best to use the Greyhound buses.

90 days in the US will be $12,500 (at $135 a day). That seems loads and like it will easily last us, even in the USA but remember its for 2 of us and I've stayed at some cheap and frightening places in the US before so past experience may lead me to staying in proper hotels which could eat into the budget.

I will be taking my Canon 5D and lenses (just 2) and want to take good photographs as I go round so want to see as much as I can.

But while we are going I want to try things too like White water rafting in Oz, snorkling in Honolulu, different foods and things. This is why I'm worried about the budget a little. We both like hotels but realise that we arn't going to be able to stay in hotels all the time and we are both pretty happy with staying in cheap accomodation as long as its fairly safe (theres a natural concern with some of these places and although its insured the camera is worth alot).

Current itinerary (subject to change of course) is

London
Boston
New York
Toronto
Salk Lake City
Vancouver
Seattle
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Houston
Miami

Mexico City
Lima
San Paulo
Iguazu falls
Ushuaia

Antartica

Ushaia
Santiago

Easter Island

New Zealand (all over)

Australia (all over

Fiji

Honolulu

Japan

Bejing to Dubai through lots of Asia and around India

Then to Madagasca and Africa including Kenya

Cairo
Istanbul
Budapest
Rome
London

As you can see, the beginning of the journey as more detail than the end as its easier for us to plan for things we know of already. I know you need a Visa for Australia but I don't know when we will get there so its going to be hard to plan that bit.

This is a long post so I'm going to end it there. I'm after suggestions on how to save money going round (use buses instead of planes for instance), places we simply must see, things we must do and anything else you think we need to know for this kind of journey.

Well personally Cemensis, and do not take this too personally either, but I reckon with your intentions you may not get as much out of the trip as you could.
It'll seem a shame to with all that money, blow it in two years by sticking with hotels where you will struggle to meet other travellers let alone locals - far better to use hostels and beach bungalow type places where they exist, and also be a damm side cheaper.

Mentioned some other cost savers above, and on the Oz/NZ visas, if its a whv you consider then you have 12 months from time of issue to use it.
If not doing that, then for Oz. get an ETA online for $20 or have an agent/airline do it and being free to them, there should be no charge to you.
Brits can enter NZ for up to six months w/o a visa.

There's white water rafting on just about every continent you'll go to, jetboat riding, different tyupes of bungy rides if you do not feel like the jump, tandem skydives with or w/o your gear on, Thai massages, surfing, black hole tubing, do a scuba course and scuba the great barrier reef, hot air ballooning over the plains of Africa after climbing Kilomanjarro - the world is your oyster if you want to sample it and you'll do that one hell of a lot better w/o the hotels.

As to being wary of the travelling bit, now come on - there's no cannibals lurking, well maybe some of the kind that will just nibble!
Just ask Fergy, she had one with a liking for toes didn't she?

I am jealous of your budget. I travelled through Europe for a year on 12k in hostels, and some could say I overspent.

IN the usa, a safe hotel costs about 35$ +, not 100+. Even in NYC you can get a private room for 85$

Now, if you were to tell us you would be hiring guides and translators everywhere, and fully intended to go to expensive bars and nightclubs, 100k goes a very short way. Heck, on that budget Alaska cruises and the Galapagos Islands are possible.

Maybe you should buy yourself a Frommers Guide and a Michelin guide to hotels and restaurants on that budget.

You've missunderstood me. While we like staying in hotels, we don't intend to most of the time but I don't have experience of what the hostel or accomodation situation is outside of Europe and the USA.

I've travelled up and down the East cost of America and been forced to stay (and left) some really dodgy places where you simply couldn't sleep. Photography is a big part of the trip and the camera is worth $6000 along with its lenses and it would be easy to pick up and run off with. For this reason I'm at least slightly apprehensive of leaving it in a bag in a hostel somewhere while we go out and explore the night life for instance. I'm trying to cover all the options since I can't (and don't want to) always have it with me.

I managed to get a double room in NYC on 34th st (just off Time Square) for about $60 which is fine and was in a perfect place to tour around. But in places like Oz, where we could be for some time we would much prefer to stay somewhere cheap. We don't intend to be living large in hotels all the time, sleeping on buses as we move around and in low key accomodation is the plan.

And while 100k sounds alot it soon vanishes. $6-8k in 10 days on the Antarctic. 2 weeks in Easter Island (where I believe all there is are hotels), will be around $2k including flights I think. Thats 10% of the budget gone in 3 weeks. Flights around the place could take between 10-30% of the budget off and we could well be hiring/buying a cheap car to get around places like NZ and OZ.

Its good to know that NZ doesn't require a Visa, as we will get there before Australia and can hopefully organise a Visa in NZ for Oz.

Where did people stay when they visited the places I listed above?

Doubt whether you'll get too many people that have stayed in all those places listed, and other than some lucky ones (not too many) who might be travelling on work, most of the longer term travellers opt for hostels.

Most hostels are reasonably reputable places, especially HI/YHA associated ones who will have a secure storage area and/or lockers for valuables, and better that than even a locked room as thefts from bungalows and rooms in a lot of countries is unfortunately too common.

Use the search facility on BnA re hostels, and you'll start to get a feel for where hostels are or are not.
The ETA for Oz. I mentioned in being an onliner like most are can be done from anywhere

Cheap accom in the US, especially on the East Coast, is a poor example/point of comparison for budget accomodation in general. I don't doubt you had a miserable experience in cheap hotles here, and I'm not trying to make light of it, but the US, despite it's foothold in the tourism industry, has yet to develop a "budget" or "backpacker" traveling culture. In major East Coast cities the cost of living is high, property value is high, and, in my experience, people on the East Coast make a shitload of money and then tend to spend it traveling (for business mostly) ON the East Coast. "Cheap" hotels/motels here just don't tend to serve the outgoing, friendly, adventurous travelers you find in most other places.

Camping, hostels, beach huts, private accommodation, b&b's all around the world are much nicer and MUCH safer than cheap hotels/motels on the East Coast. Heck, even our hostels, campgrounds, and B&B's here are nicer than the cheap hotels. I live here and know my city well, and I would stay in the hostel in downtown Boston WAY before I'd stay in some downtown hotels that cost twice the price. I honestly believe if you had camped your way around, or stayed in some B&B's or hostels (rather than the roach motels I'm guessing you're referring to) you would have a different opinion.

True, you will have a much cozier stay in Renessaince Times Square, or the Four Seasons in Boston, but, like gonorth said, you won't meet anyone! You can have the same needs served safety-wise by some of the hostels, and save some money to boot.

Even if you're not convinced when it comes to the US, I strongly encourage you not to rule out accomodation based on the price when you're traveling elsewhere. I stayed in a beach hut, with a locking door, flushing toilet, and air con on a gorgeous beach in Thailand for $12/night. A lot of people traveling in Thailand consider that a luxury/splashing out - there were rooms I saw for as little at $2.50/night. In the same place that I spent $12 I could have spent up to $300/night for a room in a hotel... It's all relative, you definitely have to do what you feel safe/comfortable with, but you really might miss a lot staying in hotels everywhere based on a shitty experience here.

This may come off as biased, but can I recommend Chicago instead of one of the other US cities? I think Chicago is truly the most "American" city left in the US, and a great place to visit. Perhaps instead of Houston or Salt Lake.

This information is helpful. My main problem right now is total ignorance to the price of some things and whats best.

I won't let my experience of America taint my view of anywhere else. It didn't even taint my view of America, it was just a case of ending up somewhere which was considered 'rough' and not knowing it. The locals knew it but I didn't.

I often see people spend twice the price for an inferior product but only when I know the product. If I were to fly into Thailand I may simply not know of any other option than the Hotel.

$12 a night is obviously ludicrously cheap. You wouldn't get 3 McDonalds meals for that in the UK and it makes me feel much better that accomodation in some of these countries is THAT cheap. Since about half of the time we will be in third world countries, I assume its safe to say that accomodation in these places can be had for $20 a night or less?

I would like some information on South America if anyone has it. I've been advised to go to Peru as it contains some facinating Ruins from ancient civilizations (I havn't looked into it yet, Inca's was it?) but also to go to Brazil, the Iguazu falls and maybe into parts of the Rain Forrest and Rio de Janerio, then all the way down to Ushuaia before back upto Santiago. This could be almost 10,000 miles on land so we will probably fly some of it but whats the best form of transport around South America, bus? Train?

I appreciate all the help everyones given me.

Here you go Cemesis,

I reckon you need a personal aide for organising this junket, a security guy cum bodyguard, a driver an camera gear packhorse, not to mention a financial advisor.

How about at 187 and 100kg when at good fighting weight, an experienced driver, onetime pilot with good navigating skills and some sea savy, and currently more than staying alive off my own economics nouse through investments, I make it a threesome at no additional cost and fit the whole package including some of my own expenses not only within the $100k cap, but leaving you with a bonus at the end.

It'll be just like having your own personal tour guide for the whole trip and then some.

See, thats something I'm trying to balance as well. If I plan it out too much it defeats the purpose of the trip. Its partially about exploring and discoving things. But if I play it all by ear I risk missing something that is really worth seeing or doing and I'd hate to come back and find out that I missed out on something wonderful when I was only 50 miles and $50 from it.

A guide would kind of remove all that. Oh and I've gone through 20 difference lenses and 3 cameras over the last 3 years testing and trying them out until I'm happy with the 2 I have which are perfect for travelling. Total weight is 3kg or so so no packhorse necessary

Actually you sound alot like me. I'm quite an accomplished driver and have dabbled with boats but not planes (gliders but not into a pilot's licence or anything). And taking some interesting ecconomic decisions has yeilded most of the capital for this trip.

I just really felt like I wanted to see more, that watching things on the news and taking photos around where I live wasn't enough any more.

Cemesis,

Have you ever considered packing a rucksack and just following your nose, you're have much more fun if you wing more of your trip than planning it to the Nth degree.

Smuggs