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I recently travelled for 6 months through Asia. During this time I met many travellers who were travelling for much longer periods, some for several years.
Most people like myself had simply worked and saved hard for a year or more then travelled through counties where it is cheap. I also met a couple of people who were working on their travels, a writer ...
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I do exactly this, and have done so for the past five years. I am a software developer (previously web, now iOS) doing contract work for customers in a range of countries. I live in about five or six countries each year, spending anywhere from a week to several months in each.
I've lived in Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore, London, Rome, Prague, Sydney, Melbourne, ...
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I have done a 25 months trip (Around the world but mostly in South East Asia) and a 22 months one (Latin America). I spent about 22,000 Euros each which I saved before or between the trips.
Important points:
I did not have any regular expenses back home, no health insurance, mortgage, storage fees, family. But I also did not have any income either.
I do ...
31
Round-the-world fares do exist.
Most airline alliances and occasionally single airlines offer around the world fares.
OneWorld (includes British Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacfic)
Star Alliance (includes Lufthansa, United)
Air New Zealand
It can be very cost effective, especially for premium class (business and first class fares).
There are ...
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Well they travel as cheaply as possible. There are lots of tricks and lots of levels.
No matter how cheaply you do it you always meet people in comparison to whom your expenses seem ridiculously extravagant!
The main three factors in a trip are 1) accommodation 2) transport 3) food
You can save on all these at multiple levels depending on your sense of ...
28
For most people trying what you propose, making money while traveling, is not possible. Luckily, there are plenty who prove this just a rule of thumb, not a hard law.
Yes, it's possible to make enough money from a vlog, a blog, photography, professional articles or travel advice. But it's very hard to get started, and no real shortcuts to make it big.
From ...
28
Usually, when you purchase two flights, A->B and B->C separately you will have to collect your checked-in baggage at B and re-check it for the flight to C. This almost invariable requires you to have the right to enter the country that B is in.
There are exceptions to this, some airlines have interline agreements (notably if part of the same 'alliance'...
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Answer.
Yes, but you have to purchase a particular fare that is not usually advertised (a oneworld global explorer fare, sometimes called a xGLOBx fare, to be distinguished from the more usual oneworld explorer fare, an xONEx). Any competent travel agent can arrange this for you, if you know what to ask.
No internet site is capable of pricing xGLOBx fares, ...
25
Per your specifications, the fastest route "around the world" is Hong Kong-New York-Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, scheduled at 32 hours round-trip. Approximate routing:
The flight is non-stop, so London/LHR and Narita/NRT are there only as (rough) route markers. While you'd think the route is a straight line (since it's just the "same flight" there and ...
22
As was said before, the main sources of costs are accommodation, transport and food.
What I want to add for accommodation: There are several hospitality services. Essentially, these are social networks using which people offer places to stay, all around the globe. The most popular I'm aware of are Couchsurfing, Hospitality Club and be welcome.
Didn't ...
20
There is a term called digital nomad. This is someone who has no real home and is travelling and working using the internet.
As a software developer you can do a lot of work independently using oDesk or any other freelancer web site. Chiang Mai, Thailand is called the Mecca of digital nomads.
At least what I know it is inexpensive to get health insurance ...
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You may want to try Coworking. That's a way to get a workplace and to meet like-minded people from all over the world, many of them freelancers.
I am writing this, sitting in Coworking Las Palmas, which I found via deskwanted. Among my colleagues are other programmers (like me), a translator, a biologist (I believe), a serial entrepreneur, and architects.
...
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Looking at the other side of the income-expense equation of traveling there are many ways to make income while you travel. I make more than I spend per day by running my business remotely via skype and email. I have met other travelers who can cover their travel costs indefinitely by travel writing, selling photos, teaching English, doing import-export of ...
15
This past summer I followed quite a bit of it through Central Asia, in areas which I'd consider to be moderately difficult to navigate - like Uzbekistan.
Wikitravel shows more information on the Silk Road, and it's worth noting there are several branches of it, depending on whether you go through the deserts, or through Afghanistan. Individual links on ...
15
OK, you're at the stage where you have a ton of questions. I'm in a similar position about long distance walking actually, but that's a different story for another time.
Firstly, I should probably plug our Bicycles.Stackexchange.com site. For the actual bicycle questions part of your trip, they're going to be a handy resource.
One of the biggest cycling ...
14
Your admission to the US, and your readmission for the remainder of your initial 90-day period of admission, are governed by the terms of the visa waiver program (VWP). ESTA is nothing more than authorization to travel to the US to apply for admission under the VWP. The provision for readmission is established in the Code of Federal Regulations at 8 CFR ...
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I did a route like that last year with a friend of mine. We started in Belgium, went first to Ukraine, then down through Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria and Jordan, where took the boat to Egypt, then went down to Sudan and Ethiopia.
We could easily have driven further down, but we ran out of time. (Planning to continue later on in my/our life.)
We ...
13
The main way to simplify this process is to use the services of an agent. There are a few that specialise in this and you would want to vet them a bit before putting your money, passport and credibility in their hands so I am not going to name any. But I heard about a handful that would for example arrange visas for Russia and many central Asian countries as ...
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For me it works quite well to try to estimate a daily budget for a given country/region. Of course you will spend more in cities than trekking in wilderness, but still the average gives a decent indication. Then you obviously multiply the daily budget times the number of days and you are done.
The easiest way to get a daily budget is to find it in a guide ...
12
OneWorld is simply an alliance between a number of airlines. They do not sell or issue tickets, and they do not make changes to tickets.
In the situation you describe, they are simply acting as an intermediate between the various parties, but it's the airlines involved that actually need to do the work.
Your ticket is issued by Qatar, which means that any ...
12
So far...
Santiago, Chile-Xi'an, China. 26h5m. The antipode of the Santiago airport is just east of Zhen'an, China, which is barely within 100km of the Xi'an airport. Fly this itinerary with just one convenient layover in CDG and you're there.
I also like Aukland-Gibraltar (or Tangier or Malaga, though the flights seem fastest to GIB and their airport is ...
11
RTW fares generally have date flexibility but not route flexibility. This means they are great for someone who wants to do something like tour the world for 6 months or a year on cash savings. You plan out all your places in advance and pay for the entire trip's airline tickets (so you don't need to include that in the trip budget). Then, while you are ...
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how to start:
Start small. Don't think you can cycle long distances without getting in shape. Even across town may well be a challenge for you right now.
So start on that, set yourself REALISTIC goals to get in shape, not just your legs but your arms and lungs as well.
Start with say 10km trips, then gradually increase that until you can comfortably drive ...
11
It is an IATA recommendation, and airlines tend to go with the minimum recommended in case the policy is in their favor, and opposite is true when the recommendation is against them:
3.2 PERIOD OF VALIDITY
A ticket is valid for carriage for one year from the date of commencement of travel or if no portion of the ticket is used, from the date of ...
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This has been reduced to an art form by Paul TerHorst and his wife Vicki.
Worldy Philosophers . . .
I would recommend any of their books and articles.
Also "The Investment Biker" by Jim Rogers, who took his girlfriends (one of whom became his wife) around the world on a motorcycle. Except that he's wealthy.
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From 1995 to 2010 Italian Radio Television (RAI - Radio Televisione Italiana), conducted a series of road trips with a couple of trucks, usually starting in Italy, with the final destination on various continents including South America, (South) Africa and Asia.
So it would be possible to do, but you would need special trucks (not cars), a lot of money, ...
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It very much depends on the countries you go to. Europe is EXPENSIVE. South America - not so much. North America - EXPENSIVE. Central Asia - not.
I spent 4 months in South America doing pretty much whatever looked fun, and eating well. I initially stayed in the cheapest hostels possible, but quickly realised there's a reason they're cheap - had some ...
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Most airlines allow you to book up to exactly 12 months in advance.
This means you can buy a ticket where your outbound flight is today and your return (inbound) flight is exactly one year from today. Any other dates would be outside of this range. i.e. even an outbound flight tomorrow with an inbound flight of one year from tomorrow would be more than 12 ...
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Since you are looking for territories named British XYZ, below is a non-comprehensive list of these, ordered by distance (feel free to add more territories). All distances were measured using the Daft Logic Distance Calculator, using the search string United Kingdom as a starting point for calculations.
New Britain (Connecticut, USA): 5102.123km
New Britain ...
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It really depends on which companies you pick to fly with in option two.
Option 1 will, as you say, almost certainly guarantee you another equal flight should something happen at some stage of your journey which causes you to not make your connection.
Option 2 however is largely dependant on which companies you use to fly your different legs with.
If you ...
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