Planning your travels, part I

Do you really want to do a whistle stop tour of 6 countries in 6 weeks? You'll experience little to no culture and purely be hotfoot-ing from one tourist destination to the other. If you're going to go travelling, there's a lot to think about:

Location. Where do you really want to go? Where might your travel partner(s) want to go? Are you willing to compromise? If you don't know about the country before you say you want to go (name me three cities in Vietnam?) then you don't *have* to go there. Everywhere isn't for everyone. But don't waste your time and money pretending to remember the cultural significance of Angkor Wat if you aren't bothered...skip it.

Time. How much time can you afford to give? Are you going to be able to do all of a country in X weeks? How long is it going to take you to get from country A to country B? I coincided my trip with my contract work finishing and knew I wanted to be back in time for my Mum's 50th so that gave me 10 weeks. You don want to end up booking a 6 month trip, knowing you'll be homesick and rescheduling this flight one month in. 

Money. How long can you afford to take out of work? How long can you afford to travel for? You might have to budget for expenses at home whilst you're travelling like paying rent, or car insurance. You want to make sure you don't have to cut your trip short because you've run out of money. For some indication of how expensive different things are, my location guides should help!

Companion(s). Do you want to be in a group? Is taking your boyfriend/girlfriend a bad idea? Do you want to mix your partners country to country? Do you want to go it alone? Understanding who to travel with is complex, there are lots of things you need to account for; being a guy going with a girl (or vice versa) might mean sharing a double bed sometimes, going alone means, unless you stay in dorms, you're going to incur more of a cost in accommodation. And that's just the practical side of it. Then there's actually deciding who would make a good travel buddy from your friends/partner/family. I'm already planning a longer blog on 'Who to travel with' so stay tuned!

What is your dream itinerary? Has this made you think twice?

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