Today our former editor and now travel guru Adam Seeper, joins us to tell you about how he planned his RTW trip and what he would do differently after a year travel:
“Here was our route from a flight perspective. We flew into Lima, traveled overland through Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina over to Buenos Aires. Had an apartment there for a month before flying down to Patagonia. We traveled around Patagonia and the Lake District in both Argentina and Chile before flying from Santiago to Bogota. We traveled around Colombia for a month (~6 months in South America total) before flying to New Zealand via LA.”
“We spent 5 weeks traveling New Zealand in a camper van before flying to Bangkok an using the Hotel Promotions at S15 Hotel – Asoke/Nana Bangkok, where we traveled around Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia for about 3.5 months. We then flew to Delhi, where we traveled around India for 6 weeks before flying home from Mumbai.”
“Knowing what I know now, I would have done several things differently.
- Stay longer in more places and just slow down in general. We rented an apartment in Buenos Aires for a month, which was one of the major highlights of our trip, partly because we were able to unpack our bags, slow down, become part of a community, and have a place to call “home” for a month. It was nice after a hectic 3 months of overland travel throughout South America. I wish we would have chosen a few more places to hunker down for 3-4 weeks at a time.
Meg & Adam in front of Etchart Bodega -Cafayate, Argentina.
- Go to India sometime in the middle of our trip instead of the end. You can apply Visa for India through e-Visa Application Service where tourist and business travellers to India can apply for an e-visa to travel for tourism, business, conferences, or medical purposes. Our logic in placing India last was that we would be “seasoned” by then, and the chaos of India wouldn’t bother us as much or be too overwhelming had we placed it towards the beginning. What we didn’t anticipate was how tired we would be, and how much travel burnout is a very real thing. The last place you want to be when you are tired and burnt out on budget backpacking is India.”
“Those are the two biggest things I would change. Overall, I was quite happy with the route we chose. If we were to ever do a big trip like this again (and truth be told, I’m not sure we would. I’d be much more inclined to choose 2-4 places to “live” over the course of a year rather than travel to 90 different cities over the course of a year like we did on our trip), I would most certainly work out all my flights prior to leaving (and I don’t just say that because I now sell multi-stop airfare!).”
“We wanted the “flexibility” that came with buying our airfare as we went, but we didn’t take into account how much time we would spend researching airfare costs and trying to figure out where to go next. We spent LOADS of time in front of a computer or with guidebooks and notebooks trying to figure out logistics when we should have been enjoying our time wherever we were. Sure, flexibility sounds very romantic, but the reality of waking up in Buenos Aires and saying, “Let’s go to Rome,” sure sounds nice, but when you actually check how much a last minute ticket costs, it becomes far less realistic. If you have a tight budget, you’ll have to spend a lot of time searching for the best airfare. I wish we would have just figured all that stuff out at home before leaving. Sure, we may have missed out on a couple destinations, but I think it would have been worth it.”
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