Nicole Heyermann
Round-the-World Traveler Round the World Travel GuideYour One-stop Source to Plan & Book Around-the-World Trips
Nicole (at left) & Co. at Kala Pattar, Nepal. At 16,000 ft. (4,877 m) it's up from Everest Base Camp, on the way to the top of the world.
April 2002
1-2 Years
23
USA
Los Angeles, USA
Banker
One more paycheck and I'm gone
No
Los Angeles, New York, overland Paris to Cairo, Bombay, overland through Nepal, Tibet, the rest of China, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, back to the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador
For the adventure and the challenge!
Traveling alone as a woman... loneliness perhaps.
For the most part. My parents are worried, my friends are baffled (the idea of a "gap" year is foreign to most Americans), and my coworkers do not know yet. =)
Winged it a lot
Besides my clothes? Universal sink plug and washing line! Some Mary J. Blige of course. Flashlight, sunscreen, and I've been told that I will be grateful for my earplugs.
This is of course going to be a very common answer... I have traveled a lot but never alone. I'm hoping that I will become more self-sufficient and resourceful.
Bring it!!
I think that always being on the move can sometimes be tiring. I think everyone secretly wishes that they had more time or more money to travel for a longer period of time. If you find someplace you really like on a RTW trip then you can just stay and soak it up.
That it's hard or that you have to do a lot of planning. First of all, for the most part, when you visit a country people go to the same spots. How easy is that? You can figure out the main destinations just by talking to people. Secondly, the adventure is in the journey. I'm all for planning certain things if that's your style, but believe me, where there's a will, there's a way. It's not as hard as people think to find accommodation and get around on the spot.
I'm really into hiking and outdoor activities (not hardcore, I just like nature). There are some incredible natural and manmade wonders out there to see. I think the main reason I love to travel though is that I love to learn. What better way to expand your mind than to travel?
I haven't officially started yet, but my advice is not to sweat it. I got all worried about around the world tickets and what-not... but once I made up my mind to let the wind take me wherever it will I stopped stressing. Cheers!
