“I did not want to live the rest of my life thinking, ‘Why did I not travel and live out my dream’,” Tom Landenberger, on why he took a year and a half off to travel around the world to countries such as Finland, Russia and Portugal. As more people realize this dream is logistically and financially possible, they are following Tom’s lead and taking sabbaticals to tour the world.
For many years my husband Keith and I dreamed about taking significant time off and traveling around the world. Just over a year ago I discovered the travelogue section of my library and found books about “real life” people who took off extended periods of time to travel around the world. From these books Keith and I realized it was possible to plan and fund our own RTW. We saved money, we planned and in January 2001, we will join the growing group of RTW travelers as we commence our year long journey around the world. As a new member of this community, I decided to learn about this new trend of extended travel, whom the travelers are and what their journeys mean to them.
Growing Trend
Everyday people are realizing that taking an extended RTW journey can be reality. Factors contributing to this realization are:
1) RTW travelers are posting their trips online which provide people access to exciting travel stories and tips for planning extended trips,
2) Today there are a multitude of trip planning resources that allow easy planning of extended foreign travel, and
3) The current job market is favorable for the workforce, providing job security even to employees who take long absences.
With the advice offered from veteran RTW travelers, Internet planning resources, and travel books and magazines, people now have the ability to plan long term trips on their own. Currently, more than 100 RTW travelogues are posted on the Internet by travelers, such as www.2goglobal.com and www.wired2theworld.com. These travelogues are inspiring as most are posted by “everyday” people such as teachers and computer programmers who have made their dreams reality and are backpacking around the world.
In addition to generating excitement, these on line travel journals offer planning tips and provide links to planning resources such as the Center for Disease Control, and the State Department. Other Internet planning resources, such as DIA Travel and TripPlanner, allow travelers to create their RTW flight itineraries and receive quotes on line. Travel insurance companies, such as MNUI, offer travel health insurance for extended travel outside of the United States. Websites such as www.travel-library.com contain “how to” information specific to planning a RTW journey. Backpacker travel magazines, such as Big World, include articles about how to pack for a year, and how to arrange budget accommodations in various countries.
The current job market adds to the trend of extended travel. Many employees today are confident that they can leave their jobs for an extended period and upon return either be rehired or find another job. This is partly due to the fact many major organizations, such as American Management Systems, Charles Schwab, Du Pont, L.L. Bean, and Nike, provide sabbaticals and extended voluntary leaves to their employees. As a result, the RTW group is increasing.
Who Are These RTW Travelers?
To find out the types of people RTW travelers are, why they embark on RTW’s and if their journeys are worth the money, the time and the risks, I surveyed folks who are either on the road or who have returned from a RTW trip. They willingly shared both details and feelings about their trips.
From their responses, I discovered RTW travelers are from all walks of life. Their careers range from the more artistic, such as writers, to the more business and technically oriented, such as computer programmers and management consultants. The majority of the respondents were in their late 20’s and early 30’s during their RTW journeys, though there are others who waited until later in their lives to travel.
Emil and Liliana Schmid began traveling in 1984 when they were 43 and are still on the go after visiting 128 countries and gaining entry into the Guinness Book of World Records as the Longest Driven Journey. According to Emil, “[We began] driving through Africa for at least one year, and then it became longer and longer and longer and is still continuing.”
Most of the survey respondents traveled as couples, but there were also single travelers and family travelers. Jason Cochran traveled solo from April 1998 to October 1999 to countries including Scotland, Nepal and Australia. “I went alone but came back with dozens of soulmates. Are you really ever alone if you do this right? You have to try to be alone on a RTW journey.”
George Mason and his wife Salli Slaughter took a year trip with their daughters, who at the time were 24 and 7 years old. “At dinner with my wife celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary, we realized our lives were in a rut, our daughters growing much too fast, and it was time to do something very dramatic to change it all.” To change it all, they traveled for a year across the US, Europe and East Asia.
Why Do They Do It?
Though there are many differences between RTW travelers, ages, careers and stage in life, they all share a taste for adventure, learning and a willingness to walk away from conventional lifestyles. A long-term journey around the world involves a myriad of risks. Examples are the risks of not finding a job upon return, getting sick from the water, and stolen baggage. RTW travelers understand and consider these risks part of the adventure.
Gregg Butensky, who embarked on his 1999-2000 RTW responded to why he decided to travel around the world, “Because there is nothing like being here. You learn everyday – in ways you can’t from a book a photo or a web page.” Christie Wiley, currently in the middle of her RTW with her husband, emailed from Nepal, “We both have a clearer understanding of the issues people face in the countries we’ve visited. We have a better appreciation for world events, and feel like we have more educated opinions about what our foreign policy should be.”
Is it Worth It?
Journeying around the world is not a lazy vacation. It is a different kind of work. Every day RTW travelers must learn how to adapt to a new culture, language and place. The simplest chores such as washing clothes and mailing letters become difficult.
There are a lot of conveniences and luxuries that RTW travelers do without. They miss communication with family and friends. They miss greasy American burgers and baseball. They get tired of living out of a bag. But despite all of this, their common view is that the work is intensely fulfilling.
Chris Farrell, who traveled with his wife Paige from 1998-1999 explains, “Let’s be honest: not working is pretty fantastic. But anyone who thinks that traveling is a vacation has never done it. It’s hard work, perhaps the single hardest thing you’ll ever do. But therefore it is also infinitely more rewarding than anything you’ll ever do.”
On these trips, the travelers learn not only more about the world, but gain a better understanding of themselves and inwardly change. The main response to “what did you learn on your RTW?” was “Patience.” In their daily lives after their RTW’s, several discovered they react to situations differently than before the trip.
Jason Cochran’s friends noticed changes in him, “The changes were so gradual, they’re hard to pinpoint. But my friends tell me that I am infinitely more patient, noticeably less neurotic, and now prone to impromptu poetic rhapsodizing.” Janet Anderson, who camped across the world with her husband from 1995 to 1996, gained more confidence in all areas of life, “Our biggest lesson was that we can venture into the unknown and survive it. We have much more confidence now in the things we take on in life. We have since started our own company (something we wouldn’t have done before) and feel secure knowing that we can handle things better than before.”
The most definitive answer to “Is it Worth it?” is that every survey respondent emphatically replied “yes” when asked if they would embark on another RTW. In fact, some already have embarked on a second or third RTW. Tom Landerberger’s response to whether or not he would undertake another worldwide journey answered, “Since I just left home for the second time three weeks ago, I would have to answer, ‘Hell yes!'”
The Stories
Living every day on the road in new countries is challenging and exciting. Travelers never know what to expect next and live to tell unforgettable stories. Their stories are the reason they embark on RTW journeys. As more people read these stories on the web, in travelogues and magazines, and discover the trip planning resources, the RTW community will grow. The following are just a few of their stories:
Steve Abrams, who traveled around the world from 1968 to 1971 and back again, learned a lesson on how to prevent malaria:
“After 6 months and 5 days on the road we finally arrived in Darwin, capital of Australia’s Northern Territory. Having arrived from East Timor, the port health officer was concerned in case we were infected with malaria and inquired if we had been taking any anti-malaria tablets. When I assured him that I had been taking them regularly since we had left New Delhi in India. He asked me what type they were, so I gave him the pack to see for himself. Not being familiar with that particular type he took them away for a second opinion. He returned a few minutes later with the port doctor who asked me if I had any tablets to take in the event of a stomach upset. I got the diarrhea tablet out and he examined them carefully. He then announced that these were in fact the anti-malaria tablets and that I had been mistakenly taking the diarrhea tablets for the last few months.”
Myrna James, who traveled from early 1998 to mid 2000, learned how religion can save a spider:
“Trekking the Annapurna Sanctuary with a 19-year old Nepali guide, we hiked many days in the pouring rain. It was May, the very beginning of the monsoon. (I decided to trek in Annapurna with the threat of leeches over the threat of altitude sickness on the Everest range.) Kami and I were staying in teahouses along the way, where all trekkers usually meet and have dinner together around a large table with the heating underneath. As we sat having dinner one evening, one of the girls from Denmark came bursting in yelling, “There’s a huge spider in our room!” Kami, our saviour in many instances, jumped up and ran with her, not understanding what a spider was; he was just learning English. He came back minutes later with a crumpled piece of pink toilet paper, and I asked,”How big was the spider?” He grinned, opened the paper, and it was wiggling all around. Then Kami took it over toward the kitchen and flicked it out. I was shocked, and asked, “Why did you put it in the kitchen?” He replied, as if it was so obvious, “It’s raining outside!” Kami is Buddhist and of course will not kill any living thing.”
Scott Anderson discovered how to jump out of a moving plane when he ran out of cash:
“A friend and I were in jungle in Venezuela waiting for our flight back to Ciudad Bolivar and then connecting flight to Caracas. We had to catch our flight back to US the next morning from Caracas. Our flight from jungle did not show up and so we ran out onto runway to hitch a ride. First a soldier with machine gun chased us until someone told him what we were doing (he thought we were hijackers). We found one pilot who was willing to fly us to Margarita Island where we might catch a flight to Caracas. We got on board and as the plane was taxiing down runway the door opened and copilot yelled at us to get out, throwing our bags out. Apparently pilot only wanted cash, not traveler’s checks. We jumped out of the plane as it was moving and the exhaust from the engines as he fired them up to take off blew our bags and us down the runway. We then gave our traveler’s checks to someone to go into the jungle to exchange on the black market. After he left our plane showed up. The pilot said he’d wait 5 minutes for us before leaving. At the last minute our friend came running out of the jungle with two fistfuls of cash for us. When we got to Cuidad Bolivar we inquired to see if there was any way to get to Caracas since we assumed we missed our connecting flight. Turned out our connecting flight was four hours late in arriving and had not even shown up yet. We managed to catch that and our flight back home the next morning.”
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