Any tips on travelling the across the world, would be great?

Question

My two friends and I would like to travel across.. the world pretty much, sounds naive but we are going everywhere, and I'd like to know if you have any advice... great places to see, cheap places to sleep, cheap rides.. how to pack for backpacking, youth hostels! any one whose travelled any advice will be great! Which places are most expensive.. or not worth seeing, When's the best time to fly overseas (the cheapest)? and so on! Thanks

Answer 1

My husband and I travel internationally at least twice a year. Here are a couple tips we've found out the hard way;
1. Set out the stuff you want to take with you and then take away half of it. A week before you leave, eliminate another half.

2. Wear sturdy shoes you can hike in. Bring along a thinner, lighter pair you can use for dress. No more shoes than that.

3. Investigate the Eurail pass and the JapanRail pass if you're going to Japan. You can't buy either one once you're in Japan or Europe. Huge discounts on train travel though.

4. Must see places in Europe: Venice (sleep on the mainland or an outer island). Rome (spend a week there!). Assisi. Stonehenge. Bath. Edinburgh. Paris (sleep out of the city. expensive place but awesome). Avoid Amsterdam... rough and ugly. Germany is great, especially if you try to speak German.
Japan: Mt. Fuji. Osaka. Kyoto. If you decide to climb Mt. Fuji, do it in the summer. It closes because of snow in late Sept.
Australia: Great Barrier Reef, Ayers Rock. Sydney is fun. The Australian dollar is worth less than the US, so your money goes a long way. Quantas sells a package of in-Australia flights fairly reasonably. Non-plane travel in Oz is worse than in the US because the country is ginormous and not as densely settled as the US.

4. Bring along a water bottle with a good filter, and a couple replacement cartridges. Too many places in the world have unpotable water and getting sick will ruin your trip. Take along Bonine tablets for seasickness and iodine tablets to purify water.

5. Take a small notebook and keep a journal. Fill it with sketches, thoughts, your daily itinerary. If you take a camera, bring along several extra multi-gig memory cards and a few rechargeable batteries (and the charger). Don't bring any extra computer stuff, although a pda with shareware translation software will be an immense help.

6. Jeans take too much time to dry in hotel/hostel rooms. Bring along thinner weight pants, shirts and underwear you can rinse out and hang to dry overnight. Travelsmith.com has a huge selection of awesome travelling clothing.

7. Keep an eye on the major airlines websites for discounted airfares. They run sales to Asia or European capitals usually twice a year, in the off season, or just after a major US holiday week. Early summer is the most expensive time to fly to Europe.

Have fun and make memories!

Answer 2

There are so many great places in the world that they can't be listed. It all depends on what you feel like doing at the point in your life that you'll be taking that vacation. It's fun to read about a place that gets your imagination fired up, then dream about it and make plans, then finally get there. Perfect vacations and travel are fun and relaxing and exciting and a great education all rolled into one. Here are our thoughts on how to plan one: http://www.mousetourstravels.com/custom-tour.html and http://www.mousetourstravels.com/custom-tour-planning-list.html

Grab a good guide book... on that caters to backpackers. They'll give you tips on buses to catch, and places to stay. Talk to fellow backpackers as you go, they'll give you their latest information. Look for bulletin-boards on the Internet for ideas too. We don't do much backpacking anymore, but it was great fun... we still have fun trying to find local moderately priced places to stay!

Happy travels--even if you don't travel the world... just remember that life is a journey... embrace and enjoy it!!
http://www.mousetourstravels.com