What to expect for travelling for a year?
Jan 26
Moon asked:
Next March me and my other half are going travelling for a year around the world. Just want to know if an other girls out there have done it and I want to know what to expect from a girls point of view. Also what on earth do I pack?
Relationship on vacation
Next March me and my other half are going travelling for a year around the world. Just want to know if an other girls out there have done it and I want to know what to expect from a girls point of view. Also what on earth do I pack?
Relationship on vacation
i was travelling for a month to another country but i don’t enjoy like my home.
Bring tampons and lots of Cipro in case you get diarrhea in Laos or something. Everything else is easy to find. There’s a good book called “The TRavelers Medical Guide” that lists what to bring for a good first aid kit. They say clean needles are important in case you get really sick in some strange place and don’t want to risk getting AIDS or something else.
I’m a bloke, but I travelled with my girlfriend for 6 months last year. Best advice is take as little as possible. You can get anything you want anywhere you go, and cheaper than in the UK! Make sure you have a decent, comfortable rucksack. Every so often, post stuff you don’t need home! The most important thing is a tooth brush and toothpast, the foreign stuff tastes terrible!
Just finished around the world in 18 month trip!
First of all pack as light as you can, and take maximum amount of suitcases. Let’s face it you will be shopping.
Also look at your itinerary, write done any place where you might want to do some heavy shopping or will be leaving a cold climate for good. Go to the UPS website and get a local phone number for that location. They have a great deal for shipping, you can choose either a 10kg (22 lb) or 25kg (55 lb) box and ship it for a flat rate. Fill it up (to the weight limit) and ship it back home to a friend or family member’s home. As a rule it’s less than half the normal shipping cost.
Choose your clothing well, check what type of weather you will have where, and use as many universal items as you can. Perfect example is bone or brown shoes are year around, but white is summer only. Light med. sleeves work great, cool enough for warm areas, and simply add a jacket for cooler.
Bring your own panty hose! It can be hard to find your favorite brand overseas.
Panties are easy to find in Europe, but take a lot more effort in Asia. Trust me, even if you pack 10 pairs, they will be worn out before the trip is over.
Socks are easy to find in Europe, but again hard to find in some parts of Asia.
While home go online and look up your size conversion, for different countries.
Take one good pair of walking shoes, and one pair of dress. Anything else you can pick up on the way.
Enough on clothing, now lets talk meds. Take your own aspirin, and tummy meds! While you can buy them at most locations, many times you won’t be at the right place at the right time. Not to mention there are minor differences. I like to take Quick Tabs with me. That way if I get a headache, I don’t need any water.
Double check with your health insurance company, about overseas coverage!!! If you are covered, make sure you have a toll number for them. (no 800 or 888)
Don’t worry about packing a bunch of shampoo, toothpaste and such. Many of the American brands can be easily found overseas. The one thing you might want to take is a bottle or two of wrinkle release, this I haven’t found anywhere else.
Also if you are staying in hotels, don’t worry about taking converters, most 3+ star hotels have free loaners. If you get caught needing one, you can buy one locally, at the airport, or even on the plane.
Now for money, take several different credit cards and at least two ATM cards (better if from two different accounts, better yet two different banks). Once you leave the U.S. Visa and Mastercard are the cards of choice. Discover is almost worthless and American Express is only good for nicer hotels and high end shops.
Keep one credit card as an emergency card, this way if you accidentally trip a fraud alert or worse yet become a victim, you still have a good card. Don’t use this card expect in the case of an emergency.
Make sure you have toll numbers for all of your credit cards and banks. There are some places you can’t use the toll free number! Other place you can, but still must pay for the call.
Also I would suggest taking a lap top computer, first you can download your pictures (I took over 7,000), second if you set it up in advance you can check your activity with your credit cards and bank, also keep in commutation with them.
I always send the credit card companies and bank an e-mail letting them know what country I’m going to, how long I’ll be there, and where I’m going after that. That way when your hotel charge from one location arrives at the same time you shop in the next country you won’t trip the fraud alert system. Also, the bank will make sure that all charges match your travel.
Another thing that is handy for commutation is an unlocked quad band phone (about $135.00 on eBay). If you use your home cell phone you will get nailed on the roaming, however using an unlocked quad phone, you can buy a local sim card for next to nothing, and charge it (pay in advance phone cards) as needed. To give you and idea, my home cell phone company wanted $2.25 a minute to call home from Asia, the hotel was $5.00 a min., but my quad band… was only .25 a minute.
Another thing to do before leaving is make sure you have several photo copies of your passports. Give one copy to a friend or family member at home, take one with you and keep in a different place than your passport.
Now for culture, you will find that most of the world’s women are pretty much the same. The one thing to watch out for is any Islamic country, it’s not that much to worry about, but as a rule you don’t go sleeveless or wear shorts. Most of the larger cities in places you would most likely go are very modern and more open than what we are shown on TV.
Now for the fun stuff, shopping do your homework before you leave! Sometimes we can buy the same thing here cheaper than there. Find out what is unique to the area, and if it tickles your fancy jump in. You will also notice that several places may share similar items. For example wood items in Central America are a great deal, but Thailand is MUCH cheaper! Sri Lanka has better gems, but Thailand has cheaper ones, then there is always South America.
Overstock.com and Pier One can be great resources for getting ideas of what is offered and our local costs.
Things in general, hotel laundry is about the same in ‘numbers’ world wide, but the exchange rate will very greatly. Laundry in Euros can hurt, but in Singapore dollars is a great deal. Be ready to hand wash in the room. Most of us **** to pay more for laundry than we paid for the item.
My last tip of this long winded reply, is check out VirtualTourist.com There you can find some of the best travel info on most any place in the world.
Go enjoy, have a blast, it’s a big wonderful world.