Archive for March, 2010

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In the News: Meet, Plan, Go!
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

We love sharing personal stories of those who have taken the leap and made their traveling career break dreams come true. Hearing others experiences as they navigated the world of leaving their jobs, packing up their homes, and hitting the road for months on end serve as great motivation and inspiration. And more importantly, it creates a great support system for those who want to do it but are surrounded by doubters.

So we are excited to announce the launch of Meet, Plan, Go! – a nationwide movement to raise awareness about career breaks and long-term travel.

Together with Three Month Visa, we will be hosting a night of FREE events on September 14, 2010 with travel experts in major cities across the country.

If you long for a career break, sabbatical, a spiritual sojourn, an extended global vagabonding experience or just a self-designed “gap year”, we want to help you make it happen!

Meet, Plan, Go! attendees will:

  • MEET inspirational speakers and like-minded travelers.
  • Get motivation, contacts and resources necessary to PLAN the trip of a lifetime.
  • Start taking concrete steps forward and get ready to GO!

And if you have already made the escape, we’d love to have you join us to share how you did it!

Be sure to sign up for updates on the Meet, Plan, Go! site as we add locations and participants. And let us know if you would like to host or participate in an event in your town/city!

Meet, Plan, Go! Website
You can also join Meet, Plan, Go! on Facebook
And follow the conversation on Twitter via #meetplango

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Posted in In the News | 4 Comments »

Circumstances: What’s Stopping You?
Monday, March 29th, 2010

Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), Australia If you’ve only thought about taking a career break or sabbatical – what has stopped you from actually doing it? No matter the excuses that you come up with (or believe in) the only thing that is truly stopping you is yourself.

I recently had the pleasure of hearing Seth Godin talk at the Small Business Summit in New York City. (Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, agent of change and overall inspiring speaker.) And although he was addressing an audience of small business owners and entrepreneurs, the messages he imparted can most certainly apply to you as well.

Following are a few of his “sound bites” that made a great impression on me and led to a few observations of my own. (Please note that they are paraphrased from my fastidious notetaking.)

Become a Misfit
“The reason they want you to fit in is that once you do, they can ignore you.” – Seth Godin
Growing up it always seemed so important to “fit in”. And as a grown-up, we’ve been led to believe that we must do what is “expected” of us. If we follow this expected path of least resistance, we are promised a metaphorical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – retirement. But the trick is on us once we get there to find out we won’t always have the health or wealth to enjoy it. In the meantime, we are serving other people’s goals and not our own.

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Posted in Circumstances, Contemplating | 6 Comments »

Photo Friday: Abel Tasman, NZ
Friday, March 26th, 2010

Abel Tasman, NZ - 3-12-10

This photo is from my 2007 career break with Michael. As part of our travels we spent some time in New Zealand. As I had been to New Zealand before (in 1995) I knew that I wanted to kayak Abel Tasman National Park. During my previous visit, we spent three days in Nelson (the sunniest city in New Zealand) waiting out torrential rain so that we could go kayaking in Abel Tasman. After waiting what seemed like weeks, we were finally on the shore ready to launch our kayak – then our guide decided the seas were too rough. I never thought I would have an opportunity to do this again, so I was thrilled to spend three days kayaking and hiking with Michael. The best part? It was my birthday.

Every Friday we’ll feature a career break inspired photo. Want to see your photo here? Join our Facebook Fan Page and upload your career break photo to our Wall. Add a brief description of the photo and we may choose to feature it here!

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Posted in Photo Friday | 2 Comments »

Favorite Website: Hostel Dog
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Hostel Dog It’s often a dream come true when you can combine your passion with your work, and that is what Garrett Schemmel has done with his website: Hostel Dog – Travel Inspired Apparel.

Garrett graduated with a degree in industrial design but has also been very interested in sketching and graphic design. And then he caught the travel bug, which set him on a path combining the two passions. Garrett shares with us how he has been able to successfully bring his two passions together to create a business he cares about.

When were you first inspired to travel?
My fascination with all things international probably started when I was a senior in high school and became great friends with the exchange students at my high school. They just seemed different. It’s hard to say what exactly it is that made them fun to hang out with, but I built great friendships there that lasted past high school.

Hostel Dog I got to be great friends with a guy from Brazil, named Eduardo. Still friends to this day, he made his way to my house through a roundabout means and ended up staying for six months. Three years into college, I made the decision to go visit him and his family in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. That’s when I got a real taste of international travel and being fully immersed in the local culture. Every minute of every day was me being surrounded by folks from “Belo” and I had to learn quickly what it meant to live in a foreign culture.

But what really kicked off my travel habit?

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Posted in Favorites, Websites | 2 Comments »

The Lasting Memories of a Travel Sabbatical
Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Stuart Tom at India-Pakistan Border Taking a traveling career break or sabbatical is not a new concept. But more than 20 years ago Stuart Tom drew up the nerve to ask for a year leave of absence from his advertising job (something unheard of at the time) to venture off and explore the world. He shares with us how that experience still lives on.

When I was 6 or so, I spent hours flying my battery-operated TWA DC-9 around my living room. I was in love with its smiling tin stewardess and retractable stairs. It wasn’t long before I graduated to collecting travel brochures from chain hotel lobbies. I read them over and over, memorizing every hyperbolic detail. Thinking back, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t preoccupied with the thought of going someplace new, someplace else.

So it was without much trepidation, after 6 years of employment, that I walked into my boss’s office and asked for a 12-month leave of absence. O.K., I didn’t so much ask as make a declaration. It helped that I was prepared to leave my job if the answer was no. But it wasn’t. The economy was in the crapper, and maybe my boss figured I wouldn’t want to come back after a year. So his agreeing didn’t surprise me. What did was the revelation that I was the first person at my ad agency to ask for a leave of absence. My first thought was, you’ve got to be kidding. Then I secretly congratulated myself for being such a trailblazer. In the end, I got to keep my health insurance for the year (a definite advantage of taking a sabbatical over quitting), and my job was waiting for me when I got back, which was a good thing because after 12 months of not working, I was flat broke.

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Posted in Career Breakers, Re-Entry, Reflection | 4 Comments »

Photo Friday: Chamonix, France
Friday, March 19th, 2010

Chamonix, France - 3-19-10 This Photo Friday was submitted by Alonna Scott. She has been traveling with her husband Ben since August 2009. They spent the first part of their career break in Europe before exploring South America. They are now galavanting around Turkey, Egypt and South Africa.

This photo is of Alonna sitting on the mountainside looking out over Chamonix, France. “I could have sat there all day! It’s times like this when I think about how great it is to be out exploring the world and breathing fresh air instead of sitting back home in a cubicle.”

You can see more of their career break travels on their blog Ben & Alonna – Living Vicariously Through Ourselves.

Every Friday we’ll feature a career break inspired photo. Want to see your photo here? Join our Facebook Fan Page and upload your career break photo onto our Wall. Add a brief description of the photo and we may choose to feature it here!

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Posted in Photo Friday | 4 Comments »

Favorite Blogs: Travels with Children
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Traveling long-term on a career break with children can seem very daunting, but the Vogel Family (Family on Bikes) and the Hoffmeister Family (4Suitcases) have shown what an incredible experience it can be.

And even short-term travel with children can be overwhelming. But here are a few sites that offer some great insight into making it a fun and rewarding experience.

Delicious Baby Debbie Dubrow’s blog, Delicious Baby, offers advice on “Making Travel with Kids Fun”. Her blog details her own experiences traveling in the US and internationally with young children as well as product reviews, city guides and travel tips like “Ten Tips for Keeping a Toddler Busy on a Plane”  and “Breeze Through Airport Security with Kids”.

Perhaps my favorite tips include the ones listed under “Why Travel?”

Everyone knows that travel with children is unpredictable, difficult, and definitely not at the same pace or with the same freedoms that pre-child travel afforded, so why do it at all?

  • Through our children’s eyes, we see the world in a new way.
  • You get to immerse yourself in the local culture. Traveling with children forces you to do as locals do… shop in the grocery stores, bakeries, and pharmacies, not just tourist shops. You get to connect with locals in a way that’s difficult to do as adults traveling alone. People love kids. They’ll go out of their way to connect with you and see you as a family rather than just tourists, and you’ll gain insights into what it’s like to live in a different place.
  • The kids love getting out of their everyday routine, and being in new situations helps everyone to reconnect. Whenever we travel, we find that there’s a special brand of giggly, silly fun that happens after a long day of travel that we just don’t seem to have at home.
  • The kids learn new things. For young kids it isn’t so much that they’ll learn world history as that they are exposed to new experiences, sights, sounds and smells. With a little thought, you can bring those experiences home to make your everyday life a little richer too.
  • For school age kids it’s much more engaging and fun to learn history by doing than by reading.

WanderMom Michelle Duffy’s blog, WanderMom, offers insight and resources for independent family travel. As she says “The goal of this website is to share my experiences as a traveling parent with you and through that to encourage and inspire you to take your children to interesting places far and wide, inside and outside your home country.”

Other blogs that focus on traveling as a family and with children include:

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Posted in Blogs, Favorites | 3 Comments »

On the Road: Traveling with Kids
Monday, March 15th, 2010

Family on Bikes recently shared with us how they homeschool their sons while biking the Pan-America Highway.

4Suitcases in Patagonia The Hoffmeister Family (4Suitcases) had a similar experience homeschooling their daughters while on their 9-month world adventure. They embraced the idea of homeschooling so much that they continue to homeschool their daughters now that they have returned home. They share with us what that experience was like.

What made you decide to travel with your children?
Well, it just didn’t seem like a good idea to leave them behind! Seriously, one of our main goals was to spend more time together as a family, instead of always being off in our separate worlds of school & work. Besides, we think all the benefits of taking a break and traveling apply to kids every bit as much as they apply to adults.

Did you look at this as an educational experience first and foremost? If so, why?
It’s funny – both before and after our trip people kept telling us what a tremendous education we were giving the kids, but we didn’t really think of it that way when we started out. Our main goal was just to have a bunch of new and interesting experiences. The education that went along with that was sort of a bonus – for all of us.

Were your children homeschooled before your trip? How was the transition to homeschooling?
No, we had been considering it, but let the trip force us to take the plunge. We were re-thinking our entire way of life and learning to look at education differently was just another part of that process. It was probably harder for us than for the kids. All those traditional ideas about school were much more ingrained in our minds than theirs, you know?

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Posted in Life On-the-Road, On-the-Road | 7 Comments »

Photo Friday: Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
Friday, March 12th, 2010

Perhentain Islands, Malaysia - 3-12-10 This Photo Friday was submitted by Christine Talianis and Paul Milton, otherwise known as Bert & Patty. They have been traveling on their career break since August 2009 and have been to the South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

This photo was taken in the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. Looks like they are enjoying their career break to the fullest! Thanks for submitting your photo Christine & Paul!

Every Friday we’ll feature a career break inspired photo. Want to see your photo here? Join our Facebook Fan Page and upload your career break photo onto our Wall. Add a brief description of the photo and we may choose to feature it here!

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Posted in Photo Friday | 4 Comments »

Travel Tips: Budget Your Trip
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Laurie and Bryan Tighe Betsy & Warren Talbot shared with us the secrets of how they saved money for their career break travels. But how do you stay on track with the trip budget you planned for?

During their 10 months of travel, Laurie and Bryan Tighe traveled through West Africa, the Middle East, India and Nepal. Along the way they were meticulous in keeping to their budget. And with their computer programming skills, they were able to develop an online calculator to keep track of their money and budget. And now they are sharing that with others with Budget Your Trip.

Budget Your Trip Budget Your Trip is designed to help travelers track their spending and expenses. After registering you can create a trip and enter your daily expenses. The website creates charts and tables that break down costs by category and location. The layout lets you find out if you’re spending more than anticipated on transportation or which country ate away more of your budget.

Furthermore, the website’s budget calculator allows users to estimate the cost of future trips. The budgets provided by other travelers are used to determine the average cost of countries, cities, and categories a traveler might visit. Visitors to the site can search for the average daily costs of accommodation, food, and numerous other categories for cities and countries around the world.

Budget Your Trip Budget Your Trip also offers a “Travel Cost Calculator Widget” so travelers can search for travel costs directly on your website.

Be sure to check out Budget Your Trip for future trips. And if you have budgets from previous trips, be sure to enter them and help out your fellow travelers!

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Posted in Favorites, Travel Tips | 4 Comments »

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