You spent two years planning your career break travels. Now that you have been on the road for four months, what have you found to be the most valuable aspect of your preparation process?
We have found that living on a budget is the most valuable skill for a long-term trip like this. In addition, doing the research to figure out what the trip would likely cost for our style of travel means that we are comfortable traveling with the budget we set out for ourselves and do not anticipate running out of money early. We lived for 2 years on a fairly tight budget, which means once we started on the trip, there was absolutely nothing to get used to. In fact, we felt like we could splurge more once we were on the trip because we had lived under budget for so long – which is a great feeling!

Another thing that really worked well for us was selling off our possessions. We know this isn’t right for everyone, but for us it gives us nothing to think about but the trip. Our advice for anyone planning a trip like this is to make sure you have your “home details” locked in before you leave – hopefully with someone else to look after them – so you don’t have to waste any of your energy on what you left back home.

Do you feel like you were over-prepared in any ways?
We bought into the hype that we needed special travel clothes, gadgets, and medicine for the eventual “traveler’s illness.” This was a big mistake because we spent too much money on things we either don’t like, never use, or can find abundantly (for less) in every country we have visited so far.

Have you had any encounters in which you felt under-prepared? And if so, how do you think you could have been better prepared?
Learning Spanish has been by far our biggest challenge. We thought that we could learn it when we landed – which is possible – but the nature of traveling as a couple means we mainly speak English to each other. Without a concerted effort, it is difficult to learn the language as quickly as you need to have a more enjoyable experience. We would recommend that other travelers spend more time before leaving in learning the basics of a foreign language or two.

There comes a point for every long-term traveler where you feel like you’ve gained your road experience and have settled into the backpacking lifestyle. At what point (if any) did you feel like you gained yours?
We ran into a slew of travel problems due to weather around Christmas, at the 3-month-mark, and it caused our normal “rule-following” personalities to shift into a more savvy traveler mindset – mainly out of frustration. The old version of us would have never paid a bribe at immigration or felt so bold as to help other people do the same to get out of a sticky situation, but we did then. And after that it just seemed like things have just flowed better for us. We had to stop being tourists waiting for “the rules” to help us get by and become travelers who problem-solve a little bit differently.

What has surprised you the most about yourselves?
Warren has been surprised most at his adaptation to being more flexible. Before now he was a planner (both in personality and at work), and since we’ve been on the trip he has eased into the lifestyle of not planning our trip very far in advance and taking almost every suggestion for a detour from other travelers. His goal of learning to live more in the present has not been nearly as big of a challenge as he feared.

Betsy has been surprised at the amount of weight loss this trip has sparked. As of this writing we have been traveling for 125 days, and in that time she’s lost about 20 pounds with no attempt at dieting. She thinks that satisfying her curiosity about the world around her has kept her actual appetite in check, and of course the physical activity to get to these places has helped, too.

For those currently contemplating a career break, what advice would you have for them now that you have started yours?
Set the date and tell your family and friends. Seriously, it all comes down to that. Once you set the date you just have to work through the logistics, and you can easily do that by doing your own research and listening to other travelers. That’s why we love the idea of Career Break Basic Training – we learned through our own travels how much it helps to listen to other people who have gone before and adapting their advice to our own situation. Chances are, you probably don’t know very many people in your everyday life who have done this, so you have to reach out and find people who have. Having something like Basic Training at the start of our trip planning would have saved us a lot of time and money.

Last, we would advocate keeping an open mind. The rest of the world is both exactly like home and entirely different, and you’ll see what we mean when you get out there. You cannot call a place foreign when you are standing right in it, and to think of it that way keeps you from fully experiencing it.

Be sure to follow along with Betsy & Warren at Married with Luggage. You can also find them in Career Break Basic Training where they share their insights with the community.

Rainer continues to report on family travel as a Special Correspondent for National Geographic Traveler’s Intelligent Travel Blog and shares with us why traveling is a great way to build a foundation of learning in your children.

If you’re reading this post, you’ve probably fantasized about quitting your job, packing a suitcase, and leaving town for a while to travel the world. When we first got married, my wife Carol and I often contemplated taking the leap — sometimes seriously, sometimes not. There always seemed to be some excuse why we couldn’t, wouldn’t or shouldn’t. Our careers, responsibilities, and commitments had to be considered, and how about what our friends and family would say? It was always something. Then after the birth of our sons Tyler and Stefan, all this talk about packing our bags seemed to suddenly fade away. After all, you can’t possibly do something like this with kids, right?

If we teach our children to travel, we thought, then they will travel to learn –
a foundation that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

In January 2004, it all came roaring back. I had just returned with the family from Europe after visiting relatives for the holidays when Carol and I started reflecting on how much the boys (then seven and four) seemed to enjoy the experience of being in another country. Couple that with the post-9/11 mood of a country that was getting deeper into a war in Iraq and isolating itself more from the rest of the world, and suddenly it dawned on us that taking a year off to travel the world might actually be more sensible now that we had children. Increasingly, we found ourselves looking at taking a year off to travel not from the perspective of what we had to lose, but from all the benefits we could gain.

It dawned on us that nothing could probably better prepare the kids more for their future than traveling and experiencing what life is like outside the U.S. If we teach our children to travel, we thought, then they will travel to learn – a foundation that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. So after more than four years of saving and planning, we sold our house, put our careers, lives, and possessions in storage, and left for an around-the-world adventure that would cover 28 different countries in just over a year.

If you are a parent who might be contemplating something like this, it pays to consider some of the benefits your children will gain from traveling. Gathered from our experience, I’d like to share some advice that might help make your travels just a little more meaningful.

An Opportunity to Learn and Gather New Experiences

First, I’d like to recommend that you look at your travels not just as a time to relax and get away, but also as an opportunity to learn and gather new experiences. If you consider that the true function of education is to enable children to successfully navigate the world around them, than travel probably does this better than any other single activity because it embraces such a diversity of subjects.

Remember, kids are incredibly curious, so when you expose them to new things, you’ll be amazed at how quickly they forget about their electronic gadgets and watching television. For example, we visited museums in China and Rome, toured monasteries in Bhutan and Thailand, and explored archeological sites in Peru and Greece that offered up history lessons far more engaging than any textbook. For a dose of science, the geysers at Yellowstone and Costa Rica’s Arenal volcano gave them a real-life demonstration no classroom could ever simulate. There was no worrying about missing a year of Spanish class either. Six weeks in Central and South America took care of that.

Learn New Life Skills

Traveling also affords kids a chance to learn new life skills, so don’t be afraid to let them try something different and challenge them with activities they’ve never tried before. Our youngest son learned to surf in Costa Rica, play cricket in Australia, and make sushi in Japan. His older brother rode a horse for the first time on a dude ranch in Wyoming, picked up the art of origami in Japan, and snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef. But we discovered that photography was what he was most passionate about. While traveling may have opened his eyes to a whole new way of looking at the world, a camera became his outlet for expressing it.

And one other major piece of advice: make sure everyone in the family has their own camera! Not only will this keep your kids thoroughly occupied, but if you share a camera, you risk possibly missing that perfect sunset shot because another member of the family is off somewhere with yours taking pictures of who-knows-what.

Making Personal Connections

Making personal connections is another wonderful side of traveling that we sometimes take for granted. We learned that meeting people and talking to them about their lives was the best way to really understand a place and appreciate its culture. Despite the language barriers, this wasn’t hard to do in countries like Greece, Japan, and Peru, especially if you have a guide.

But even here in the U.S., there are some fascinating regional differences to explore and learn from. In South Dakota and Montana for example, it was refreshing to see how strong its people are connected to the land and the history of its Native American heritage.

So don’t think you can’t take a career break just because you have children. The opposite is really true: the kids are the reason why you should go – if not for your sake, for theirs!

I have never been one to give up on my dreams easily, so I started looking for other ways to get to Antarctica. Everything I found, from the cruises to mountaineering trips on ski-equipped planes, was exclusively reserved for wealthy travelers. I got my break when I came across a news story that talked about the research going on in Antarctica. That article led me to the website for the U.S. Antarctic Program (currently www.usap.gov), which, in turn, led me to the website for Raytheon Polar Services, the scientific support contractor for the U.S. Antarctic Program. I devoured every tidbit of information I could find regarding the Antarctic Program and working in Antarctica and quickly decided that I was going to work down there. The problem was solved, sort of…

There was no question about whether or not I was qualified for the jobs down there, since there were job postings from dishwashers and janitors all the way up to engineers and helicopter pilots, but getting those jobs proved to be another problem. The first year I applied to all of the jobs that I was most excited about: Field Camp Manager, Search and Rescue/Field Training and Equipment Staff, Antenna Rigger – All jobs that would get me out in the field exploring the amazing wilderness. I also applied to the engineering positions, since I am an engineer, but I ignored all of the ‘unskilled’ jobs. In hindsight it is no surprise that I didn’t get a single call.

I changed my tactics for the next hiring season and I bought a plane ticket to Denver, Colorado and attended the job fair at Raytheon Polar Services’ headquarters. I was excited as I walked down a long hallway filled with large pictures from ‘The Ice”, as Antarctica is known among program participants, to the conference room that the job fair was in. There I spent a few hours talking with everyone. I ignored the long lines for the food services and janitorial departments and went straight for the fun stuff. The recruiter at the table hiring for the research vessels had to stifle a laugh as he explained that my experience was not good enough for even the most basic of jobs on the ships and explained that it would be much easier for me to get into the program by going through the ‘unskilled’ jobs. I got the same speech from the ‘field camp’ person. I had a great conversation with the man at the facilities table, who hires the engineers and I had several other ‘promising’ discussions with several other tables. When I had talked with everyone except the food services and janitorial tables I decided that my work was done and I left.

A few weeks went by and then I got a call from the engineering department. We talked extensively about a job at the South Pole for the winter. I thought that the interview had gone well, but they ended up finding someone that was more qualified for the job. I got no response from the other recruiters and I was without my Antarctic job for the second year in a row. By that time I had already set my departure date for my career break. I was ‘retiring’ on my thirtieth birthday, which gave me one more chance with my Antarctic aspirations. I spent the year collecting more information on the jobs and on how people got work down there. I even talked to a person who regularly worked down there. Everything seemed to mirror what the man at the research vessel table had told me – Don’t ignore the unskilled jobs!

I walked into the job fair the following year and went straight to the tables for food services and janitorial staff and I talked with them for a long time. Then I went to each of the other tables in turn. I gave everyone my resume and talked extensively about the jobs, doing my best to make a good impression. The engineering table had a few really interesting projects on tap for the following winter, so I had my best conversation there. When I had been to all of the other tables I walked over to the tables for the field and vessel jobs and gave them my resume as well, though I knew nothing would come from it, and then I walked out having talked with every recruiter in the room regarding every position they had.

Less than a month later I was sitting in the airport in Jamaica on my way to St. Lucia for my brother’s wedding when my phone rang. The lady on the other end of the line quickly mentioned that they wanted to talk to me about an engineering position for the following winter at McMurdo Station Antarctica and we set up a time, two days later, for a phone interview. I spent two hours on the phone in St. Lucia talking about the job and my skills and then they said that they would get a set of plans in the mail to me – It seemed like I was in!

Shortly after I got home from St. Lucia I got another call from another recruiter. That time I was offered the position of janitor. I explained to the recruiter that I was being considered for the other position also and that it would be my first choice. She told me that she would hold the job for me and check with the other recruiter to see if they wanted to hire me – I never heard back from her.

After a lifetime of dreaming and three years of silly job-hunting mistakes I had two job offers in hand and Antarctica in my sights. I excitedly flew through the exhaustive physical qualification process, which included medical and dental exams and a psychological exam (for winter over positions) and then I started to get everything ready for the start of my career break. I went down to the ice debt free and had one of the grandest adventures of my lifetime. I played in ferocious Antarctic storms, watched penguins and seals play in town, watched the aurora australis dance across the polar night and made friends with some of the finest people I have ever met. As an added benefit to my Antarctic adventure I managed to save every penny I earned down there (excluding tax, of course), which has financed five years of amazing travel for me, including one of those expensive Antarctic cruises that seemed so elusive to me at the beginning of my journey!

You can read more about Keith’s Antarctica experiences on his blog: Explorer Keith.

It was unnaturally hot and, making things even more uncomfortable, I was wearing several layers of expedition-weight fleece, some extreme-cold-weather (ECW) overalls and a set of white, rubber clown boots that made my feet sweat. I was crammed into the back of a C-141 Starlifter, one of the U.S. Air Force’s antiquated workhorses, with several people I would become well acquainted with over the following nine months. We had been airborne for hours, flying southward over a vast ocean of icebergs and ferocious storms.

It had been beautiful and warm when we boarded the plane in Christchurch, New Zealand, yet the rules required us to wear the full compliment of ECW gear we had been given during the flight. Most of us had shed the thick red parka within minutes of take off, but the interior of the Starlifter was still a smothering inferno. I found a bit of relief from the heat when I got up to use the restroom, which for the men was a 55-gallon drum with a funnel and a curtain (the women were sitting in the front of the plane and got to use the flight crew’s bathroom.)

There was an icy draft shooting in through the cracks of the rear cargo door and several people were congregating in the narrow gap between the fuselage and the large pallet of baggage and supplies soaking up the natural air conditioning – I joined them. Despite the discomfort of the hot, cramped quarters, everyone on board was excited. For some people the flight was taking them to a place they thought of as home, for others, myself included, it was rocketing us southward on a grand adventure. A garbled voice materialized out of the jet noise and told us to take our seats – I hadn’t been able to make that out, but the people standing around me were veterans of the program and had been expecting the call.

There were no windows to watch the passing landscape through, but we could all feel the changes as the Starlifter descended through the turbulent air and maneuvered into position for a landing. With a jarring thud the plane hit the ice runway and started the long process of slowing down. Excitement grew as we came to a stop and the front door opened with a burst of cold air. We had arrived, but we still couldn’t see where. I sat with my new friends, most of whom were first-timers like me, and waited as the front of the plane cleared out.
Slowly the two huge isles emptied until it was finally my turn. I stood, put on my parka and got my camera ready and then I walked toward the glowing blue light flowing in through the open door. A moment later I felt the odd crunch of Antarctic ice beneath my feet and a tingling burst of cold on my face. After years of dreaming I had finally made it to the icy southern continent!

Visiting Antarctica had always been a huge dream of mine. Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen, as well as many others from the ‘heroic age of exploration’, had been heroes of mine for most of my life. As often happens I graduated college, joined the working world and pushed all of my heroes to the back of my mind as I lost myself in the pursuit of the American Dream. As time went by I got little reminders from my childhood heroes in the form of an interesting book, or a movie, or an all-too-rare story in the news. After several years in the working world, taking pathetically short vacations, I suddenly remembered all of my dreams and decided it was time to live them.

When I started planning my career break I was shooting for a one-year journey around the world. That was an easy enough goal to achieve, but there was one aspect of my planned itinerary that was giving me problems – I wanted to visit Antarctica, but my meager budget didn’t allow me to take one of the expensive cruises, which was the only way I had heard of to get there. At the time, a three-week cruise down to the icy continent would have cost me more than I had budgeted for an entire year of travel – it was a big problem.

How did Keith make it to Antarctica? Stay tuned for Part 2 on Wednesday!

How did you come up with your ‘travel style’ of no planes or reservations on your around the world trip?
Basically, I wanted a challenge. I didn’t really do any research before my trip (which almost ended up a big problem, since you do actually have to reserve cabins on those cargo freighters I had to take, my only reservations), but I was aware there were plenty of people that had circled the world before. I thought that never leaving the ground would also give me a much better perspective of the size of our planet.

And that it did. I do love flying, but you get a much better sense of the size of things if you travel overland. Getting on a plane, having a couple drinks, watching a movie or two, falling asleep and waking up in Bangkok gives one an incredibly false sense of how small our wonderful planet is. I never had a second thought about doing my trip overland and I am incredibly happy I stuck with it.

How do you go about crossing the ocean on a freighter – learning about it, reserving it, preparing for it, and keeping yourself occupied for the long trip?  Did you ever get seasick?
Luckily I don’t get seasick at all, which I have tested in some moderately bad conditions before, though all my freighter rides on this trip were actually very calm. As to the how-to part, there are 3-4 travel agents that book freighter travel. I used a guy named Hamish Jamieson for all four of my crossings, and then got to met him face-to-face when I arrived in Napier, New Zealand.

I wasn’t prepared for how incredibly boring this type of travel was on my first crossing, but luckily had five other passengers on that leg that were interesting and provided some conversational entertainment. Be forewarned, you get a cabin and three meals a day, but that is about it for entertainment. As I went through Africa, Europe and Asia, I stocked up on lots of DVDs to watch on my laptop and bought a Kindle for reading material.  Without those, I might have blown my brains out on the 22-day Pacific crossing back home. It is mind-numbingly monotonous.

Do you feel that taking alternative transportation actually saved you money? Can you share your transportation costs for your trip?
Surprisingly, overland travel is more expensive than air travel, especially the freighter portions, although I haven’t tallied up my travel costs yet. Those bookings cost 120-140 Euros a day, so the cost of my freighter ride back home, for instance, cost more than some people’s entire round-the-world air fare.

I say that overland travel is more expensive than flying, but that isn’t completely true. Overland travel was more expensive for me, because I had a limited time to make it around the world (originally I wanted to complete the trip in a year — it ended up taking 16 months). Because I had to keep moving fairly constantly, in order to keep making progress, I wasn’t able to get to know the ins and outs of places as well, in order to save money. As an example, if you stay a couple weeks in a major city, you are normally able to figure out how the local buses work, instead of having to take taxis, or you’ll be able to find the best hostel and food deals. Since I never had more than a week or so in any spot, saving money that way was more difficult.

Did taking slower transportation slow down your travels?
I love road trips. Back in the States, I have driven through 45 of the lower 48 states and learned long ago that I do some of my best thinking in long rides. That proved to be true on this trip also. Hours upon hours (longest non-boat stint was about 58 hours on buses between Cusco, Peru and Santiago, Chile) were the times I learned the most about myself during mind wandering time.

But to answer your question, slower transportation actually sped up my trip. I wasn’t able to stop and sit in any one place very long, because I had to keep going, in order to complete the trip. While others could spend a month in a place, then fly over me and beat me to another city a couple countries over, I was traveling a good bit of that time. That isn’t to say I disliked the fact that I had to move on constantly — the mere fact of moving ended up being a big high for me. I started just getting excited at the thought of moving to another place, seeing the things in between, and getting briefly acquainted to a new location.

What 3 pieces of advice can you provide for people who want to do non-plane travel across Africa?
Africa overland is tough. There is just no other way to put it. If you are going to try to do extensive overland travel there, you really need to be mentally, and somewhat physically, prepared for it. Then again, it is amazing — you will be riding on a bus or train somewhere and look out the window and there will be a herd of elephant or zebra wandering around, and you won’t be within 500 miles of any official park.

Three tips: (1) the easy way to do it is with an overland company. I didn’t even know these companies existed, until I got to Cape Town, but there are a dozen or so that will take you overland through all or part of your overland trip. I actually ended up hopping on one of the trucks for three weeks in Ethiopia and Sudan, because I was just wiped out from doing it on my own for three months.

(2) Excepting South Africa, bus ticket prices are negotiable and more importantly, no bus leaves until every single seat is full. There really is no time table of departures. The important tip is this: don’t pay for your bus ticket until you literally walk onto the bus and see how many empty seats there are. If it is almost full, you might be lucky and leave in less than a half hour or so, but if you buy a ticket on an empty bus, you might sit there for hours waiting for it to fill.

(3) The last tip is a minor one and one amused me to no end, once I figured it out that is. I never met an African that answered “I don’t know” when you asked them for directions. Never. The obvious other side of this coin is that you regularly got directions that were wildly wrong. The tip is to ask a number of different people for directions to the same place. I usually asked 5-8 people, until I got some sort of consensus of opinion and then struck off in that direction.

Everyone has an “Oh Shit!!!” moment when traveling – that moment when you think “Oh $#!+ – What have I gotten myself into” – what was one of yours?
One of the earlier “O’ Shit” moments was on a long, long bus ride from Guayaquil, Ecuador to Lima, Peru. A couple of points about Central and South American buses you need to know: First, the air conditioning is on full blast the entire time. I dress in jeans, T-Shirt, fleece pullover, boats and wool socks for every bus ride, even if it is scorchingly hot outside. Second, the music and/or movies being played on board are going to be cranked up to an obscene volume (though it will somehow be louder in Africa). Lastly, the bus driver, and other drivers on the road, are going to drive worse than anything you can possibly imagine and you will narrowly avoid head-on collusions dozens of times — bottom line, sit near the back and do not, under any circumstances, look out the front window.

This particular bus trip was on a two level bus and at the front of the top level was an area with a table and a couple couches where you could see out the big front window. They played seven movies on this particular ride and five of them were horror/slasher movies (incredibly, including one called ‘Severance’ were a bus broke down in the middle of nowhere and everyone got brutally killed). Needless to say, the volume was at its maximum. If something is on TV, my eyes inevitably head there, and that combined with the sound of people getting slashed to death was making me regret my overland quest. I ended up moving to the front of the bus, under the TVs, so I couldn’t see the gore, putting my iPod on its highest volume, and tried to not watch my impending death out of the front window. Fortunately all the death on screen was not a foreshadowing, though I had my doubts a number of times.

What was your biggest adjustment you had to make from your career as an attorney to career break traveler?
I think I’d say the biggest adjustment from being a lawyer was the obvious — a lack of income. In my working life, I’d always justify a spontaneous splurge by saying to myself “guess I need another DUI to come in the door.” I obviously didn’t have to think nearly as much about spending money when I was making it.

The bigger adjustment had nothing to do with leaving my career and all to do with leaving the 1st world. Traveling in the 3rd world, which I did in a good bit of my trip, made me go with the flow even more than I did before, and I was pretty relaxed beforehand. The first time a bus breaks down and your driver gets out for a few hours to repair it himself, or the power in your town goes out all day with no explanation, or you order a meal by the “point and pray” method, since no one speaks any English and you don’t speak any Swahili or the variety of other things that will happen to you out there make you either just relax and deal with it mentally. Well that, or you just go crazy and go home.

God, I love it out here.

Amy Sutter shares with us how she and her husband Keith determined in advance what plan of action they might take if someone in their family fell ill, and how they inevitably had to put it into action.

Nine thousand five hundred twenty-four miles. That is approximately the distance we were from home when we got the news that turned our world upside-down. We were about to go to sleep, only our second night in our campervan, mere meters from the ocean in Kurrimine Beach, Queensland, Australia. We had no internet and no international cell phone service, and it had been a few days since we last got in touch with anyone back home.

Should we check the iPhone for any text messages? This, we told our families before we left, was the best way to reach us in an emergency, and I had a strange feeling in my gut that we should check.

Please call home. – Dad

There it was, the message that makes your stomach jump into your throat. We booted up the laptop to search for a wifi signal, finding a paid service nearby. Hands trembling, I dialed through on Skype.

Lewis has pancreatic cancer. We would love for you to come home, but you should do whatever you think is best.

Lewis is my dad’s husband, my step-father of over 30 years. With three grandparents between us in their eighties and one in her nineties, we knew there would be a good chance that someone would get sick or pass away while we were traveling. So we discussed this possibility with our families before we left home. Did we want to know if one of our grandparents got sick? Died? What about a parent? Step-parent? Sibling? Would we come home?

But knowing that we had a plan and that we had prepared for the worst-case scenario made an incredibly difficult situation much more bearable.

Nothing can prepare you for the shock of a parent’s illness or predict the crushing feeling of being so far from home when in that moment the only place in the world you can possibly think to be is home. But having had the difficult conversations with family before we left, we at least had a plan. We had decided, without the swirl of confusion and emotion that surrounds you in the moment of such news, that we would want to go home, at least temporarily, if something happened. We knew whether the emergency was a death or an illness that we would want to be there to support our families and would need their support as well. We had set aside an emergency reserve fund to pay for last minute flights. We had health insurance in place in the United States in the event we had to come home early, since travel insurance doesn’t cover you domestically. We had even left our aerobed at the front of our storage unit, just in case we faced more time than we anticipated staying with friends and family.

I’m not going to gloss over the panic and intensity of trying to decide just how quickly we needed to get home, of waiting for word of a prognosis from the oncologist, of second-guessing our decision to come home but to fly out of Sydney and give ourselves two more weeks to get there. There is nothing good to say about clicking on “purchase” for $3,000 worth of airplane tickets and wondering whether you made the right decision. But I cannot imagine going through what we did without having had the conversations and safety nets in place.

It can be morbid to sit at dinner with your family and let them grill you with questions about what you would do in the event of an illness, a terminal illness, a death, or an injury to each and every member of your family. Here you are, about to begin an adventure of a lifetime, and it is no fun to think about everything that can go wrong back home. But unfortunately, it’s not that uncommon, especially if you are a career-breaker and a little bit older. (While traveling, we met three other Americans who faced the illness or death of a loved-one back at home.) But knowing that we had a plan and that we had prepared for the worst-case scenario made an incredibly difficult situation much more bearable.

So far, Lewis is beating the odds and we’ve been blessed with many great visits since we came home. We are looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with him – thankful for the time we have to spend with family.

Brook Silva-Braga (A Map for Saturday)
The world is an amazingly safe place and the greatest practical danger travelers face in 99% of the world is having their possessions stolen. The unfamiliar is often scary–heck the first week of college is scary–but it is almost always a fear of the unknown rather than a marker of actual danger. Even for solo travelers. Even for women.

Jennifer Baggett (The Lost Girls)
One thing I always say when asked about safety abroad is that during the entire year I was on the road (which included notoriously dangerous locations such as Rio de Janeiro and Nairobi), I only experienced one non-threatening attempted pick pocket incident and a crazy cab driver trying to cheat us with a rigged meter. Whereas in NYC, I’ve had my wallet stolen out of my bag two times, punched by a homeless guy and been jumped in an all out fight on the street with two crazy drug addicts. Not to mention that I grew up not too far from Baltimore and Washington D.C. where there was no short of very violent crimes.

And of course after having been to so many places abroad and seeing firsthand how much safer it is than people think, it’s almost mind blowing how many misconceptions there are about international travel. Although considering that places such as India, Africa, Asia and the Middle East aren’t typical tourist destinations for Americans it’s understandable why there are so many perceived fears of the unknown. But like many places in the States as long as you keep your wits about you and make smart, common sense decisions (keep an eye on your stuff, don’t wander off down a dark alley alone or go to notoriously bad neighborhoods at night), you’re likely going to be just as safe abroad as you are at home. Especially since often times people are just after your money and don’t actually intend to do you harm.

Even as a women, I felt comfortable in most places I went (especially since my travel partners and I don’t exactly exude a timid female image) and can pretty much guarantee that most seasoned travelers would say the same thing. Just don’t leave home without travel insurance, consider purchasing a PacSafe and/or slash proof purse/bag (PacSafe also makes them) and don’t act like an ugly American tourist and you’re pretty much covered!

Michael Bontempi (Briefcase to Backpack)
My wife gave me some great advice once. She told me that places are only as dangerous as the situations you place yourself in. Put yourself in a dangerous situation and bad things can happen. Location is irrelevant. As well, pick up any guide book and read about NYC. According to the reference material, we will all be lucky to make it out alive..

Sherry Ott (OttsWorld)
Muslims are all bad, Asians are only after your money, men in India will grope you, Africa is dangerous, eating in India will make you sick, don’t drink the water, you must have a money belt…once you start to travel and see the world, these stereotypes and fears come crashing down. You are able to see with your own eyes and understand cultures yourself. Honestly, I still get scared every time I travel into a new country, but the period lasts much, much shorter now.

Traveling solo does bring on a few new challenges – but I find that the benefits outweigh the extra precautions you have to take. My best advice is take one planning day and call it your “Scaredy Cat Day” to read about travel insurance and to read up on the State Department travel warnings site…then forget it all and go about your planning knowing that everything you just read was the extreme…not the norm.

Brian Peters (No Debt World Travel)
I was so nervous that it took me a month to give my credit card information to my ticket agent for my round the world ticket. I had all the usual self-doubts before one undertakes a big, new experience. But once I booked my ticket my fears were over. I didn’t have any concerns about my personal safety once I started traveling.

Marie Elena Martinez (Marie’s World)
In my life, I try very hard not to be ruled by fear. I approach travel in the same way. To that end, I found the world — all countries — to be welcoming and open. Sure, I had “incidents” as a solo female traveler, but none that were threatening enough to overshadow the beauty of what I had chosen to do. None that I share before I share the wonderful stories about culture, food, experiences, and people. I love dispelling notions that places like Colombia, India, Kenya, Brazil are unsafe. No more than getting into a cab in New York City. The exhilaration wins over fear. Every time.

Michaela Potter (Briefcase to Backpack)
Before heading to Asia in 2001, many people would say to me “Why would you want to go there? It’s not safe. It’s safe to stay home.” The day I was scheduled to depart was September 11. So rather than flying out, I spent the day on the waterfront in Hoboken watching the Towers fall.

So safety is all relative. Even “home” isn’t safe. But if you are aware of your surroundings and keep your guard up, you’ll be fine. You shouldn’t let fear stop you from doing anything that’s important to you.

How have you faced safety concerns during your career break travels?

Catch up on our Meet, Plan, Go! New York City Panel Series:
Career Break Doesn’t Equal Career Suicide | Are Societal Pressures Stopping You? | Preparation: Budget Concerns

And check out an overview of all 13 events as well as event recaps!

I started my location independent graphic design business straight out of college so that I could pursue my dreams in whatever way I wanted to at any given time. For a while it was racing competitive motocross (2000-2003), then it was volunteering in Vanuatu (2006), then backpacking South America (2008-2009), and now I’m going to sell everything I own to travel indefinitely (Jan 2011). My business was less than a year old in 2003 when I was involved in a serious car accident. After several surgeries, procedures, and years of physical therapy I finally found a doctor whom worked closely with me to find a solution. As a result I attend pain management every month and take a cocktail of medications daily (including Schedule II narcotics) to alleviate my symptoms.

Medication and medical care is easy to take care of if you live in one place and see the same doctor every month. It quickly becomes tricky when you hit the road for an extended or open-ended period of time. I’ve found it very difficult to find good information on the web surrounding this topic so I’m going to detail how I’ve addressed traveling around the world for extended periods of time with prescription medication.

FIND THE RIGHT DOCTOR
The most important link that helps make extended travel even an option for me is my doctor. My doctor understands that the decisions I make in life are mine and that only I can make risk assessment choices, not him. Therefore, he doesn’t sit around and lecture me on how skateboarding will make my injury worse, but rather helps me continue doing an activity that makes me happy. If your doctor is giving you a hard time about what you’re doing in life whether it’s skateboarding or traveling the world, shop around. It took visiting dozens of doctors before I found one that I’m thrilled with. I found many to be traditional, conservative, and judgmental towards my unconventional life. They also didn’t give me the treatment I deserved because of it. The doctor’s job is to support and give you the tools and resources you need to live the life you want to live. Don’t settle for less.

PLAN AHEAD
It takes at least 6-months to plan things out with your doctor before departing on an extended trip so be sure to start early. Every month my doctor and I discuss our plan of action that is tailored to my specific condition, lifestyle and Texas state laws. Since the laws surrounding Schedule II narcotics and prescriptions vary from state to state what works for me in Texas might not work everywhere else. In Texas, my doctor is allowed to write a 90-day supply of medication, but with indefinite travel on the horizon I’m eventually going to run out. This is where it becomes very important to have a doctor that is 100% on board with your traveling plans. Try to get your medications from your doctor a few days before departure, this ensures that you have the maximum amount of medication.

HAVE ALL YOUR DUCKS IN A ROW
There are many things that can go wrong on the road from being stopped by officials to having your medication stolen. It’s important to have the right documents on hand for any situation you may come across.

1. Have your doctor write a letter on the office letterhead describing your medical condition, patient history (with him), list of prescribed medications (along with generic equivalents), and contact information. Treat this document as if it were your passport. (Scan the letter and e-mail it to yourself should it get lost.) If you get stopped by any officials you have documents stating you’re not a drug trafficker. If your medication runs out then you have the documents needed to get a refills from that country.
2. Have a list of generic alternatives and alternate names for all of your medications. The names for medications vary according to what country you’re in.
3. Some medications are outlawed in certain countries. Before you enter ANY country check the embassy to see what medications are considered illegal.
4. Keep your medication in their original bottles at all times. The only exception to this rule is having a small pill case holding 2-3 days worth of medications to carry with you at all times.
5. Bring copies of all your prescriptions. Scan them and e-mail to yourself should they get lost.

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER
In order to keep your medication safe on the road there are a few precautions you should keep in mind:

1. Never put your medication in checked luggage. You never know what could happen to your bags when they are out of your sight. It could get lost or stolen and then you’d be in a real pickle.
2. Ensure that you keep your medications at the correct temperature. Some medications lose their effectiveness in humid climates.
3. Try to get more medication than the time you’ll be away. Anything can happen on the road and it’s good to have a cushion.
4. Use a Pac Safe. Not all hostels have lockers or lockers big enough to hold a backpack. Whenever you have to leave your bag unattended ensure that you lock it up using a pac safe or hostel locker. I’d like to think that backpackers don’t steal from each other but every group has bad apples.
5. Have a medication fund to use in case of emergency. Should your medication get lost or stolen you’d have money set aside to go to a hospital and pay for the prescription.
6. Should you be carrying Schedule II prescriptions, keep it a secret as best you can. If you stay in party hostels your medication could be a target for theft if they knew about it. What people don’t know, they don’t go looking for.

DON’T PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET
Divide your medication into several different groups and put them in different bags and hiding spots. Don’t just put your medication in a pocket. Hide it well within your bag such as inside a pair of socks. With your medication separated should you get pick pocked or someone finds and steals it, they wouldn’t get all of it. It would be a loss, but not a huge one. Then carry a small pill case on you at all times with several days worth of medication on you. Should something happen to your bags and all of your medication is lost, then you’d at
least have a few days to figure things out.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOU RUN OUT OF MEDICATION
Should you find yourself in another country without your medication immediately go to your embassy. At the embassy you can get information about doctors in town that can treat you and prescribe you the medication you need. If that doctor needs any information ensure that they have a way to contact your home doctor. My doctor gives me his e-mail address, cell phone number, and has staff notified of my travel plans in case of emergency.

Part of my plan during my travels through South America was to have my medication mailed to me. Given the slow Argentinean mail my package didn’t arrive on time and I was left without my medication. I was able to see a doctor, give him my doctor’s letter, a copy of my prescription, and my medication bottles. He was then able to treat me and give me a new prescription for my medication.

Traveling with prescription medications takes some pre-planning, but it shouldn’t keep you from doing something you want to do. Ensure you have a great doctor and he’ll work with you to figure out how to make it all happen. Each time I come into the office my doctor shakes his head and tells me to do it while I’m young… and that I am.

I was nervous, very nervous; this was going to be my first hostel stay in my entire 36 years of life. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with fears – fears I would meet no one, fears it would be uncomfortable, fears I would be the oldest person there, fears I was somehow going backwards in my life. After all, the last time I stayed in a shared sleeping arrangement (dorm) I was in college. However, I knew that if I were going to travel for 15 months, I would need to overcome those fears.

And I did…only to come to realize how irrational those fears were.

Hostels are a great option for career breakers of all ages, and more people then you think are utilizing them to keep expenses down, and provide social outlets as part of their career breaks. If you are like me and have never stayed in a hostel before because you think they are just for young partying backpacker types, then prepare to have that myth shattered.

Before you start your career break here are some strategies for easing into hostels as an accommodation for the first time.

Take a Test Run

You’d never buy a car without driving it first – so why not use that same idea and give hostels a test run? You don’t have to be out of the country to try out a hostel; did you know that there are many, many great hostels in the US? I recommend on your next short trip, instead of booking yourself into a Marriott or Holiday Inn, check out Hostelling International USA and see if there’s a hostel in your destination. This is a great chance to try one on and see what you can expect. Some of the hostels in San Francisco , New York City , Chicago,  and Martha’s Vineyard are in amazing locations with great facilities. You’ll find the staff is very knowledgeable about the tourist attractions, and you’ll probably save half the money you would have spent on a hotel to be used at a fabulous restaurant instead!

Ease into Dorm Rooms

Hostels have many varied layouts and options. Many of them offer private rooms (some with a private bath and some without) in addition to the traditional dorm style rooms. If the thought of sleeping in a bunk bed again makes you cringe, then ease into it by first booking private rooms in hostels (which are still cheaper than a hotel!). Enjoy the social aspects of the hostel but still have your private room with bathroom. After you’ve stayed in a private ensuite room, move on to private rooms with a shared bathroom. Next, start to try out the dorm accommodations. You’ll realize quickly it’s no big deal to sleep in a dorm setting again.

Finding Like Minded People

Many people think that hostels are simply one big party of beer pong, and late night revelers; but that’s not the case. Sure, each hostel has it’s own personality, and some may cater to a younger partying clientele, but they are not ALL like that. So how do you find the one with the ‘right’ personality that will add to your chance of meeting more career breakers like yourself? Many career breakers are couples , so one good thing to consider when looking for a hostel is find one that caters to couples and has private rooms. The likelihood that you’ll meet more career breakers is higher in hostels offering a variety of accommodations.

Another good way to get a feel for a particular hostel environment is to read the reviews! A booking site like Hostel World has reviews from people who stayed there.  The reviews often including things like age travel expertise so you can get a great feel for the type of people staying there as well as what the atmosphere and cleanliness is like!

Career Breakers and more mature extended travelers shouldn’t overlook hostels as they are designed to accommodate the long-term traveler. All types of people stay in hostels, and I’m willing to bet that you’ll meet people you can get along with in any hostel if you go in with an open mind. Put your stereotypes of hostels aside and try one out; it may help you extend your career break budget even longer!

Can you imagine being with your partner 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for a whole year or more? (You, in the back, do you need a paper bag? Breathe in, breathe out.)

Travelers who embark on long-term trips dream of the excitement of new places, recapturing the romance in their relationships, and discovering new things about each other. Still others worry that minor personality conflicts will turn into big fights with too much time together. You know what? Both sides are right.

Warren and I have spent the last two years planning and saving for our upcoming trip around the world. We’ve learned to live with a pretty tight budget, let go of material possessions, and become fairly Zen about the whole quitting-your-job-without-a-backup-plan thing.

But how are we – two type-A people with different opinions on a lot of things – going to fare on the road? We asked some seasoned travelers for their tips.

MAKE A DECISION ALREADY: LEE’S STORY
Lee is a pretty brave guy when it comes to relationships. Not only did he and his wife Sachi travel for a year together, they also work together every day at Common Craft and they recently did an extensive remodel on their home. This is a couple with some experience to share:

“Relationships sometimes live or die based on a couple’s ability to make decisions. It’s hard enough in normal life to deal with coming to consensus on something as simple as dinner plans. Travel puts these decision points into overdrive. You wake up in a new city and have to decide your way through. From the moment you wake up to the moment you sleep, your day is filled with finding food, activities and rest with little to go on but a guidebook and advice from friends. It can be really stressful. Add some heat, hunger and a little attitude and it can be explosive.

“Through a year on the road, I think we learned how to make decisions and deal with the consequences, all day every day – without biting each other’s heads off.

“We recently renovated our house and there were hundreds of decisions that had to be made. I think our experiences in travel prepared us for the onslaught and helped us get results that we didn’t think were possible.”

BALANCE YOUR STRENGTHS: MICHAELA’S STORY
He’s the yin; you’re the yang – or something like that. If your relationship is a case of opposites attracting, you are in luck, according to Michaela Potter of Briefcase to Backpack.

“Even before our career break travels in 2007, Michael and I brought different things to our relationship. He’s corporate – I’m creative. He’s the briefcase – I’m the backpack. So even though on paper we look like opposites, we actually balance each other out nicely.

“When Michael was ready to leave his corporate job after 14 years, he didn’t hesitate when I suggested we travel before seeking new jobs. Even in the planning, we balanced our roles. I took on the travel preparation while he managed our budgets. While on the road we even shared packing responsibilities – he was an expert at packing up our countless cords and electronics while I could squeeze any piece of clothing down to the smallest size.

“And beyond the big momentous events we experienced – like kayaking Abel Tasman, diving the Barrier Reef, living with a local Muslim family in Thailand – it was those little moments and ‘tedious’ tasks that solidified us as a team.

“Perhaps the simplest answer to this is at the end of our career break travels we got engaged! Michael also returned from that journey amazed that we didn’t encounter any other Americans, and he wanted to change that. That in turn inspired Briefcase to Backpack in its latest form (that was originally the name of our personal travel blog). So it wasn’t necessarily anything that happened on the trip itself but the overall experience of the trip – from the contemplating, preparation, life on the road, and re-entry – that impacted our relationship the most. And it still impacts it today!”

LEARN TO TRUST EACH OTHER: MICHAEL’S STORY
Of course we trust each other, you might say. And for the big stuff you probably do. But what about the little things?

Michael Bontempi, who has traveled extensively with his wife Michaela, learned this lesson in Thailand:

“What I think the travel experience provided is an understanding of the level of trust you can have in your relationship. I am always up for a new experience but everyone at one point or another gets outside their comfort zone. And if your partner says, ‘trust me,’ you need to go along with it.

“The one example I would give was in Thailand. We bought tickets for a van to take us from one city to another. As we waited on the side of the road, we became friendly with other travelers who were going to the same city. When the van arrived the driver said we could get on but the other people would have to wait. This was peculiar as there was plenty of room in the van. The van then took us to another town (not our destination) where we were told to wait on the side of the road for another van. At this point I was becoming suspicious. When Michaela said ‘trust me, this is how it works,’ I relaxed. A van showed up 90 minutes later and we made it to our destination [Khao Lak]. No issues, no problems.”

LESSONS LEARNED
The lessons above are just as good for everyday life at home as they are on the road. Who wouldn’t see positive changes in their relationships by following this sage advice?

1. Learn to make decisions together. We all know people who can’t or won’t make decisions. You may actually be one of those people. But it is unfair to leave that burden on your partner. Making decisions together involves compromise and also lets you share the joy when something works out well and support each other when things don’t turn out as planned.

2. Balance your strengths. Separating your tasks by strength means making the trip easier all around. It pays for each of you to learn the basics of trip planning, packing, money conversion, etc., but if one of you is a great packer and the other can navigate by the stars, it pays to split up those duties.

3. Trust each other. There are going to be times when it is hard to follow your partner, even when he or she is more experienced or has done more research on an area or custom. When everything is new to you, it can be disconcerting and cause you to question everything. Learning to trust your mate will ease your mind and allow you to enjoy your trip more.

You can learn more about traveling together from these couples on September 14, 2010, at Meet, Plan, Go!, an evening of information, inspiration, and collaboration among people who believe career breaks for travel enrich lives and enhance careers. The event is hosted simultaneously in 13 North American cities and includes grand prizes from GAP Adventures, GeoVisions, and a host of other sponsors. Register today at Meet, Plan, Go!

About the author: Betsy Talbot is one-half of the Married with Luggage team. She writes about goal setting, living well, and being true to yourself every week on the blog. On October 1 she and her husband Warren will be leaving on their round-the-world adventure, but before then you can meet them (and Lee and Sachi) at the Meet, Plan, Go! Seattle.

I felt like this scene was a video caught in a loop as I planned my career break for the year leading up to my departure. It was nice that everyone was concerned about my well-being, but every time someone asked that question, it tied my stomach in yet another knot.

I didn’t know the beauty of ‘not knowing’ then. I was still in my ‘I must be in control’ mode. Slowly my traveling career break peeled away each hyper-planning layer of my personality and left me with delicious ambiguity.

It was that delicious ambiguity that helped me land my next job while I was on my career break. Yes – that’s right, my career break actually helped me find my next job(s).

An expat friend I had met while traveling heard I used to work at a luxury handbag company prior to becoming a career breaker. Upon hearing this she decided she should introduce me to two women who had started CAMENAE , an Italian luxury handbag business managed out of Singapore and Saigon. (Actually the manufacturing is all done in Italy, but the owners live in Singapore and Saigon!)

We all met for a very simple ‘get-to-know-you’ coffee in Singapore as I was passing through and simply discussed the industry.  Nothing came of that meeting, and honestly I didn’t want it to as I was still traveling and had no intention of working at that time.  But, 2 months later when I was about to head back to America with no plan of what I was going to do next, I sent a simple note to the women asking how the launch went. This kicked off a flurry of emails and eventually they asked if I would be interested in doing some consulting work for them. A small consulting job that I wasn’t looking for, landed in my lap. Delicious Ambiguity!

I’ve now been working for the women of CAMENAE running their website and helping them with digital marketing for 2 years now. I can do the job from anywhere in the world and it takes about 20 hrs a month of my time. From that relationship, another work relationship was born when they introduced me to other expats in SE Asia who wanted a little IT work done and I landed other small short-term jobs such as doing photography and creating www.Auraliya.com, a villa rental website in Sri Lanka.

This part time work allows me to work on other things I love such as Briefcase to Backpack! Plus, I get some perks when it comes to handbags…and who doesn’t love that – especially when they look like this!

Sure, maybe I got lucky finding connections for work while I was on the road, but I believe that it was more than luck.  Here’s a few tips on what you can do while on your career break to network for work opportunities when your break is over.

• Traveling around the world is all about making connections; connections with other cultures and other travelers. In fact – you are sort of spending a year networking…but in a very fun sense of the word!

• Keep your resume updated…in fact, update it before you leave on your trip.

• Create some personal name cards with your name and contact information to give out to people you meet while traveling.

• As you meet people while traveling be sure to ask them what they do, you may be surprised at people who you have access to that you never would at home. After all CEO’s travel too.

• Have your story ready. You will encounter people all the time who will ask you what your ‘story’ is and want to know why you are traveling. This is your chance to mention your prior work experience in a positive light. It’s not necessary to go on a tirade about your past employer as you never know…

• Stay in contact with people who can lead to possible work; both from your old career AND from the new people you meet. Check in with them from time to time and let them know what you are doing – or ask them how their business is going.

• If you end up spending a while in one place, try to meet some of the expat community. I have found that by networking within an expat community, you can make all kinds of international connections – especially in business. Get on mailing lists for the expat groups in your community, and attend functions where there will be expats to meet.

Do any of your career break veterans have other ideas to share! Speak up!

There are plenty of great posts and articles discussing all of the wonderful things travel has to offer. But like most good things, there is also a downside to traveling – it’s just that no one ever talks about that. Christine Talianis of “Bert & Patty” shares with us the frustrations she’s faced on the road during her year-long career break. Many people will be able to relate!

What are some of the unexpected frustrations you’ve encountered on the road?
I think the biggest thing is we didn’t know it was going to be so much work. Seems like we spend an awful lot of time planning our next move, figuring out where we are and how to get around (get a guesthouse, find somewhere to eat, laundry, find out what to do in that town/city, public transport, local scams, etc.). By the time we do all of that, we barely have time to journal, write in blogs and upload photos. So, we opt for a beer and get another day behind. I also thought there would be free wifi everywhere and there definitely isn’t—guess we were spoiled in Seattle.

Is there anything you wish you knew in advance to help prepare yourself for them?
I wish I had a heads up that it wasn’t always going to be fun and exciting. Seems like nobody talks about the downside to long term travel and it’s even worse when we read other blogs and it sounds like others are having the time of their lives while we are struggling (I guess who’s going to write about it or take photos when they are struggling anyways right!). Then we just feel crazy and felt bad because we were supposed to be having fun!

We also never expected we would argue so much because at home we got along so well; agreeing most of the time on what we were doing. Maybe it’s the fact that you are together 24/7 and making tons of new decisions every day. It wasn’t until we met other couples (who seemed to be having a great time and well adjusted) and they also reported experiencing the exact same stresses and arguments. Then we started to give ourselves a break and reminded ourselves that this is an unusually stressful situation. I think a lot of the bickering in the early days had to do with the stress of not knowing what the heck we were doing, traveling way too fast (we never stayed anywhere for more than 2 nights) and we were spending so much money in Australia and New Zealand. Now we feel like old pros, we stay in places 4 and 5 nights at a time and our money goes so much further in SE Asia.

Did you ever expect to miss your job and a structured schedule so much?
No, I never thought I would miss my job or structure but we both do. We’ve even contemplated ending the trip so we can get back into a routine again. Glad we didn’t because we are having a great time. I think the biggest thing about work that I miss is my work friends (and my other friends for that matter). Oh what I would give to have a coffee or lunch with one of my girls and catch up on all the gossip or life issues. Plus, I miss the feedback of friends. On the other hand, I do love being with my Paul everyday creating so many meaningful experiences.

How have you been coping?
The biggest thing was talking about it with other long term traveling couples. Asking them if they experience the same things we do (and we were surprised to hear that they did). When we found that out, we didn’t stress about it so much anymore. We gave ourselves a break. Literally. Now, if we are feeling frustrated with each other, we agree to take an hour or two apart and meet back afterwards. It works out pretty nicely to have some ‘me’ time. We also split up at times so Paul can take some more photos while I get a massage—talk about a good break!!!

What would you tell others who are just preparing for their travels?
I would tell them it’s going to be the most amazing time of their lives. We feel so privileged to be able to travel for 13 months and experience so many cultures and beautiful places. I would also tell them it’s going to be a lot of work at times just trying to get everything together so don’t travel too fast, enjoy the place you are in, talk to locals, experience the food, and by all means, don’t try to do it all. There are so many things we have set aside for another trip back to SE Asia. It’s amazing to think we have so much time but still we have to miss stuff but it is true.

Lately, we are having some great adventures because we have been more spontaneous. For instance, we got accosted by a couple of guys on a motorcycle the other day who offered to take us around Hue and we did it. It turned out to be much better than the city tour we took the day before and so much more fun. Or another time, a tout jumped into our taxi and took us to his hotel, which turned out to be a great deal and quite lovely and led into another hotel in the next town. Also, have a plan about bickering because it is definitely going to happen and it’s different than when you are at home because you lack a support system and you can’t just hop in the car and take a drive to cool off. And most importantly, make sure to be very good to each other and do the little things even though you are together 24/7.

Nathan Hale & Carolina Bolado were both facing changes in their careers – Carolina’s job had taken a turn away from what she wanted to be doing and the struggles of the newspaper industry had created a lot of uncertainty in the outlook of Nathan’s position. So they decided it was a good time to take a break and reassess what they wanted to do.

So at the end of January 2010, they decided to take off for six months of travel around the world – just three days after their wedding! And rather than having a traditional registry, they registered for unique experiences during their travels.

What came first – the wedding plans or career break plans? When and how did you decide to combine the two?
Carolina: I had thought about doing extended travel, although I don’t think I originally thought of it as a career break. Basically, I wanted to travel for more than my annual two weeks of vacation would allow. I had the time when I was younger, but not the money. Now I had some money saved and wasn’t entirely happy with my work situation, so it seemed like a good time to take that trip I’d been dreaming of and at the same time step back and reassess my career.

Nathan: I hadn’t really thought about a traveling career break before. While the idea of the trip preceded our engagement, we had already discussed marriage. Once I proposed, the trip pretty naturally became a possible honeymoon. There may have been some question of the timing for the break/extended trip, but it seemed to make the most sense to combine it with the honeymoon.

What were some of the items/experiences on your registry?
Carolina: Most of the items on our registry were for activities (a cooking class in Chiang Mai, whitewater rafting on the Zambezi River) and accommodations (five nights in Sydney, three in Lisbon, etc.). For the most part, we avoided putting in transportation costs like airfare and bus rides, which we thought people would be less excited about. Our trip was long enough that we had plenty of other expenses to put on the registry. One friend who travels a lot for work actually did get us a transportation gift though: enough frequent flier miles for one business-class fare from Africa to Europe.

Have you traveled extensively together before? How has the honeymoon experience been for you so far?
Carolina: We took our first trip together — a Memorial Day baseball road trip to Pittsburgh and Cleveland — six months after we started dating. We had a great time and learned that we make pretty good travel partners. Since then, we’ve done a fair amount of traveling, both close to home and to some far-flung places (Vancouver, South Korea and Argentina).

Nathan: We’ve found that some of our happiest times together have been during our travels. The honeymoon experience has been going great. We had read about the need to be sure to take breaks from each other and have some alone time, but in three months, I think we’ve done this only twice, and it’s been fine. Maybe it’s because when we first started dating we were sitting at adjacent desks every day at work, but being together all the time hasn’t been a problem for us

Carolina: I think on this trip we’re really learning to rely on and support each other. I’ve noticed a few things about Nathan that I hadn’t before, and I think we’ve become quite good at sensing when the other is uneasy or unwell and might need some help. Right now we’re in India, which can be an exhausting place to travel, and I’m so happy Nathan is here to take the reins sometimes when I’m feeling overwhelmed.

You have decided to do two significant life events at the same time – get married and take a career break. What (if any) challenges have you faced during this time?
Carolina: One thing we talked about before leaving was the possibility that, given the job market, one or both of us might be out of work when we return, and what the added stress might do to our still-very-new marriage. That’s still up in the air of course. But we decided that we felt comfortable enough with both our relationship and the state of our savings account to take the risk. We also have the support of our family, which helps a lot.

Nathan: It was overwhelming simultaneously planning a wedding and preparing to take off for six months, especially in the final weeks. In some way, combining the two life changes, I think, could result in less upheaval than if we had gone through each one separately. We were both thinking a lot about our careers, and we felt that if we put off the trip/break because of our marriage, those issues would still be there.

Any advice/tips?
Carolina: For those planning to do this as a honeymoon, definitely leave some time between the wedding and your departure. We had two days before our early-morning flight to Hawaii, which led to some frantic wrapping up of loose ends.

Also, just go for it. We’ve had so many amazing experiences so far, and we’re only halfway through our journey. At times, we keep looking at each other and asking, “Can you believe we’re actually here?” But we are. Somehow we made it happen, and we are both so happy that we did.

Nathan: I have a newfound appreciation for how much time and work go into blogging, but I’d recommend it as a fun way to stay connected with friends and family, and it should make a terrific record of our adventures when we get home.

You can follow along on Nathan & Carolina’s blog – Around the World in 180 Days

VIA TWITTER:

@EmilyRHarris – I’d splurge on going to see the one “must-see” natural/cultural attraction of each place I visited.

follow-up:
@EmilyRHarris – Sapa in Vietnam by overnight train from Hanoi – both beautiful and culturally fascinating.

@TransAmericas – SCUBA diving

@travoholic –  Flights to the other side of the world to do fun things. Last year Haiti – Australia. This year Asia – London – Pakistan?

@solitarypanda – Sadly, shoes

@thom_sean – truly once in a lifetime stuff; helicopter over grand canyon, train from Beijing to Moscow etc

VIA FACEBOOK:

Brian Peters – A fancy hotel room, at least for a few nights

Sarah Girard – A fitted backpack

Angela Petitt – A great authentic meal!

Martin Withington – A hot shower, with lots of water pressure and no time limit

Darren Wells – Private transport to go literally anywhere…

Charles J Forsythe – I think the nice hotel room. We’ve been traveling for 4 months and try to get a night or two in something decent once a month.

SO WHAT WOULD YOU SPLURGE ON?

In September of 2009 their adventure began and they decided that they would spend the year volunteering on organic farms in exchange for room and board. They share with us what the experience has been like and how they will incorporate lessons learned into their lives.

What made you decide to spend your travels volunteering and staying on organic farms and homestays?
Budget was definitely a factor in the beginning, but more so we were newly interested in learning more about sustainable living, gardening, farming and living a simpler lifestyle. By living on farms and in eco-hostels in Central America we not only honed gardening skills we learned to live with fewer material choices — such as supermarkets loaded with snacks and convenience foods.

What have been some highlights from your volunteer experience?
We loved living with and spending time with the children on our first homestay in Nicaragua. Without even knowing they were doing it, they helped us learn Spanish and introduced us to their way of life — work hard and play hard (daily games of family baseball and soccer in the barnyard that is).

We also very much enjoyed our month at an eco-lodge in Nicaragua where we lived with no electricity or indoor plumbing. This was easier than you might think when the company is good.

Finally, when else would we have been able to bottle-feed baby howler monkeys, and take an anteater for a daily walk on her leash [in Costa Rica]? Every place we’ve been has given us a new and enjoyable experience — though there were some “downsides” at times, we’ve always been able to take away a positive experience.

Would you recommend these projects to other career breakers? Any resources you’d recommend?

Yes, we would definitely recommend these projects. We have relied on the web site Help Exchange.

What has surprised you the most about yourself during your career break?
For Charles, it was his first career break ever. Luckily, he had a few months of relaxing before leaving for the volunteer travel year. That gave him time to get comfortable with the idea of not having a job for a year and planning destinations on a month-to-month basis. Once traveling, he learned that scheduling everything in advance is not always better or possible. And that living a simpler life can actually be more rewarding than a fast paced career.

Heather, on the other hand, often left her jobs after about a year or two to pursue new interests, so leaving for a year wasn’t so much a leap of faith as it was for Charles. That said, she has learned that she can “go with the flow” more than she thought possible and that not everything can be controlled (buses run late or don’t come at all; indoor plumbing isn’t universal; internet connections are a luxury not a right…) She has also gotten over her fear of bugs…mostly.

How are you going to apply lessons learned from your experience to your life and work when you return?
We have completely redefined our notion of “career” and in all likelihood, neither will return to our original careers. We have a new-found interest in farming and home gardening that we hope to expand when we are done traveling. We hope to take our new skills and expand them in such a way that we can rely on ourselves for some of our food needs. We will try to be a one-car couple; use less electricity at home; and rely less on technology in our daily lives. We will also be much more aware of how we spend our money on everything from food to gift-giving to socializing (more at home entertaining). Our choices will be not as materialistic and hopefully more thoughtful.

You can read more about Heather & Charles’ personal experiences on their blog – Heather & Charles – Choosing Our Adventure.

For more information on volunteer farmstays, visit Help Exchange.

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?

How did you prepare your lesson plans?
We didn’t make any formal lesson plans or other elaborate preparations. Our goal was not to re-create the classroom abroad with days full of “schoolwork”, and we did not want to lug around a suitcase full of books or depend on good internet connections for an online program. We decided a simpler approach would be better suited to travel: Math, Spelling, and Language Arts workbooks with family fiction and History read-together time. It doesn’t have to be complicated.

What kind of unexpected educational lessons did you find on the road?
The biggest surprise was how the trip shaped our ideas about learning and helped us define the kind of education we want our kids to have. Now the idea of putting the girls back in school is almost as strange as the thought of pulling them out used to be.

How did the girls adapt to life and learning on the road?
They were amazing, adapting much better and more quickly than we expected. Not having fixed schedules and lesson plans probably helped a lot with that.

What recommendations would you have for people who want to travel with their children but are afraid of taking them out of school?
Start by defining exactly what it is you’re afraid of. Are you worried about them “falling behind” or missing their friends? Whatever you’re worried about, there are plenty of ways to deal with it and lots of other families who can tell you how they overcame it. You might be surprised that some of the obstacles and hurdles you’ve imagined turn out not to exist.

You decided when you returned home that you would continue homeschooling. How has that been going?
Even better than on the road, especially since we’ve all grown more comfortable with doing things our own way and at our own pace. It’s been really rewarding to see the girls take a more active role in their own education. They continue to amaze us!

John Vogel and Nancy Sathre-Vogel were both long-time teachers with over 20 years of experience each. So what made them decide to quit their jobs? Time. “They say time is the greatest gift one can give their children. Time is why we made the decision to quit our teaching jobs and join the ever-burgeoning ranks of homeschoolers; we were tired of spending more time with other parents’ kids than with our own.”

They are now using that time and combining it with their passion for biking to cycle the Pan-America Highway (Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina) with their sons, Daryl and Davy. Along the way they are using the world as their classroom. You can follow along on their adventures on their site, Family on Bikes.

We asked them to share their experiences homeschooling their sons on the road.

What made you decide to travel with your children?
Time. My husband and I came to the conclusion that we would never be able to put time in a bottle. We can not go back to regain precious lost moments. We can only live for today. Our boys will never be this age again and, if we don’t take advantage of their childhood now, the opportunity will be lost forever.

My husband and I had traveled extensively before the boys were born (and while they were young) and we knew it is the best education there is. When we decided to take time now for the boys, it was a given that we would take off and travel with them. They’ve learned way more in their years on the road than they ever could have learned in the classroom!

Did you look at this as an educational experience first and foremost? If so, why?
I think it’s basically twofold – an educational experience and a family experience. When I look back on my childhood, what I remember most are the times I spent with my parents – camping or traveling together as a family. We want our sons to have those memories.

But we also feel it is the best education going. Our boys learned about the Oregon Trail by cycling it – and now truly understand why water was so important to the pioneers. They walked in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark. They examined cannons on the battlefields of Gettysburg. In short – history has come alive for our boys.

They’ve also learned, first hand, all about Mother Nature and her handiwork. They’ve cycled over the mountains created by collisions between tectonic plates. They’ve pedaled through deserts, paramo, tundra, and rainforests. They’ve seen sloths in trees, iguanas on rocks, and bison by the side of the road. Weather conditions are a very real phenomenon.

But beyond all that “school stuff” our boys have learned so much more. They’ve learned the value of perseverance and determination. They’ve learned that life isn’t always a bowl of cherries and that anything worth achieving won’t come easily. They’ve spent that past 20 months working toward a goal and have another year to go – and I have no doubt they have the strength and mental fortitude to reach victory!

You were schoolteachers beforehand – how was the transition to homeschooling your own children?
One of the toughest things for us to accept was the idea that schools don’t know everything. We tend to think that schools have all the answers – that they “know” what kids need to know. They have their scientifically prepared curriculums and kids will be “prepared” for adulthood after a successful completion of school.

However, we also know that there is no scientific basis for those curriculums. In all honesty it doesn’t matter if kids learn the phases of the moon or the parts of a flower. What’s important is that they know HOW to learn and have the skills to do that.

I look at education as having two distinct parts – process skills and content. The process skills (reading, writing, ‘rithmetic) are the skills we use to learn content. As long as our boys are fluent in the three R’s, they will be able to learn whatever content they want to.

How do you prepare your lesson plans?
Lesson plans? Are you kidding? We do have math books that our boys are working through, but other than that we take advantage of educational opportunities we find on the road. For example, today we visited an ecological park where we learned about traditional rainforest cultures and medicinal plants from the rainforest. Now, the boys will use that info to write reports.

What kind of unexpected educational lessons have you found on the road?
Too many! I did not even know Big Hole National Battlefield in Montana existed until we pedaled past and saw the sign. We spent hours there touring the battlefields and talking with the rangers – fascinating! We also ended up with an incredible opportunity to visit the Galapagos Islands and learned all about Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. We’ve stumbled upon ancient sugar cane presses and old Mayan ruins and gold mines. Rarely a week goes by that we don’t find some unexpected treasure to take advantage of.

How have the boys adapted to life and learning on the road?
They LOVE it! They have had no trouble adapting to this life at all.

What recommendations would you have for people who don’t have prior teaching experience but want to travel with their children?
I don’t think you have to be teachers to take advantage of educational opportunities. If you are learning something, your kids are too. Just seek out places where you can learn and take your kids with you!

Leigh Haugseth

Leigh shares with us how house sitting can be a great option during your travels!

House sitting and home exchanges are becoming more and more popular these days and for good reason. They are a cheap way to explore a new destination, you have the creature comforts of a home, and you get to live someone else’s life for a while. What’s not to love?

Here’s how it works: You register on line at a reputable house sitting site (see list below), pay a small annual fee, and put up a profile. Select your preferred dates and countries and have weekly or daily assignments delivered to your in box. Simple! Some homeowners will ask that you pay utilities during your stay. Also, some house sits require your own transportation, although I’ve seen some that will allow you to use their car, bike or are near public transportation.

My first real house sitting assignment was back in May 2009. I had recently quit my job to travel for a while and house sitting in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains was the beginning of a six month adventure. The house was located in Asheville, North Carolina with two cats that were sweet and mildly annoying at the same time. I had considered moving to Asheville before but really wanted to take some time to see what it would be like to actually live there. Two weeks allowed me to really get a feel for the city and the surrounding areas.

During that time, I learned that I absolutely love the Blue Ridge mountains. I hiked almost every day, explored beautiful waterfalls and hung out downtown. It was incredibly relaxing and therapeutic. I also learned that while Asheville is indeed beautiful, I don’t think I’d want to live there permanently.

Some house sitting assignments are easy to get, but not all. In fact, they can be quite competitive at times. However, if you have a thorough profile up with references and are open to different locations, there’s a pretty good chance of you finding something. There are many people that house sit full time. It’s a lifestyle for them and they jump from one location to another for years. These people enjoy slow travel, and rather than spending two weeks somewhere, they spend two months or more.

There are also those that just need a break from reality and want an extended vacation somewhere remote where they can get some peace and quiet. Whatever the reason, house sitting is a very cheap way to explore a destination without fully committing to it. And while a lot of these assignments are in more remote areas, there are plenty in medium to larger sized cities to go around.

So why should you house sit other than for free rent in exciting places around the world? (as if you need another reason..)

1.) You Can Test Drive a New Location
If you’re looking for a new place to call home and want to try out a destination before signing a lease, house sit for a week or so to check things out. Meet the locals and ask them what it’s like to live there, take long walks around the city, eat at the restaurants and frequent the kinds of places you enjoy.

2.) Meet New People
In a new town, you can meet all sorts of interesting people. Get out and meet people, invite them over for dinner, and ask them to house sit for you sometime. If you end up really liking your house sitting location, you’ll have instant friends when you decide to return.

3.) Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
Being in a new place can really spark your creativity. New surroundings and new people stimulate fresh thought. Writers, especially travel writers, can take time to explore a location thoroughly and really absorb their surroundings. Not a writer?…take a painting, pottery or tango class in town.

4.) Experience a Different Life
Living in another person’s home let’s you look at life through their viewpoint. It shows you their habits, their daily rituals, favorite past time, books, music etc. Living in their home and seeing these things may spark a change you’d like to make in your own life. A couple of years ago, I house sat for some friends for about three months. They had a pool table and a house full of orchids that had to be taken care of. I managed to keep those delicate orchids blooming and by the end of my stay, had acquired a faint green thumb. I also became a pretty decent pool player! Who knew?

5.) Heal and Renew
If you just had your heart broken or experienced something traumatic, sometimes a little quiet time away from the situation can help you heal and gain perspective. In the case of a breakup, I’ve found that out of sight, out of mind really helps the grieving and healing process along. If quiet time alone makes you think too much, you can go out and about in your new city, keep your mind busy with new activities and people, and have so much fun that you realize life is short and dwelling will not help.

6.) Rent Free Living
If you are unemployed and need to save your rent money, house sit while you job search. While you’re there, investigate ways to make money on the road so that you can travel as much as you like. Experiment with the location independent lifestyle. Who knows, you may even be inspired to start a business that allows you to live office free.

Reputable house sitting companies:

• Mind My House (my favorite)
• HouseCarers
• Caretaker
• SabbaticalHomes (home exchanges, rentals, house sitting for those in the academic community)
• House Sitters America (only in the US)

For those that have already done some house sitting, we’d love to hear about your experience!

If your career break travel happens to fall during the holidays, then consider what you can do to avoid the holiday blues.

When I first traveled around the world I actually planned out my itinerary with the holidays in mind. For me Christmas is all about family. Luckily I happened to have family living in Singapore so when I planned my itinerary, I planned to be in Singapore in December. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I could have made. The familiar food, customs, and humor of my family was just what I needed. Plus, they were able to introduce me to different Asian holiday customs in Singapore – so even though I had slowed down my travel to spend time with family, I was still experiencing new things in new cultures!

If you find yourself far away from family and friends when the holidays strike, then consider trying to find other people from your country that are celebrating. I found myself in Sydney, Australia once during American Thanksgiving. I didn’t want to sit around my hotel room watching TV and going to McDonalds for dinner, so I went to the American consulate to ask them if they knew of any American based Thanksgiving celebrations going on in Sydney.

They quickly gave me a paper with a list of the various Expat organizations observing the holiday with traditional dinners. Perfect! I contacted a few and soon found myself eating Turkey dinner surrounded by a bunch of Australians and Americans.

Contacting your country’s consulate or embassy is a great source of information for travelers – don’t forget to use them!

How have you dealt with the holiday blues while traveling?

We’re checking in last with Ben & Alonna, who started their travels in Europe, where they visited Amsterdam, Belgium, France, Spain, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy and Greece. They have just returned home to Boise, Idaho this week, where they will celebrate the holidays with family before hitting the road again.

What has been the most difficult thing to adjust to on the road?

Alonna: Two things….

Trip planning on-the-fly. I’m the travel planner of the two of us, and in the past I loved planning every detail of our 1-week vacations. However, for 3 months that’s not possible, and we wanted to allow flexibility to our schedule anyway. But finding somewhere to stay, transportation, and food is a decent amount of work while you’re traveling. At first it was an adjustment and I spent way too much time planning head. But now I’ve gotten used to finding a “good-enough” hotel, and I even think it’s better for negotiating rates when you’re booking last-minute.

Figuring out the right pace. Our initial itinerary seemed pretty relaxed – at least 3 nights in each place, and we prioritized where we wanted to go. But very early in our trip we realized that we needed to slow down. This meant staying in places longer, and also not packing too much into a single day. Instead of trying to see everything the guidebook tells us to, now we just pick a couple things and spend the rest of the time walking around and enjoying the city.

Ben: Everything. Living out of a suitcase, moving constantly, choosing from the same 5 shirts, trying to figure out what to eat every day, figuring out basic communication and orienteering in every new country, etc. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but it’s a lot of adjusting.

Are there any thoughts of what you left behind that keeps you up at night?

Alonna: Not at all. I just never think about what we left behind.

Ben: Strangely, no. Maybe because we had a pile in the living room of “stuff to take” for about a month before we left, so we were pretty sure we had everything.

What has been the easiest thing to adjust to?

Alonna: Not working or having any set daily schedule. Besides making flights or trains on time or getting to a museum before it closes, we just spend our time however we want. It’s a really great way to live.

Ben: Long train rides. They are a sort of enforced break between destinations, and the trains are usually pretty comfortable and clean, and the view out the window is usually interesting.

What has surprised you the most?

Alonna: How well everyone speaks English. So far we’ve only traveled around Europe, and I’m not sure why this surprised me since I already knew that a lot of people spoke English here. But it’s still surprising to walk up to a bus driver or store clerk and try to speak the local language or simplified English, and have them respond back in very good English. And I love how sometimes we walk up to someone, and they wait for us to say something so that they know which language to speak. Just seeing them make that mental switch between languages is amazing. And it also makes me want to learn another language, which I hope to do later on our career break.

Ben: I’m surprised at how much I’ve learned about America on this trip. This comes in the form of “wow, we would do this totally differently in the U.S.” realizations. Somehow I hadn’t realized that we had a culture in the U.S., but we have specific ways of doing things. Like the way we generally greet people with smile, it almost seems psychotic once you realize most countries don’t do it that way. We generally obey crosswalks unless there are no cars in sight (Germans obey them even if there are no cars anywhere, Greeks ignore them and Italians don’t even bother to put them up – these are just broad generalizations, of course). There are a thousand little things like that.

I wouldn’t have expected to come to Europe and leave understanding America better.

Tell us one highlight from your trip so far.

Alonna: It’s so difficult to pick a single highlight! Every place we go seems to get better and better, so my favorites keep changing. But at this point I’d have to say the ancient Roman site of Pompeii near Naples, Italy. Unlike other ruins, these allowed you to really get a feel for how the Romans lived. It was so cool to walk down the same streets that they did 2000 years ago.

Besides locations, one of my favorite things about this trip has been the two times that we tried “couchsurfing.” We had great hosts in both Salzburg and Vienna, Austria. They welcomed us into their homes and lives for a few days. I wish we could have worked this into more of our trip because it’s such a great way to meet people and get a different perspective on a place.

Ben: Pompeii! It’s a 2,000 year old city, literally frozen in time. Seeing the everyday details of ancient Roman life, walking through their houses and theaters and fast-food kiosks (seriously), is like nothing else.

Check in with Ben and Alonna on their website!

We’re checking in next with Christine and Paul of Bert & Patty, who started their travels by getting married in the Cook Islands! They have just started exploring Australia after spending that past couple of months in New Zealand.

What has been the most difficult thing to adjust to on the road?

There are so many things to adjust to while traveling for an extended period of time. For us, the most difficult thing has been having to continually carry around our food, and creative menu planning. While we were traveling in the US, we had a rental car and could keep a cooler in the car and transfer our groceries to the refrigerators once in a hostel. That was really convenient. Now that we’re traveling by the Stray Bus, we have two bags of groceries that we carry with us. One bag is for food that needs to be kept cold (milk, etc), and one for food that can be kept at room temperature (apples, oatmeal, etc).

When we were at home, like most people, we would shop for 3-4 weeks worth of groceries at a time. On the road, we aren’t getting that wonderful Costco buy-in-bulk discount. We can only shop for 2-3 days of groceries since we only have two bags for storage. We’re eating a lot of the same staple foods as well: muesli and oatmeal for breakfast – rice and pasta dishes for dinner – Leftover rice and pasta dishes for lunch the following day. It can get very monotonous.

Are there any thoughts of what you left behind that keeps you up at night?

Well, we’re not like most travelers. It seems that most travelers put their lives on hold and put everything in storage, or in the basement of a friend or family members house, knowing that they’ll be back to continue their lives in the same city they left behind. Since we are moving to Edinburgh, Scotland we won’t be coming back to Seattle. That has allowed us to effectively close a chapter of our lives and come to terms with what has been left behind. What we’ve left behind are not tangible things, restaurants or other familiar comforts of home. We’ve left behind our friends and family. Tragically, we lost a friend to cancer since beginning our travels so it reinforces how valuable and precious our relationships are.

What has been the easiest thing to adjust to?

Getting up each and every day and it being a holiday. We like having the day to explore, hike, walk around, meet people and ride around on our bus–the scenery is fantastic! We don’t have to do anything if we don’t want to. That’s a great feeling.

What has surprised you the most?

Traveling is work!! Seems like we are constantly planning the next leg, finding the next hostel, getting to know new towns every day or so, even finding the bathroom in the middle of the night can be work. We aren’t complaining mind you, just surprised. But the good thing is, most of the people we are meeting from the UK have done the route we are doing only backwards so we are getting a lot of great travel advice from them. We feel more confident about where we are going and what we want to do.

Another surprise for me (Christine–not being tech savvy), was I thought we would have free wifi everywhere we went. I couldn’t believe how expensive the internet can be. So, we are always happy when we can get a good deal–speaking of which, in New Zealand you can buy a month’s worth of wifi through the YHA for only $40–a real steal.

Tell us one highlight from your trip so far.

Well, an obvious highlight is that we got married on the island of Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. September 1, 2009. It was a beautiful wedding on the beach planned by the Tamanu Beach Resort. Bare feet in white sand, a local string band, and the sunset as a backdrop. It was a perfect day.

FOLLOW PAUL & CHRISTINE (aka Bert & Patty):
Website: Bert & Patty
Twitter: @bertandpatty

We’re checking in first with Jason and Aracely of Two Backpackers, who started their travels in Central America. So far they have experienced Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

What has been the most difficult thing to adjust to on the road?

JC: The constant get up and go, packing and unpacking. I can easily adjust to a new location, but right when I do, we have to get back on the road again. Constantly traveling does take a toll on the body and mind, and some days you just need to rest and recuperate.

AS: I don’t think I did a good job at picking the right clothes to bring. I have 3 hiking shorts that I never wear. I should have kept it to one hiking shorts and more casual clothes. We have done quite a few hikes but we are in towns most of the time. And I just wish I had a different selection of clothes. Such a girl answer, I know.

Are there any thoughts of what you left behind that keeps you up at night?

JC: Nothing keeps me up at night because I know I am not traveling forever. Other travelers that I have communicated with describe their homecoming as if they never left. I also believe that not much will have changed in a year’s time, except for my two young nephews that are growing up as I type.

AS: I have a teenage brother that I worry about. He’s at a difficult age, I worry about him often.

What has been the easiest thing to adjust to?

AS: Well I’m originally from Ecuador and I’ve spent most of my life in the US, so I really enjoying hearing Spanish 100% of the time and eating Latin food everyday. I have a feeling the language part will be the most difficult when we get to Southeast Asia.

What has surprised you the most?

JC: Making new friends on the road. Most backpackers look to the Lonely Planet guide for traveling tips, so it’s no wonder that many backpackers all end up in the same places. This allows us the opportunity to constantly meet new friends from around the world. Today’s method of staying in touch seems to be through Facebook, so make sure you have an account before departing. We have also surprisingly ran into the same travelers a month later in different countries.

Tell us some highlights from your trip so far.

The cascading pools of Semuc Champey and active Volcano Pacaya in Guatemala.

Experiencing El Salvador. I know people have a vision that it is a dangerous place to travel, but we saw it differently. We did stay away from the big cities, but traveling in local buses I felt completely safe and the towns we visited were tranquil, friendly and beautiful.

The El Hoyo campsite during our 2-day trek in Nicaragua.  We camped in a lush volcano crater with views of other volcanoes, lakes and cattle grazing all around us.

FOLLOW JASON & ARACELY:
Website: TwoBackpackers
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/twobackpackers
Twitter: @twobackpackers

Manali and Terry, a couple from Atlanta, Georgia who started their one-year career break in August of 2009, shared with us the emotions they experienced in their first weeks of travel in Asia.

1. What has been the most difficult thing to adjust to on the road?
Manali & Terry: Routine things taking two or three times as long as before. Certain small everyday things themselves are not difficult, but we feel that the general departure from the familiar to something new can be challenging at times. For example, at home we would hop into our car, drive to our favorite grocery store, pick up our favorite flavor of ice cream, know the price and pay.

This now becomes: figure out how to communicate that you need something to eat, act out that you want to go to a store, get directions, reconfirm the directions on the internet, reconfirm again with a local that you are walking in the right direction, get to the store, try to figure out where the ice cream is located, make sure it’s mint flavored (not green tea or lime or any another green item), make sure it’s not expired (most items we have found are way past expiry!), haggle over the price, then pay in local currency. Although, still fun, it can be exhausting when it occurs multiple times a day. Whew!

It feels like no matter how flexible you are and whatever lifestyle you live currently, you will still have to expect a departure from your routine and be prepared to be patient for everything from finding a place to eat to finding a new way to unwind after a long day.

2. What has been the easiest?
The easiest thing we have found to adjusting to life on the road is that we are not really missing anything back at home. We feel like we’ve prepared mentally for so long before we left and made sure that we got in our fills of the things we love, that we don’t really miss the material things or have a longing for anything – and no homesickness just yet! Although we compare things frequently to home, there are not any moments of sadness or feelings of regret. The situation may also be unique to us since our immediate families live abroad, so the physical distance was apparent when we lived in the States as well.

3. What has surprised you the most?
The condition of the “outside” world has probably surprised us the most so far. Prior to leaving, the concept of a “developing” country seemed to be extreme, but we’ve come to realize that the gap between a country being “developed” and “developing” is not as wide as we expected. We find internet is wireless and fast everywhere; the new Britney Spears song is played at the local bus station; and satellite dishes are propped up in remote villages! Wherever any need has arisen, we haven’t ventured too far without a convenience and feel as if we can get an adequate replacement anywhere. We even saw an elderly lady, washing her clothes on the side of the river, wearing bright pink waterproof Crocs!

4. Is there anything that surprised you about each other?
Terry: I was surprised that little, petite Manali hasn’t yet had any physical limitations carrying a big bulky backpack and hasn’t complained too much about carrying her stuff yet!

Manali: I was surprised that Terry has adjusted to the local food so quickly and not having the convenience of a fridge for a cold beer! I’m also very surprised that he can figure out directions such as “down the alley, left after the cart selling pig hooves, behind the blue door” with a few hand gestures and grunts from a local!

5. What is the thing that keeps you awake at night? Are you worrying about anything?
Terry: A few things that I’ve been worrying about include our townhouse (we are renting it out) and finding a job when I get back. I want be able to capture 100% of the value that this experience potentially allows. Sometimes I worry that my path in life before I left was swaying towards maturity, settling down, conformity and potentially with that attitude, certain avenues of experience remain closed to people that have a mature outlook and mindset. I’m constantly challenging myself to try new things and to keep an open mind. I also worry that a year of traveling won’t be enough and I’m trying to convince Manali to travel for longer!

Manali: I’m worried that I won’t be able to go back to a “normal” office job after we return. Sometimes, I worry about my health, condition of my skin, nails and hair after a year on the road – it’s hard to get some beauty sleep on these rock hard beds and loud hostels! I’m also worried that I may never look at things the same way, which may be good or bad – I hope that once we’ve seen the biggest temple in the world, every other smaller temple is just as spectacular!

6. What are you most looking forward to when you get home?
Terry: Discovering what I want to do for the rest of my life. After we’ve traveled and “lived” in various countries, I’m looking forward to establishing roots in a good place with good people in a strong community that we can be a part of and enjoy.

Manali: Reuniting with our family and friends and starting our own family! Also, a comfy couch and having more than 4 pairs of underwear will be an added plus!

You can follow along on Manali & Terry’s travels on their website and also on Twitter.

I was fortunate enough to study abroad while in college and took full advantage of that opportunity to backpack through Europe beforehand. I spent six amazing weeks Eurailing from country-to-country and was there at an exciting time to be in Barcelona for the Olympics and Sevilla for the World’s Fair. And friends I met along the way introduced me to some unique cultural experiences like watching the final day of the Tour de France in Paris and a football match in Salzburg. 

Most of these friends I met were in hostels, which offered a great community for travelers. Not only did I get to meet people from unique backgrounds, I also got some useful insight on where to go, what to do, and where to stay along the way. In fact, that is how I ended up at most of the hostels I stayed in during that trip. In the pre-internet era, backpackers relied heavily upon the advice of fellow travelers.

After I graduated from college, I headed off with a friend to Australia and New Zealand for six months of travel. It was still pre-internet yet we loved just planning things as we went, including where we stayed. And we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the hostels in those countries. Sure there were ones that catered to the party scene, but many of them also appealed to older travelers and families. And in fact, most had kitchens as well. By having the ability to cook our own meals, we could save a lot of money by not having to eat out all the time.

I’ve done a lot of traveling since then, but have never thought to seek hostels as an accommodation. With the exception of a recent return trip to Australia and New Zealand, I would mostly stay in small guest houses during my travels. But I missed the sense of community that comes with staying in a hostel, especially if I was traveling by myself.

So I was thrilled to read a recent New York Times article highlighting that the hostels in Europe are “growing up”. The amenities and cleanliness described by the author made me want to relive my youth and go Eurailing again just to stay in these updated hostels.

She described a recent stay in London with her daughters:

Moments later we were standing in front of a stylish, modern building with gleaming plate-glass windows. I was certain I had the wrong address. Though I had read that YHA Ltd. recently invested about $8.4 million to renovate this hostel near Regent’s Park, it seemed too good to be true. Where was the peeling paint? Why wasn’t laundry hanging from the windows? Why wasn’t there a drunken student passed out on the stoop?

Instead, as we walked through the sliding glass doors into the entrance hall, I admired the floor-to-ceiling illuminated map of the London Tube system, as well as a good-looking 40-something man with a briefcase getting off the elevator. Already, things seemed different.

And according to The Guardian:

No longer the domain of mere youth, hostels around the world have just seen their best year ever with bookings up 14% on 2007, according to Hostelling International. They’ve smartened up, too, with nearly three-quarters of their bedrooms now boasting en suite bathrooms. Suddenly, hostels have outgrown their humble roots and are appealing to families as much as gap-year backpackers.

With this improvement in the quality of hostels, they are now attracting a variety of travelers – both young and old, solo and family. And another great aspect to hostels is that many of them have travel desks which can help you in booking activities and travel.

During her career break, Sherry spent most of the time staying in hostels. She admitted that it took her a few weeks to feel comfortable, but she was able to ease her way into it by staying in private rooms at first. But after three weeks or so, she was fine staying in the dorms (which can vary in size).

Some of her tips include:

• Bring your own sleepsheet
• Pack a quick-dry towel for the bathroom
• Definitely use a headlamp or flashlight late night so as not to disturb your fellow dorm-mates

So don’t discount the option of staying in a hostel during your career break!

Some useful hostel sites include:

Hostel World
Hostelling International

Adapting to life on the road can be a very subtle transition – and in most cases you don’t even realize it until you find yourself in a more familiar situation.  In this excerpt from Sherry’s travel blog, she realizes how much she has gotten used to living out of a backpack and other small adjustments to living on the road.

After 7 months of traveling around developing countries with my backpack I feel like I’ve changed. I used to have a closet full of clothes and shoes, more than I ever needed. I could have clothed some small towns in Cambodia with my closet. Now I have learned the fine art of how to wear the same outfit multiple days in a row (this all depends on the climate that you are traveling in). I seldom wear make-up anymore and normally am walking around in my tattered tennis shoes. Hair conditioner (or any styling products) and a washcloth are a luxury. I have definitely adjusted to not needing much!

However, with this change in hygiene, also comes that feeling that I’m completely frumpy. I used to use the construction workers on my commute to the subway as my gage for if I looked ok that day…if I got a look, then I must look ok. I doubt they would even flinch these days. Hence, I think it’s been months since a guy has ever given me a second look. Gone are the days where I felt hip – now I’m just happy when I get to use a hair dryer. Since I was moving on to Europe for the next few months, I tried to pack nicer clothes and ship back home my fleece and hiking pants in hopes of maybe cleaning up my act and feeling attractive again!

I arrived in Europe with a short layover in Dubai. I was exhausted since I haven’t really experienced jet lag since October. Arrival in Greece also exposed me to something I hadn’t experienced for a long time – there was no arrival card to fill out.

At first I thought maybe I had too much wine on the plane and some how I missed the flight attendants passing them out. But as I looked around I noticed that no one else had one either. Strange – no visa, no arrival card – I felt cheated! I have spent the last 7 months memorizing every bit of data on my passport. I now consider it a special skill that I could put on my resume. It could go right next to the skills of shooting automatic weapons, eating rat, and can drive a manual transmission vehicle. With a resume like that I figure I can get a job patrolling the border of Afghanistan. Who knows maybe that can be my next career.

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Text Version: I must confess – I’m not really into ancient sites, it’s just not my thing. I was bored by Pompeii, disinterested in the Parthenon, and I skipped the Roman Forum altogether – for some reason, these places just aren’t as interesting to me as present day culture. I much prefer sitting in a café people watching or trekking to a village and meeting the locals.

So when I arrived in Egypt and realized that one of the big draws is all of the ancient temples and sites, I didn’t exactly jump for joy. Sure, I really wanted to see the Pyramids, but beyond that, I honestly really didn’t care too much. However, a portion of the tour was about visiting dozens of these ancient sites and for someone who isn’t a temple person, this was overload. But I did try to enjoy it, and I was rather impressed with how well preserved all of the sites were. And I found that the most intriguing thing for me about temples was how they got there and how long it took them to build it.

In my old life I was a Project Manager. My job was to understand what the customer wanted and break it into hundreds of achievable little tasks that would yield the final product. Some projects were harder than others – some took a couple years while others took a couple months. So, when I started touring around the temples and tombs of Egypt – the one question that kept coming to mind was – “how did they ever put together a project plan for this?

Think about it, something like Abu Simbel took about 20 years to build. And with short life spans, that means there was turnover during those 20 years. Plus, it’s a good bet that the original project manager also died before it was completed – so a new person had to take over. Now imagine a project team for a site like the Pyramids included about 50,000 men. My typical project team consisted of 20 people – and with their various issues, that was hard enough to control.

We live in a society today that is all about immediate gratification. I think that’s why I struggled so much in understanding how these temples were ever finished. How in the world did you motivate people to keep working for years, and years, never really seeing the finished product. After the 5th temple I finally had to seek out some answers – so I went to Connie, the high school history teacher in our tour group to ask her how this all worked.

Once a King took power, he would decide upon how many ‘structures’ he wanted built. He would then discuss this with his appointed priests and provide them with the authority to get the job done. The priests were really the project managers in this ancient org chart. They were given this job because they were the only people in the community that could read and write, therefore they had a high up position in society and a close relationship with the King. After the Priests drew up the plans, their real work began – gathering labor and making it all happen.

Apparently it was surprisingly easy to acquire labor. Working on a project for the King meant free food and lodging, people took pride in working on a royal project and showing off their workmanship, and finally it gave you some good karma – because in Egypt – it’s all about the afterlife. The issue of turnover due to death or old age wasn’t really an issue either as in those times, kids were trained in their father’s skills – so the child just took over where the father left off. By this theory I would have ended up an Engineer working for Catepillar all my life…that would have been a site!

But what happens when the King dies before the work is done – does the work stop – or does it carry on? Apparently the King’s seal is supposed to be good after his death – therefore that approval that the priest got 40 years ago – is still valid and the project should be finished.

By considering how they planned and executed these massive projects helped me visualize it and respect these temples. The Priest’s work was hard – but it demonstrates to me that Project Management is actually an ancient job….and it was a good one to have back then! I still would have liked to see the Priests work breakdown structure, critical path, and gant chart for one of the temple projects.

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