Is a career break on your agenda for 2013? Are you still figuring out where exactly you want to go and what you want to do? Do you want to push yourself far beyond your comfort zone and embark on an unimaginable journey?
Well, here’s an idea – join other travelers in the Ultimate Train Challenge, racing from Saigon or Lisbon — or Lisbon to Saigon — in the month of May. All by train.
31 days of travel. You make your own schedule and choose your own route. You decide much you are going to push yourself and how many places you are going to try to hit.
Although it is about 15,000 miles (25,000 kilometers) to navigate, you will still have enough time to stop and do a lot off the trains. Barcelona, Paris, Venice, Berlin, Prague, Moscow, Beijing, Hanoi – so many great cities to hit along the way.
What do you get for your entry fee? They explain it all in full here. In short, you can blog your trip on their website to keep family and friends up to date with your journey; they have a live-mapping feature on the site, so you can everyone can keep up with you in real time; Intrepid Travel is offering two fabulous 15-day tours to the first ones to cross the finish line in each direction; they are going to throw a fun pre-launch party in both locations; Eurail is offering up at least four of their Global Passes that they will be raffling off and giving away as prizes; HostelWorld is offering two free nights’ stay in each city beforehand and… more.
In order to keep up with the latest developments on new sponsors, prizes and other news, you can sign up for their free newsletter. As an extra bonus, they will be doing a drawing from all the newsletter subscribers in February and will be giving away a new Samsung Galaxy SIII to one lucky subscriber.
? If you register by February 15th, the entry fee is $295 US.
? If you register from February 16th to April 30th, the entry fee is $395 US.
? And because you are entering from this post, you will get $30 off your entry fee. You just need to enter the code MP13UTC on the “Referral” line on the entry page to get the $30 discount.
But really, it’s not about the prizes. It’s not about the pre-event party we are going to throw in both cities for everyone. It’s not about the stuff…
It is about having an adventure you are going to talk about for years. It is about challenging your limits and doing something that very few other people have done. From one corner of Europe to the far corner of Asia…. all by the best mode of transportation you can use to experience the vastness and wonder of the planet we live on.
The Charity Aspect to it All
They also have partnered up with Blue Dragon’s Children Foundation in Vietnam to raise some needed funds to help out their cause. We are asking each participant to raise $500 and Intrepid Travel has been generous enough to agree to match each donation dollar for dollar, up to a $10,000 total. So not only are you doing this whole adventure to challenge yourself, the entire group is going to do a small part to make the world a better place.
On the Your World, No Rules website, they explain everything you need to know about this event. They have also put together some resource pages for you to help decide on your route and work through your visas.
This is doable, with friends or on your own. Live your life with no regrets. If you’re already making the leap to take a career break to travel, why not push your boundaries even further?
Sign up. This will be the adventure that will change your life.
And don’t forget… when you sign up, enter MP13UTC in the “Referral” box to get $30 off your entry fee and tell them that you found the UTC13 from here.
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Bethany Rydmark is a landscape architect by trade and a lover of the world by nature. She and her husband Ted left their beloved home state of Oregon in 2012 to travel South America, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, and New Zealand. She made a point to make career-related connections before she hit the road and shared this advice.
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Fatuma is a talented local carpenter in Makeni, Sierra Leone. His work is extremely popular but his workshop space is small and lacks proper cover, making work in the rainy season very difficult. He also lacks some basic equipment that could help his business to grow. Fatuma does not want a hand out, he wants a microloan that will give him a small cash injection to expand his business.
There is nothing more powerful and educational than getting out and seeing the world with your own eyes. For many of us on a career break it’s the first time that we have gone beyond vacation and really traveled – spending time in locations and cultures beyond the high level ‘passing through.’ We are able to soak up the world around us at a whole new level and pace – forming our own opinions about culture and challenging what we have learned from media outlets. This is one of the many beauties of career break travel.
For many career breakers, extended travel is also an opportunity to reach out-of-the-way “bucket list” destinations. Though there are many extraordinary places to take a career break, Antarctica stands apart from the pack. How many destinations truly offer a once-in-a-lifetime adventure like stepping through the cover of a National Geographic Magazine?
If you are thinking about taking a 
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