[CJM]

Hey folks,

For the better part of the last year and a half I have been planning my RTW journey. I have a very good job here in Canada, make good money, and have a generally great life all things considered, but I have the all-powerful urge to test out the nomadic/traveler lifestyle. I'll be able to get my job back when I return, and my planned budget will allow me to live fairly well. Forum users like Vinny and Digital Nomad's threads have definitely given me a boost in planning. They provide awesome data and motivation to pull the trigger. I'd say I am about six-eight months away from tendering my resignation.

I have built up a solid couchsurfing profile (this was hard work, hosting and meeting up with some serious losers for references) but it has already paid dividends on recent trips. Girls are about 20x more likely to accept a request if you have good references from males and females. I'll use CS, stay in hostels, mostly in private rooms when available, the odd hotel and Airbnb, and will eat/drink mostly whatever I want. It'll be a fairly expensive trip, but that's why I've prepared this long. I am fortunate that I travel a lot for my work, and have built up quite a large sum of hotel and frequent flyer points. I've also begun churning credit cards and have nabbed additional rewards.

I expect the trip to be in the neighbourhood of ~450 days. I plan on visiting 40+ countries in that time. I have a friend in Europe who will let me use her place as an European "base" so to speak, and will explore most of Western Europe via short-term train trips.

I have evenly scheduled in 4 30-day "breaks" but am looking for recommendations as to which cities/countries you guys would recommend for an extended stay. I'd be looking at apartment/AirBnB rental for these. I feel like I would get sick of nonstop movement for a year and a half, and that these breaks will be highly welcome.

I don't care where the locations are. I'll take any and all suggestions, and I can then modify my schedule to separate them/plan the sequencing properly. My only factors of concern are, in no particular order:

1. Reasonable (average) or cheap cost of living. These "layovers" are not only meant to be a break, but also a way to extend my trip without burning a huge hole in my pocket. I would not do this in NYC, Sydney, London, Hong Kong, etc.

2. Women, obviously. Day game, nightgame, online game, whatever. A "best time of year" with your recommendation would be great as well.

3. Basic quality of life. I don't need luxury or western world style development. I also don't want to spend 30 days in Somalia.

4. Walkable city or good public transportation and/or cheap taxis. Ideally I would be living in the city centre and/or a great location. I could rent a car, but I really don't have interest in doing so.

A little about me:
-25, white, 6'2, 205lbs, fit but not shredded, speak English, decent French and currently developing Spanish. Game level is above average. During the trip I'll be looking to increase my avenues of passive income, work on cold-approaching, and ideally develop some connections that will last beyond the trip itself. I am not looking to find a wife.

In exchange: I am going on a 3 week trip to Nicaragua in about a week. Call it a test run of living in hostels, travelling with minimum supplies, gaming nonstop etc. There's some great material on Nicaragua in the forum but most of it is a few years old. I'll be sure to provide a detailed and up to date datasheet upon my return.

Thanks gents!

[birthday cat]

(06-19-2017 02:29 PM)CJM Wrote:  

I expect the trip to be in the neighbourhood of ~450 days. I plan on visiting 40+ countries in that time.

It's typical for newbie travelers to correlate the success of their trip with how many countries they visited. Most experienced travelers don't do this. You have to spend more time in a place to really get to know it, to learn about the culture, to develop deeper relationships, and to get off the beaten path.

The worst thing you can do is plan too much. Leave things open ended so you have options.

Vagabonding is a really good book that I suggest reading as soon as possible.

[phluff127]

[/quote]

It's typical for newbie travelers to correlate the success of their trip with how many countries they visited. Most experienced travelers don't do this. You have to spend more time in a place to really get to know it, to learn about the culture, to develop deeper relationships, and to get off the beaten path.
The worst thing you can do is plan too much. Leave things open ended so you have options.
[/quote]

This is great advice. To give an example of letting things just happen naturally, I was in Rome for a few weeks and decided to leave that night for either India or Egypt for a week. I went to Egypt and stayed for over a month. Planning is usually pointless and can be restrictive. Just go with the flow.

To answer your original question if you are looking to spend a good amount of time in China, check out Chengdu.

[Jetset]

I spent about 30 days wandering around Sicily with a single bag. Probably too conservative for running game on locals, but absolutely epic Greek-Roman-Arab-Norman history and the women were stunning, especially in the east. Dirt cheap outside of the tourist traps: Palermo is hugely underrated, and the little villages around Mt. Etna are special places, especially when the volcano is erupting and they're sweeping the ashes off the streets like snow. Some of the streets are paved with lava bricks.

[Jungle]

(06-19-2017 02:29 PM)CJM Wrote:  

I expect the trip to be in the neighbourhood of ~450 days. I plan on visiting 40+ countries in that time.

Just my first impressions from what you wrote.....

450 days is indeed quite a decent amount of time... but I think visiting 40+ countries in 450 days is pushing it quite a bit, especially when you consider that you'll want to "base-up" in several cities for at least 1 month at a time.... which means that after subtracting 100-200 days which you're living as opposed to traveling, then you'll only be staying in each country for ~1 week each... It seems like far too much travel and you'll quickly get tired of it. I think 15-30 countries sounds like a more suitable ratio perhaps. In give you an example to put things into perspective - I'm over 30, I've been traveling for several months each year and have been doing so for over a decade now, and I have only just recently reached 40 countries.

Secondly, as for some suggestions for "break" cities to base-up in:
- Krasnodar
- Cebu
- Bucaramanga
- Lima

Thirdly, as for some suggestions for must-see destinations to travel to:
- Nepal
- Cambodia
- Laos
- East Timor
- Berlin & Leipzig
- Barcelona
- Buenos Aires & Patagonia
- India
- Colombia
- Greece

[birthday cat]

CJM - have you narrowed things down to the regions or continents that you want to visit? You mentioned Western Europe but what else?

It might be helpful you gave us some more information on what other things you want to do. Do you want to learn or improve a specific language? Do you want to visit a lot of tourist sites or historical sites? Do you want to do adventure activities like in the mountains or jungle? Do you want to spend most of your time in cities and focus on game?

[CJM]

Thanks for the replies, great feedback. I am not exactly a newbie traveller, but I do see the point of likely having too many destinations in the plan. I'll probably try and filter out a few to bring me down closer to 25 countries, and get to know cities a little better.

My main goals are South America, Eastern Europe/Baltics (I mentioned western Europe just because I have friends there so I could easily stay there for a chunk on the cheap), and Southeast Asia.

I did some research and I do really think I'll end up in both Thailand and the Phillipines for a good chunk of time, ideally in one city, whether that turns out to be Cebu, or BKK, I'm not sure yet.

Lima is a great suggestion and I'll definitely be considering that. I do want the majority of my time to be in cities, ideally ones with culture/history, architecture, and nightlife, or at least one of those three.

I plan to do an overland Africa safari (the mid range one in the southern countries, about 27 days) because it's been on my bucket list for a while, will give me a break from planning (I'll have to rough it obviously, but no issues with that), and will definitely give me my nature fix.

I feel my post-up cities will look something like this:
-Lima/somewhere in South America
-Cebu/somewhere in the Philippines
-Somewhere in Thailand
-Somewhere in Eastern Europe (Poland, Estonia, Ukraine, not sure yet).

I feel that combination will give me great variety and value for cost. Still plenty of research to do. The threads here on the Phils/Ukraine etc are enormous, I'll have to really read through rather than just skimming over.

[Nascimento]

You've outlined 4 areas of the globe you'd like to go. You have a lot of time, over a year, but even then I suggest trimming your itinerary.

Why not dedicate half your time to Europe/South America, and leave Asia/SEA and the Safari for the future? The latter ain't going anywhere, and I don't think you'll miss out on Asia by leaving it for the future.

If you had only 12 months, you could split it up between Europe and SA appropriately. Don't plan on hitting so many countries, but that's already been said. In Europe you could do 3 month-long trips to 3 different countries for a long-term basis. Stay longer if you particularly like a place. If you're really that interested in hopping around, do it for a month at most from your home base, you can get your fix of seeing a bunch of cities in that time for a few days each. This way you'll get the best of both worlds.

In South America I'd advise against jumping around so much. There's not that many places worth seeing. Well maybe, I haven't been to many, but you could do more than fine if you split your time solely between Colombia, Peru, and Brazil. SA is not the same as Europe where every place has its own charm. But at least those places have a balance of everything.

[CJM]

(06-22-2017 07:33 AM)Nascimento Wrote:  

You've outlined 4 areas of the globe you'd like to go. You have a lot of time, over a year, but even then I suggest trimming your itinerary.

Why not dedicate half your time to Europe/South America, and leave Asia/SEA and the Safari for the future? The latter ain't going anywhere, and I don't think you'll miss out on Asia by leaving it for the future.

If you had only 12 months, you could split it up between Europe and SA appropriately. Don't plan on hitting so many countries, but that's already been said. In Europe you could do 3 month-long trips to 3 different countries for a long-term basis. Stay longer if you particularly like a place. If you're really that interested in hopping around, do it for a month at most from your home base, you can get your fix of seeing a bunch of cities in that time for a few days each. This way you'll get the best of both worlds.

In South America I'd advise against jumping around so much. There's not that many places worth seeing. Well maybe, I haven't been to many, but you could do more than fine if you split your time solely between Colombia, Peru, and Brazil. SA is not the same as Europe where every place has its own charm. But at least those places have a balance of everything.

Thanks for the feedback.

Loosely, my itinerary looks like this:

2.5 months in SA (a month in Peru, 2 weeks in Medellin, month in Brazil)

1 month in Africa (safari)

5 months in Europe/Eastern Europe

1 month in a Balkan state (to be confirmed)

2 months in Southeast Asia (Cambodia and Thailand, 1 month each)

a week or two in Australia to visit a friend.

I feel this will give me a balance and enough time in each location.