Preparing for Long Term Travel – Part 1 –

Alright, I am now 20 days from flying out of the country with no return date. This is the first time I’ve ever tried to plan for long term travel. Here’s what I’ve done to prepare so far, and what I still have planned to do.

For fun I started listening to travel podcasts back in November of 2016, and  by December I decided I was going to quit my job and travel the world. Much of that was inspired by listening to Jackie from Budget Minded Traveler. There I found plenty of tips and tricks for traveling the world on a budget (including the Workaway program). Before listening to her podcast, I didn’t think that something like this was even feasible. Of course, making the decision, and planning how to do it are two entirely different things.

How does one plan for long term travel?

The first thing I did was come up with rough plan:

1.  Quit my job
2.  Sell everything I own.
3. Travel the world by volunteering for people.
4.  Write about it.

Seems pretty simple right? Everything is simple when you simplify it.

The second thing I did was give myself a deadline. Nothing helps a plan more than a deadline. Except maybe my arch nemesis, Discipline.

I decided I would leave the country somewhere between the beginning of August and the end of September. This decision was made 8 months ago, and has helped me immensely in almost staying on track.

Now what? Where do you even begin? How do you even start to make such a life changing…change?

Despite my nice ordered list. I did nothing in order.

First I joined the Workaway program, to start browsing volunteer opportunities. Then I created my webiste (and didn’t touch it again for 4 months). Then I started trying to sell everything I own. It was horribly more complicated and time consuming than I imagined, but I sold everything in my apartment (thank you Craigslist and Facebook Market), and moved into my parents house for 2 months.

White at my parents, I found a host for the month of September on the island of Sardinia, which I chose as my starting point, and purchased a plane ticket. That’s when I realized that I had neglected my website for 4 months, and jumped on here to get back to work.

Now of course, the real work begins. Over the next 20 days I will have to purchase and pack everything I plan on taking with me. I have been watching and reading endless reviews on many products, because it allows me to feel like I’m being productive without actually getting anything done, but I’m running short on time. Tune in next time for Preparing for Long Term Travel – Part 2, where I explain everything I’m packing to take with me, and how I prepared myself financially for this endeaveor!